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How to Grow Basil
Today there are sprays, scented candles, plug-ins, and even discs that promise to freshen your air by putting a variety of aromas into your home. However, when you know how to grow basil, you can have enough variety of fragrance to package your own potpourri! The most commonly grown basil is the annual, ocimum basilicum that carries a minty fragrance that smells like? well, it smells like sweet basil. In addition to having a wonderful fragrance, sweet basil is an essential ingredient in soups, stews, pesto sauce, and just about any tomato dish. Knowing how to grow basil is a must for every herb gardener. You can grow herbs both indoors and outdoors Basil comes in over 160 varieties that, in addition to the sweet basil fragrance, offer other aromas like those of lemon, licorice, and cinnamon and foliage colors that range from emerald green to royal purple. Learn how to grow basil and you provide a treat for you eyes as well as an aromatic treat for you nose. Generally, when just learning how to grow basil, you'll want to start your plants from seeds. Until basil stems are nearly mature, they are quite fragile and easily broken and bruised so transplanting young basil cultivars can be an exercise in futility. Luckily, basil is one of the cultivars that can be seeded directly into your garden and in fact, if you reseed your basil plot every three weeks, you'll have fresh basil all summer long. Basil is a low-maintenance plant. Although it prefers full sun, it will grow in partial shade. Once seedlings are established, basil is also drought tolerant and will actually provide better flavor if you don't fertilize it! One tip you should know about how to grow basil and preserve its full flavor for culinary use is to pinch off flower spikes as they form. Part of the fun of knowing how to grow basil is the many different ways to preserve it after harvest. You can harvest your basil anytime by snipping off its leaves as you need them and they turn many ordinary dishes into delicacies when used fresh. Basil can also be dried by snipping some stems and hanging them in bunches together. Air-drying basil in this way is a great way to add its aroma to your kitchen! When your basil bunches are completely dry, you can crumble the leaves and store them in glass bottles. Basil can also be preserved by freezing. Freeze small quantities of fresh basil in plastic bags or chop the leaves and freeze them in water in an ice cube tray. Basil is an easy-growing herb that is full of possibilities for home décor, fragrance and culinary use. In addition, it's as well suited for container growing as it is for direct seeding into your garden. Learning how to grow basil is a sweetly satisfying part of gardening, no matter what variety you choose to grow! About The Author Hans is gardener and owner of Gardening-Guides.com and Patio-Furniture-Ideas.com. MORE RESOURCES:
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GOOGLE SEARCH 5 Things To Consider Before Purchasing a Push Reel Mower Push Reel Mowers are making a "comeback" of sorts, though, in reality they've never really left; they've just gotten better. There are a number of reasons why purchasing a reel mower would make sense such as: better for the environment; more exercise; lighter; and, better for the grass, to name a few. Using Annuals in Your Perrenial Garden Annuals in your pernnial garden are something to think about! Annuals give you season long color, easy propogation, they're cost efficient, and provide first season interest.If you're just starting a perennial garden annuals are a great choice to fill in gaps. Aluminium And Wooden Greenhouses An important addition to any British back garden, greenhouses are firmly established in the British way of life. It's probably the inclement weather that drives the british gardener 'inside'. The Perfect Accent -- Miniature Roses Indoors or out, you'll find miniature roses very easy to grow. These little guys sometimes get overlooked because they give off little fragrance, yet they can be the perfect visual accent to any home or garden. To Salt or Not to Salt Your Pond The important question of whether or not to add salt to your pond is often confusing for beginners and forgotten by experienced pond-keepers. To newbies and pro's alike we have this to say:"Add Salt Today to Keep the Fish Doctor Away"True, there are some negative effects of higher salt levels on plants in the pond, but overall we think it is absolutely the very best thing you can add to your pond in terms of keeping your fish happy and healthy. Potting Benches: Beautiful and Practical Do you love spending time outdoors in your garden creating beautiful floral arrangements that can be enjoyed by all? Do you spend more time gathering up your supplies than you actually do planting flowers? If so, you should consider enhancing your garden with a potting bench.Potting benches do more than just add another gorgeous piece of furniture to your outdoor space; they are also very practical and can be extremely convenient when creating floral masterpieces in the garden. The Ultimate Magic Garden Spring is the season to start planting seeds for the future. For me, the ultimate Magic Garden would be planted using the Feng Shui bagua as a guideline for the boundaries of the plot and incorporate flowers herbs and plants that correspond to each signifigant direction. Spurce Up Your Garden With Decorative Birdhouses Decorative Birdhouses are active garden ornamentation --the presence and movement of birds creates a fluid focal point for your garden. As such, placement is critical for you to earn maximum benefit from your birdhouses. Growing a Sustainable Garden! Do you wish you could grow a sustainable vegetable garden? Now you CAN have a sustainable garden of your own in a very small space. And it can be fun and productive!Let's think for a moment of what motivates us to grow gardens anyway?Many of us want the taste of fresh picked-when-ripe tomatoes, corn, peas and etc. How to Water Your Houseplants Wisely Over watering ranks first in causes of houseplant demise becauseit causes roots to rot. Most plants are tough so they canrecover from under watering with only the loss of a few leaves-- unless you wait too long and pass the point of no return. Metal Garden Furniture Since Victorian times metal garden furniture has become a popular way to decorate gardens. In fact, since this furniture can easily last for many years with the proper maintenance, some people are still using pieces in their gardens that were made in the Victorian era. The Zoo-Doo Man - Or How to Make the Best Compost in the World! Is your garden soil great? Does it produce an abundant crop for you without any great effort on your part? We were once told "By the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread . . Slugging It Out In The Trenches In an effort to introduce a shaft of sunlight into a particularly gloomy conversation, I recently asked a gardening acquaintance of mine to explain the difference between a slug and a snail.For the next twelve minutes and seven seconds, this horticultural monomaniac held forth on the most minute and inconsequential differences between gastropod molluscs with rudimentary or no shells and gastropod molluscs with well developed spiral or whorled shells. Build A Simple Planter Box Love flowers, but don't have the space -- or the desire -- to plant a garden? You may want to try making your own flower box, which can be just about any size you wish.This planter box is built with a top and a bottom exterior frame; then you affix cedar panels to the frame and add bottom panels. Preparing The Garden For Winter Are you like me? Sad to see the summer end but at the same time relieved that there is one less task to tend to. Weeding, watering, pruning, and more weeding is over for this year and with a few more chores the outdoor gardening year draws to a close. Caring For Tropical And Exotic Flowers Tropical flowers make an exciting change from the more traditional floral gifts such as roses and gerberas, assuming that they're available in your area. Their stark and colorful beauty makes them an impressive gift for special occasions like Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, birthdays and anniversaries. Manage Algae There are several different ways to manage algae in your backyard pond. The best way however is when you have several different things all working together in harmony that will best take care of any algae problems you may have. Themes of Shade A Shade Garden can be created in any of several different types of shade. It can be in the mottled shadethat comes from a broad leaf tree to the deep dark woods mentioned in Robert Frost's "Stopping by AWoods on A Snowy Evening". Want to Build a Pond? A pond, logically, the first question you should ask is WHERE? Do you have a huge yard with a lot of trees and shrubs and flowerbeds? In other words what is the present landscape like? Would you prefer your pond in a sunny spot or in the shade? That may not seem too important, but if you should decide to surround your pond with flowers, it becomes very important. It seems (to me at least) that there are many more varieties of flowers that are sun lovers rather than ones that prefer shade. Best Perennial Plants for Summer Color Summer is here and it's time to plant and enjoy the beautiful flowers that blossom during the heat of the season. A perennial plant is one that remains in the ground for two or more years and ultimately gives a garden its character. |
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