Do not worry, I’ve done this before which kinda of makes me a pro, right?
I bought the basil plant in the first photo below (it was much-much smaller) from a grocery store in April. I used some of it during that month, but not too much because I really liked the way it looked in the kitchen window. May came and as I was getting ready to travel to Europe I realized I needed to do something with my herbs. So, I planted them in the tinny strip of soil I have in my backyard. To be honest, I didn’t think any of them would survive the hot Alabamian summer. To my surprise when I got back in August the small basil plant had morphed into a basil tree. As all things living must dies, I am expecting my basil to dry down or freeze (crazy as it may seem, temperatures do fall below 0 Celsius). Now with this propagating scheme I might actually manage to stretch those 4 bucks I initially paid for the basil plant to infinity next spring, when hopefully my herbs will come back again.
A picture speaks a thousand words, eh? A collage speaks like what? 7000 words? Neat!
For those of us old school who still need written instructions:
- Need to have a plant from where to harvest the cuttings.
- Gather as many basil cuttings from your plant as you wish. A basil cutting is looks like a small basil plant that grows between a basil leaf and the basil stem.
- Place the cuttings in a glass of water and leave the glass in a very well sunlit spot.
- Buy some indoor potting soil and a pot. Fill the pot with potting soil, make small holes and place the cuttings in them. Press the soil gently around the cuttings to cover the roots.
- Water your new plant immediately after transferring to soil. Leave the pot in direct sunlight.
- Keep watering the basil every other day, otherwise it will surely die!
Is this useful? I don’t know! But I had fun making the collage!
Culinary Epiphany 