A few weeks ago there were $1 herb garden starter kits at Target, and I've been craving fresh basil since our last grocery store plant bit it with a case of spider mites.
Cool random fact... these bugs have a unique life cycle in that females are diploid like most organisms while males are haploid (have only 1 copy of each chromosome). That means a single female can lay unfertilized eggs, which develop into males, and from there they can spawn a whole colony! Neat!
Well, unless they are eating your garden.
Anyway, my seedlings had finally reached the point where the tiny plastic greenhouse was too small, so I needed to re-pot them. The tin pots we found came in sets of 3 with a drainage tray, but the pots themselves weren't vented, so first I had to spend half an hour with a hammer and a nail making some holes. A layer of glass stones (salvaged from our wedding decorations!) in the tray provides an escape route for excess water.
I don't have much plant re-potting experience, so the hardest part was teasing the seedlings apart from the root-and-soil clump they had formed in the tiny pot. I soaked it in a cup of water and gently separated them with my fingers, so hopefully enough roots are intact that these suckers will actually grow!
After all of our cleaning yesterday, I felt a bit guilty about the mess... but not too guilty...
And here's the finished product! Looks like Mike will be putting basil on everything after a while. (That's one way to get him eating some greens...)
Yum!
