Plant love and growing basil in winter

We are having a very leisurely Sunday afternoon here. It's a BEAUTIFUL sunny winter's day, the sun is pouring in through the windows, but it's crisp outside, I think we even had a little bit of frost this morning. We hardly ever get frost being so close to the sea.

We spent yesterday morning planting olive trees out the front of the house, and I managed to squeeze in a good amount of time on Friday to weed the vege patch and give it some tender loving care.

 

 

So today it's time for my indoor garden to receive some love. Having plants is like having little pets. They don't need love and food everyday like a cat or a dog or a lizard, but they do need it still, otherwise they start looking a little sad, like this wee planty here. He needs a bit of a trim to get rid of his old leaves, a bit of a water, and a bit of coffee - yes coffee! I have discovered my indoor plants like a feed of my coffee grounds every now and again.

Also did you know your indoor plants like a spritz of water on their leaves sometimes, and the big leafy ones like you to wipe their dust off them. And sometimes, if you are feeling particularly loving, you can put your plants under a cold shower and give them a nice big soaky soak.

 

Back on his shelf home, looking happier.

Do you like my tea bag quote - appropriate when we are talking plants I think.

 

 

This terrarium needed a major overhaul, I find terrariums can get a little unruly if left to their own devices for too long.

 

 

 

Prime example of an unruly terrarium below, Isla made this one about a year ago, it's just bursting with life in there. I'm leaving this one be though as I like it's unruliness.

 

 

I replanted this one below as it was looking a bit sad, though it did have some amazing toadstools growing in it this week! I forgot to take a photo, so hopefully some more will pop up, fungi are fascinating! I find it's best to start small when you are planting up terrariums, plants often thrive in the enclosed warm space and quickly grow to fill it. The plant with the little heart shaped leaves was snipped off a plant in my other terrarium, so hopefully it takes to it's new spot. I like free plants! Actually come to think of it, I think all the plants in this one were free, snipped at some time or other from other plants I've walked by :) 

 

 

Speaking of free plants, have you ever grown a kumara (sweet potato) plant? Just pop a piece of kumara that has sprouted into some water. Before you know it, it will be growing roots and leaves, this one has been in a glass of water on my windowsill for about 4 months. It was starting to look a bit leggy and yellow so I decided to pot it up into some soil, hopefully this will help to resurrect it.

 

 

And speaking of resurrecting plants... I'm very proud of this beautiful big specimen I have growing in my plant stand. I found this guy half dead in that sad corner of the plant nursery where they put the sad half dead plants, honestly he looked real bad, he was tiny and broken, but somehow I saw his potential, and for only 50c I was willing to adopt him and give him a second chance. And just look at him now! Go you good thing! Owning it!

 

Also going for it is my cyclamen, for some reason it has decided to forget about growing leaves and put all it's energy into flowers, weird. That doesn't seem like a healthy scenario, but it's been going for at least two months like this, churning out the flowers with no sign of stopping. They smell beautiful.

And my basil, I have discovered the secret to get it flourishing on my kitchen window sill. I feed it with coffee grounds and raw chicken juice, I know, that sounds gross aye. What I do is when I'm cooking chicken, I keep a bit of the raw juice and mix it with water and feed it to my basil, just every now and again. I have grown these from seed, and as each plant gets going, I plant a few more seeds into the soil, just make sure you keep the soil nice and moist while the seeds are germinating (a small spray bottle is good for this). Some of them don't come up, but I find if I plant a few seeds I'm guaranteed to get at least one sprouting. Basil year round! So good! I love the flavour of basil.

 

Ahh, feeling good, happy plants, happy plant mum.