Harvesting Herbs: How I Spent My Sunday

I harvested Sweet Basil and Greek Oregano today. I followed the method described on the Illinois Extension office. Thanks again Marc at Garden Desk for directing me to that site! It has been so helpful! I cut the stalks and tied 5-6 of them together with string. If these things dry like they are suppose to, I don't think I'll ever buy herbs again. Next year I will definitely try the other culinary herbs I cook with frequently.
I'm so glad to finally get some use out of this pants hanger! I put a few bundles of herbs in a bag and tied it with part of the stems exposed, then poked a few holes in the bags. They are now hanging in the basement drying. I know I'll be able to harvest more basil later and since I don't really like Pesto, I think I'll try to find a cute way to package the dried herbs and give some to friends around the holidays. I think this will make an interesting stocking stuffer. Look what else I did! This morning this black iron stand held an empty aquarium. I've had this thing for over 10 years and I still think its really pretty. I also love fish but as I've stated before, I'm a lazy bastard and I hate maintaining it. It has always held fresh water fish but last year I had a fish epidemic and everybody died in a matter of a few days. Since then, it's just been sitting empty in the living room causing me extreme horror every time we have company. Talk about an eye sore! Anyway, I decided it would make a great plant stand and I just happened on a big blue board in my garage left by some previous owner who also left a saw in the basement. That's right - I used a saw! I am either going to re-paint the boards (I have baby blue paint that I used on my guest room) or sand a little of this off to make it look a little more rustic. I also considered painting the boards purple - I'm just dying to paint something purple now that I have seen Carol's purple garden bench. But, in the immediate future, this will house fall lettuce that I plan to plant from seed. I can't wait!I was so inspired by Farmgirl's great it's-so-easy-to-plant-lettuce-from-seed that I've been waiting for the right time to plant some myself. Since I won't get my raised beds built in time, I thought I'd just plant some in containers, hence the need for a longish plant stand. Below is what you get when you shop end of season sales. I do not like these window boxes! They need to be wider and wooden and way cuter than this. Should I take them back? I could use boxes that are 30 inches long and 12 inches wide. These are only 8 inches of boring stone colored plastic. Yuck! I considered trying to make my own but the only wood I have around is on the pallets in the basement. What do you think? Keep the ugly plastic ones or return them and build some wood ones?

I de-rusted 2 of the 4 chairs today. What a messy job that sanding is! I was an orange rusty mess. I really need to decide what color this thing needs to be.

After a long tiring day I was so hungry. This is the one pepper that my potted Sweet Banana Pepper plant has produced. I chopped it up along with onions and tomato from my garden on a big salad for dinner. I guess I've never had one of these that were not pickled. I have to say I was a little disappointed. It tasted like a bell pepper to me.