Tea Tin Basil

After we had completed the Herb Garden Redo back in October I did not throw out the sad and woody basil plant which I had left in the original pot. In fact, those large planter boxes have sat on the balcony and now down in the garden providing many more hours of dirty fun for my boys (I am trying very hard to embrace the mess of my two little boys and the dirty fun they get up to).

Furthermore, after reading this pin on how to prune basil so you grow larger leaves, and hence a larger plant, that sad looking basil plant was starting to look like it may be worth saving. Thank you again Pinterest for some useful information which actually worked.

So I needed a new pot solution for this recovering basil plant, and with my new kitchen completed I was missing having herbs in my kitchen to just pick at when I needed a leaf or two (not that the balcony is such a trek to pick from my new basil plant - all of 15 feet from the kitchen!). I saw a couple of pins using old tea tins for herbs and kitchen plants and as I had a plethora of tea tins following an amazing High Tea Baby Sprinkle I hosted for my sister, I just had to wait for one of the tins to be empty and my desire for a small indoor basil plant would be realised.

It was the Mother's Bouquet tea that was completed first - hardly surprising in this household I suppose. And what a cute little addition to my new kitchen this tea-tin-basil-plant makes!

P.S. I highly recommend reading this basil pruning tutorial. It takes about 30 seconds and it is so worth it! I can't make pesto fast enough to keep up with my plant on the balcony! And it had taken my neglected old woody plant back to producing lots of leaves that are significantly larger than I had been getting for the last year.

Herb garden redo

With spring in the air, and our new house and garden, it was time to rescue the neglected herbs. Previously planted in unattractive long green planters, the herbs had been long neglected since we moved out of our Fairlight townhouse in June. The basil had become woody and sparse, the spinach had been all eaten (by a spinach-loving-toddler who didn't discern leaves from roots), and the rosemary was starting to get brown leaves.


I think you'll agree this little corner of our balcony looks pretty drab and unattractive. So after a little reading about how to care for each of our herbs, and taking a little inspiration from my mum's herb corner, I bought some new basil, spinach and lavender, and a number of different sized pots to repot the herbs into.

This is the result:



A little more attractive, definitely more lush, and I love the pop of lavender in the back. We still reused the chalkboard garden stakes, and what remains of the red and white toadstools. The oregano, the rosemary and the very sad looking parsley are all from the old pots.

We have spent the last 5 months renovating and repairing the interior of the house (more on those renovations to come soon), and whilst we have many plans for the garden area, this may be all we manage for the next year.

Once again, I had a little boy delighted to help "move the dirt" using his dump truck and spade. Though I'm not terribly sure how much dirt got moved into those new pots - it all just ended up on the balcony. He had fun though and it was an hour of dirty fun spent together.



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