Cold winds are a blowin' and that means one final harvest of anything I still have growing outside. These plants have won the survival of the fittest: they haven't been eaten or mowed down and have survived on the little amounts of water I or the Midwestern summer skies chose to grant them. For this I gave them a hero's welcome in my home.
Some of my more compact garden herbs were transplanted into terracotta pots and brought inside to survive the winter. They got a prime spot (read: usually the cats' perch) to bask in the sun.
I had some sage plants pop back up unexpectedly from last year and some sage that I had already bought this year. With lots of sage plants, one was clipped for drying. To dry the sage I just tie a bit of twine around a bundle and hang them upside down from my kitchen shelves. Dried sage makes melted butter even better.
Bring out the shot glasses: here's to me thinking I can get some of these plants to grow over the winter. I have clippings in water with the hopes that they will root. If they do and I keep them alive until next spring (lots of contingencies in that statement), then I have plants ready to go into the ground.
Last, but not least, is my first attempt at infused oil. I warmed up some extra virgin olive oil and poured it over some cleaned and towel dried basil I brought in. This is the same basil I started from seedlings this spring and we picked and used throughout the summer. If the basil oil turns out, I will be one proud little gardener and you will not hear the end of my bragging.
Some of my more compact garden herbs were transplanted into terracotta pots and brought inside to survive the winter. They got a prime spot (read: usually the cats' perch) to bask in the sun.
I had some sage plants pop back up unexpectedly from last year and some sage that I had already bought this year. With lots of sage plants, one was clipped for drying. To dry the sage I just tie a bit of twine around a bundle and hang them upside down from my kitchen shelves. Dried sage makes melted butter even better.
Bring out the shot glasses: here's to me thinking I can get some of these plants to grow over the winter. I have clippings in water with the hopes that they will root. If they do and I keep them alive until next spring (lots of contingencies in that statement), then I have plants ready to go into the ground.
Last, but not least, is my first attempt at infused oil. I warmed up some extra virgin olive oil and poured it over some cleaned and towel dried basil I brought in. This is the same basil I started from seedlings this spring and we picked and used throughout the summer. If the basil oil turns out, I will be one proud little gardener and you will not hear the end of my bragging.
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Oh I love all of your fall/winter gardening plans! Last time I made an infused oil I put A TON of the leaves in it. Do you have more than 2 leaves in your bottle for reals?
ReplyDeleteYeah, I have lots more basil leaves in the bottle, but they were all in the bottom and this pictured cropped that.
ReplyDelete