A Seed Saver's Garden

[heirloomgal]

some basil better than none at all.

Yes, that is the voice of reason @flowerbug, I guess I'm a purist. But truth be told, some of those basils were not savoury Italian types, but other types like Tulsi basil and if they had crossed it would probably not have been pleasant for tea or spaghetti sauce. I didn't do the research though, to see if crossing was possible between, I just assumed since they all fell under the title 'basil' that they would.

 

[heirloomgal]

Truly, are some better tasting than others? What are your favorites?

Yes, big differences in basils I found out. In more than just taste. My grow out if I remember was lettuce leaf basil, globe (boxwood) basil, dark opal purple, purple ruffles, red rubin basil, genovese basil, cinnamon basil, lemon basil, tulsi basil, lime basil, sweet thai basil, that seemingly generic 'sweet basil', blue spice basil. That's probably most if it, at least what I remember. The purples were pretty much discounted right off the bat for typical use - there are flavours in there that are not complimentary with noodles, tomato sauce or cheese. An anise quality. Good for a tea, but that's it IMHO. Tulsi - same. The globe basil had good taste but I think it's bred to be very compact - I wanna go big or go home when I grow. So, that's not your guy if you want volumes. Sweet Thai and Blue Spice, again, other 'not basil' tastes in those. Intense, flavourful but not the kind I would add to noodles or lasagna. Probably the best was Genovese, which was pretty darn similar to the sweet basil. It produced a ton of leaves for fresh use but more importantly for drying. Fresh basil is excellent (though potent), but I think it's even better dried. Genovese taste is traditional tried and true basil taste. As someone who likes to try the far flung veggies, this was a lesson for me that sometimes the thing you're looking for, maybe 'the best' thing, is right where you are.

Tip for basil harvest - DON'T CRUMBLE leaves after being dried to save space. The more intact you can leave the dried leaves the better. The collapsing of those cellular walls in the crumbling process releases the volatile oils responsible for flavour. This is why store bought dried basil is SO inferior to homegrown (uncrumbled) basil. In those glass bottles they have to crush them for space economy (notice though there is no basil 'powder'). Crumble the leaves ONLY as you use them. This is probably true for most herbs.

 

[meadow]

Heirloomgal, was it you that had difficulty starting cilantro? If so, try between sheets of damp paper towel within a plastic bag. Once sprouted, I use tweezers to place them in the dirt. I pre-sprout lots of crops though (I wasn't doing this to cilantro for any particular reason).

 

[heirloomgal]

Heirloomgal, was it you that had difficulty starting cilantro? If so, try between sheets of damp paper towel within a plastic bag. Once sprouted, I use tweezers to place them in the dirt. I pre-sprout lots of crops though (I wasn't doing this to cilantro for any particular reason).

@meadow the one that bedevils me is culantro, the cilantro imposter, have you had success with that one?

 

[meadow]

Ah! Misunderstood it then. No, I've never even heard of culantro.

 

[ducks4you]

@heirloomgal , thanks for the advice about NOT crushing when dehydrated. DD, I Thought wanted to cook with fresh herbs. THEN, she tells me, "it depends on the recipe," a rather geNERIC comment which throws a rock on my indoor herb growing.
I promised myself I would clean up/organize my little herb garden this year. I moved some oregano to DD's (remember, there are Two of them) back yard where the weeds are being crowded out. OTHER DD appreciates it, so I have a place to transplant the extra oregano this year.
The bed, if you recall, is a Sea of oregano, with a dash of grass and weeds.
I like Ninnymary's idea of dividing sections with bricks.
Anyway, I guess I'll be dehydrating the green basil--maybe globe?--for cooking. I haven't dehydrated anything this season, and it should smell lovely drying out.

 

[digitS']

You may like your Opal basil best for dehydrating, @ducks4you .

Be sure to try that one.

A great fan of basil that I once knew considered it THE best for that purpose. (It also makes a very nice plant for the ornamental garden .)

Steve

 

[heirloomgal]

'The Five Minute Plant'......anybody grow this one??

Perusing a small seed site and this appears. So named because it apparently takes 5 minutes to look at the plant and decide to get the he** out of there. Maybe I have so little aversion to thorns because I have so few plants around here in the natural landscape that have them, aside from Canada thistle (which isn't from Canada, invasive). That is more of an annoyance. This one is RAMBO. It's quite the sight. It doesn't grow anything edible, and it's ornamental only in the most vampiric way. But yet, somehow I have thought about it on & off over the years, and whether I should grow it. It's not helping my temptation that the woman selling seeds for it states that she will now "grow this plant for the rest of her life until she dies" she loves it so much.

I think what fascinates me the most about it, is that while all plants obviously have survival adaptations, some of the nightshades are wildly ferocious. I mean they are just ready to have at 'er. A plant this evolved for battle is a fascination, like swimming with a Great White. Just looking at this plant I'm sure can give some the willies. Even I, while thinking of trying it, feel like slinking away when I pour over the photos online. Therein is the draw though. They are just so lionhearted, so valorous, so wild & indomitable. There's nothing like them. A Gladiator.

I'm so tempted. It's more common name is 'Malevolence'.

THE BEAST.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Oh, THAT one. For a minute I got it confused with the lichi tomato, Solanum sisymbriifolium (which I have also heard referred to as the five minute plant, since it is equally thorny).

But there ARE other equally thorny plants out there. I have recently been playing around with some species of the Genus Caesalpinia (most familiar to gardeners from the Bird of Paradise flower, Caesalpinia gillesii, and the peacock flowers C. pulcherrima .). But I have been working with some of the other species. ALL are super thorny, and while the two above are shrubby, this is not universal to the genus. C. Bonduc The grey nickernut (whose seeds, as a common "sea bean" are widely used as jewelry and gaming counters, is a sort of weedy little thing. But C. sappan, and C. cilliata are BIG timber trees. And so is C. echinata whose species name I think means "spiny". Actually if echinata and sappan WEREN'T big trees, they probably wouldn't be so valuable and endangered (Both are producers of Brazil Wood[From which the country of Brazil gets it's name], or Pernambuco, used in furniture, VERY expensive violin bows, and dyeing)

 

[flowerbug]

i recall a particular orange rose i grew for a short time as a kid. it was a grafted plant of course, but the most striking feature was that the stem was absolutely covered in very long thorns. i did fertilize it with my own blood from time to time. that was just the price of admission for those. the plant lived only a few years, it was in a rather exposed corner of the garden. not many roses survived long in that location.