Week 2

It’s been a week since the seeds were sowed and the basil has started sprouting! It is quite exciting to see the seedlings sprout after watering them daily. This is what they look like now:

The seeds started sprouting at around 3 days after i planted them. However there were no parsley sprouts as of yet which is expected as they do take a long time to germinate.

I also added sage and sweet basil to the mix as i saw them for sale, they smell nice and they would make a great addition to the herb garden. They were not planted from the seed but they were sold as a potted plant which removes the waiting time for it to grow, but the excitement lies in maintaining them and not letting them die as it wont be easy to plant them together.

Some websites apparently point out that sage and basil do not grow well together while some websites seem to say that they grow fine together. Perhaps it is because that sage requires little water while basil does need quite a bit of water and planting them together may result in a conflict in this sense. The only way to find out if this is true would be to see what would happen as time passes by.

Week 1

I decided to plant aromatic herbs, as they can be used to make fresh teas, or even dried up to be used as potpurri sachets. Besides, crushing the leaves in my hand and sniffing it provides a refreshing burst of energy, whenever i need a quick picker-upper.

The two plants that I have chosen to plant this round are parsley and Genovese basil (also known as vietnamese mint in asian communities) as these are the 2 seeds that I could get hold of when I was shopping for seeds. I would like to plant the various types of basil and herbs on my little tray and more will be added later if there is space as not all of the seeds will germinate and even them not all of the shoots will make it.

To start off this project, I bought a rectangular pot and a tray. The tray helps to keep the overflowing water from spilling to the floor. I also bought soil. The plastic pot just needs one bag of soil. I emptied one bag of soil into the pot and started scattering the seeds around, parsley in one half of the pot and the basil on the other.

The pot and my seeds. Grow, grow my pretties!

The basil seeds turned white as soon as i sprayed water on them and i got a bit worried and i soon found out it was normal. You can see the white spots on the right side of the pot. They will take a week before i see sprouts. However, the parsley will take a whole month before they germinate! I think that is why they say that the seed goes nine times to the Devil and back before coming up. The ungerminated seeds are the ones that the Devil keeps for himself. I guess it is a test of patience to see my garden come up. I might add mint to the mix, if i can find the seeds or the plant. Hope to have a picture of sprouting basil next week!

Project eden

Project Eden is a little project that I have started on my own: to plant a small bed of aromatic herbs at the place that I am living. This category will be a weekly journal of sorts of my planting projects. I will mainly be using organic methods to plant them as opposed to the conventional methods, including the use of organic fertilizer.

This section will be updated weekly as there wont be much development for plants, so do stay tuned for interesting updates on my planting experience!