Window Sill Herbs

 My potted basil is looking a little raggedy, as it is wont to do this time of year.  I pot one up from my garden every year and bring it in to sit in my kitchen windowsill.  I don't really have room for pots larger than 6", so I have to make sure I have at least one plant that was started late in the season.  It's kind of a tricky balancing act, because I don't want the plant to be so big that it'll suffer in a small pot, but I want it to be fairly big because once the day length starts to shorten they grow very slowly.

All the leaves you see on this plant have budded since the plant was brought indoors.  N is part Italian and likes to make a lot of homemade tomato sauces - we pick off the big outdoor leaves two or three at a time until about this time of year.  Once we get down to these baby leaves we know it's only a matter of time before we start dipping into the dried leaves (assuming I managed to dry some before the frost got them, which I did this year!)  It's an interesting reminder that back in the days before supermarkets the "hungry" season wasn't winter, but rather early spring.

This year I also had a potted rosemary plant to bring indoors.  It is a little too cold for them here, I think.  This is the first time I've grown rosemary, so I wasn't really sure this window would provide enough light.  I'm happy to see that it has survived the winter with little damage done, except that most of the fresh growth from last summer has been eaten.  I think I'll have to start another one this spring so that I can eventually have a nice-sized plant.