Saturday, April 25, 2009

My sweet basils have gone to heaven

It is depressing, that whilst the blog of the other forummers on the GCS Forum is filled with beautiful pictures of their newest plants and freshly harvested herbs and vegetables, here I am, blogging about pests and deaths.

It is depressing indeed.

My basils were the first "real plants" I have.. and the first herbs I grew. Before that, I only had a few of those plants that almost never die.. like money plant and the like.

I was so proud of them. I bought them from the supermarket and rooted them in a nice rectangular pot.

They grew big fat juicy leaves. I ate their leaves for dinners, cooking them with tagliatelle, garlic and parmesan cheese.

They were attacked by white flies. Armed with the advice from fellow forummers, I used an organic insecticide and fended the pests away.

Their leaves turned yellowish. Again, with advice from the forummers, I brought them into a place with full sun and their leaves turned nice and green again.

I went overseas. They looked fine when I returned and waved their big green leaves cheerfully.

Then, I noticed their stems were a little brown.. their leaves started turning yellow.. And then, inexplicably, they turned brown and died.

Today, I packed them into a plastic bag and threw them down the rubbish chute.

My searches in Google tells me that they were rotting due to over-watering. I can only suspect that the problem was due to the heavy rains, on top of the daily watering.

But at least, for now, I can comfort myself that they are probably in heaven now - for the little joy they added to their owner and to her dining table.

8 comments:

Petunia Lee said...

Oh... that's so sad. Did you check the soil for mealies?

Open Kitchen Concept said...

Oh.. i did.. No mealies.. Stem just turned brown from the bottom and more and more so through the days.. then leaves started to turn yellow and then brown spots appeared.. Is sad news indeed. I'd have to get a new pot and do better next time around.

Anonymous said...

If you want some basil seeds (lime and cinammon), I can pass some to you. =)

-Sky

Sky said...

Btw, I hope you don't mind if I linked you on my blog too. =)

Sky

Open Kitchen Concept said...

hi Sky,

Of course I don't mind.. It's really sweet of you.. Actually, I do have some basil seeds.. but not the 2 varieties that you talk abt. I'd contact you when I'm back from HK :) Thanks!

Sky said...

Okays!

The seeds are laying around being unused, so I can share them a little bit. Hee hee.

Btw, out of curiosity, what is your ID on GCS? Lol. I'm trying to figure it out.

Open Kitchen Concept said...

hehe Sky, I'm newtogardening. We've met before. The mints.. remember? :)

Sky said...

Heyas! Yups, now I remember. Actually, I remember you. But while I knew yours was a GCSer's blog, I didn't know whose in particular. =D

I hope your mints are all right. My mints are going through a hard patch too.