R.I.P. Basil
I hardly knew thee.
I started with two basil plants; now I have zero. Distressingly like the bleeding hearts I keep killing somehow, the first basil to die, my purple Thai basil, just... petered out. Everything else was getting bigger and healthier, including the sweet basil, but the purple basil died.
But the sweet basil was doing okay. Growing rapidly enough that I split my long herb planter into two, to give the basil and thyme some room away from the parsley and sage (the oregano and rosemary each live in their own planters) and the thyme especially perked up.
But the second bleeding heart to die I realized was infested terribly with aphids. After terminating them and the slowly-dying plant with extreme vengeance, I realized the aphids had decided to move to my herbs. The sage and basil especially, so I drowned the aphids with water with a little white vinegar and tea tree oil -- the sage seems to love this solution -- and picked the tenacious ones off with my fingers.
But the basil... the basil, after several baths of this and some intense grooming, never shook off the aphids. This morning, it was the only plant still harboring those little bastards. And since the aphids are killing it faster than it can recover, it got a loving mercy killing.
We'll pick up another basil plant after we get back from my parents' but I already miss my little herb.
I started with two basil plants; now I have zero. Distressingly like the bleeding hearts I keep killing somehow, the first basil to die, my purple Thai basil, just... petered out. Everything else was getting bigger and healthier, including the sweet basil, but the purple basil died.
But the sweet basil was doing okay. Growing rapidly enough that I split my long herb planter into two, to give the basil and thyme some room away from the parsley and sage (the oregano and rosemary each live in their own planters) and the thyme especially perked up.
But the second bleeding heart to die I realized was infested terribly with aphids. After terminating them and the slowly-dying plant with extreme vengeance, I realized the aphids had decided to move to my herbs. The sage and basil especially, so I drowned the aphids with water with a little white vinegar and tea tree oil -- the sage seems to love this solution -- and picked the tenacious ones off with my fingers.
But the basil... the basil, after several baths of this and some intense grooming, never shook off the aphids. This morning, it was the only plant still harboring those little bastards. And since the aphids are killing it faster than it can recover, it got a loving mercy killing.
We'll pick up another basil plant after we get back from my parents' but I already miss my little herb.