Well, I think my husband has a new strange addiction. In the past, I’ve written about some of his unusual hobbies. There was the smoking meat phase. More recently, there was the knitting hats phase. Now we’ve moved on to something entirely different.
Basil. More on that later.
Summer is officially one month old, and I honestly don’t know where the time has gone. A few weeks ago, when school was winding down, I was counting the days until summer arrived. Now I’m wondering if someone could please tap the brakes just a little bit.
Despite some questionable weather lately, our crew has packed plenty of adventures into the first month of break. Swimming lessons are going well, and we’ve managed to spend quite a bit of time at the pool whenever Mother Nature cooperates. Jackson has also jumped into regular baseball with both cleats this summer.
The learning curve after not playing T-ball the last couple of years has been pretty steep for both him and Mom. Thankfully, Dad has been there to help. Tom has spent a lot of time assisting with practices and games, and he’s been a great coach not only for Jackson but for the other kids on the team as well.
Around the same time school let out, I received my annual Mother’s Day hanging baskets. Every year follows roughly the same pattern. I admire the beautiful flowers, place them outside, forget to water them consistently, and eventually watch them slowly wither away.
This year, however, I was determined to do better.
I actually kept up with watering for several weeks. Then one of the baskets was launched off the grill by a classic South Dakota windstorm.
Fortunately, Tom came to the rescue. He repotted the somewhat battered petunia into a planter near the front of the house, and somehow it has transformed into a beautiful overflowing display. Green thumb for the win.
Soon after school let out, Tom set his sights on his first major summer project: starting a garden at our house. I was a little skeptical. Not because I don’t appreciate fresh produce. There’s nothing better than a fresh garden tomato, and cucumbers are a close second. My concern was the location. The proposed garden spot sits in our front yard, which receives approximately the same amount of sunshine as the planet Mercury and seems to be a thriving habitat for weeds.
But Tom went to work with a tiller that had apparently been quietly acquired and stored away for future use. The garden plot ended up being much smaller than I had imagined, so I decided I could live with it.
Before long, he and the kids were planting tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, onions and carrots. At the moment, the weeds are certainly flourishing, but the vegetables seem to be holding their own.
Tom freely admits the soil isn’t ideal and already has plans to improve it. Apparently, some of those plans involve planting radishes to help break up the soil. This, I’ve learned, is a multi-year project.
That’s fine. Just produce enough tomatoes for a few BLTs, and I’ll consider the experiment a success.
Not long after the garden was planted, Tom moved on to some smaller pots behind the house. That’s where the basil addiction really took hold.
Wherever he bought the basil plants must have been having a clearance sale because we suddenly had pot after pot of basil growing.
Now, I like basil. We use it in salads, pasta sauce and the occasional summer cocktail. It smells wonderful and is easy to grow. But eventually there comes a point when you have an embarrassment of riches.
We already had five or six healthy pots thriving when I noticed a cup sitting on the kitchen counter filled with basil sprigs. The cup dripped water constantly, and I couldn’t figure out why random basil cuttings had become part of the decor.
Well, the scientist in my husband decided he needed to see if he could propagate basil hydroponically.
Sure enough, within a few days roots started forming. I came home from work earlier this week to discover five more miniature pots of basil that he and the kids had planted.
Now my sunroom smells fantastic, but there are also little piles of dirt scattered around my kitchen.
Truthfully, I can’t complain too much. It’s a healthy hobby, the kids are involved, and everyone seems to enjoy it. I’m just not entirely sure what I’m supposed to do with the mountain of leafy green herbs that appears to be taking over my house and landscaping.
So, long story short, if anyone needs basil, let me know.
