Remember my sad basil from two weeks ago? After two more weeks of experimenting he seems to be doing much better. And he even has a little friend, some dill, to hang out with. I just started the dill from seed one week ago and you can see it has already begun to sprout up.
A few tips I have learned to container gardening in the hot, humid Florida summer:
- Water daily, I have read so many articles about watering basil every other day or every two days, but that is not practical in Florida, it needs much more water.
- But don't overwater. I give the basil about 8-10 oz of water a day usually in the afternoon. And I bring them undercover if it is supposed to rain for long periods of time.
- Keep out of direct sunlight in the heat of the day. I have the basil in a spot that gets direct sun from sunrise to about noon and the rest of the day it is shaded. After trying him out in a few different spots with more or less sun this seems to be the right amount of sunlight.
- I prune (is that the correct word?) the basil about every other day, pinching off bad leaves or really large ones to encourage new growth.
So far I have only used my basil plant once making a tomato basil sauce for pasta and boy was it delicious. I am looking forward to a summer full of pesto!
Do you have any other container gardening tips?
Thanks for the info. I'm also in Florida and it's so hard to keep any plants alive it seems! We just bought a beautiful hibiscus and killed it! :( Hoping to start gardening some herbs here soon.. your post is helpful! :)
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