Okay, I am growing basil in my tomato bed. Not only is basil good to eat with tomatoes, apparently they like to grow in the same bed. Companion plants.

Unfortunately, I am just now getting little green marbles on the tomatoes (remember, I planted them late). The basil is starting to flower. What should I do -- pick off the flowers? Doesn't it stop growing, once it flowers? I can't say that these plants have increased much in size since planting and here they go, flowering!

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2001

Answers

Yes, pinch off the flowers. As long as you keep pinching the flowers off the basil will stay bushy. If you let it bloom it's going to put all the energy into the flowers instead of the leaves and get leggy on you. You can keep the plants going pretty much all summer as long as you don't let them bloom.

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2001

Geesh Joy, little green marbles..............I have buds!!! and I sure don't have any basil beginning to flower. How did you do that??? Yes, I pick off the buds on the basil to keep it good.

-- Anonymous, July 14, 2001

Ah! I miss growing basil! I used to grow tons of it and make pesto. Once I learned how to make pesto with spinach, though, I pretty much quit growing it. I have to make the pesto more garlic-y with spinach and basil has such a lovely flavor!

I did take the big plunge and pick up a patio tomato! I have it in a pot with a cage. Little yellow blossoms indicate that I might actually get a home-grown tomato this year! However, since we will be gone almost three weeks, I really hope they get watered every day. If not, I guess I'll try a few marbles in my salads...my dentist should *love* that!

-- Anonymous, July 14, 2001

Ah know Joy... I got my tomatoes out sooner than you and I'm sad that your tomatoes are further than mine... and there isn't that much distance between us...

hmmmmm Joy... can I come visit when you have the 2nd red tomato???

-- Anonymous, July 14, 2001

(*clicking heels in glee*--)

I peeked under a tomato bush today and there's one turning orange!!

Okay, it's the only one on that bush, and not counting the one I got off the Tumbler a while back, that's the first and ONLY one that is anywhere nearing ripeness. It's about the size of a golf ball. I have no idea how it's gonna taste, the plant is called Fourth of July, because it's supposed to be ripening by then. It hypes itself as 45 days, which is what attracted me to it in the first place.

Okay, I cheated. I bought it pretty good sized to begin with, and I planted them out with Wall o'Water to protect them (altho I ripped this one pretty good and thought I'd killed it). Some of the Tigerellas are marble sized...the others are blooming and starting to set fruit. Isn't living in the north wonderful? After two wheelbarrows full of green tomatoes last year and nearly no ripe ones at all (Tumbler and Patio came through), I was willing to do a cheat.

I did eat my first zucchini's tonight tho, and the critters had kale and parsley. (Yay, 'Product 'o' Stable'!!!)

-- Anonymous, July 14, 2001

Diane, I don't know what I did. I did indeed BUY my transplants (starting my own is a project for a different year). I planted them so late, the tomatoes were already trying to bloom and they were very tall, so I planted them in trenches on their sides, and just bent up the ends of them. I fed them Tomatoes Alive! Plus from Gardens Alive. And their "feet" are under a red plastic mulch, which is conserving the water. I've only had to water them about every third day in this hot weather.

-- Anonymous, July 14, 2001

Wow... now Julie has Tigeralla's... an open pollinated tomato.. and a very tasty one at that... <>...

I have to admit that I started over 200 tomatoes by seed this spring and were a good 6" when I planted them in the garden with good composted cow manure under them... so they have good feeding...

however, I don't do wall of water... but they have newspaper and straw as mulch ... the plants are looking great... just nothing more

Joy.. I'm glad that your garden is doing so well... do you need rain too???

-- Anonymous, July 14, 2001

I have eaten about 6 tomatoes so far, Early Girls. Picked some cherry and tommy toe tomatoes this morning and ate them. Mine are like green tennis balls, and the few that ripened so far did not make it into the house! Peppers are ready to pick just about, a few. Tons of squash is comming in allready. I must cook it.

I don't have any Basil either. My mint has dried up, don't know why. We need some rain again real bad. I'll have to water with buckets this evening if it dosen't.

-- Anonymous, July 14, 2001

We cut our basil back severely, and the more we cut, the more it grows. We trim them every week to take little bunches to market, and just keep on cutting week after week.

We're already done with the early tomatoes (Sophies Choice and Paul Robeson). We're starting to get the Ozark Pinks, Brandywines (had a 1 1/2 pounder already!), German Green and plum types. Canning the first batch of sauce as I type this.

-- Anonymous, July 14, 2001

Joy, I meant to mention also that we've had great success freezing basil, chopped and packed in ice cube trays with water. The flavor is just as good as fresh.

-- Anonymous, July 14, 2001

Hey, guys, if you really like pesto, but you get tired of it after eating it a hundred days in a row (I, personally, could eat it every day without tiring of it--it's my favorite food), here's a suggestion: coriander pesto. My friend from South C'alina turned me on to this. Make it just the way you do basil pesto. I like the basil pesto better, but the coriander pesto is really good too.

JOJ

-- Anonymous, July 16, 2001

Coincidentally, the ice cube trays work great for pesto and cilantro too. It's the only way to preserve fresh cilantro taste that we've ever found. I forgot to mention that when they're frozen you empty the trays and store the cubes in a freezer bag.

-- Anonymous, July 16, 2001