Ep. 451 - Overwintering and Growing Basil Indoors

Even though the basil may enjoy an extra-long growing season when warm weather sticks around, I am not ready for the party to end. I plan to keep my basil pots alive indoors to extend their life as long as possible! Here are tips on how to care for your basil indoors and keep that taste of summer (and the pesto!) going.

Join Rob as he shares an article on caring for basil through the winter while he touches on other articles from the daily almanac including storing pumpkins, DIY Halloween makeup, removing grass from garden beds, and MORE! 

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Discussion Links:

OVERWINTERING AND GROWING BASIL INDOORS

HOW TO CURE AND STORE PUMPKINS

DIY HALLOWEEN MAKEUP IDEAS USING COMMON PANTRY ITEMS

HOW TO REMOVE GRASS FOR A GARDEN BED

AROOSTOOK POTATO AND BROCCOLI SOUP

Old Farmer's Almanac - Daily Almanac

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Transcript

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Hi there and welcome back to another episode of the All Around Growth Podcast. My name is Rob Kaiser and I am your host. Today is Wednesday, October 26th, 2022, and this is episode number 451 of a show where you join me with my family on our small farm and homestead as we grow all around. A show where we talk about the five W's and how as we grow the various family businesses and the homestead here on the Homestead at York Meadow Farm. And for no particular reason at all today, we are going to do an old farmer's almanac episode. And I guess the reason being, if I had to choose one, I was out walking the dog this morning, and you know, the the just noticing the seasonal change. What's the weather like here this morning? Um here in northeast Ohio, as far as the weather is concerned, I mean it's chilly, it doesn't seem anything out of the ordinary, but to be specific, it is 55 degrees out there. It's mostly cloudy. We're gonna have a high today of 63 degrees here in USDA zone hardiness. Quick, find someone to argue about uh the the USDA zone hardiness, right? Um, but anyways, that's where we're gonna be today. There's there's a crispness in the air. There was some rain last night, and um, you know, it just got me feeling got me feeling homesteady, got me feeling as though the the change is in the air, transition is in the air. And with that said, we're gonna talk about overwintering basil indoors, storing pumpkins and DIY Halloween makeup, and more. Before we do that, real quick, the show today is sponsored by York Meadow Farm, providing small batch, probiotic, rich, fermented foods, and natural bath and body products delivered to your door. Yorkmeadowfarm.com, nourishing you on the inside and out. If you are a listener of this show, remember to use all around growth when you check out as your discount code to save 25%. That's our way of saying thank you for your support. And I mean, look, guys, it's really simple. We all need bath and body products, and we all most of us eat fermented foods of some kind. So if you want to help support the show, the best way that you can do that is making a purchase through YorkMeadowFarm.com. Secondarily, we're gonna talk about BuzzSprout just briefly. I am a big supporter of BuzzSprout in terms of podcasting. There's a lot of us out there that are doing things in terms of content creation. A lot of people use a lot of different things. I use Buzz Sprout as a podcast host. It's very easy to use. I'll link to it in the show notes if you're ever interested or toying with the idea of creating content specifically in the form of a podcast. Buzz Sprout's a great and easy way to do it. Link in the show notes for that. And let's dive right into the topics of today's show. And these topics come from the old farmer's almanac, specifically the daily almanac, which you sign up for. It's delivered to you in your inbox. It has questions within this, like who is born on this day, what happened today in history, little tidbits of information such as there's 56 days until winter begins. There is also a question of the day, and the weather proverb, uh, or beg your pardon. I'm sitting here thinking um about live streaming these shows in the future, and I'm completely derailing my own thought train as I sit here and try to record a podcast. Goodness gracious, there's questions of the day, guys, puzzles of the day. I'm puzzling myself as I try to share with you what's in the daily almanac here. There's also little poems and throwbacks in this case from the 1898 old farmer's almanac that reads, Don't be afraid of the sunlight, and so pull down the curtains as soon as a bit peeps in. A proper amount of sunshine is very necessary to good health. We need the sunshine from outside and the sunshine of love in our hearts and homes to make us happy. Guys, this is timeless wisdom from the old farmer's almanac. We read this from 1898. I'm gonna read this a second time because I like to refer back to the old farmer's almanac from time to time for the simple wisdom that reads as follows. Don't be afraid of the sunlight, and so pull down the curtains as soon as a bit peeps in. A proper amount of sunshine is very necessary to good health. We need the sunshine from outside, and the sunshine of love in our hearts and homes to make us happy. We read that from the 1898 Old Farmer's Almanac, well over a hundred years old. Timeless wisdom. Today we're going to talk about overwintering and growing basil indoors. Even though the basil may enjoy an extra long growing season when warm weather sticks around, I am not ready for the party to end. I plan to keep my basil pots alive indoors to extend their life as long as possible. Here are tips on how to care for your basil indoors. And we may end up doing a deep dive into that article, and I may end up reading that and sharing my experience with basil because I have some over there with my Dracina and my pothos and my little avocado grove and some other unknown 40-year-old houseplant that has been accumulated in my stash over the years. So we may talk about overwintering and growing basil indoors in depth. There's also an article in today's Daily Almanac that will be linked to in the show notes on how to cure and store pumpkins. Now, after you harvest a pumpkin from the field, it is a good idea to cure it. This hardens the skin so that it stores for months instead of mere weeks. See our article on how to cure and store a pumpkin, plus a video with more information. Alright, so if you've grown squashes, pumpkins, you know, all of this is going to apply to a pumpkin type of winter squash. Alright, so check out the article in the show notes on how to cure and store pumpkins. And in the show notes as well, there will be an article on DIY Halloween makeup ideas using common pantry items. Do you need Halloween makeup to greet trick-or-treaters? Here are simple recipes for face paint and fake blood using items right from the pantry. No need to run to the store. And you know what? I may end up reading that, and we may end up touching on that as well. Because this weekend I have a Halloween party coming up over at the neighbors at Whispering Acres Animal Farm Sanctuary across the street, and a couple doors down, they have opened up their doors to the neighborhood for a movie on the big screen. Local vendors will be setting up. I will be there along with some other people hustling our wares and connecting with the neighborhood. And you know what? Maybe this would be a good time to explore some DIY Halloween makeup ideas since they will be giving out prizes for the best costume. And I haven't really put a whole lot of thought, effort, or energy into that. So hey, maybe that's for me. There's also an article on how to remove grass for a garden bed. Alright, so when preparing a new garden plot, many readers ask how to remove existing lawn or reclaim a weedy area. Eliminating competition is the first step, plus it will save a lot of weeding time throughout the season. See how to remove grass and weeds to start a new garden. I've got a bit of experience with that as well, but for whatever reason, this basil has captured my attention. And before we dive into this article on basil, guys, there is also an article for I'm going, I'm not sure how to pronounce this, Aristook Potato and Broccoli Soup. Now, this hearty potato and broccoli soup is a longtime favorite. One reader's comments say it best. Simple, quick, and delicious. I'll link to all of these articles in the show notes for your reference today so you can read up on any one of these things, but because I had some basil and the story behind the basil is kind of humorous, I figured we might as well go ahead and talk about this article over wintering and growing basil indoors and how you can care for your basil through the winter. Now, before we get into this article by Robin Sweetzer that was written on October 19th, 2022, I'd like to share with you a little story about how my basil houseplant came to be. Now we have an herb garden outside, right? And this is a raised bed, hugo culture herb garden that I've discussed in past episodes. I'll see if I can't link to that episode as well in the show notes for reference because it's kind of cool to have a huggle culture raised bed specifically for your herbs. All right. And um we grow a lot of basil in that. We grow a couple different kinds of sage, we grow thyme, we grow, we now have Tulsey basil growing in there, which I'm going to dig and overwinter one of them inside as well, since that was a gift given to us. But this particular basil plant that I have inside is a rooted cutting basically from some extra basil that dad harvested when we were making something in the kitchen. I don't remember what we used. Oh, I believe we were making some chimichuri. We don't use basil in a whole lot, but for some reason we needed some. Dad harvested some and he came in with a whole bunch, far more than what we needed, and then and then he felt bad that we had all this leftover basil, so he attempted to root it, and I I laughed, I didn't really think much of it, and it just stayed there on his little desk in the kitchen for a week or so and kind of neglected. And then when I went to basically toss it, I saw that there were roots. So I refreshed the water and you know kept it going, and eventually I tried to pot up and you know revive all of these. Um the the strongest one made it, the others did not, and that is the one that I brought in just the other day. So, no matter how you obtained your basil, um understand that moving forward it roots relatively easily in water, and that seems to be an effective way to propagate it. So if you have some basil inside, here is how you care for basil through the winter, as written by Robin Sweetzer on October 19th, 2022, from the Old Farmer's Almanac. This article will be linked to in the show notes. Even though the basil may enjoy an extra long growing season when warm weather sticks around, I am not ready for the party to end. I plan to keep my basil pots alive indoors to extend their life as long as possible. Here are tips on how to care for your basil indoors and keep that taste of summer and the pesto going. The basil plants in the garden were spectacular this year. I think the key was growing them under lightweight row covers to keep the four-lined plant bug off them. I could peel off the cover at intervals, cut the plants back hard, and replace the covering. When I noticed that the plants had started to push back on the cloth and fill out the bed, I knew it was time to cut them back again. No bug damage, and the leaves were very clean. Lots of pesto got tucked into our freezer this year. Just to make sure we had enough basil, I also planted a few in containers to have near the kitchen door. One of these is still going strong, so it will be coming inside for the winter. Even though basil is an annual and will eventually die, this pot should keep me in fresh basil until some newly planted seedlings pick up the slack. Because as many, as you many, as you may know, life without basil is not worth living. And there is a photo here of new seedlings that can give you a fresh start, or new seedlings that you can overwinter as an existing plant. If you are considering wintering over one of your favorite basil plants, here are a few tips. Sun. For the best flavor and good growth, the plants will need six to eight hours of sunshine a day. If you resort to grow lights to provide enough light, you will have to keep them on for 12 hours each day. Invest in a timer. Warmth. Since basil is a tropical plant native to Central Africa, India, and Southeast Asia, it is going to need a warm spot to thrive in. Try to keep it near 70 degrees and out of cold drafts. Soil. A light, well-draining compost-based potting soil is my go-to for any container plantings. Feeding. A compost-based potting soil can keep the plants happy for the dark days of winter when growth will be slow. If necessary, you can feed them with a half-strength organic fertilizer. Stay away from high nitrogen fertilizers though. Your plant will have better flavor if not overfed. Water. Keep the soil evenly moist without being soggy. Stick your finger in up to the first knuckle to test for dryness. Basil will start to welt if it doesn't have enough water. They appreciate some humidity, so miss them every so often to counteract indoor dryness. Harvest. Clip your plant often to encourage branching. Cut it at a node where new growth is starting and the plant will become bushy and full. Don't cut it too far back. It needs some leaves for photosynthesis. Flowering. Don't let it flower. The flavor becomes somewhat bitter after the plant has started to bloom. As annuals, they will go to seed and die after blossoming. And inspect for bugs. Any plant brought in from outside should be checked for stowaways. Give the top and bottom of the leaves a good spraying and check the pot, especially under the rim, for any insects or eggs. If you are digging up a plant from the garden, try to keep as much of the root ball intact as possible. A large plant that has been growing in the ground all summer will be hard to bring inside. It will probably resent being crammed into a pot and sulk for a few weeks before dying. Take some cuttings from it instead. They will root easily in a glass of water and give you healthy new plants to grow on the windowsill. Keep a taste of summer going all winter long. And at the bottom of this article, there is a link to an article on more information on growing basil. And this article is simply titled Basil and contains information about planting, growing, and harvesting basil. So I will link to this in the show notes if I have enough room. There is only so much I can link to and provide information on within the show notes, but without a doubt, I will most certainly be linking to this article over wintering and growing basil indoors, along with all the other articles mentioned as well. Like I said, how to cure and store pumpkins, DIY Halloween makeup ideas using common pantry items, how to remove grass for a garden bed, along with the article on Aristok Potato and Broccoli soup. So, guys, that is it for today's show. As always, I look forward to catching you on tomorrow's show in another episode of the All Around Growth Podcast. Have a great day. This is Rob Kaiser, and thank you.