The week after I did my August SeedGrow post, I decided I didn't like how spindly my Summer Splash marigolds had gotten. So I took my trimmers and lopped off the top third of the plant. Rather severe, but I wanted it to branch out, and I knew this plant was tough enough to take it, as long as I watered it well.
The only blooms left were the ones below the tops of the plants. I hated cutting flowers off, but there was no other way to get the plant to become more bushy.
I took this picture at the beginning of September, and you can see, they recovered nicely. They still didn't branch as much as I liked. I think if I grew these again, I would pinch more severely AS it was growing, to keep the foliage growing out, and delay the blooms a bit.
My Italian Cameo basil has been very slow, but is coming along. I certainly have more than enough to cook with, and plenty left over for drying or pesto. I have noticed that Cameo, while much shorter than other basils I have grown, has a very, very compact cluster of leaves.
The basil is still short here, but the pot is really filling up. You will see in my October post that the basil has stuffed the opening to the terra cotta pot. It was having some issues sharing with the sweet potato vine. I keep having to viciously trim back the black leaves to keep it from overshadowing the basil.
Here, you can see that I harvested some of my Italian Cameo basil, along with the some rosemary and oregano. Just a few snips got me more basil than I needed for my recipe. I think I was making herbed zucchini cheese bread that night. I got the recipe from the Hobby Farms website. It was very good, but it was too much to eat all by myself. Next time I will make a smaller loaf.
It is going on towards October now, but both my basil and my marigolds are still growing strong. I am looking forward to seeing them, all the way up to frost. I'm growing with the SeedGROW project. Thanks to Renee's Garden for the free seeds.
