MY BASKET PROJECT FROM THE FLEA MARKET

Hi everyone

Well, as promised here is my basket project with the basket I scored at the flea market on Sunday.  The basket only cost me a couple of dollars and is really rustic and earthy.  So what better project than filling it with earth and bringing nature indoors.

I really love herbs in cooking, but parsley and me don’t get along.  Everyone says it’s easy to grow but somehow I always kill it.

So fingers crossed this time.

I decided to bring the herbs to me, rather than have to go out in all weather (remember it’s autumn in my part of the world) and have fresh herbs at the ready in my kitchen.  I hit up the local garden center yesterday, thinking I would just line the basket with a plastic bin liner and soil etc.  But the garden guy said they wouldn’t last in their pots very long and better to be in soil.  So I picked out one of those coconut fiber planter liners and some herb soil mix along with thyme, mint, flat leaved parsley, and garlic chives.  I already had a nearly dead pot of regular parsley at home and figured I might try putting a few cuttings of my rosemary bush and lavender too and see if they take.  Here’s hoping.

First up I put a plastic bag on the bottom of the basket – no pic of this sorry – forgot that part!

Next came the fiber liner.  Now the liner was round and my basket is oblong so it was a bit of push and shove to get it fitting reasonably – a little over the edges but at least it blends in with the basket.

I filled the basket up nearly full of the herb growing mix, and put in my herbs, plus the cuttings of rosemary and lavender and the nearly dead parsley.  And voila!

I’ve put it in the corner of my kitchen bench looking out to the palm trees.  This is the area I prepare meals in so hopefully I won’t forget to water it, and it gets great morning sun etc.

If anyone has any hints how not to kill parsley, I’d really appreciate it!

So that is project one of the flea market scores done.

Happy days – and growing

Jane