Hmm. Basil is one of the few things I’ve never managed to kill. Even if I forget to water and it gets all droopy it perks right up when I water it. If I’m growing from seeds, I usually put quite a few in a big pot and then cull (or transplant) them when they are a couple of inches high. They like sun and the soil needs to be damp when they are babies, but you don’t want to overwater either.
My other herbs are doing well, actually thriving, curly parsley, italian parsley, cilantro, bay, thyme. I know the first basil was killed when it got so cold suddenly in April. The other two, I have no idea why they died.
Basil hates cold.
I usually wait until Memorial Day weekend to plants herbs and annuals but I was so excited we finally got a few days of decent weather last week that I did it earlier.
We planted some of our garden last weekend in central NJ and will add to it next weekend. Different varieties of tomatoes and peppers, squash and lots of herbs in pots on the patio for easy access while cooking. Just hoping our fence keeps out the deer and the rabbits !
Can you still use the leaves of cilantro when they go into blooming? My vegetable gardens aren’t doing too well. I planted tiny tomato seedlings. They were coming out nicely. About 2 ft tall then dee found them.
The leaves of cilantro don’t turn into poison, but they don’t have the nice cilantro taste once they bloom and the leaves change shape. I’ve been told you should reseed every two weeks or so, but I never remember so cilantro tends to be something I buy in the store.
I’ve got green blueberries, but only one or two strawberries.Raspberries and blackberries are leafing out. My plants seem to be on some weird time delay or they really think it’s too shady. My daylilies show no signs of blooming even though they are blooming in everyone else’s yard. Very frustrating.
^ if your lilies dont get enough sun they won’t do well.
I have a few blooms on mine but the deer have gotten the rest. 
The cold a few weeks ago killed all my basil. Have to start all over again.
I just realized my garden theme is ratatouille: eggplant, zucchini, peppers, tomatoes. Some oregano. Also, split a small order of organic potato seeds with a friend, fingerlings, but it’s still a lot (plus 3 Katahdins from last year that sprouted.)
Unfortunately there is not a lot I can do about my neighbor’s trees. We actually got permission to chop down three of them this spring. They’ve always bloomed before, so I am hopeful they are just being slow. We had a lot of stuff die off this winter. Our hedge and a lot of shrubs apparently did not like it getting warm and then cold and then warm and then cold. I actually rescued all these lilies from the really woodsy no mans land that runs between properties. (It belongs to someone who put their fence at the top of the hill and ignores the stuff on the other side of the fence.)
Aargh, the Japanese beetles have arrived here!
Someone told me Japanese beetles grow as white grubs in the lawn and you can treat for them,in advance.
Cilantro leaves get a bit bitter after the plant starts flowering.
@mathmom, when I had mine in a more shady garden (in my fenced in back yard) each year I got fewer and fewer blooms, so I finally moved them to sunny garden. I now get plenty of buds but they get eaten by the deer.
I may have to move them. Everything seems unhappy this spring. I think our weird winter weather was hard on the plants. Unfortunately I really don’t have sunnier spots to move anything too. I really wish our neighbor’s Norway maple would fall down. It’s huge.
My flowering shrubs took most of the beating from wacky spring weather. Only perennial that have done really poorly are my irises. I got hardly any flowers on them.
I had practically no sun until we took down one of our maples (was diseased.) Now my whole side yard is sunny almost all day.
Something got into my chicken wired raised bed and ate all the lettuce leaves and beet leaves. Wondering if it was a deer or something that could reach over the wire. Tomatoes, peppers, cukes, are fine. Beet leaves are starting to grow back… Since the lettuce is gone now, I’ll have to look for something at the garden center to replace that bare space.
I got a late start because of indecision. But I am hoping these plants will produce results; Celebrity Tomato, Purple Ukraine Tomato, Azoychak Tomato, Husky Cherry Tomato, Habanero Pepper, Hungarian Hot Pepper, Jalepeno Pepper, Marconi Sweet Pepper, Rosa Blanca Eggplant, Clemson Okra, Burgundy Okra.
^^Love all those peppers!
Planted cucumber and for the first time it looks GREAT - lots of flowers on it so now hoping for lots of baby cukes!
Tomatoes looking good but no picking yet.
Should be picking my garlic in another week or two - this was my first year planting garlic and I CANNOT wait to see how it does - looks great from above the dirt and I have been using all the scapes!
^What do you do with scapes?
Love scapes. Can use them raw in salad or sautéed lightly, like scallions. Mine from the farmers market didn’t last so long, last year. You might do better just cutting what you need.
Might be a good run for me, this summer. That elevated grow box that disappointed last year- I added a lot more compost, from the landfill and Whole Foods.