Don’t be shocked because I have blogged several times this week but I guess the mood hit me to blog. I have been lamenting over the pitiful state of my one surviving basil plant from the summer that I decided it was time to buy a new plant. Look at this awful sorry state of what is a plant!

I bet that poor thing is ashamed to be called basil. See the woody stalks? That isn’t good. Nope, I don’t think there is any help for this little guy. So off to the garden center I went. I took Caleb with me because he is into plants and loves unusual ones. More on that later.

We went over to the herb section and found a lot of healthy looking plants to choose from. I found large leaf basil, organic rosemary, Italian flat-leaf parsley and tons more. I only picked those three and if I do ok with them by January, I’ll go back for oregano and maybe thyme.

Look at these beauties!

The parsley and basil are huge! I put them on the table near a south-facing window and tomorrow I will harvest some basil and parsley. I’ll probably freeze some. Caleb said I needed to make Rosemary Focaccia bread since he was smelling that rosemary all the way home.  I can’t make it today because today is our church’s annual fall harvest party and chili cook-off. I have a huge pot of chili in the crock and I made some fantastic looking and smelling Peanuttiest Blondies. I found the recipe the other day at Bakeologie.  I can’t wait to taste one.

While at the garden center, we walked around enjoying all the Christmas trees on display. I said they needed an Italian themed tree. We didn’t find that exactly but we did find a tree that was patriotic and I was able to snag this for my tree:

I think I might even find things that are Italian themed for my tree this year. At least the colors match the standard Christmas colors. Makes my job easier.

Caleb has a cool little plant collection going. He has cacti, bamboo, air plants, pepperomia, and the newest is staghorn fern.

Here is a close-up for the staghorn fern. Caleb plans to grow the fern over the fall/winter/spring seasons and when it’s big enough, he can mount it to a board and hang it to look like a moose antler rack.

It could look something like this once it’s mounted:

It’s so cool. I am letting it become a school project for Caleb.

Well I am almost ready to go to the party and eat lots of chili and desserts.  What plants are you growing inside this winter?