Herbiage

So, I've gotten rather into growing organic herbs since moving into my "permanent" place a few weeks ago, and yesterday something kind of extraordinary happened. I had moved the herbs into our breakfast room off the kitchen a couple of weeks back because they were getting devoured by garden bugs. Since their move I've been watering them every other day or so, depending on temperature and soil conditions, plucking dead growth once a week or so, and generally just checking on them every day to see if they've died. Nothing overwhelming in the way of care.

Yesterday, though, was an incredible day. I had class, work, and rehearsal, so I ended up being gone from about 9am-11:30pm yesterday. Before I left for class I did my usual basic check to make sure there weren't any large bugs eating the hell out of the plants, then sprinkled them with water and left. When I got home, G had made pizza with fresh basil, which was awesome. When I went to check on the plants again, I noticed G's cuts, which I know stimulate new growth, but the main thing I noticed was that the tops of a few of the basil stalks were a full 3 1/2 inches above their neighbor stalks. When I left the tall stalks had been pretty much all the same height. Which means that some of the stalks went a little apeshit crazy while I was gone. But 3 1/2 inches! M and J will attest if you ask them that I responded to this phenomena (and said 'Menomena' about six times) by dragging them by the hands to the breakfast room, pointing excitedly at the stalks, then muttering under my breath for the remainder of the evening about crop circles, armageddon, and alien occupation of our house. To get to the point, it was fun night for us all.