Everything in my yard is growing spectacularly! So I figured it is time to put some of it to good use. I decided to start with a lasagna as the basil and parsley were getting unreasonably big and according to my Google research, they should be ready to be harvested:
- Parsley: It takes between 70 and 90 days of growth before the plants are ready for parsley harvesting. The plants should have ample foliage. In some regions, seeds can be planted in the fall for early spring parsley harvesting and again in late winter for early summer harvest.
- Basil: The best time to harvest basil is when the plant has lots of leaves, but hasn’t started to flower yet.
If this journey has taught me anything it is that YouTube has all the answer so off I went to find some videos on how to harvest herbs as I am more of a visual learner:
Seemed easy enough so I got out my trusty garden sisccors and got to snipping. After I had collected enough of each it was time to get inside to get cooking.
The cooking part was easy enough as this isn’t my first rodeo with a lasagna. I make a variation of this recipe: World’s Best Lasagna Recipe. On a normal day when I don’t have fresh garden herbs, I have always just used dried basil and parsley without any issues. But as we were soon to find out, fresh herbs do make a difference.
As I got to chopping, I realized that I don’t really know how to cut up herbs. So back to the internet I went and this time I used WikiHow because sometimes YouTube is just too quick:
With the chopping out of the way, the lasagna was nearly there. And before I knew it, a homemade lasagna with garden grown herbs was sitting on my counter waiting to be eaten!
Next on the menu… dill pickle pasta salad – another household favourite!
Hi Mariah,
Looks delicious! I bet it tasted even better with fresh herbs. Thanks for the video on continuous basil growth. I find I don’t harvest it properly or enough and it always goes to seed. I am going to try this approach.
Fingers crossed I did it correctly and it grows back! Hopefully I can update you before the term ends.
Hey Mariah,
Your post inspired me to think about growing some herbs as well! I have some friends at work who have been growing herbs and they rave about how nice it is to have fresh herbs for cooking! Thanks for sharing all the links to make it easy for me to try! 🙂
Do it! I thought that it would be overwhelming and time consuming, but honestly it has become to most relaxing part of my day/week.