In the Garden: Deadheading Basil

In the movie "It's Complicated," Meryl Streep's character has a gorgeous, awe-inspiring, and absolutely unrealistic culinary garden. I read an article a few months ago about just how fake the garden really was. So here are a few pictures of our real-life garden and the produce that comes from it.

My tomatoes get some sort of fungus every year. I think it's either fusarium or verticullum. I even bought Rutgers VFA seeds this year, which are supposed to be resistant. There is no good way to get rid of this fungus. It will slowly destroy the plant. You can slow its progress by pinching off and discarding infected branches.

Apparently, the best ways to prevent it are rotating crops, sunning/tilling soil during winter, and possibly bleaching the soil. I don't think I'm ready to get that serious about it, especially since we have to travel to get to our garden plot. Perhaps I'd be more aggressive if it were in my own backyard. I'll still get plenty of tomatoes out of these plants before they finally die.

We've gotten four large cucumbers off this one plant. I'm happy that it hasn't yet fallen prey to the verticullum wilt it usually gets from cucumber beetles. It's just starting to show signs of wilting.

Lovely tomatoes, a cucumber and some Korean hot peppers. I believe the tomatoes split because we had a long dry period (during which I neglected to water) followed by a few big rains.

This has been one of the hottest summers on record in DC, so we haven't spent as much time on the garden as we should. All of the plants have suffered, but I have been very inattentive to the basil. Typically, when annual herbs start to flower, it signals the end of their life. This is true for basil, cilantro, dill and others. (Perennial herbs like sage, oregano and thyme will flower and grow bushy, but they'll repeat the process year after year. You should cut these back after the growing season.)

Anyway, the annual herbs perform better and longer when you pinch off the flower buds as they appear. In the case of basil, once the plants start to produce flowers, the leaves will get really small. They'll still be usable, but they're more annoying to pinch off to make your pesto. In order to get the nice, big leaves like you can buy at the supermarket, you need to keep your basil flower-free.

Basil plants run rampant:

Pinching off all of the flower and top 2-3 leaves:

Much better:

Lattice Daybed Part 1: Planning

Pregnancy is an odd combination of being too exhausted to do all the things you're supposed to do and boundless energy for things you have no business doing. For a few weeks now, I've been obsessed with the thought of building my own version of this daybed. Being a math-loving nerd, I was content for two whole weeks to make sketches and calculations on my note pad and contemplate whether I was certifiably insane for wanting to take this on as my first woodworking project.

The bed is from the 2x2 collection at West Elm. These pieces are built with 2"x2" pieces of wood. I made a quick trip to the store, ruler in hand, to confirm that the lattice work on the sides is made with 1" pieces of wood. West Elm also lists the overall dimensions: 78" long, 41.5" deep, 30" high. With this knowledge and some basic algebra, I was able to figure out the lengths of all the lattice work.

Unfortunately, I soon discovered that it's difficult to acquire wood that's exactly 2" by 2". Or 1" by 1". I began with a trip to Home Depot. (The first of many for this project.) I knew wood measurements wouldn't be exact, but I didn't know off they'd be.

Lesson #1: Wood is labeled according to its rough size (its width before cutting). After the wood is cut on all sides, 1/4 - 1/2 " is lost.

Here are some of the measurements to illustrate:

This is a 2x3 piece of lumber. Notice how it measures about 2.5" (above) by 1.5" (below).

And here is a handy online chart with rough vs. actual lumber sizes.

Now, I had seen an easy enough tutorial on making the 2x2 daybed from The Design Confidential. But, being a bit of a perfectionist, I wasn't willing to substitute the perfectly square 2x2 boards that West Elm uses for 2x3 studs. So I consulted the only woodworker I know, my Uncle David. He suggested right off the bat that I not use building lumber for my project. Apparently, most of the wood at building stores is for construction, not furniture building. These soft woods, like pine, tend to be knotty, uneven, and may warp over time.

He suggested I purchase 1x4 poplar boards (actual measurement of .75 x 3.5"), rip them in half, and glue the pieces together. This would give me boards with actual measurements of 1.5 x 1.75. He also offered that a wood supplier in my area would likely be able to cut boards to size for me. In my search for perfection, I settled on the latter option.

Lesson #2: "Rip" in woodworking speak means to cut a board length-wise. When you cut a board across the width, it's called a "cross cut."

Image courtesy of craftsmanspace.com

Next: Visiting a Real Wood Shop