Community Spotlight: Tyler and the Basilstalk

After spotting an amazing photo of Tyler’s towering basil plant, we had to reach out and learn more about how and why he got into indoor herb gardening. What’s particularly amazing about this story, is that Tyler’s basil plant was grown indoors during a NYC winter.

So Tyler, what got you interested in indoor gardening?

I love the taste fresh herbs in my cooking – nothing compares to the flavor! If I get them at the market, they’re usually a couple dollars for a packet and most of what I buy goes bad before I can use it.  I didn’t like the waste, so tried freezing them, but the taste wasn’t the same.

Have you tried indoor herb gardening before?

My fiance and I live in a apartment and last summer we setup a planter box outside of our window. Our herb garden was going really well until we forgot to water it for a week and everything dried out! I’d never really considered indoor gardening before, but I planted one of the Urban Leaf indoor grow kits late last fall and it’s been giving us herbs all winter with no signs of decline. At first we only had to water it every 3-4 weeks and now that it’s bigger we top it off every 2-3 weeks.

Sounds like you’re quite the chef – how have you been using your home grown herbs?

I use the herbs a lot in my everyday cooking – we make our own tomato sauce, so I’ve been using the basil a lot in that. Another recent favorite was a mango shrimp over rice. A couple weeks ago we had friends over and had a charcuterie board with the basil as a centerpiece that you could pick leaves directly from. They loved it!

You’ve grown one of the tallest basil plants we’ve seen from an indoor herb garden. Any secrets about your setup?

We’ve got a nice south facing window with lots of light, but other than that nothing special!

Thanks for chatting with us Tyler!