crocking

After reading more about houseplants, realized I've done so much wrong! I never before put crocking in the bottom of my pots, plus realized most of them were in too large of pots, resulting in the slightly sour smell of soil that never dries out properly. So today I did quite a bit of repotting. They really do drain a lot better with the shards in the bottom! (I don't have any old broken clay pots but instead used some tiles which I found in the shed, and busted with a hammer).

The Cilantro especially looks very sad (we've eaten most of it too) but most of the newly-planted seeds had not sprouted yet, so I just pushed them back into the soil. Cut the nicest shoots of Basil off the tops of the plants, stripped their lower leaves and stuck them back into the moist (and now well-drained) soil. I've had some success with Basil like that before, they grow roots readily. The three tallest stalks of Basil there, with slightly woody stems, are the original rooted plants. So now I have two pots of Basil and one of Cilantro. I've put a sheet or two of cardboard between the plants and the window pane to shelter them a bit while they recover.