The baby basils have become bushes. I cut 10-15 stems, tucked them in a glass vase, and the emerald green plants don’t look like I touched them. I could fill five vases before the removal of any leaves would be noticeable.

Tonight the vase of basil scented the dinner table while we ate homemade pasta and pesto with bright red tomato slices.

I forgot how fun it is to cut fowers and herbs from the garden, put them in water in clear glass, and decorate tabletops and dressers with them.

The lemon balm is a mounding bush now — ample stems for trimming — and the Rosemary has spires long enough for cutting, too. Those would smell lovely in mason jars in our bedrooms. I’ll go snip some before the sun goes down.