Is it Lavender? Is it Sunflowers? NO! Its...

BASIL!

Last year's lavender pot holding last season's spent basil plants- roots and all.

Harvesting seeds from the seed pods is delicate work. Especially for my husband's man hands.

Each one of these little pods holds at least 2 or 3 seeds.

And all those little seeds went into an old sunflower seed packet. I don't think we'll be confusing tiny basil seeds with large sunflower seeds.

We let our basil go to seed at the end of last year. The hope was that it would self seed. Well, it didn't. Those little seeds stayed locked up tight in their little pods. They needed coaxing out by hand.

I pulled out the plant material from the ground and plopped it in the first container I found that was big enough. (A lavender container.) And last night my DH patiently opened up each little pod and freed the basil seeds. (They are tiny little buggers.) Where did these seeds go? Well, we could have been all Martha Stewarty and make our own little seed packet but no- the DH poured them into a just emptied sunflower packet and relabled it.

Now all that's left to do it get the seeds in the ground. (Or a starter pot in the greenhouse.) I have the perfect spot for them in my little herb garden. Can't wait to start using it in my cooking. I might just have to drop by the local nursery and get an already started plant to tide me through.

I'm hoping these little seeds grow. It will be our first venture into seed "saving". Our chives just reseed themselves every year. We haven't had to do anything with them.