Bay Laurel

Back in the spring, one of the perennial herbs we chose for the garden was a small bay laurel plant from The Herb Farmacy. I think it had about three or four leaves on it when I planted it outside. It's been pretty much forgotten all summer as everything around it got bigger, but before frost we remembered we had to bring it inside:

Bay laurel is a Mediterranean plant that just won't make it through freezing temperatures, so it will spend the winter in the southwestern exposure of the living room window. We can plant it back outside in the spring when it warms up, or we can just keep it as a container plant for the patio. 

As you can see, bay is a pretty slow growing plant. I think it put on maybe four inches of height this growing season. We haven't harvested any bay leaves from it at all yet because of its small size. Maybe in the spring, if we prune it to encourage some branching, we can have some leaves to dry and use for cooking. 

I have read that we need to give this plant a lot of room because it will, even in a container, grow into a six-foot tree. Ha! That doesn't look to be happening any time soon, but it would be nice to include bay leaves as something we no longer need to buy when pickling time rolls around again next summer. In the meantime, it seems happy enough indoors so far, and hopefully it won't dry out too much once we need to keep the heat on regularly.