Grow What You Eat: Basil

I bought two basil plants at Westerville Farmer's Market for approximately $2.50 for a 4-inch potted plant.

Note: All of the books I read suggested buying 4-inch plants because they will be less scrawny and will bush out better over time.

May 25, 2011

I potted each plant in a separate plastic hanging plant container that I'd saved from previous summers.

The plants started out fairly small and compact, but they grew quickly.

June 9, 2011

I started harvesting basil within a month, though I could have probably done so sooner.

A large batch of basil, harvested on June 23, 2011

I ended up making several huge batches of pesto over the course of the summer, using lemon juice, garlic cloves, olive oil, Parmesan cheese and slivered almonds, all of which I mixed together in a mini food processor.

Basil in mini food processor

Frozen in an ice cube tray then placed in freezer bags, ready to use

After a while, I found that I got lazy and stopped harvesting the basil on a regular basis. It started to lose some of its vibrant green color and when I researched the problem, I found that it was due to my lack of constant pruning.

July 9, 2011

So I tried to harvest on bi-weekly basis, and though the leaves at the bottom of the plants never bounced back, the plants started to slowly regain their color.

July 29, 2011

By the end of August the plants were looking a bit worse for the ware...

August 27, 2011

And by the beginning of September, they were all but done for the season.

September 5, 2011

Things I'll do differently next year:

Really, I think the only thing I would change for next year is to harvest more often to prevent the plant from losing its color, a la Bunnicula style.

Everything else, including the soil, pot, location and frequency of watering seemed to work well.