In My Garden: Basil

This year my basil is the most prolific it has been in years. The leaves are huge, the plants are thick and bushy, and no matter how much we cut it doesn’t look like we have taken anything. And the aroma is unbelievably strong and sweet.

Such a cool herb with so many uses, it requires a large spot in my garden. Like with most plants, I start the basil in a seed tray and when the plants are 3” to 4” tall I transplant them to the garden, spacing the plants 10” apart.

The soil is first dressed with 1” of a combination of compost, cotton seed meal, and earthworm castings, along with kelp if I have it. I usually find small green worms on the basil (see the eaten holes in some of the leaves in the above photo) so every three to four weeks I spray with a combination of copper spray and pyrethrin oil. Copper for fungus and pyrethrin oil for insects. Both are used by organic gardeners and break down in 24 hours or less. And are safe for animals and people.

There are many ways to use your basil but we prefer making pesto. This year we have been harvesting the basil and making pesto about three times a week, so our freezer is getting pretty full of little containers of delicious pesto for our future dinners. Pesto freezes well, and will keep up to six months, but we usually go through one batch a week, so it never has to sit in the freezer for long.

The recipe is simple: pumpkin seeds, garlic, basil, salt, red pepper flakes, lemon juice, and olive oil. Easy and quick to make in the food processor. We love pasta tossed with pesto for dinner. It’s also delicious on our home-made pizza and on roasted potatoes or veggies. If you want the recipe let me know, and if you have any other great ideas for using pesto send them my way!