Fenton Friday: Basil Report

For this week's community garden report, we are turning it over to one of our summer interns to let us know how their growing project went.

By Anastazja Kolodziej

This summer, I grew basil in the community garden plot. My family grows basil in a pot on our balcony, but growing it in the ground was a different experience — while the potted basil remains only a few inches tall, the basil in the plot grew large and bushy.

At the start of June, I planted six types of basil in the plot: lime, Thai, Tulsi, and three 'Prospera' Genovese basils from starter plants, as well as ‘Profumo di Genova’ Genovese and Mrs. Burns’ lemon basil from seed. Unfortunately, neither of the basil types I planted from seed grew, leading us to believe the seeds were bad.

I planted the starter plants about 4-5 inches deep in the ground and around a foot apart from one another. The seeds I planted by scattering them close to each other in an approximately three-foot-long line, which I covered about a quarter-inch deep. 

I visited the garden weekly to weed and — once the basil had grown larger — pick off the plants’ flowers. My potted basil has never grown large enough to flower, so this was a surprise for me, but I quickly learned that removing the flowers is vital to ensuring that the basil plants spend all their energy on growing leaves.

Shortly after planting the basil seedling plants.

By mid-July, the 'Prospera' Genovese basil plants had grown to about 1-1.5 feet tall, while the lime, Thai, and Tulsi basils had grown bushier rather than significantly taller. Now, in early August, two months after they were planted, the 'Prospera' plants are 2 feet tall, with the three others at around a foot tall. 

The 'Prospera' basil is a type of basil specially bred to resist downy mildew. There was no issue with mildew this summer on any of the plants, though it was a very hot and humid summer. The 'Prospera' Genovese basil had the classic basil taste and leaf shape, as well as fairly small flowers.

The suitably-named lime basil had a sweet and citrusy flavor, which made it my favorite type. It grew very bushy — so much so that it hung out onto the walkway — and its flowers grew large pretty quickly. 

The Thai basil was somewhat tangy and spicy. It had dark purple stems and flowers, which helped with removing the flowers, as they were easier to distinguish from the leaves.

The Tulsi basil was both sweet and bitter, a bit reminiscent of the Thai basil. In appearance, it was similar to the lime basil, with large, light purple flowers and fuzzy stems. 

I used basil from all these plants to make a pesto-like basil sauce for a Savory Sunday basil mushroom pizza recipe. The various types of basil have notably different flavors, and mixed together, they gave the sauce additional levels than if I had just used the standard Genovese basil alone. 

All four types of basil that I grew from starter plants were easy to maintain, although removing flowers became a lengthier process as the plants became bushier.

About the Author: Anastazja Kolodziej is a rising senior at the University of Maryland, double majoring in multiplatform journalism and the classics (Ancient Greek and Latin). On campus, she serves as an assistant managing editor at The Diamondback. 

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 8th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above.