Basil Plant Profile

Basil Plant Profile

Basil (Ocimum basilicum) is an annual herb in the mint family that is native to southern Asia. The leaves and stems are edible and highly aromatic. It is used as a culinary addition to soup, sauces, salads, and many other dishes.

Cultivars of Basil include Thai Basil, Genovese Basil, Sweet Basil, African Blue Basil, and many more. Newer varieties such as Prospera and Rutgers Obsession are bred to be more downy mildew resistant.

Basil is very easy to grow from seed. Direct sow it in the ground or a container as soon as the chance of a frost in the spring has passed. It can also be propagated by taking stem cuttings and rooting them in water before transplanting them outside.

It is rabbit- and deer-resistant. Slugs, snails, and Japanese beetles can be an issue, so be on the lookout for these pests and handpick them off when you see them.

It prefers to grow in full sun and in moist, but well-draining soils. There is no need to fertilize it. It is hardy to USDA Zone 10 to 11.

Prune it regularly by pinching out the tips once it grows to a foot or so tall. This will encourage lots of leafy full growth and discourage flowering.

Towards the end of the summer, stop pinching it back and let it go to flower and seed. Pollinators go crazy for the flowers and you can collect the seeds for sowing next year.

Basil: You Can Grow That!

The video was produced by Washington Gardener Magazine as part of our Plant Profile series for Mid-Atlantic USA gardeners.

Audio, video, and text by Kathy Jentz

Editing by Ellen Isaacson

➤ If you enjoy this video, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe to our Youtube channel (thank you!)

➤Remember to TURN ON notifications to know when our new videos are out

➤ FIND Washington Gardener Magazine ONLINE

~ WashingtonGardener.blogspot.com

~ http://twitter.com/WDCGardener

~ https://www.instagram.com/wdcgardener/

~ Facebook.com/WashingtonGardenerMagazine

~ Podcast: GardenDC

If you enjoyed this Plant Profile, check out:

~ Dill Plant Profile

https://washingtongardener.blogspot.com/2025/04/dill-plant-profile.html

~ Borage Plant Profile

https://washingtongardener.blogspot.com/2022/07/borage-plant-profile.html

~ Bronze Fennel Plant Profile

https://washingtongardener.blogspot.com/2023/07/bronze-fennel-plant-profile.html

 PIN THIS FOR LATER!

Fenton Friday: Basil Bye-Bye

Mild temps continued this week (an unheard of 83 degrees F on Halloween!) and the Broccoli, Cauliflower, and Brussels Sprouts are still growing well.

We have had NO rain for a whole month now! I hand-water all the seedlings plus Brassicas about every other day. However, now our cistern is empty and we can no longer fill it due to turning in our water meter for the winter. I pray we get real rain soon.

We thinned the seedlings for Radish 'Cherry Belle'. The seeds of the  Radish 'Round Black Spanish' and the Carrots we planted at the same time are still not up.

We pulled out the Peppers, Zucchini, and Eggplant. I also yanked out the last of the Basil (pictured above) and made pesto.

I ended up hacking back several branches of the thornless Blackberries even though it is still producing flowers and berries. It is likely the exact wrong time to do so, but the rampant growth was encroaching on the nearby pathways.

I have yet to cut back the Asparagus as it is still fully green. When it starts to turn yellow, I'll trim it all off.

The pods on the Cotton plants are starting pop open -- I'll likely cut those to hang and dry in a protected space.

The Dahlias, Cosmos, and Zinnias are still pumping out tons of flowers. I won't pull those out until a real frost/freeze hits them. I gather a nice bouquet from them every few days. 

Normally, I'd be planting Garlic already, but think I'll do so next week.

What are you growing in your edible garden this week?

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 13th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above (at the top, left on this blog).

SavorySunday: Vegetarian Thai Basil Stir-fry

By Anastazja Kolodziej

For this week, I wanted to make a recipe that allows the Thai basil from our community garden plot to really shine. The best part of this stir-fry — which has the Thai basil as one of its main flavors — is that you can customize it as you wish. You can include other vegetables, add meat or tofu, or swap the rice for noodles! This recipe makes four servings.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups rice
• 2 green peppers, cut into strips
• 5 carrots, julienned
• 12 oz green beans 
• 5 cloves of garlic, minced 
• 1 cup Thai basil, loosely packed 
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp light brown sugar
• Water

Steps: 

• Cook rice according to package instructions.
• Warm a pan and add oil. When shimmering, add garlic. Once the garlic is fragrant, add carrots, peppers, and green beans.
• Meanwhile, combine soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar, and water in a bowl to make the sauce. 
• When the vegetables are soft, add sauce to the pan and mix thoroughly. 
• Once the rice is done, add Thai basil to the stir-fry and let it wilt. Serve the meal with the rice on the bottom, topped with the stir-fried vegetables and sauce. 

PIN THIS FOR LATER!

"Savory Sunday" is a weekly summer blog series with seasonal recipes from the garden.

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.

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.

Savory Sunday: Mushroom Basil Pizza

By Anastazja Kolodziej

It’s summertime, which means that for many of us, our basil is in full growth mode. This recipe, which uses basil from our community garden plot, is a good choice for those days when you want something seasonal that’s different from the regular tomato sauce pizza. 

Ingredients:

·  Pizza dough (homemade or store-bought)

·  1 cup basil, with some extra as garnish

·  1/2 cup olive oil

·  About 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

·  1 large clove of garlic

·  Salt, to taste

·  5 Mushrooms,sliced

·  Mozzarella cheese

Steps:

1.   Combine basil, oil, Parmesan and garlic in a food processor and blend well. You can also use an immersion blender, which is what I used. You may need to add more oil if the mixture is too thick to blend.

2.   Spread out pizza dough on a baking sheet and preheat the oven to 530 degrees.

3.   Spread basil sauce on pizza dough. Add mozzarella and mushrooms. I used fresh mozzarella, which adds an additional dimension to the pizza.

4.   Bake for about 13 minutes, or until the crust has browned.

5.   Top with fresh basil leaves.

This recipe makes one medium pizza, enough for dinner for two people.

PIN THIS FOR LATER!

"Savory Sunday" is a weekly summer blog series with seasonal recipes from the garden.

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.

Fenton Friday: A Planting Frenzy

New Plantings -
Basils, Tomatoes, and Cucumbers

This week was a very hot and busy one in the community garden plot. The new interns and I planted several test groups. We put in four Cucumber hills: 'Marketmore,' ''Silver Slicer, "White Wonder,' and 'Early Spring Burpless.' We added four kinds of Basil from seedlings: Prospera (a mildew-resistant Genovese), Lime, Thai, and Tuli/Holy - as well as seeded a row of 'Dolce Vita Blend' to use those for mildew-resistance comparison. For Tomatoes, we planted 'White Currant,' 'Apple Yellow,' 'Celano,' 'Resilience, 'Sun Gold' and 'Sun Sugar.' I also planted a row of Marigold 'Happy Days Mix' on each sde of the Tomatoes.

I have been harvesting 'Snak Hero' Peas everyday and also cutting Sweet Pea 'Beaujolais' for little indoor bouquets. I've gotten a few Strawberries and Asparagus spears to eat also, I dug out a couple of the Beets to test them, but they are still a bit small, so I will leave them in longer. I covered all of the lettuces with a protective cloth because the sudden heat and intense sun were so brutal this week.

Aside from lots more weeding, I still have some seeds to plant for Okra, Watermelon, etc. We'll see if I actually have room for any of that!

What are you harvesting this week in your edible garden? 

Sweet Pea 'Beaujolais' 

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.

Fenton Friday: Pinching the Basil

This week in the community garden plot, the big news was two huge rainstorms on Monday and Thursday that dumped an inch (or more) in a half-hour. Both storms meant I didn't have to water this week, but the added water and high heat, the weeds are growing at an alarming rate. I did a bit of weeding, but really need to set aside a day to do a lot more.

The basils are all looking great and I pinched out any flowers and the top growth in order to make the plants grow bushier rather than taller.

The rest of my herbs are all doing well in a big pot and tucked in various containers around my home garden. I need to cut some this week for hanging and drying them. The lavender flowers are already cut where they were fresh and I hope they keep their color well this year.

What is growing in your edible garden this week?

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.

Fenton Friday: You Slug Me

Late summer at my community garden plot is the time to give up on a few things. Like the Basil that I was constantly deadheading so it wouldn't flower and go to seed. At this point, I'm ready to let it go and let the bees have their way with it.

I am also thinking I will rip out all the cherry tomato vines -- even though they are still producing like crazy. They have just worn out their welcome and I'm frankly sick of re-tying them constantly and trying to keep them out of the pathways and off of the other plants.

On another topic, it has been dry as dust this past month, so HOW on earth did a slug manage to show up in my plot munching on a Swiss Chard seedling?!? I had given up on the failing chard in any case, but still, it is the principle of the thing. All the gall of this little booger to be all out in the open and brazen about it. He is lucky I did not stomp him as I was wearing sandals and also that is just too violent for my live-and-let-live temperament. Instead, I passive-aggressively moved him to a rocky spot that I hope a crow or other large bird would swoop down and eat him. He does have nice leopard-spotting, if you can get past his pest-like habits.

How is your edible garden growing this week?

 
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. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 4th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) 

Fenton Friday: Basil Beginning

For various reasons outlined in previous Fenton Friday posts,  I have been very behind planting this summer. The basil seedlings went in only three weeks ago, but they are thriving and I've already pinched them back twice now. I hope to have them big enough by next week so the interns and I can make a nice fresh pesto for our weekly lunches.

I am also picking tomatoes from my garden like crazy -- about 2 cups of cherry-sized fruit a day -- and I'm missing a lot of them as the overripe ones fall off the stems and roll away.

How is your edible garden growing this week?

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. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 4th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) 

Fenton Friday: What Happened to Spring?

basil baby

The strawberries are still going strong this week at my community garden plot, though they are starting to taper off a bit and I fear they will be ending soon.

The salad greens are still hanging on too - thanks to a row-cover shading them from another too-early and brutal heat wave this week. I fear the heat has zapped all my peas, so those will be pulled out soon.

Additions this week include basil seedlings and two small tomatoes -- 'Tiny Tim' and 'Chocolate Sprinkles.' I also have mess of tomato seedlings coming up everywhere in the plot, where the orange cosmos has not re-seeded. I don't have the heart to pull it all just yet, as I'm hoping some of these are my old favorite and half-wild 'Red Currant.' It is hard to tell at this point. I may give them a couple more weeks to develop, then will have to pull all but a few selections and cross my fingers that I kept the right ones.

How is your edible garden growing this week?

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. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 4th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.)

Fenton Friday: Last Basil of the Season

It is time to close out my garden plot at the Fenton Community Garden. I will still be visiting it over the cold months and harvesting greens and root crops. It has really slowed down now, so this will be my last "Fenton Friday" post until early Spring.

Unlike most of the rest of the DC-metro area, our community garden got a few light frosts but not a hard freeze yet. Tonight though things may change as a low of 28 is predicted. I will pull out the remaining the tomatoes and basil plants. I am thinking one last batch of pesto for the freezer.

Then, next weekend, is our communal garden clean-up gathering where we weed and mulch the shared pathways and garden areas. My hope is that this time, it will not be an all-female gathering and that representatives from more than just 5 or so of the 44 plots at the Fenton Garden show up. What is it with all the lazy men at our garden? Sometimes one or two new people or even a few males show up and help for a bit, but they usually show up way late and have some excuse to leave early.

Sorry for generalizing, but it really is irksome to see the heavy work taken on by the same few ladies each time. What do you experience at your community garden? Do both genders take on the necessary chores equally?