Grow basil in pots

SWEET BASIL

Tomato, basil and a drizzle of olive oil – that’s the taste of summer for me. It’s such a simple combination, but when the ingredients are good, you don’t need anything else. Of course, the olive oil must be the best Australian extra virgin, the tomatoes home-grown, and the basil as fresh as can be – and you can’t get fresher than a pot of basil growing outside your kitchen door or on the balcony of your apartment.

Basil is easy to grow in a container, as long as it gets a little regular attention. A 25–30cm pot is big enough to get started, and while the roots will fill that space in a couple of months, basil doesn’t mind being a little bit cramped temporarily if it’s kept moist and well fed.

Fill your pot with a blend of two parts good quality potting mix to one part compost, then plant it up with 3–4 sweet basil seedlings. Planting more than one seedling will create a nice bushy pot plant quickly, with the promise of an early harvest. If you feel it’s getting too crowded, and you have more basil than you need, you can remove unwanted plants down the track by pruning them off at the base.

Basil grows well with as little as four hours of direct sunlight a day. More sunlight means quicker growth, and more leaves to harvest, but keep in mind that you’ll also need to water and fertilise the plant more.

Controlled-release fertilisers are a good option. Alternatively, apply some pelletised poultry manure once a month. This herb hates drying out, so water it every couple of days, or daily in hot weather, to keep it happy and healthy. If you’re doing all this feeding and watering and your plant is still looking a bit yellow and limp, then it’s time to pot it up into a bigger container.

Harvest and enjoy your basil often. When you do, trim off the young stems and leaves from the tips, and remove the flowers. This helps to keep the plant bushy by encouraging lots more leafy growth.