The Vegetables We Grow
Basil

Basil is a fast growing, highly productive herb. It releases its heady fragrance when casually brushed and is a joy to have in any summer garden. Winter frosts kill it even inside our garden shed.

We have never had much success direct seeding so we grow it in soil blocks and have it ready to plant out when the danger of frost is over. It is always good to have some extra early plants ready to put in the poly tunnels between the tomato plants.

The blocks are laid out 2 or 3 rows to the beds and are planted at the same depth as they are in the soil blocks.

The earliest crop comes from tip prunings when the plants are still small.

It seems pretty drastic but in fact this harvest encourages bushy growth.

It takes very little time for a bushy little plant like this to be ready for another round of hearvesting.

Our customers are not interested in the stalks and we are doing them a favour by providing bags of washed tips.

These plants have been heavily harvested for weeks, resulting in vigorous new growth sprouting all over the bushes.

The plants let you know when they have had enough. They start to flower, become stalky and the leaf size shrinks.
If the season allows it a second crop may be worthwhile, however, we find that one planting is sufficient to maintain summer long supply.

Once picked the basil is treated like a salad crops. • buckets are covered with wet towels • Leaves are washed and spun dry • stored in freezer bags in a fridge