Top News

Basil is quite easy to grow, and having herbs sitting in your kitchen is useful, as their leaves will make pasta, soups, and even sandwiches much more flavourful. I love using fresh herbs in my cooking, but in the past, I have accidentally killed any basil plants I have bought by just leaving them sitting on my windowsill without much care in the spring.

The UK is getting plenty of sunshine at the moment, which is great for gardens and any plants, but unfortunately, it will also cause basil to start flowering. However, you do not want basil to flower as it will direct all its energy into seed production rather than focusing on growing its leaves. This can result in the basil leaves becoming weaker, smaller, and less flavourful, which can actually make them really bitter and ruin your meals if you do not catch it early enough.

There is not really much point growing herbs for cooking if they spoil your food, but it should also be noted that basil is an annual plant, which means it starts to die once it flowers.

If you let the basil flower, it will signal to the plant it is nearing its life cycle so you will end up with a wilted plant that you have not gotten much use out of.

Instead, it is really easy to extend the lifespan of basil and make its leaves taste so much better, as all you need to do is pinch the plant with your fingers once a week.

That might sound strange, but pinching basil is done to get rid of any flower buds that usually appear at the top of the plant. Basil flower buds will look like tiny, spiky leaves pointing vertically, forming a clustered tip on the plant.

Basil starts to grow much faster in May when the temperture is consistenly over 10C so it is important to check the plant weekly so it focuses more energy on bigger and tastier leaves.

Pinching basil takes about 10 to 20 seconds, and I usually do it when waiting for the kettle to boil when making a cup of tea.

All you have to do is look at a basil stem, and you will see leaves growing in opposite pairs, and each one growing along the plant stem marks a node.

A node is the growth point where new branches can form and it is also where flower buds can develop if the plant is left alone.

When looking for a node on a basil plant, it will look like a small pale green cluster in the middle where two leaves meet.

To pinch basil, find a healthy leaf pair near the top of the stem and remove the growing tip just above that node.

You can use your fingers to snap it off or use scissors. However, do not cut into the node itself, and do not leave a long bare stump above it.

Leaving a stump can cause basil to become leggy as it will direct more energy to it, and can result in weaker leaves at that part of the plant.

If you take the time to pinch basil once a week, it will encourage the plant to live much longer and produce two new side shoots from the first node.

This results in a healthy basil that will be a lot bushier, so you can enjoy getting a better harvest from the plant with only a few seconds of gardening work.