Just A Little Off The Top, Please

Snipping The Buds Helps The Rest Of The Plant Below

Ever hear the phrase, "Less is more."? Well that applies to gardening, too. Unfortunately, I haven't done a very good job of that this year with tomatoes, but I'll save that for another post this week. But one plant that needs pruning is basil. One way to get more out of your basil plant is to continually pick the leaves. The faster you pick, the faster it grows back. I guess it's like gray hair.

Other than picking leaves, you also need to snip off all the flower buds along with the top couple sets of young leaves on the stems. Doing this will keep the plant focussed on growing large and tasty basil leaves. And eventually, you can use those basil leaves for homemade pesto.