Having a successful basil crop is easy with a few important conditions:
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1.Warmth--In the Puget Sound area, the desire to plant basil often shows up well before the ideal time for actually planting it. Planting before May is very tricky, unless you have a greenhouse. Even during the first two weeks of May, basil really will benefit from any extra love you can give it be gradually acclimating it to the outdoors over the course of a few days, and providing some protection for it, at least at night. Check out the season extension page for more info on this topic. Along with tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant, basil has the highest need for sun and warmth of all the veggies--provide it with your best spot along a sunny south face of the house if you have it. Make sure not to let the soil get too soggy while the temps are still cool, as the plant will be inclined to rot.
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2.Fertility--Basil is a heavy feeder of nitrogen to produce all those wonderful leaves. Make sure to amend the soil well before planting with a generous portion of you favorite organic fertilizer. Composted chicken manure would be a great choice. If you are looking to add some fertility after the plant is already established, because of poor growth or tough yellowed leaves, try some fish emulsion, or gently hoe in a bit of dry organic fertilizer. Always be careful to follow directions to avoid using too much which can shock the plants. Once the plant is established, and temperatures have warmed up, basil plants also really appreciate a nice consistent supply of water.
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3.Pruning/Harvesting--With basil, these two things always go together. Every time you get some basil to eat, you need to take it as an opportunity to prune the plant for more production. The goal is to keep the plant from flowering, and to stimulate new growth. If the plant is allowed to flower, it will go downhill in a hurry. Knowing this, many people pinch off the flower buds, which, while better than nothing, really doesn’t give the optimal signal to the plant. If you look at the photo at the top of the page, you can see how we drop a ways down the stem and cut once the top of the stem has a small flower bud on it. If you look closely, you will also see, right by the blades of the clippers, that there are new, small shoots coming out of the stem. Once the cut is made, those shoots will take off giving you two stems instead of the one you cut. Then when those two start to bud, you do it again--four stems--and on and on...
These three things--warmth, fertility and pruning are not hard, but they really are required to get a high quality basil crop. Provide them all, and pesto you will eat!
