Sweet Basil
Ocimum basilicum — the tender annual that powers pesto.
Origin
Section titled “Origin”An annual from tropical Asia — warmth, sun, and steady moisture with no cold season. It reads anything below 50 °F as an emergency, has no dormancy, and dies with the summer.
Location
Section titled “Location”Full sun in a sheltered, warm spot. Happiest between 59 and 86 °F.
Watering
Section titled “Watering”Every two days, daily in midsummer — it wilts dramatically and recovers fast. A heavy feeder in a pot: balanced liquid feed every four weeks, April to September.
Pruning
Section titled “Pruning”Pinching is both harvest and pruning: take whole stem tips just above a leaf pair — each cut branches into two — and remove flower spikes on sight, since a basil that sets seed stops making leaves.
Repotting
Section titled “Repotting”An annual, so dividing replaces repotting. Supermarket pots are dozens of seedlings crammed together — split the clump into three or four pots on purchase and each outlives the original by months.
In the kitchen
Section titled “In the kitchen”The soul of pesto alla genovese, caprese, and most of the tomato canon. Tear it over a dish at the end — chopping and cooking blacken it and dull the perfume. Surplus keeps best blended with oil and frozen; dried basil is a different, sadder herb.