In Love With Basil

We all love pesto, but basil also has other clever uses.

- Jackie French

Spring means basil. Planting, scattering freshly picked basil, sniffing basil in the garden as the ground warms up. Here are four ways to grow it gloriously well …

1 A basket of basil

Choose at least two ornamental varieties, such as red-leafed basil, or lime-green lettuce leafed basil, or ruffled basil. Plant a large hanging basket with, say, a ring of red basil, then a ring of green; or a cascade of ruffled with a taller Thai basil in the middle. Better still, plant two, one for either side of the front door, for beauty as well as having a bunch to pick.

2 Fly-repellent basil on the window box