Basil is one of the herbs that loves being grown in a pot. It’s as simple as putting a few seeds in a pot with some compost and watering regularly!

How to plant basil seeds.
You should plant little and often with basil so that you can have regular supplies of basil for cooking with.

Get a pot and fill it with compost. Firm it down and sprinkle on a few seeds. Perhaps use 10-15 seeds in a 3″ diameter pot. Some people like to have only 3 seeds per pot – but if you’ve not got a lot of room then it won’t hurt too much having crowded pots.
Sprinkle more compost over these and water well. Keep watering them and eventually tiny seedlings will appear. Water carefully avoiding the plants if possible.

Continue watering them until they’re big enough to crop, you probably need 5-6 inches of height. Use them in your cooking or tear up for tomato salad. You can use them as cut and come again – or if you’re making a big bowl of pasta give them a big haircut with scissors and them leave to grow again.

They’re good to grow as a companion plant for tomatoes. They smell delightful and can be grown on a kitchen windowsill.

Remove flower heads as they appear – until the autumn if you want to try and get your own basil seed for next year!
There are several types of basil – from normal sweet basil, to lemon basil and a purple variety too.