Keeping basil alive

[lovelygreenleaves]

Does anyone have any tips for keeping basil alive over winter?

[thesunflowergal]

I have enough hassle keeping it alive during the summer .

I normally put some on my kitchen work surface, and it does ok. Well as long as I remember to water it ever few days.

[Millymollymandy]

I grow my basil in pots mostly these days and some live indoors all year round and some are brought back inside in autumn and live on a north facing cool kitchen windowsill. I still have one holy basil plant from last year's lot, it really needs to go to make room for the new lot but it still has some good leaves on it! I find that the leaves get scorched quite easily on windowsills so that's why I put them in the kitchen rather than a south facing windowsill.

I think that the bigger the pot the better they will do, also they do need to be fed occasionally. However I'm lazy with the repotting (and the feeding) so mine all end up looking really straggly but as long as they are producing a few leaves to use, I don't care too much. Pretty houseplants they are not!

[Chicken6]

I bring mine into the kitchen too. I have about 5 pots which last me more or less until spring. I keep turning the pots and watering every other day. I've already got many jars of pesto made up so use it mainly for cooking.

Before I grew my own basil I would buy the basil from T***o and as soon as I got home spilt the pot between another 5 and they always grew and lasted ages. Still better to grow your own but handy if you don't have any plants.

[Peggy Sue]

Does anyone have any tips for keeping basil alive over winter?

Live in the mediterranean?

Sorry I couldn't resist. I understand Basil farmers in thei country (UK) can't even manage anything outside an August crop so it will be tough. Mine is starting to look rough even though it's in a (not quite finished) greenhouse.