It’s a great day when you get to work with people you like and admire and today is one of those days! Steve Asbell from The Rainforest Garden is an amazingly talented illustrator so when he asked if I’d be interested in collaborating on an DIY post I jumped at the chance. To see more of Steve’s work check out his illustrations board on Pinterest.
In early summer I find myself opening a package of fresh basil and thinking that I wish my garden basil was ready. It seems so pricey to spent $2-$3 on a few sprigs of what grows into shrubs in August. Never one to waste leftovers, I always snip cuttings from the store bought stuff to propagate my home crop. In the end it makes the dollars spent well worth it as those sprigs turn into bushes of basil destined for winter pesto and, dare I say, basil ice cream (it’s delicious!).
I took a few photos of the process while Steve illustrated the header and created this easy three-step tutorial.
How to Grow Your Own Basil from Cuttings: 1. Snip the top of a basil stem with 4 sets of leaves growing then remove the 2 bottom sets of leaves from the stem. 2. Place the stem into a mason jar or shot glass of water and set in a sunny location. 3. When roots are visible transfer into a pot of soil and keep well watered while the cutting is establishing.
Check out this tutorial and more over at The Rainforest Garden. Steve has lots of cool projects like how to make a DIY Beach Terrarium and how to Make a Rainforest Drop.
Thanks for visiting!
Thanks for this awesome information! Much better than letting fresh basil go bad in the fridge when I don’t have cause to use it.
Hi! I love your site. Found this article to be super helpful! I linked to it on a recent post about basil on my site!!
Hi, I found your website last week and have been sitting a cutting in water and it gets about 6 hours of sun per day. How long does it take for them to start sprouting roots? It has been about a week and no sign of them although the basil is looking very healthy and starting to flower.
Josh, cut the flower off the top and move the basil out of the sun. You want to encourage the roots to grow not the flowers. You should see them soon I suspect. Please keep us updated.
Hey
I was wondering if you might know this..
I have some basil that went bitter in 3 months .. big bush, ready to flower but nothing yet but the tastes has gone really bitter
so I got some cuttings that are rooted already
I am wondering if the cuttings are considered to new plants and will I get rid of the bitter taste in the new plant? are some species more prone to becoming bitter faster than other?
does 3 month sound like a normal useful life of a basil plant?
Thank you