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Updated June 17th, 2010
By Robin Corwin - LCF Outlook
Basil is a Tomato
Plant’s
Best Friend
The tomato is the most popular plant of summer vegetable
gardens. Everyone wants to grow tomatoes. April and May are
optimum planting months, but because our growing season is so
long, tomatoes can still be planted in June and July.
Some gardeners even plant tomatoes again in August to produce
late season crops for fall and winter. Tomato varieties that
grow well in climates with short growing seasons are best choices
for late-season growing. The success of a late harvest also
depends on warm, sunny autumn weather.
Do your tomatoes have companions? A great plant to grow
with tomatoes is basil. This tender herb, a common companion to
tomatoes in many culinary recipes, also associates well with it in
the garden. I like to ring each of my tomato plants with several
basil seedlings. As the tomato grows, I remove its lower leaves
which often yellow anyway, to give the basil plants optimum
growing space.
The basil is routinely clipped to provide leaves for pesto, salads
and sandwiches. This constant clipping also keeps the plants
well branched and prevents them from flowering, thus prolonging
the harvest. It may also preserve basil’s distinctive flavor, since
many chefs feel that leaves from plants that have flowered tend to
taste bitter.
Basil can still be started easily from seed sown directly around
your tomatoes. Remember to thin the seedlings when they have at
least two true leaves so that they are eight inches or more apart.
Many gardeners like to grow basil from starts bought at the nursery.
It pays to check these containers carefully before you plant
them in the garden. In many cases, there will be several seedlings
crowded together in the center of the pot. The plants will grow
better and you’ll be able to harvest more basil if you carefully separate
each seedling stem with most of its roots and plant them separately.
My daughter routinely buys fresh Thai basil at her neighborhood
ethnic market. We recently found purple-stemmed Thai basil
plants at a local nursery, so she’s now growing her own crop in
pots on her balcony in Silver Lake.
I grow the common Italian basil and use the leaves to make
pesto to use now and to freeze for later. I also relish using whole
leaves in lieu of lettuce on sandwiches. Brie, sliced homegrown
tomatoes and basil on a crusty French baguette: Yum!
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