As it’s gotten later in the summer, my basil plants have stopped putting out new foliage and switched instead to flowering. This makes the leaves more bitter. I needed to seriously cut back my plants to promote the growth of new tender shoots.
I hesitated to trim my plants for a while, because the flowers were such a bee magnet. It was very satisfying to see a dozen or so bees at a time, buzzing between basil flowers in my apartment parking lot. By now, many of the flowers have dropped off.
I also took the opportunity to seriously cut back the mint basil I planted. That has continued to be an invasive dud.
I’ll be eager to see how well my aggressive pruning system works. As the days stay hotter, it’s possible that my basil plants will continue to send out flowering shoots. All the same, it’s a worthy experiment to try.
