[Sorellina]

I just planted a flat of 32 cells of basil this morning. Gigante Genovese (16 cells), Violetta (8 cells), Minette, a type of small-leafed bush basil (4 cells), and Thai Basil (4 cells). Everyone in this forum is here because they love tomatoes so it's natural that basil is way up on our favourites among the herbs. I freeze pesto from the Genovese basil in ice cube trays and then pop out into freezer bags. That works really well. Nothing beats the purple basil for sheer beauty in a summer salad and the Minette is great on pizzas. I've tried growing other herbs from seed with disappointing results for the most part. We have a light set-up this year, however, so I might just jump back on that horse. Next in line from the sheer amounts used in our household would be Italian flat-leaf parsley, cilantro for the liters of salsa we put up, oregano for pasta sauces, rosemary for barbequing, especially lamb, summer savoury for beans, thyme and tarragon for frittatas, and sage for roasted poultry. What I usually do is get a few pots of hard-to-grow-from-seed things like rosemary, sage, thyme, and tarragon and put those things in an elongated window box planter right outside the front door so I can dash outside in my pjs to pick some herbs for breakfast. The ones we use a ton of like the basils, oregano, cilantro, and parsley go into the garden, tucked in between other plants.

We also have some mints in a separate bed where they can be as invasive as they want to be: Peppermint, Spearmint, Ginger Mint, Catnip, and Lemon Balm. They come back every year so I don't really count them. Lavender was planted out in the front yard this year and I didn't pull it up in Fall. We'll see if it survives.

Other basils I wouldn't mind growing would be purple ruffles (hard to find seed) and a serrated leaf green one. They look pretty to me and hopefully taste very good as well.