There are several kinds of basil, the lovely tiny leaved mound type, the big curly leafed standard and the purple. All of them make lovely additions to the garden. The scent is marvelous and the tiny bees love them. There are many species of bees who are so tiny that they can't handle the big blossoms. Many herbs, such as basil, thyme, and marjoram are beneficial to them. Always allow some of your plants to bloom for them. There are different sized beneficial insects for the different sized blooms!..Trust me. After you get some going, they usually reseed themselves...not the bees..the basils.

Basil likes rich, moist humusy loam, well drained and fairly acid. Plant in early spring in a full sun environment. It will have tiny white blooms. If you have enough room, let a plant or two go to bloom for the needy, but prune the rest back so they don't go to bloom. If they go through the full cycle of blooming, they will then have fullfilled their purpose for propagation and die. Keep this in mind for all your plants. Always trim the blooms off before they fully mature to keep them blooming, except some you save for the little ones.

Basil is a culinary herb. It is good in vegetable salads, eggs, cheese, fish, poultry, stuffing, beef, spaghetti, tomatoes, beans, broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower, at least. It is also good as a tea, or added to other herbs for a blend.

You can make Pesto by pureeing the raw fresh leaves:

In a food processor or blender puree

• 2 cups fresh basil leaves with 2 OR
• 3 cloves of garlic and add
• just enough olive oil to
  • 1/2 tsp salt to make a smooth paste. Now, you can build on this by adding
    
• 2/3 cup cheeses, all Romano or half Romano and half Parmesan,
• 1/4 cup pine nuts or walnuts. Use this paste (pesto!) with nearly any vegetable, and or pasta dishes, An excellent compliment to tomato dishes, particularly.

  Try tossing with cooked hot pasta or stuffing whole cherry tomatoes which have been hollowed out. This makes enough pesto for 1 lb of pasta. If too heavy, thin pesto with a bit more olive oil.

  Pesto can be kept for some time frozen. If freezing, don't put the cheese in until thawed for use.

  During the growing season I usually try to pick enough to make a couple of batches and make little dollops of it, put them on a cookie sheet, freeze them then package in zip-lock freezer bags.

  

  BEANS

  I haven't raised beans much. One time I took a bunch of poles that Ivan got from a friend who was clearing some land and we built a tepe with them near the garden. The tepe had a two-fold purpose. One, to grow beans on and two, to give our grandchildren, who were quite young, an "Indian" tepe to play in. When there were no beans, we covered it with a canvas drop cloth since we had no skins! :) When there were beans, it made a nice shady place inside to contemplate and observe wild life. AND the children loved it!
  

  1975 before the beans were up, the bean tepee 14 k.

  The beans were good. I found that the best time to pick them is when they are 4 to 6 inches long and the bush beans when they are about 3 to 5 inches long. Harvest before the pods bulge. The best beans I ever tasted were the first 'ready' ones that I picked, rinsed off, put in a bowl with plastic wrap over it and microwaved for a few minutes with out salt or butter. They were so sweet and fresh they didn't require any other seasonings!

  The last week of June is good time to fertilize. If you don't have good compost to enrich the soil around them, use a fish emulsion type of fertilizer. The nursery man told me that it wouldn't burn and it breaks down naturally to nourish the plants. Be sure to water them well in the shady area under the plant.

  

  Bee Balm ( Monardo Didyma)a lamiaceae

  A great strewing herb or just put in bowls around the room. I like tea made with bee balm and while working in the garden, just to squeeze a leaf and savor the scent. The biggest problem I have, living on the lake where the humidity is pretty high, is powdery mildew. If I catch it early enough and spray with light soapy water with some desolvable sulphur seems to help. Powdery mildew looks just like it sounds: a white or dingy mold that can cover the whole plant and stunt it and eventually kill it. If your plants become contaminated, the best thing to do is pull them up,burn them, pour scalding water over the ground and sprinkle very lightly with agricultural sulphur. Let the area rest a few days before replanting. Remember, sulphur can be dangerous, too, so read the directions.

  Beebalm has green leaves and scarlet or white blossoms. I have seen some lavender ones growing wild near an old homestead, but havig seent he from a distance, it could have been Horsemint. They grow quite tall, 2 to 3 feet and on a long straight stem. Bees love them. Huming birds love them.

  They can be propogated by roots, shoots, slips, or seed can be planted in the fall. The slips can be rooted in the spring. They like filtered sun and rich moist humusy loam that is well drained. Their normal bloom- ing period is summer until frost. They are an invasive plant and need a contained area such as pots or in an area where they can't wander too far. Beebalm is a perenniel.

  The uses are cosmetic, culinary, and for herbal teas. The essential oil of the plant is used in cosmetics commercially. I use the leaves when I get a decent crop, in bath vinegars or oils, tea , and potpourri. The Oswego Indians used the leaves to make tea and it became known as Oswego tea by the early settlers in New England who began to use it as a substitute for imported tea from England. (After the Boston tea party!)