| Basil – Spicy Globe
(Ocimum basilicum minimum) - Type: warm season annual
- Planting time: after last spring frost
- Features: low, wide mounds of small leaves
- Light: full sun
- Soil: light, well drained but moist
- Height: 12 inches
- Spacing: 18 inches
- Garden use: containers, herb beds, flower beds
- Culinary use: same as larger-leaf basils in Asian and Italian dishes
Spicy Globe is a bush basil that grows in a tidy, compact mound. Also called Greek Basil, it is a popular variety in Europe because of its size, flavor, and tender stems. It is great for any garden, but especially a small one, and is ideal for containers. Use the leaves of this basil to flavor all the foods that you would flavor with the larger Sweet Basil. Because the leaves are tiny, you won’t need to slice or dice if the recipe calls for chopping. The stems stay tender, too, so it is easy to use pinches compared to most basils whose stems can get woody fast. Spicy Globe is named for its rounded shape; it grows as wide as it does tall. |