I had a successful year - for me, but it’s a low bar - with basil in a pot.
Unfortunately, I left it out and I think it caught the frost, because it’s looking very sorry for itself. More Torquay than Barcelona.
Is basil meant to last over winter, or does it die above ground and just regrow from its roots? Or just die?
Bye, bye basil.
Under 10 degrees at night then will kill it off. Or if it survives will just be a miserable specimen.
I harvested ours and turned it into ice cube pesto a week or so back.
Thanks, @JaneJones. I’ll know for next year. I might even try planting in the ground.
I did the ice cube thing with the wild garlic pesto and it was very successful. I wish I’d thought of how basil would survive before I knew!
We over-wuntered basil once in our kitchen, but it is indeed a miserable specimen.
It looks like the Basil has went quite floppy 
Ah… thoughts of Basil and his crazy tantrums… marvellous stuff… just what we need to brighten the day 
Just for you Stella 
we tend to bring our basil in once the weather becomes less summery (often quite early on in our region) and it survives most of the winter in the bathroom window. Then resow in the spring. Alternatively, buy a pot from Lidl’s veg counter in the spring, divide it up into individual pots and keep going with it. We don’t use enormous amounts of basil so that’s often enough for us.
As an aside Greek/dwarf basil is a lot more robust than the bigger leaved “normal” varieties.
That’s useful: I’ll look out for Greek basil.
The “buy a pot from a supermarket” method is the one I used, and it was very successful. If I’d started earlier in the year, it would have been even better.
Many supermarkets have it as seed labelled basilique nain and certainly the Lidl ones have an amazing germination rate, or they did this year. The leaves are small - just a bit bigger than thyme so they can be used whole. Easy to grow - sprinkle a few seeds in a pot and they go like the clappers. Maximum 6" tall in my experience so far.
There are some excellent YT vids on growing and propagating basil. My attempts with basil from seed were a dismal failure.
The frontage of my house, facing south and off-white, would be ideal for sun-loving herbs. Must try again next year.
Basil doesn’t actually like full sun that much. Ours lives in a pot at the foot of an ash tree an the dappled sunlight suits it perfectly and grows much better than when we put it in full sun.
That’s what I followed. Make cuttings; put them in water; after a week, you can plant them.
Even in my bureau, which is north-facing but gets a fair bit of light.
The larger leaved “normal” ones can be very temperamental to get started, unlike the smaller leaved ones. Like @JaneJones I don’t have them in the sun all day - they’ve been on the (raised) terrace which has the added advantage that slugs and snails don’t seem to find them. It has sun in the moenings. The main problem I’ve found with them otherwise is that the second they venture above ground, they are grazed off so the plants never actually appear.
I buy a bunch when it’s around and chop it roughly then freeze it. It wilts of course on warming up, but the flavour is still there.
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