If growing basil for the flowers, don’t cover; hand-picking and drowning beetles may be necessary. Harvesting basil Basil has a one-track mind: to sprout, grow, flower and set seed to reproduce.

If you’ve ever considered growing your own pot plant at home in Southern California but found the whole tents-and-timers-in-a-closet thing impossibly confusing or prohibitively intimidating (or ...