How to Grow Sweet Basil in Soil

Growing herbs in your home garden will provide you with fresh ingredients for cooking your meals. Sweet basil is a common cooking herb used in many Italian dishes. Growing herbs, in particular basil, is a fairly easy gardening endeavor. You need a sunny location in your garden to plant sweet basil. It is important that the soil drains well and receives at least half a day's worth of sunlight, but full sunlight is preferable. Make sure that you plant basil after all danger of frost has passed in your area, because it is a tender herb that is not frost hardy.

Trowel
Sand (if you have clay soil)
Sweet basil seedlings
Tape measure
Watering can
Mulch

Instructions

- 1
  Prepare a sunny area of your garden to plant the sweet basil. Use a trowel to mix in sand if you have clay soil so that it will drain better. Basil requires well-draining soil.
- 2
  Prepare holes with a trowel every 12 inches in a row. The holes should be twice the width and depth of the root-ball of the seedlings.
- 3
  Remove the seedlings from the pots or tray, and lower them into the holes. Pack around each seedling with the soil you removed from the holes, gently with your fingers.
- 4
  Water the seedlings with a watering can. Allow the soil to slightly dry before each watering.
- 5
  Mulch around the base of the basil plants to maintain moisture and prevent weed growth.

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