One of the unexpected benefits of participating in the Master Gardener course through the MSU Extension Office has been the group of gardening friends that I have made. This summer, working with fellow gardeners on community projects has been a deeply satisfying experience for me.

One of the other bonuses is that gardening tips (and plants!) that these gardeners share with each other. A tip from Gloria has contributed to our producing some of our best basil ever this summer.

For the last few years, I have made a habit of pinching off blossoms on the basil plants when they started to appear in July. I know that for most plants, energy devoted to flowering means less energy devoted to growing; when growing basil, I definitely always want more leaves. It seemed, though, that the basil flowers appeared again pretty quickly after my too-gentle pinching back.

From Gloria, I learned that more drastic pruning was a perfectly fine idea. Taking the basil down a couple of leaf levels, while leaving at least two levels on the plant, encourages the basil to branch out more, ultimately producing more leaves.

The first time I did this significant pruning on our basil plants, which number about 20 this year, my trimming yielded enough basil leaves for two batches of pesto. This trimming also improved the basil plants, which now have more branching and more leaves and which have been slower in flowering again.

Janice and Jim Leach have been gardening together for close to 30 years. They tend a backyard plot in downtown Ann Arbor, where they try to grow as many vegetables and other plants as possible. For the last four years, they've published gardening tips, photos and stories at their 20 Minute Garden website.