Question: My basil has nearly stopped growing. I’ve harvested leaves several times this summer, but now the basil is mostly stems and flowers. Can I make it grow again? Should I do something special for my basil next year?

Answer: Basil is a popular and easy-growing plant for vegetable gardens. For vigorous growth and season-long harvest, there are a few considerations to keep in mind.

Delay planting basil until early summer.

Basil is very tender. If you transplant it into the garden before the nighttime low temperatures are consistently 50 degrees or warmer, it may suffer cold injury and stunted growth.

Harvesting the right way helps keep basil vigorous and bushy.

It’s best to harvest basil by snipping off small sprigs instead of removing individual leaves. Always cut stems just above a set of leaves. New shoots will sprout and grow from the buds at the base of the leaves.

Keep the plant growing

Basil is an annual and its primary goal is to flower and produce seeds. Once that happens, it’s done growing. To keep the plant growing well, remove any flower buds as soon as you notice them.

For now, remove all the flower stalks and cut back the stems to see if you can get some new growth. Next year, look for varieties that are naturally compact and slow to flower. For example, the new Genovese variety “Everleaf” is very compact and slow to flower.

Remember to plant once conditions are warm, water deeply, but not frequently and snip sprigs instead of individual leaves.

Q: The tops on my onions have mostly fallen over, so I think they are ready to harvest, but they are much smaller this year than last year. I planted the same variety, so I thought they would be the same. Should I leave them in the garden longer?

A: Since the tops of your onions have tipped, there’s no benefit to leaving them in the garden. Go ahead and harvest your onions.

There are a few things that could have affected the size of your onions. One possibility would be that you selected a variety that only bulbs well in southern gardens, but since you’ve been successful with this variety before, let’s look at some other things that can affect the size of onions.

The size of the bulb is partly related to the number of leaves that your onions develop during the early part of the season. The base of every leaf will form a layer of the onion bulb. Bulbing begins when our days become longer than our nights. If there aren’t very many leaves, there won’t be many layers and the onion will be small. Plant your onion sets and transplants from late March through early April to give them plenty of time to grow before we start having long days.

The fertility of your garden soil can also affect the size of your onions because it can affect the number of leaves on the plant. Onions do best in rich, well-drained soil. Compost and additional nitrogen will make a difference.

Spacing makes a difference if you want large onions. If you space your plants or sets closely, you’ll have small onions. If you space them as though they are already the size you’d like them to be (plus an inch or two), you’ll give them the room they need to meet your expectations.

Onions don’t compete well with weeds for the resources they need. Keep your onions weeded but avoid damaging their shallow roots as you do. Mulching the soil helps with weed control and also evens out soil moisture.