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Last year when it frosted all my basil leaves fell off. Next morning all the basil leaves were mixed in the the tree leaves on the ground. I was impossible to sort out the basil from tree leaves so I lose a lot of basil.

I harvested my large basil leaves yesterday. There are lots of small leaves I hope they grow larger before we have frost in about 4 more weeks I will harvest again.

If your growing basil be sure to pick it before frost.

Thanks Gary San

Good tip, but I have found basil to be the most tender of all, and goes under about 40+ degrees.

I am watching mine very carefully. I have about 10 new pots started, most are 10" with 3 plants each. (starts from Lowes/HD). I potted up about 3 wks ago, and then moved them to a more protected area. This weekend came in. Night temps are going back up to 50 or so (from 45) I am just letting the outside basil go on its own. Well, I may pull a couple of the pots in that look pretty, and not the huge pots!

I am trying to supply a restaurant, so this is a bit different than just home kitchen! I told the chef today he has a couple more weeks of pesto amounts, then will be decreased. I did suggest he check (on-line) about freezing the pesto and come Jan-Feb when we get in a funk can pull it out for a special (he liked that idea).

Basil leaves can be dried to store. I use dried basil leaves to taste pasta and salad dressing. Use a dehydrator if you have one, or just oven dry with low temperature for approximately 15-25 minutes.

I wish I had seen this post a couple of days ago... I went out to the garden this morning and my one basil plant is completey black... but it still smelled good as I worked around it!

Mine bit the dust last week I made pesto with some in the summer and meant to harvest the rest but got busy and left it too long. Oh well, I will plant better next year.

I did manage to harvest a lot of basil and lemon basil seed before the frost got it

I dry mine after being washed on paper towels and let the house temperatures dry them, and that seems just fine....I hate to waste the electric energy drying them, and it has always worked, I am still using last year's basil that I dried and by the time my new seedlings are ready to be plucked ill be out of dried from last year so I am doing ok for now...but mine were potted last year and I brought them indoors and continued growing it through the winter by pinching off the flower buds religiously and plucking the larger leaves....the plants lasted well into november that way.