3 Reasons Your Garden Needs Perennial Basil

I love perennial basil – this includes various forms of sacred basil and tulsi. For me, they are essential in a thriving permaculture garden.

Pest management & Medicines

They attract so many bees and provide important protection for little insectivorous birds – plus they are a great method to help you manage ‘pests’.

They are also a wonderful source of culinary and medicinal herbs. Tulsi tea can be expensive! But if you have one in your garden, you’ll be surprised at how easy it is to make the tea from the plant itself. Plus, it will save you loads and will help reduce your household waste.

A great method for attracting bees

Watch the video below to learn more about how to grow, harvest and use these wonderful plants. I also talk you through how these perennials promote habitat and diversity in the environment. With these plants spread out in different parts of your garden, you get to create a healthy environment for plants and insects.

You’ll also get to see the types of hardy perennial basil I grow. Plus, find out which plant my daughter liked to call the “bee bush” when she was younger. One of the best bee-magnets you’ll find!

Give it a watch and let me know below if you have any questions. You can find many more videos like this one on my YouTube.

What is permaculture?

To learn more about permaculture check out my 4 part permaculture series and take a look at Our Permaculture Life youtube channel where I have uploaded over 100 films I have made in my permaculture garden and in conversation with others. Dive deeper into this blog too and you will find over 400 permaculture articles.

Now is such a great time to learn more about permaculture and consider making permaculture your way of life and livelihood too. To help with this, I offer two online permaculture courses:

Permaculture Educators Program – Permaculture Design & Teaching Certificates
The Incredible Edible Garden – permaculture gardening course

I also encourage you to support free permaculture education programs for women and youth in the global south through our registered permaculture charity, the Ethos Foundation.

About the Author

MORAG GAMBLE Blog is an award-winning Australian permaculture designer, speaker, author, blogger, film-maker and teacher. She creates the popular Our Permaculture Life Blog and YouTube channel, offers online permaculture education – The Incredible Edible Garden and the Permaculture Educators Program, a combined Permaculture Design Certificate and Permaculture Teacher Certificate.

Morag is the founder and Executive Director of the Permaculture Education Institute and runs a small permaculture charity, Ethos Foundation. Each month she also offers free online monthly masterclasses.

Morag is an urban permaculture pioneer and cofounder of the Australian City Farms and Community Gardens Network and Northey Street City Farm in Brisbane.

Morag offers a wealth of knowledge of all things permaculture and has taught in 22 countries – she is always teaching and sharing. Morag’s natural habitat is her award-winning edible landscape at Crystal Waters Ecovillage.

Morag Gamble

My name is Morag Gamble and I am living and working a permaculture life. I live an ‘Off-the-Grid’ lifestyle in a permaculture village near Maleny in the subtropical part of southeast Queensland, Australia with my husband and 3 young children.

We designed and built our modular eco-home – with much appreciated help from my family. We are mortgage-free and live simply. Our income is derived from permaculture-related activities. We grow a lot of vegetables, herbs and fruit in the polycultural garden-playground surrounding our home. We collect our water, deal with our wastewater on-site and produce most of our own power.

I love this way of living and I love bringing my children up in this environment. They are Nature Kids and they are learning vital skills for resilience, compassion and future problem solving through our ecological unschooling approach.

I am also passionate about how this way of life can make a positive contribution to society and support ecological regeneration.