Happy Basils

I haven't had much luck with growing basils.

Actually, I feel I haven't had much luck growing many things. I'm learning the hard way that travelling and gardening don't quite mix.

But basils are supposedly really easy to grow in Singapore. A few mistakes I've made so far are:

1. Overcrowding them
I bought pots of basils from the supermarket. These are in a tiny pot, grown really closely together, almost like a branch of basils. I brought them home, spread them out a little.. but alas, their leaves were small and they grew out in odd angles.

2. Underwatering, then Overwatering
Once, I went away for 3 days and so when I came back, my basils were wilting away from lack of water. So I watered and watered.. and I watered.. Their stems grew slimy and brown and their leaves started dropping. And inevitably, , they died and went to heaven.

3. Giving them insufficient sun
As I didn't want them to be exposed to the heavy downpours, I planted my basils in a semi-shaded area in my balcony, where they could get some nice indirect sunlight, I thought. Their leaves started to grow lighter and lighter... turning almost yellow.

I'm still trying to grow my basils. So far, I have 3 types:

Regular basils - which I bought in a pot from the supermarket and repotted myself. These are my unhappiest basils. I don't really know why but they have been growing but their leaves are smaller than I would like them to be... and just not looking happy in general.

Cinnamon basils - I grew these from seed and they are growing reasonably well so far. They really do have a special fragrance too!

Thai basils - They are my happiest basil. My family and I had some of them in our Green Curry yesterday, so they are missing some leaves.. but still looking happy. Here are a couple of pictures.