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basils can be crowded

It depends on the kind of basil, but I've found that the small leafed types 
like the little 'mound' basil can be planted VERY close together. I've seen 
them used as edging along walkways. Each plant never gets larger than about 
6-8" when fully grown, and if you plan to snip often, they won't even get 
that big. I love the lighter taste of the mound type in sauces and pesto 
anyhow! (I plant them crowded up and if some start to wimp out, I just 
harvest every - other plant earlier instead of taking snips off of the whole 
bed.)
The big lettuce leaf or 'wrapping' basils will grow till they get about 4ft 
tall or even taller if they can get off to a good start before seeding out. 
(Keep the flowers pinched back and the leaves and stems will continue to 
grow.) Only one or two of these as a background  plant is plenty unless you 
really love strong basil.
If you plant watermelons in tight areas, be diligent about forcing their 
runners into a circular pattern around the bed size or they'll get sprawly. 
Even the smaller icebox melons have pretty large leaves, and will shade a 
fairly large square. I've wondered about planting them at the edges of a 
bed, allowing the plant to grow outward, and using a 'lateral trellis' to 
grow outside it's planting space. Besides the fact that it would be awkward 
to move around the surrounding area with a 'walkway trellis' in the way, it 
would free up more needed planting space and not be totally vertical 
trellis. (The trellis itself would offer some support for heavier melons.) 
Has anyone done this?
martha
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