Parenting is not easy

CRS writes on June 24:

Gardening Question for my mom!
My basil plant REFUSES to cooperate! After consulting Kaka, I have been firmly telling the plant to not flower by pinching off the buds whenever they appear. Unfortunately, it is not complying and continues to produce buds. Anything else i can do to promote leaf growth instead of flowers?

Naughty, naughty basil. That's annoying. Our basil which came in a 3 inch pot now takes up about half a bushel basket. Is your pot big enough and your soil healthy? Keep harvesting where there are buds, take the bud and a couple leaves down from there. If that is more basil than you need for cooking and eating, cut some 6 inch (or more) stems and put them in water. They'll be so busy trying to make roots, they'll forget to flower. And keep talking to them, you must be patient but firm. Just like any other sort of parenting, 90% of the job is saving them from themselves. One tries to direct one's wards into healthy pursuits, in this case making edible leaves instead of flowers.