I use cages on the tomatos, mine are 6' now and planted them too close together. You can pick the basil leaves and lay them out flat on a paper plate and freeze them then move them to a freezer bag, they'll keep for up to 6 months. Just pull out the leaves you want. Of course nothing compares to fresh out of the garden. Haven''t tried that with cilantro, grew some and it was great, but went to seed and couldn't get the young stuff back.