Home › Crop guide

Parsley

Two years of leaves from one sowing, and it keeps cropping when the rest of the garden is bare.

1. Soak the seed overnight, it germinates slowly and unevenly otherwise.
2. Sow 1 cm deep direct, or in deep modules if you must transplant.
3. Be patient, germination takes 3 to 5 weeks. Mark the row.
4. Thin to 20 cm apart once seedlings have 3 true leaves.
5. Keep the soil evenly damp and mulch 3 cm.
6. Start picking outer stems once the plant has 10 or more.
7. Cut the whole plant to 5 cm in late summer for a clean autumn flush.
8. Pull and resow in the second summer once it bolts, the leaves turn bitter after flowering.

Soil

Deep, moist, rich soil with compost, pH 6.0 to 7.0. It has a taproot and dislikes being moved.

Sun

Full sun in cool seasons, part shade in Mediterranean and arid summers.

Water

20 mm a week. Dry soil makes tough, bitter leaves and early bolting.

Spacing

20 cm apart, rows 25 cm

Depth

1 cm deep

Care

['Feed a nitrogen-rich liquid feed monthly while picking.', 'Pick from the outside in, always leaving the central crown.', 'In Portugal and other hot dry summers sow spring and again in September, because midsummer sowings bolt and fail.', 'Overwintered plants give the earliest spring picking, then bolt in their second summer.']

Harvesting

Cut outer stems at the base with scissors, taking no more than a third at once. Flat-leaf has stronger flavour, curled holds better in cold weather. A plant gives a good handful weekly.

Storing

1 week in the fridge wrapped in damp kitchen paper. Chop and freeze in oil or water in ice cube trays for 6 months. Dried parsley loses most of its flavour.

Grow it next to

Tomatoes, asparagus, carrots and roses. Keep away from lettuce.

Problems

[{'cause': 'Slow germination is normal, or old seed', 'fix': 'Soak seed, use fresh seed, keep the row damp, and wait 5 weeks before giving up.', 'symptom': 'Nothing comes up for a month'}, {'cause': 'Second-year bolting, or heat and drought in year one', 'fix': 'Treat it as an annual in hot zones, resowing spring and autumn.', 'symptom': 'Tall flower stalk and bitter leaves'}, {'cause': 'Hungry plant or waterlogged roots', 'fix': 'Feed nitrogen monthly and check the drainage.', 'symptom': 'Leaves yellowing from the bottom'}, {'cause': 'Swallowtail butterfly larvae', 'fix': 'Move them to a spare plant. They rarely do real damage and the butterfly is worth having.', 'symptom': 'Fat black and yellow striped caterpillars'}]

Saving your own seed

Biennial. Let a second-year plant flower and dry the umbels on the plant. It crosses with other parsley only. Seed stays viable 2 to 3 years.

Containers

Good in a 25 cm deep pot, 2 plants. Depth matters more than width because of the taproot.