Herbs Ways: Grow Parsley - Use All Year Round

Saturday, 26 July 2008

Grow Parsley - Use All Year Round

Parsley is one of the most used herbs in the garden but it is not always that easy to grow. I have tried growing it from seed many times but not very successful all the time.

It wasn't until I started looking up what you need to do to become more successful that I realised what I was doing wrong.

So my learning curve now brings in a bountiful of parsley throughout the year, freezing the crop to use i the winter. I now am never without probably one of the most popular herbs.

Parsley grows well in pots or in the ground. It take quite a while to germinate and you can get a good healthy and succulent crop by using a humus rich, moist and well fertilized soil.

Half sun and half shade is the best growing position, before I had always put it in a shaded part of the garden.

There are two main varieties the 'flat leaf' or 'curly leaf'. The flat leaf parsley is my favourite is sometimes also known as Continental parsley which in my opinion has more flavour.

You need to keep parsley well watered, never let it dry out but at the same time don't over water.

Another benefit I didn't know about was that you don't need to plant seeds every year as parsley is self-seeding. Just leave it once it has died down and next season you will have a fresh crop on its way up from the seeds drops naturally form the season before.

To use parsley all year round you need to freeze parsley. Just liquidise the leaves and stalks with a little water and put into an ice-cube tray. When frozen transfer the cubes of parsley into a plastic freezer bag. there yo have it parsley whenever you want it.

Growing and maintaining parsley is very easy, it is still a mystery to me why people buy this from shops when, even in a window box, fresh parsley can be grown in every home.