Have you ever thought about planting parsley in your garden? You can choose between the curly moss parsley or the leafy Italian one. At any rate, this biennial herb is easy to grow and maintain so your dishes will always be flavorful.
What You Need To Know Before Planting Parsley
Before you start planting, you should know the general care of the plant. In general, the plant requires regular water and sunlight for optimum growth. You can keep them under partial shade or among other plants such as roses and asparagus.
Did you know that parsley is closely related to carrots? That is why they have the same pests issues of worms and slugs.
Another thing you should know is when you should start planting the herb. You can start at the last spring frost and will start harvesting in the late spring or early summer.
4 Easy Steps to Plant Parsley
The cheapest way to plant parsley is by growing it from seeds. Rest assured, You can easily incorporate it with your herb garden. This is how you can plant parsley in 4 easy steps.
Prepare the Soil
Start by preparing the soil in a small pot or a space in your garden. Don’t forget to add the compost mix. If you want to have parsley outdoors, you need to ensure you have at least 30 cm of space to thin out the seeds.Sowing the Seeds
To increase your success chance, you will need to germinate parsley seeds. Soak the seeds overnight before you start sowing directly in the pot or mini pots.
Plant the seeds about 1 cm deep and spread them about 15-30 cm wide. Cover the seed with soil and give them enough water. Anyhow, the sowing process can be quite slow and it takes 6-8 weeks for parsley to start seedling.
When the seedling has enough sprout then you can sow the seeds and move to a bigger planter container.Caring
Whether you choose to keep the plant indoors or outdoors, you need to ensure that it has enough sunlight and water. Do not water clog the plant parsley indoors or outdoors, and you need to snip yellowing leaves to encourage new growth.
When it comes to fertilizers, you can use a balanced composition every couple of weeks to improve their growth. Don’t forget to pay attention to pests like slugs and weeds.Harvesting
You can cut parsley on the stems throughout the summer. It will encourage growth and you will start seeing more leaves right away.
Another thing you can do is to collect them by cutting them at the base. You also can start harvesting microgreens for your salad.
After knowing these tips, you can start planning when you should start growing the herbs to have them all year round. However, parsley will naturally dry down during winter. But you can circumvent this situation by growing them in a hot house.
Planting parsley takes some extra patience since it’s slow to germinate and may take weeks before you can start harvesting. And if you want to keep them fresh for a long time, you can cut them at the stems and store them in the freezer. Another option is to use small pots and keep them indoors.
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