Growing Parsley - Sow Just Twice for a Year's Harvest
"Tomke, will you get some parsley from the garden!?". I can still hear my mother saying it when I was little. At our house, we were 5 children, no raw vegetables or soup were served without a bunch of freshly chopped parsley that we grew in the garden. My parents did not have a real vegetable garden, but parsley was there. There were also dozens of packets of this delicious herb in the freezer. My parents - who are now in their late seventies - moved to an apartment at the end of the 90s. Now I am the one who grows parsley. My father has the key to my house and I regularly see him come to cut parsley. Isn't it wonderful.
Growing parsley is more than just providing the sprig of 'decoration' on your cheese croquette. Growing parsley gives you a versatile herb. It is used in many cooking styles and dishes. Parsley is like salt in a dish, it connects the flavours and lifts the dish to a higher level. From a vegetarian omelette to a parsley pesto to a chimichurri sauce on a piece of grilled meat. Parsley contributes to the freshness and flavour intensity of your dish. Today, parsley is the most used herb on earth. In this article, I have one mission: Everyone grow lots of parsley!

Parsley chimichurri
Besides being a taste bomb, parsley is also good for your body and is full of nutrients. Did you know that parsley contains more vitamin C than an orange? Keep the sprigs to use in your smoothies.
Growing Parsley - Annual, Perennial or ???
Most vegetable garden plants are annuals. There is absolutely no point in keeping a tomato plant or radish alive, it would not even work. There are also perennial vegetable garden plants such as thyme, rosemary or sage. The harvest does not mean the end of the plant, even the freezing cold in winter does not kill the plant. Parsley is an odd one out, it is a biennial plant.
The parsley plant produces delicious green leaves in its first year, the second year the leaves are not so tasty anymore the plant produces beautiful flowers that attract bees. The second year you can also harvest the root as a bonus. The root has an even more intense flavor than the leaves. Before you remove the root, also harvest the
seeds . You can sow these again the following year. Parsley for life!

Flat and curly parsley
Growing Parsley - Flat and Curly Parsley
Parsley is closely related to
dill ,
carrots and celery. The aromatic similarities are obvious. Parsley comes in two forms. Flat leaf parsley or curly leaf parsley. Chefs prefer the flat leaf variety in the kitchen because it is easier to work with. I personally prefer curly leaf parsley because it is a more beautiful plant and has more texture or 'bite' than flat leaf parsley.
View our parsley seeds here
Sowing parsley
Parsley
seeds naturally germinate very slowly. Just like
carrots and celery, you have
seeds with underdeveloped embryos. This means that the
seeds have to mature further after sowing before they can germinate. Because of this long germination time, parsley seeds are sensitive to soil diseases or rot. Early sowing is often less successful because the soil temperature can sometimes drop very quickly and the germination process is interrupted.

Parsley seed
Sowing parsley - sprouting
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Parsley seeds germinate at temperatures between 5 and 32°C. I never do it, but many people soak their
seeds to get a faster germination. The ideal germination temperature is 27°C. A
propagator with thermostat can help you regulate the temperature and humidity. In ideal conditions your parsley
seeds will germinate after 7 days. At lower temperatures germination takes longer but it. After germination you can quickly plant the seedlings in the open ground.
Sowing parsley - sow twice, harvest all year round
You heard it right. You only need to sow twice to harvest parsley for a whole year.
- The first crop can be sown indoors in February. Indoors you can sow in trays with 73 holes, you obviously do not have to fill all the holes, you can fill 20 and use the rest for lettuce, thyme, Marigolds , ... When your seedlings are 5 cm high they can be transplanted into p7 pots . If you have a greenhouse , you can move your plants to the greenhouse until you plant them out in April. When planting out, leave 30 cm around the plants. With this crop you will have the first fresh parsley in May.
- The second crop is done outdoors in July. We usually don't think about sowing during this period, but this sowing will give you parsley in the fall and throughout the winter. Sow the seeds in a furrow 1 to 2 cm deep and keep a distance of 30 cm between the rows. A good tip: pour boiling water into your sowing furrow before sowing, it disinfects the soil. Ideal for a long germination period. If you sow in a dry period, make your sowing furrow the evening before you sow and pour a lot of water into it. When sowing, you can mix the seeds with moist cutting soil and fill your sowing furrow 1 to 2 cm with the mixture. I sow by hand and cover my seeds with cutting soil for good germination. I also do this with carrots and all seeds that germinate less easily.
Plant or sow your parsley in airy soil with lots of
compost . If you don't have
compost , mix a handful of
universal fertilizer granules into your soil per plant before planting. You can of course also grow in vegetable garden
containers or
pots . Make sure you keep your plants extra moist. A vegetable garden container or pot dries out extra quickly. Plant parsley between your tomatoes, asparagus,
corn or roses in a polyculture. It is said that growing parsley between your roses will produce extra aromas.

Parsley can be pricked out (first crop) or thinned out (second crop) when they are this large
Growing parsley - planting out / thinning out the young plants
As mentioned, you can plant your young parsley plants from your first crop at 30 cm around the plant, easy. With the second crop in July, you have to perform a drastic action after germination; You have to thin the seedlings when they are +/- 5 cm tall to 30 cm. Parsley plants need space, if you do not thin them out, your plants will remain small and suffocate themselves. Now you also know why the pots you buy in the supermarket die very quickly.
Growing Parsley - Successive Harvesting
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Don't try to harvest right away, I know, it's tempting but it's best to wait until 80 to 90 days after sowing. You never harvest your plant all at once. Walk around your parsley bed and pick the largest stems. That way you stimulate the plants to produce more and more. Don't harvest in full sun but in the morning or evening. Don't stop picking and never pick your plant bare. If you stop picking, your plant will become tough and rough, if you pick too much, your plant may not grow back. If you have harvested too much parsley, make people happy, freeze them or throw them on the
compost heap. Better to pick and throw away than not to pick at all. Never throw away the stalks of your parsley, they are even more aromatic than the leaves. The next time you put Portobello mushrooms in the oven or make pesto, you will be happy with the flavor bomb and the texture that the stalks contribute.

Parsley, don't harvest it all at once and keep harvesting
Growing Parsley - What if winter comes?
If you can't get enough of fresh parsley and want to keep harvesting in the winter, you can do some things. Either put
fleece over the plants, this protects the plants from moderate frost (down to -6°C) or you plant a parsley in a large pot and put it indoors in a place with lots of light, a south-facing kitchen windowsill is fine.
View our parsley seeds here
Parsley, together with
dill and (fence) fennel, is the favorite snack of the Papilio polyxenes, which is often confused with the queen butterfly; The Papilio polyxenes is also a butterfly but a slightly different variety. In English it is called black swallowtail butterfly. Plant enough parsley for yourself and this butterfly; The caterpillar of the butterfly eats parsley but does not kill the plant. You will be rewarded with a beautiful spectacle if you get the chance to
spot the butterfly in your garden. What is harmful to your parsley is the whitefly, treat your parsley on the underside of the leaves with an ecological product against soft insects.

Beautiful isn't it?
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