Growing Parsley In Your Organic Garden
by John Yazo
Parsley is a highly nutritious and is one of the most popular herbs grown in the home herb garden. Parsley is rich in vitamins, mainly vitamins A and C. It is best when fresh, but can be dried or frozen.
There are basically two types of parsley, flat leaf and curly leaf. It is from the same family as carrots and celery. Curly leaf is mainly used for garnishing and because of it's stronger flavor, flat leaf is usually preferred used for cooking.
Parsley is a biennial, but it is usually treated as an annual and replanted every year. It grows best in full sun and likes moderately rich soil that stays moist but drains well. Parsley is slow to germinate so it is best to start plants indoors and transplant out in the garden once all dangers of frost have past. It can also be planted indoors for year around use.
Parsley is an easy herb to grow in the home garden with a little patience at the beginning stage of germination, their seeds take several weeks to germinate. It is a herb that will do well as an indoor plant, but requires at least five hours of sunlight, and a deep pot to accommodate the long taproot.
When planting outdoors, sow seeds in the early spring in rows spaced 10 to 12 inches apart and cover with 1/2 inch of soil that has a healthy organic structure. Parsley grows best in a soil that is rich in nitrogen, and a location that receives full sunlight or partial shade. Once the seeds have germinated, thin the plants to about 6 inches apart.
When parsley plants are young, they require a regular watering until they become well established. Spreading a layer of organic mulch about 2 inches thick when the plants reach a height of about 6 inches will help to retain the moisture in the soil, along with discouraging weed growth, and organic mulch is a great for supplying a food source to the natural microbial activity that exists in the soil.
You can start to harvest parsley when the plant produces a leaf stem with three segments, harvesting the larger leaves at the outer side of the plat first. This will allow for the new, interior shoots to mature. freshly picked leaves can be stored in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks, or dried and stored in an air tight jar for up to a year.
Parsley is a biennial herb that is normally grown as an annual. The quality of this herb after the fist year is not as good as the first year growth.
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