Tips for Planting Herbs. How to Grow Lovage, Parsley and Dill in Your Garden
In Romanian cuisine, broth without lovage and green parsley or pea stew without plenty of dill are like dishes without salt and pepper. These herbs give a lot of our traditional dishes their unique flavor. Growing them yourselves will bring out a stronger, more natural flavor. Here are some tips for planting herbs you use all year long.
Tips for planting herbs. Lovage
Lovage is a perennial from the Mediterranean region.
It can be grown by sowing, planting seedlings or taking out some plants from already formed bushes. Sowing can take place in autumn and spring – March 15th – 20th in the plain and April 1st – 20th in hilly regions. Lovage prefers shaded areas, tolerates low winter temperatures and is drought resistant.
The soil has to be ploughed and well minced in autumn. Natural fertilizer should be applied well deep into the soil.
If you sow lovage, you need to thin out seedlings in order to have 8 inch spacing between the plants and 16 inches between the rows.
It doesn’t require a lot of work, you only need to thin out plants, weed out, water the culture in case of prolonged drought and cut-off the stems with flowers if you want a better developed foliage.
Tips for planting herbs. Parsley
Parsley is a biennial plant, also from the Mediterranean region, that forms a white taproot and leaves in its first year of growth and flowers and seeds in the second year. It has two varieties: one used for the root, the other for the leaves.
It tolerates both cold and warm weather, but it needs a lot of light and can’t stand the shade, so you have thin out the plants, to have 2 inches between them, and weed out thoroughly. It also needs a lot of water, especially when the seeds germinate and when the root forms.
In can be sowed in November or March April. To have seeds germinate faster, you can leave them in warm water the night before sowing.
Tips for planting herbs. Dill
Originally grown in Southern Europe, dill is an annual plant that grows very quickly. You can use the leaves after 25 – 30 days and the seeds after 90 days.
It’s sown late in autumn (November), during wintertime when temperatures (Celsius) are positive and the land isn’t frozen, very early and spring and even during summer until the 15th of July. If you grow dill and let the seeds fall on the ground, you’ll have a new culture the next year.
When sowing, go around 1 inch deep and leave a 16 inch spacing between the rows.
Credits: e-gradinarit.ro, cartiagricole.ro, horticultorul.ro
Photo credits: remedii.net, ingradina.com, marcoser.com
