A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 herbs, dill and italian parsley

My question is about Dill and Italian Parsley. My plants seem to only be putting out flowers and not the usuable leaves. I prune the flowers off every week, but now that's all that seems to grow. Any suggestions?

Hi Javamama,

Got some questions for you to answer while you're waiting for someone to come thru!!!

What type of soil are you growing them in??

And are you fertilizing them?? With what???

How much sun???

Weezie

The herb garden is in an area where we took out a strip of grass and then added peat moss and steer manure. Fertilizer is 16-16-16 and it gets southern exposure ... heavy sun from late morning on. Does that help?

Well, My herbs always do well, and I read along time ago that they will grow in minimal soil fertility, and thats the way I have always grown them...no fertilizer

Javamama,
Pretty much what Phil said...
Herbs like to have, I like to say, "crappy dirt"
Just plain as plain can be... No amending with stuff, maybe a little bit of some compost because it's just okay to mix in with crappy dirt to give a bit of food and a little moisture but not much...
But they thrive on neglect really...

And certain conditions...

Alot of herbs come from areas that are hot, dry, and rocky....
So, what you should maybe try doing is stop the fertilizer...(That's why you're getting so much flowers) and maybe find a place, in the sun, that has some dirt that is just plain ole dirt.
Mix a handful of compost in (*No peat, because that's acid and most of the herbs like alkaline **Rocks are filled with alkaline or leach lime**)
And that would have been my next suggestion, was after you plant the herbs, lay a layer of flat rocks under the plant, they don't seem to like dirt splashing up on to them and their stems and leaves....
And they love sun, can't go wrong with them with sun!!

Weezie

P.S. Will you keep us posted as to how your plants are doing???

Excellent "technical Term" Weezie

dill doesnt seem to last very well when grown in the ground and when it starts to give out flowers its probably on its way out as usfull herb.ive grown it in potts with soil and compost mix and its done well.parsly also seems to fare better inpots.

I'm not sure about dill, but I would say that with the parsley, give it a good haircut, cut it back by half, don't just prune out the flowers. It should send up a new flush of growth...works for me. This also works with chives, thyme, oregano etc.

hello javamama, parsley is a biannual and will naturally want to flower in its second season. You can let it flower, it seems that the plant is determined to anyway. The pretty umbels make great havens for benifical insects. When its finished, collect the seeds to start a batch of parsley all over again. Dill prefers cooler weather and long days naturally promote flowering, so I don't think there is a whole lot you can do about this either. Let it flower also, these pretty yellow umbels also provide food for benifical insects and also make a great cut flower, sorta like queen ann's lace. Collect those seeds too and replant when its cooler.
Dill is an annual herb needing a somewhat moderatly rich soil, kept lightly or barely moist. An annual is just that, a plant that grows, sets seed then dies all in one season. Annuals grow fast, they have a lot to do all at once, and need something ie, food, water, sunlight in pretty much the right proportions to thrive.

Thorns,
Thanks for all that great info!!!
Just curious????

Weezie

hello Weezie, I know more about herbs than I do about computers, that's for sure.

Tell me about it!
I feel the same way about gardening,
computer's are waaaaaaaaaaaaay toooooooo frustrating for me, especially these last few days!

We're always looking for info on herb's here!
I don't grow alot myself, well, I do have a number of them, but I guess mine aren't the more popular one's...
But I enjoy them just the same!

What all kind do you grow??

Weezie

hello Weezie, over the years I've probably grown, including variety types ie., rosemary: Tuscan Blue, Santa barbara, Logee's blue, pinescented, arp, Pink flowering, blueboy and those are the ones I can think of off hand...literally thousands. That's not to say I've had sucess with all of them though. growing herbs in the deep south can be challenging to say the least. And I've been growing them for well over 30 years now, so I've had a lot of years to experiment.