PASS THE PARSLEY

There’s no question in Monty Don’s mind that parsley is his favourite herb – and here he tells you how togrowyourown

Although I grew up with parsley used more as a garnish than something to be eaten seriously, I now regard it as a garden and kitchen essential. In fact, if I had to choose only one herb for the rest of my life I wouldn’t hesitate to plump for parsley – and now is a good time to sow the seeds.

Parsley as a garnish was always the curlyleafed kind but I now mainly grow flat-leafed parsley, which has a stronger flavour; I use it liberally with vegetables, in stews and soups, as part of salads and, with walnuts, as a delicious pesto for pasta or potatoes. It is also very good for you, rich in antioxidants, vitamins and trace minerals. It is one of my wonder foods.

Like basil, it has become commonplace for parsley to be sold, fresh, in pots in supermarkets with a cluster of vibrant seedlings. But this traduces its true potential because each of the wispy seedlings crammed into the pot is desperate for space. They are like battery hens, producing the goods but for a tiny period and under appalling conditions. Take a snip or two of your herb and the whole thing gives up the ghost, whereas one of the joys of growing your own at home is that you can be generous – a packet of seeds will give you dozens of plants that will supply a large bunch daily for months. Homegrown parsley makes for large plants – a healthy parsley plant between three and nine months old should be 15-30cm tall, with bushy, edible foliage – that can be cut back two or three times with each harvest from each individual plant, providing more delicious growth than an entire mass-produced pot.

Parsley thrives in well-drained but fertile soil, with plenty of moisture, and also tolerates some shade. Because of this I’ve had more success using it as part of rotated planting among the vegetables than trying to fit it in with the needs of the herb garden, which is based around Mediterranean herbs with a desire for poor soil and maximum sunshine. Parsley is a biennial so produces its leaves in its first growing season and the flowering stem and seeds in the next. You therefore always need at least two batches on the go – one that’s just about to produce a mass of harvestable leaves as the other is about to put its energy into flowering.

It is a member of the carrot family and will develop a long tap root – not unlike a carrot – hence the cruelty of confining it to a small pot with dozens of fellow plants packed in with it. If it gets dry then it can throw up a flowering stem, which should be cut back to the base as soon as it appears. Because it has the space to develop its true root system it will regrow a new flush of leaves again and again for the first nine months of its life until the urge to develop its flowers becomes overwhelming, at which point it has to be dug up and added to the compost heap. When you do this you will be astonished at the size of the root.

I make two or three sowings a year, ensuring a limitless supply right through the seasons. I always used to sow parsley directly where it was to grow and then thin it heavily, and this system still works – although it can be prey to slug attack. I now prefer to sow it in seed trays and transplant it into plugs. It needs warmth to germinate; we use a heated bench but a windowsill above a radiator works well. Once the seedlings emerge it will not need any extra heat.

Monty with some of his parsley crop