Growing Vegetables

There is no better garnish for your dinner plate than parsley espe­cially if it’s picked fresh from your own garden-crisp, sweet and un­sprayed. Not only does parsley look and taste good, it equals oranges in vitamin C and far surpasses them in vitamin A. (One tablespoon of minced parsley supplies the mini­mum daily requirements of both vitamins!)

After the first hard frost, I used to remove parsley along with other vegetable stalks from the garden, putting them on the compost heap. But this past year, the parsley had very thick growth, and an examination showed that only the outer leaves were frozen. We covered two patches of parsley with oak leaves and left a third patch uncovered. Parsley is a biennial plant, so we figured it would survive the winter to flower and set seeds next summer during December we lifted leaves to pick still-green sprigs, and in January, after snow, sleet and tem­peratures in the teens, we were still snipping parsley from all three patches. Some of the leaves on the uncovered plants turned whitish from the cold, but the central leaves re­mained a deep dark green. Their persistence is amazing as well as their ability to stay green under the heavy oak leaf cover. Even if some light could penetrate the leaves, the days are short, and the sun is rare in late fall and winter.

Parsley will grow more luxuriantly if it is planted in compost enriched soil. If your ground tests acid, add lime since parsley prefers a neutral soil. And if that soil is heavy, add sand. We found that seed planted in mixed sand, did better than else­where. Perhaps sand keeps the soil surface from crusting so that the seeds can push up more easily.Make rows about a foot apart, and sow thinly in furrows no more than 9 inchs deep. The seed is slow to geminate - up to 20 days-so eith­er soak seed in warm water the night before you plant it, or pour boiling water carefully over the seed in the furrow just before firming the soil over the planting row. Mark the rows so that you won’t inad­vertently disturb the parsley seeds. Thin plants to six inches apart and they will leaf out to fill the gaps, forming a ribbon of green.

Plenty of moisture keeps the foli­age developing rapidly so that it is always crisp, New growth emerges from the crown or “heart” of the plant, so it is best to pick from the outer stems.Every couple of weeks cut parsley, tying the long stems into a bouquet then hang them in a warm and dry area. After a week,  cut the stems off and pack the dry leaves into containers from which you will enjoy an ample supply. Also, you can dig a plant from the row and pot it to grow in a sunny indoors spot during the winter.