Growing Herbs on the Balcony

So much more than just a garnish. This is Italian flat leaf parsley - a biennial. I like to add fresh chopped parsley to salads, particularly a nice bean salad. I've also been known to add it to pasta with nothing else on it but salt and butter. In my opinion, flat leaf parsley is the way to go if you want to use parsley in your cooking. I don't bother with the curly leaf kind.

I start my plants indoors from seed. Apparently parsley seeds take a very long time to germinate although mine never seem to take as long as people claim they should. Only a little slower than some of the other herbs I grow. I've read that pre-soaking the seeds before planting makes them germinate faster because the seeds are covered with something that inhibits germination.

Fortunately it transplants well and thrives in containers with minimal care. Parsley tends to get quite leggy when grown from seed on a the window sill but that doesn't seem to bother parsley too much. When I transplant it I just bury it up to the crown and it does just fine.

I grow my parsley in partially sunny conditions. I find it to be a rather thirsty plant that enjoys daily watering when grown in a container. Two or three plants are all you need for casual use. We pick branches and leaves off as needed but by the end of the season we usually still have more than we need. It's one of the few herbs we take the time to dry and store when we're ready to be done with it.