Dill, from growing to harvest

Dill is delicious with its delicate aniseed-like flavor and it is perfect paired with sauces, marinades and fish.

Important Dill facts

Name – Apium graveolens
Family – Apiaceae (parsley family)
Type – herb plant, annual

Height – 20 to 24 inches (50 to 60 cm)
Exposure – full sun
Soil – ordinary, rather light

Flowering – July to September
Harvest – June to September

Growing it is easy and care is reduced for a harvest all summer long.

• Health: health benefits and therapeutic value of dill

Sowing and planting dill

Dill is an easy plant that isn’t very demanding. This will make it possible for you to harvest its little leaves until late in the season.

• Dill loves sun and emplacements that are more protected from winds.
• It revels in light and well drained soil. If your earth is too compact, feel free to lighten it with sand and soil mix.
• Add fertilizer when planting with compost or manure and seaweed soil conditioner.

Position the plant so that it doesn’t overshadow other herb plants you might be growing, because it reaches a height of about 3 feet (1 meter).

Sowing dill

• Dill is sown in spring, from April onwards and until the beginning of summer.
• Staging the sowing will make it possible to spread the harvest over a longer period.
• Opt for sowing directly in the plot along a row, and thin to about 4 inches (20 cm) as soon as the first leaves appear.

Caring for your dill

Required care is down to a bare minimum, which is to say simply water when the ground is dry.

• Lack of water can trigger bolting for dill quite fast, so don’t let the soil dry up for too long.

Cut the leaves just before the plant flowers. The leaves from the parts of the plant are ideal to flavor mixed salads, sauces and marinades.

You can also use and eat the tiny seeds that appear at the end of summer to flavor your meals, or mix them into your salt dispenser to give your salt a special flavor.

Good companion plants for dill

Dill LOVES growing together with:

Broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cucumber, pickle, coriander, lettuce, turnip, onion and tomato.

Dill DREADS growing together with:

Absinthe, carrot, fennel, parsnip, parsley.

All there is to know about dill

Reminiscent of aniseed, this finely flavored herb called dill also has the advantage of being very simple to grow.

Whether fresh or dried, it is perfectly suited to most dressings and sauces, fresh cheese, fish and shellfish, and even grilling seafood on the barbecue.

Its leaves are as thin as needles, quite similar to those of fennel, and its yellow-colored flowers evolve to produce delicious seeds at the end of summer.

Although only the species called Anethum graveolens grows in farms, it comes in a range of interesting varieties: ‘Dukat’, ‘Fernleaf’, ‘Hera’, ‘Mammoth’ and also ‘Tetra’.

If a pot is where you want to grow dill, get a hold of the ‘Fernleaf’ variety which is a dwarf variety: it will remain smaller than 16 inches (40 cm) tall.