Parsley

Planting window

When to sow, by microclimate — foggier blocks run a different calendar than sunnier ones.

Sunlight

How well it does at each level of direct sun per day.

Soil depth

Root room it needs — useful for sizing raised beds and containers.

Soil pH

The soil acidity it grows best in — most crops sit just below neutral, so this mostly matters for heavily amended or long-reused beds.

Spacing

Room each plant needs — along the row and between rows — for sizing beds.

Growth habit

The shape it makes in the bed and how tall it gets — what tells you whether to give it a trellis, a stake, or just room.

Habit

Low mound

Mature height

8–12 in

Low and self-supporting — no staking needed.

Growing in containers

Whether it does well in a pot, planter, or window box — the SF balcony-and-deck question, weighing its footprint, form, and staying power, not just root depth.

Happy in a pot, planter, or window box — no garden bed required.

How to start it

Sow it where it grows, or raise it under cover and set it out — and how far ahead to start the seedlings if it's the latter.

Usually

Transplant

Start indoors

9 weeks ahead

Started under cover, then set out as a seedling.

Getting started

How it goes in the ground — how deep to sow or set it, and the soil temperature it needs to wake up. The cold-soil floor is the real limiter for direct-sowing in a foggy SF spring.

Started from

From seed

Ideal soil temp

65–85°F

Sow depth

0.125 in

Time to emerge

13–17 days

Watering & feeding

How thirsty and how hungry it is — the water it wants and how much feeding the bed needs to keep it producing. In the fog belt even a thirsty crop drinks less than it would inland.

Water need

Moderate

Wants steady, even moisture — roughly an inch a week, a little more in a heat spell.

Feeding

Moderate feeder

A balanced feed worked into the bed at planting usually carries it through the season.

Water deeply about once a week and don't let it dry out. A moderate feeder — feed once or twice through the season.

Pests & diseases

What tends to trouble this crop — what it is, what you'll see, and what to do about it, least-toxic first.

Our sources document no specific pests or diseases for this crop; it's generally grown without major pest trouble in home gardens.

Harvest & storage

How to tell it's ready to pick, and how to keep it once it's in.

Keeps

WeeksHolds a week or two in the fridge.

Ready to harvest

Snip whole stalks from the outside near the ground and let the centre keep growing for a continuous cut.

Storing

Best fresh — snip as needed, or refrigerate a bunch for up to a week or two. Leaves can be dried.

Culinary use & nutrition

What it's for in the kitchen, and the nutrients a 100 g raw serving is a notable source of.

Pollinators & wildlife

What this crop offers the garden's wildlife once it flowers — often the payoff for letting a bolting plant stand.

Beneficial insects

Hoverflies, lady beetles, and parasitoid wasps that keep aphids and caterpillars down.

Butterflies

Adult butterflies nectaring, and in some crops the leaves their caterpillars grow up on.

Bolted or held into its second year, parsley's umbels feed hoverflies and parasitic wasps; the leaves are host to black and anise swallowtail caterpillars long before any flower opens.

Sources