With its feathery leaves and bright yellow, umbel-shaped flowers floating above the other crops, dill is great for adding visual interest to the container herb garden. Try putting a pot or two of this perennial herb among your lettuces, both for the visual effect and to cast a little dappled shade. I grow dill both for its leaves – wonderful as a stuffing or in a sauce for salmon or trout, with new potatoes, or just raw in a salad – and its seeds. These are delicious in a salad, or stirred into good olive oil and eaten with some fresh bread. Dill does best from direct sowing, as it does not like its roots disturbed. It will thrive in a pot, provided you water every couple of days and do not let it dry out. Otherwise, you will find you have a good crop of seeds rather earlier than you might have liked.
Favourite varieties
I grow Anethum graveolens for its beautiful leaves, which look rather like those of fennel. For a good crop of decent-size seeds, I like ‘Mammoth’, which also does very well as a cut flower.
Key dates
Direct sow in early spring. Cover the soil surface with fleece to get the seeds going. You can start picking once the plants are about 15 cm/6 inches tall and have a decent amount of leaves on them. Every month, pop a few more seeds into the spaces in the pot to ensure a continuous supply.
Common problems
Dill is prone to damping-off, or going mouldy. The key to avoiding this is not to stint on watering, but rather to add some sharp sand to the soil before planting and make sure the pot is in a sunny spot. Also give each plant enough space for air to circulate around it; 5–10 cm/2–4 inches is perfect.
Feature Image: Pexels
This originally appeared on House & Garden UK | An extract from Grow Fruit and Vegetables in Pots by Aaron Bertelsen (Phaidon).
