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Planting Parsleys

Grown extensively in many vegetable gardens, parsley is a biennial herb most often treated as annual.

The culinary uses of parsley are many. Its crisp green leaves are flavorful and nutritios additions to salds. Parsley can be sprinkled over potatoes - whether mashed, who or sald style - and its use in flavoring sauces, soups and stuffings is extensive.

Planting and Culture: Parsley is usually planted in March or April. It is biennial which does well either in open sun or partiial shade. Any ordinary garden soil which does not dry out too rapidly, is rich in nitrogen and is not excessively alkaline, is suitable.

Since parsley seeds germinate slowly, it isbest to soak them in lukewarm water for 24hours before planting. The seeds usually re-quire four weeks to germinate. One packet ofseed should sow a 100-foot row. Place seed ina shallow trench that has been fertilized withcompost and well-rotted manure and cover withabout 1/4 inch of fine soil. Plant rows about 12to 16 inches apart. For a thick growth, un-wanted seedlings should be thinned so that themature plants stand at least six inches apart.The leaves also may be clipped. To avoid dam-aging the shallow roots while weeding, plantradishes among the parsley. The radishes willforce out weeds and help to mark the parsleyrows.

Parsley will overwinter if given the pro-tection of a light mulch during severely coldweather. One of the earliest green plants toshow in the spring, parsley blossoms in thesecond year. To prevent the herb from goingto seed, the blossoms, which look like Queen-Anne's-lace, should be cut off as soon as theyappear.

In the fall the herb may be dug up, pottedand brought indoors where it will continue toprovide fresh leaves throughout the wintermonths. Care should be taken to dig up asmuch of the root as possible, and some of theoutside foliage should be cut from the plant.Potted plants may also be started from seedindoors.

Harvesting: The first tender sprigs maybe cut as soon as the leaves are well formed.From then on, the leaves, with a portion of thestem, may be cut as needed. Customarily, theouter leaves only are cut. This practice permitsthe heart of the plant to continue to grow andproduce more leaves.

For use as flavoring, the leaves may be cut and dried. The tender parts of the stems arecut from the plants and placed on a screen in ashady, dry, well-ventilated location. Whenthoroughly dried, they may be crushed andstored in small, tightly covered containers.

Parsley may also be frozen for winter use.Pinch off the foliage and spread it on a cookiesheet. Quick-freeze and store, airtight, in aplastic bag to use a little at a time.

Varieties: Champion Moss Curled ismild in flavor and crisp. Giant Italian is astrong producer. Hamburg is favored for itsprolific growth and hardiness and its thick,edible root.

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