Herb · Apiaceae
Parsley
Petroselinum crispum
Give it rich soil, steady moisture, and a little patience at sowing, and parsley keeps your kitchen in fresh leaves.
Full sun
Every 2–4 days
50–75°F · 10–24°C
70–90 days
Overview
Parsley is the herb that pretty much every kitchen garden leans on, and it's a member of the carrot family grown for its bright, clean-tasting leaves. You'll find it in two main looks, the tightly ruffled curly type and the bolder flat-leaf Italian type, and if it's flavor you're after, the flat-leaf kind wins. Either way, it's happy in a garden bed or a pot on a sunny sill.
Here's the thing to know: parsley is a biennial, and that changes how you grow it. Year one is all about the leaves, and that's really the harvest you're planting for. Then year two, the plant switches gears, throws up a flower stalk, and the foliage turns tough and bitter, which is why most folks just start fresh from seed every spring.
Once it's up and running, parsley barely asks for anything, but getting it up is the slow part. That seed is famously pokey and can take weeks to sprout, and the taproot underneath really doesn't like being disturbed. So sow it where it'll stay, keep the soil evenly moist, and you'll be cutting leaves for months.
Care
The short version: full sun to part shade, rich well-drained soil kept evenly moist, and a steady monthly feed to keep new leaves coming all season long.
Light
Parsley loves full sun, but it takes partial shade in stride, which makes it handy for a spot that loses the afternoon light. And where summers get hot? A bit of shade through the worst of the day keeps the leaves nice and tender.
Water
Keep the soil evenly moist and don't let the plant dry out all the way, which matters most in pots and during hot spells. Watering every 2 to 4 days usually does the trick, but don't let it sit soggy, because wet roots are what invite rot.
Soil
Go with rich, well-drained loam worked with some compost so it holds moisture without turning into a swamp. A pH somewhere between 6.0 and 7.0 suits it, which is slightly acidic to neutral.
Temperature
Parsley likes things cool to mild, and it grows best from 50°F to 75°F (10°C to 24°C). It shrugs off a light frost no problem, but a long hot stretch will push it to bolt and turn bitter.
Humidity
Average humidity, around 40% to 60%, is plenty for parsley, so no need to fuss. What matters more is airflow, since leaves that stay damp in still, crowded air are exactly where leaf spot gets its start.
Feeding
Feed it monthly through the growing season with a balanced fertilizer or a side-dressing of compost. That steady little nudge is what keeps fresh leaves coming after each cutting.
Pruning
With parsley, harvesting is the pruning. Cut the outer stems at the base once the plant's settled in, and picking often pushes new growth from the center. Come year two, snap off the flower stalks as they show up to hold off bolting a while longer.
Repotting
Parsley in a pot wants a fresh start about once a year, because that taproot fills a container fast. Roots circling around, soil drying out quickly, pale stunted growth up top, those all say it's time to move up or, more likely, resow.
Size & spacing
Parsley stays nice and compact, hitting 8 to 16 inches (20 to 40 cm) tall with a spread of 8 to 12 inches (20 to 30 cm). Give each plant that much room so air moves freely and the leaves can dry between waterings.
When to plant
Parsley's cold-hardy, so it gets going nice and early. Start the seed indoors in late winter, or just direct-sow in early spring a few weeks before the last frost, and you'll be cutting leaves right through the first season. The flower stalk and seed? Those show up in year two.
Northern hemisphere
Southern hemisphere
Typical months for a temperate climate: start earlier in warm zones, later where spring frosts linger.
- Sow: 8-10 weeks before the last spring frost
- Plant: Early spring, a few weeks before the last frost; parsley is cold-hardy
- Harvest: Harvest outer leaves once plants are full in the first year; flowers and seeds form in the second year
Hardiness
USDA hardiness zones: 4–9
Temperature: down to -34°C
Troubleshooting
Parsley's a pretty easygoing herb, and most of its trouble either lands on the leaves or comes back to soggy soil. Learn the handful of common signs and you can jump in early. Just match what you're seeing below, then act while it still does some good.
Stems flop at the base and the roots turn soft and dark
That's stem and root rot, and it comes straight from soil that stays too wet and won't drain. Once the base has rotted there's really no bringing it back, so pull the plant and toss it. Then sort out the drainage before you replant, and go easy on the watering with anything that's in a pot.
Fix:
- Remove and discard affected plants
- Improve drainage before replanting
Little tan to brown spots with dark edges are spreading over the leaves
That's Septoria leaf spot, a fungus that shows up when the leaves stay wet and the air's humid. It usually gets going down low and inside the plant, then the spots grow and blur together the longer the foliage stays damp. So thin things out for better airflow, water down at the soil line, and pull off any spotted leaves you spot.
Fix:
- Remove and discard affected leaves
- Improve air circulation by thinning plants
- Avoid overhead watering
A tall flower stalk shoots up and the leaves go tough and bitter
This is bolting, and honestly it's just parsley being the biennial it is once the second year rolls around. Heat or stress can hurry it along, but either way there's no undoing it. So the easy move is to treat parsley as an annual, replant every spring, and pick it hard before that seed stalk takes off.
Fix:
- Start new plants from seed each year rather than maintaining biennials
- Harvest heavily before bolting
- Remove flower stalks to briefly prolong leaf production
Fat green caterpillars with black and yellow bands are eating the leaves
Good news, that's just the parsleyworm, the caterpillar that turns into an eastern black swallowtail, and it does chew through outer leaves in a hurry. You can pluck them off by hand, but why not do what a lot of gardeners do and move them to a spare plant so they can grow into butterflies? Plant a bit of extra parsley and there's plenty to go around.
Fix:
- Handpick caterpillars if leaf supply is limited
- Relocate caterpillars to a sacrificial plant since they become swallowtail butterflies
- Cover plants with row cover if protection is needed
Toxicity
For people, parsley is a safe culinary herb, and a sprig in your food is nothing to lose sleep over. The catch is the furanocoumarins it shares with the rest of the carrot family, which can hand pets and grazing animals an upset stomach or sun-sensitive skin if they eat a real amount. Cats, dogs, and especially birds deserve a light touch, so keep those harvested bunches out of reach.
Toxic to
Cats · Dogs · Horses · Rabbits · Livestock · Birds
Safe for
People
Cats Mild
One little nibble won't do much, but if a cat gets a real mouthful, it can end up with a queasy stomach and loose stools. Those furanocoumarins can leave the skin a bit touchy in sunlight too, so keep bunches somewhere the cat can't reach.
Dogs Mild
Most dogs are totally fine with small culinary bits of parsley. Give one a big helping, though, and the same furanocoumarins can bring on drooling, an upset stomach, and skin that reddens or burns in the sun.
Horses Mild
A horse that grazes through a big patch of parsley can turn photosensitive, so its light-skinned spots redden and chap after some time out in the sun. It's worth keeping heavy grazing in check.
Rabbits Mild
A few leaves? That's a nice little treat. Pile on too much, though, and the furanocoumarins can upset the gut, so it's best to keep parsley as an occasional part of the greens rather than an everyday thing.
Livestock Mild
Goats, sheep, and cattle can pick up sun-triggered skin irritation if they really graze parsley hard. But one stray plant out in the pasture? That rarely adds up to anything.
Birds Mild
Birds are the touchiest of the bunch, so they need the lightest hand. Even modest amounts of the concentrated furanocoumarins can bother the gut and skin, so offer parsley now and then and not as a staple green.
People Safe
No worries here, parsley's a kitchen staple and safe to eat. Handle huge amounts of the fresh plant in bright sun and sensitive skin might get a rash, but that's a worker's headache, not something to think about at the dinner table.
Furanocoumarins can cause sun-triggered skin and eye irritation in animals that ingest substantial amounts; small culinary garnish quantities are typically low-risk.
Helpline numbers
United States
ASPCA Animal Poison Control: (888) 426-4435 (fee applies)
United Kingdom
Animal PoisonLine: 01202 509000 (fee applies)
Australia
Animal Poisons Helpline: 1300 869 738
Varieties
A handful of different parsleys turn up in gardens, and they mostly split by whether you're after the leaves or the root. Here are the ones worth knowing by name.
Curly parsley (var. crispum)
Those tightly curled, ruffled leaves are what make it such a go-to for garnish, and it looks great tucked along the front of a bed.
Italian flat-leaf parsley (var. neapolitanum)
If you're cooking, this is the one, since its flat, deeply cut leaves pack the strongest flavor of the bunch.
Hamburg parsley (var. tuberosum)
Here's the odd one out, grown for its thick, parsnip-like taproot instead of the leaves on top.
How to propagate
Parsley comes from seed, and really, that's how just about everyone starts it. The knack is working with its slow sprouting and the fact that it hates being moved.
SeedModerate
Spring; start indoors 8-10 weeks before the last frost or direct-sow when soil can be worked · About 3-4 weeks to germinate, plus several more weeks to establish
Parsley grows from seed, and it does ask you to be patient. Start it indoors 8 to 10 weeks before the last frost, or just direct-sow once the soil's workable, and figure on 3 to 4 weeks to germinate plus several more to fill in. Want faster sprouting? Soak the seed overnight first. And since parsley makes a taproot and hates being moved, sow it right where it'll grow, or shift young seedlings gently if you have to.
Myths
Parsley is a safe culinary herb, so it poses no risk to pets.
Garden parsley does carry furanocoumarins, the same family of compounds found across the carrot family, and a pet that eats a large amount can get an upset stomach or skin that burns in the sun. Small garnish-sized portions are low-risk, and the toxic 'spring parsley' on the ASPCA list is a different plant entirely, Cymopterus watsonii.
Parsley seed simply will not germinate.
It sprouts just fine, it's only slow about it, and the wait can drag on for several weeks before you see a thing. Want to hurry it up? Soak the seed overnight before you sow, and it'll come along faster.