How to Grow Parsley in the UK

Parsley is one of those herbs that everyone grows badly at least once before they grow it well. My first attempts in my Oxfordshire garden were a slow disaster of patchy germination, plants that bolted to seed in their first summer, and plants that yellowed and died for no obvious reason.

The truth is that I was doing several small things wrong. Once I learned a few simple tricks about how to sow it, where to put it, and how to keep it going, parsley turned into one of the most reliable herbs in my garden. This guide is what I wish I had read in when i started. How to grow parsley in the UK properly, from seed through to harvest, in the ground, in pots, or on a windowsill.

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Flat-Leaf or Curly: Which Parsley to Grow

There are two main types you will see in UK seed catalogues. Curly parsley with the tight frilly leaves, and flat-leaf (sometimes called Italian) parsley with bigger, smoother leaves that look more like a herb than a garnish. I grow both, but if you make me pick one, it is flat-leaf every time. The flavour is stronger and cleaner, the leaves are easier to chop, and most chefs prefer it.

That said, curly parsley has its place. It is hardier through a UK winter, the foliage looks lovely in a pot, and it is what most British recipes traditionally call for. Grow whichever one fits your kitchen. Both behave identically in the garden, so everything below applies to either.

When to Plant Parsley in the UK

Parsley has one of the longest sowing windows of any UK herb. You can sow it almost any time from late February through to early September. For most gardeners the two best windows are spring (March to May) for a summer-into-autumn supply, and a second sowing in August for plants that overwinter and crop through the cold months.

I usually do a March sowing on the kitchen windowsill, plant out in late April, then a second outdoor sowing in late July or early August for the winter plants. Two sowings a year keeps me in fresh parsley nearly all the time, including through Christmas. For the full picture across the gardening year, the UK vegetable planting calendar covers when to do everything else alongside it.

Growing Parsley from Seed in the UK

This is where most people get tripped up, because parsley is famously slow and uneven to germinate. There is an old gardening saying that parsley seed visits the devil seven times before it comes up. That sounds dramatic but it captures it well. Patchy germination is normal. Slow germination is normal. Three weeks of staring at apparently empty compost is normal. None of it means anything has gone wrong.

Here is what actually helps:

• Soak the seeds for 24 hours before sowing. Plain warm water in a saucer. This softens the seed coat and speeds germination noticeably. The single biggest improvement I ever made to my parsley success rate.
• Sow into warm compost, not cold. Parsley seed wants soil temperatures of 10 to 15°C. Sown into cold spring soil, germination drops off badly. Start indoors on a windowsill, or warm the outdoor ground with fleece for a couple of weeks before sowing.
• Sow shallow. The seeds need light to germinate well. About 5mm deep is plenty, just a light dusting of compost on top.
• Keep evenly moist, never waterlogged. Dry compost will kill the seeds outright. Sodden compost will rot them. Aim for damp like a wrung-out sponge.
• Be patient. Two to three weeks is typical. Sometimes four. Do not give up.

If you want the wider seed-sowing approach across all your crops, how to grow vegetables from seed in the UK covers it in detail. The principles all apply to parsley too.

Sowing direct vs indoors

Parsley does not transplant brilliantly. It has a tap root that resents being disturbed, and seedlings often sulk for weeks after being moved. So if you can, sow it where it is going to grow. Direct in the ground in May, or direct in the pot it will live in for the rest of its life.

If you must start indoors (for early sowings in March), use small individual pots or modules rather than seed trays, so the seedlings can be moved with minimal root disturbance. Sow two or three seeds per module and thin to the strongest.

Where to Plant Parsley

Parsley is unusually tolerant for a herb. It will grow in full sun or part shade, in the ground or in pots, indoors or out. There are not many crops you can say that about. That said, it does have preferences.

Sun and shade

Full sun gives you the fastest growth but the leaves can become tough and the plants more likely to bolt in a hot summer. Part shade, four to six hours of sun a day, is honestly ideal for most UK gardens. The plants stay lush, the leaves stay tender, and they last longer before going to seed. If you have a shadier spot that you are not sure what to do with, parsley is one of the few crops that genuinely prefers it.

Soil

Parsley likes rich, moisture-retentive soil that does not get waterlogged. If you know your soil already, you know what to do. If you don’t, how to tell if your garden soil is clay, loam or sand walks through the simple checks. Adding compost or well-rotted manure before sowing makes a real difference. How to improve garden soil in the UK covers the longer game.

Growing Parsley in Pots

Parsley is one of the best herbs for containers. A single decent pot near the kitchen door will keep you in parsley for the best part of a year. I grow most of mine in pots even though I have plenty of bed space, simply because it is more convenient.

Pot size

Bigger than you think. Parsley has a long tap root and a hungry feeding habit. A 20cm pot is the absolute minimum and a 25 to 30cm pot is far better. Small pots dry out fast, run out of nutrients quickly, and produce stressed-looking parsley that bolts early. Growing vegetables in pots in the UK goes into the container basics, and the best vegetables to grow in pots includes parsley as a top recommendation.

Compost and feeding

Use a decent peat-free multipurpose compost. There are some good options covered in peat-free compost in the UK and best compost for vegetables. Liquid feed every couple of weeks from June onwards keeps container parsley productive, because the regular watering needed in summer flushes nutrients out of the bottom of the pot. Feeding vegetables properly covers the wider principle.

Growing Parsley Indoors on a Windowsill

This is genuinely worth doing, and it is the easiest way to have fresh parsley through autumn and winter. The trick is light. Parsley wants the brightest windowsill you can give it, ideally south or south-east facing. A north-facing windowsill is too dark and the plants will stretch and weaken.

Sow in a 20cm pot in late August, keep on a bright windowsill from October onwards, and you will have fresh parsley right through the dark months when nothing much else is growing. Water sparingly in winter, the plant is barely growing and overwatering kills indoor parsley faster than anything else. A pinch of liquid feed every month or so is plenty.

One warning: do not bother trying to keep supermarket “living parsley” plants going. Those pots contain dozens of crammed seedlings designed to be eaten within a fortnight. You can sometimes split them out into individual pots and rescue a few, but it is usually less hassle to start fresh from seed.

Looking After Parsley Through the Season

Watering

Parsley wants steady moisture. Dry soil makes the leaves tough and pushes the plant to flower and seed, which is the end of useful leaves. In the ground, a deep soak once a week in dry spells is plenty. In pots, check every day or two in summer and water when the top inch of compost is dry. How often to water plants in the UK covers the wider principles.

Slugs

Young parsley plants are slug magnets. I have lost more parsley seedlings to slugs in their first month than to anything else. If you sow direct outside, protect seedlings with copper tape, wool pellets, or whatever you find works in your garden. How to get rid of slugs in the garden covers the methods that actually work.

Bolting

Parsley is biennial, which means it grows leaves in year one and then flowers and seeds in year two before dying. That is the natural cycle. But hot dry weather or stressed plants can make it bolt early, in its first summer, which is annoying. Steady moisture, part shade rather than full sun, and regular cutting all help delay bolting. Once flower stalks appear, the leaves become bitter and the game is up.

How to Harvest Parsley

Harvest from the outside in. Take the older, larger outer stems first and leave the young central leaves alone to keep producing. Cut whole stems at the base rather than just pulling leaves off the top. Cutting hard like this actually encourages the plant to push out more growth, the opposite of what beginners often assume.

Never harvest more than a third of the plant at a time, and never strip it bare. A well-treated parsley plant will keep producing for months. A stripped one usually struggles.

For long-term storage, parsley freezes brilliantly. Chop it, pack it into ice cube trays, top with water, freeze. You end up with little parsley ice cubes you can drop straight into soups and stews through winter.

Getting Parsley Through Winter

Parsley is reasonably hardy. Plants in the ground in most of the UK will keep going through winter, especially curly parsley, which is the tougher of the two. The leaves slow right down in December and January but a sheltered plant will still give you fresh sprigs through the cold months.

For more reliable winter cropping, the best approach is the August sowing I mentioned earlier. Sow in late summer, let the plants get established before winter, and they will produce far more usable leaves than a tired one-year-old plant that is on its way out. A cloche over outdoor plants gives them an extra few weeks of useful leaves in late autumn. Frost damage on plants in the UK covers the wider picture if a hard cold snap is forecast.

Common Parsley Problems

After two decades of growing parsley I have run into nearly every problem possible. Here are the ones that come up most often.

• Seeds not germinating. Soil too cold, too dry, or seeds too old. Parsley seed loses viability fast, ideally use it the year you buy it. Soak before sowing and be patient.
• Yellow leaves. Usually overwatering, especially indoors. Sometimes a nutrient deficiency in old compost. Let the plant dry out a bit and feed lightly.
• Leggy seedlings. Not enough light. Move to a brighter spot or sow outside once warm enough.
• Bolting in year one. Stress. Usually heat or drought. Keep evenly watered and grow in part shade.
• Tough, bitter leaves. Old plant. Pull it up and start fresh.
• Whole plants disappearing overnight. Slugs. Protect young plants until they are established.

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Common Questions About Growing Parsley

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A Sensible Place to Start

If you have never grown parsley before, here is the simplest possible plan. Buy a packet of flat-leaf parsley seed this spring. Soak a teaspoon of seeds in warm water for 24 hours. Sow into a 25cm pot of fresh peat-free compost, cover lightly, water gently, and put it somewhere bright and not too cold. Wait three weeks before you start to worry. When it comes up, keep it watered, and start harvesting the outer stems once the plant has six or more proper leaves.

One pot of parsley grown this way will keep you in fresh leaves for most of a year. Then in late August, sow another pot for winter. That is genuinely all there is to it. Twenty years in, this is still how I grow most of my parsley.

If you want to build a wider herb collection alongside it, how to grow herbs in the UK covers the full picture across all the kitchen herbs. And if you fancy tackling the trickier herb cousin, how to grow basil from seed in the UK walks through the most temperature-sensitive herb you will likely grow. Gardening for beginners in the UK covers the wider first-year approach if you are just starting out.