Grow Dill: The Weed That Isn’t

It’s a crop that seeds itself. It can be so prolific that it requires thinning. It first shows itself in the spring, and then sprouts again in late summer. It has edible leaves and seeds. Dill is the great no-fail crop.

Grow dill, and it takes care of itself

I love dill—and lots of it. That’s good because in late spring there’s so much in the garden that I have to pull it out from amongst the other crops, giving me a constant supply of fresh, young dill leaves.

Where dill might compete with other crops, I remove it: first, from the pea patch; then from around the onion sets; then from the emerging carrot and beet seedlings. But I leave a few plants growing where they don’t bother anything—in the tomato patch, amongst the lettuce, and around the edges of the garden.

Growing dill

Once you have grown it, there’s no need to worry about ever planting again. Simply let a couple of plants develop seed heads. Allow the seeds to fall to the ground, even spread a few around the garden.

• Plant seeds if you haven’t grown dill before. Sprinkle the seeds in the garden—don’t bother spacing them or covering them with soil. Just spread them by hand, like grass seed.
• Don’t bother growing dill seedlings for transplanting. Dill has a taproot that makes it a poor candidate for transplanting—and, besides, it grows so well when sown directly.
• Maintenance is simple: there is none, apart from pulling out unwanted plants. Where there is space, let it continue to grow. Where there is not, remove it. Watering isn’t necessary unless conditions are very dry.
• Pick the leaves as needed. When the plants start to flower, pull up a few to hang dry by the roots, giving a winter supply of dry dill weed. Once it goes to seed, save some seeds for use in cooking.

Grown this way, you do not need a dedicated dill patch. Simply let it fill in the holes in your garden. It’s an incredibly simple crop to grow.

Get Cooking

Instead of drying dill in my sunny shed, where the light causes it to fade from an inviting green to grey, I simply freeze chopped dill in a plastic tub, giving ready-chopped dill throughout the winter.

Here are some ideas for using dill:

• Garnish a salad with chopped dill;
• Chop dill into the potato filling for pierogies;
• Sprinkle mashed potatoes with dill;
• Cook cubed beets with a sprinkling of dill seed;
• And, of course, borsch (beet soup) must always, always be topped with chopped dill.

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