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How to successfully grow dill in your garden

I love the aroma and feathery leaves on a dill plant (I also enjoy cooking with dill). First introduced to dill by a friend who prepared a salad and garnished the salad with fresh dill. It was such an amazing taste and became one of my favorite herbs. Keep reading to learn how to grow dill in your garden.

There are three key ways that dill can be used: dill seed, dill weed, and dill oil. Most home growers will use the dill weed and the dill seed. The most popular use of dill is making dill pickles using the dill seed and/or weed. In the ‘Harvesting and Storage’ section below, I describe my favorite uses of dill.

Dill has beautiful ferny, blue–green leaves, is an annual (sometimes biennial) and is very aromatic. It grows upright on tall hallow stems and is one of the tallest herbs in my garden, reaching ~three-five feet in height (1.2 meters). Because of its height, dill can become spindly and should be supported by a stake. At the top of the stem, dill produces umbrella-like heads of yellow flowers. It’s a good plant to grow in your garden because dill attracts beneficial insects.

Dill known as a remedy for indigestion also encourages sleep if taken at bedtime.

Nothing awakens reminiscence like an aroma.
Victor Hugo

Dill Flowers

SUCCESSFULLY GROW DILL

Dill is best direct seeded outdoors in the garden. It can be started indoors from seed but can be difficult to transplant because a taproot develops that can easily be damaged. The optimal soil temperature for sowing seeds is 70°F. At a minimum, wait a week before the last frost date in your area before direct seeding. Here are the general guidelines for how to grow dill:

Dill prefers a soil that is fertile, well-drained and amended with organic matter (e.g. the addition of compost and/or manures). Compost can be made at home or purchased from a garden center. For information on making compost at home, reference my blog titled “Recipes for Compost”. It’s best to work compost into the soil in the fall for a spring planting. When growing dill in multiple successions, the soil should be amended with additional compost prior to each seeding. Dill prefers the soil pH to be 6.5 to 7.0.
Plant in full sun.
Don’t plant near cilantro or fennel as they could cross pollinate, resulting in a plant that does not have true dill flavor.
Follow the guidelines on the back of the seed package for planting depth and spacing. In general, seeds should be thinned to 9 inches apart and in rows that are 9 inches apart. Dig a small trough and sprinkle in the seeds (plant twice as many seeds to ensure you get the number of plants you need). Cover seeds lightly with soil and water. It is important to water well while seeds are germinating. It will take one to two weeks for the seeds to germinate and plants mature in approximately six weeks.

CARING FOR DILL

Keep dill well-watered and weeded, do not allow soil to dry out.
Stake the dill plant when the flowers develop as dill becomes top heavy and will fall over.
After dill starts flowering, fertilize with a sprinkling of fertilizer high in potassium and phosphorus once per month.
Succession plant dill every two weeks to ensure you have a fresh supply of dill for as long as possible before the heat of summer.
Dill starts with ferny type leaves, then develops umbrella-like heads of yellow flowers and finally the flower heads dry out and release their seeds. If you let the flower go to seed in your garden, there is a good possibility that dill will propagate the following season.
Dill is great in the garden because it attracts beneficial insects including the wasps, ladybugs and lacewing. These beneficial insects are predators to other less desirable insects such as aphids.
To prolong the life of dill, pinch off the flower buds as soon as they appear on the plant. Pinching will produce a bushier plant.
Dill is a good companion for cabbage but an antagonist for carrots (e.g. don’t plant near carrots).

Dill and the black Swallowtail Butterfly

PROBLEMS

Dill does not have many pest problems. The striped caterpillars that become the black swallowtail butterflies love dill. If you find these caterpillars on your dill, gently remove them by hand. If you are unsure the type of pest or disease, check with your Cooperative Extension for help in identifying and determining appropriate controls.

Dried Dill

Dill Seeds

HARVESTING AND STORAGE

Dill has a relatively short life span, lasting 8-10 weeks. There are two primary parts of the dill plant that can be harvested. First, there are the ferny leaves that can be used as a seasoning. Second, there are the flower heads from which the seeds will form. When the flower heads form (e.g. the plant is bolting or going to seed), the plant growth will slow and eventually leaf production will stop.

Dill leaves

The optimum time to harvest the dill leaves is early morning when moisture content is high. Remove, at most, one-third of the foliage at any one harvest by pinching or cutting off the stems. Dill leaves have the best flavor if harvested right when the flower heads form. The leaves can be used either fresh or can be dried for use in the future. Once harvested, there are a few things you can do with the leaves:

Use fresh dill in recipes or canning pickles.
Store the fresh dill in the refrigerator for up to three days. Place the stems in water to keep the leaves fresh.
Use dill in a fresh flower bouquet. Dill flowers adds a beauty and a touch of fragrance to the bouquet.
Dry dill leaves for long term storage. Gather a bunch of dill, secure the stems together with a rubber band and hang upside down to dry. Keep in a cool location for one-two weeks and the dill should be dry. Once dill is dry, pinch the leaves between your fingers and let the dried leaves fall on a paper towel. I like putting the leaves through a food processor and then placing in an airtight jar. Dill should retain its flavor for approximately one year.
Fresh dill can also be placed in the freezer and used as needed. However, when freezing, dill will lose some of its flavor.

Dill seed

The dill seed is harvested at the end of the plant’s life cycle. Dill seeds are commonly used in canning dill pickles. The seed harvesting process can start when the seed flower turns from yellow to a golden brown. When this happens, cut the flower stem off at the base of the plant. Then hang upside down to dry in a warm, well ventilated location for two weeks. Next, place the seed head in a brown paper bag and shake. The seeds will release from the flower head and can be collected. These seeds can be planted to grow new dill plants or can be used in making dill pickles. The seeds can be saved for three years.

PREPARING

Dill can be used in potato salads, egg salads, cucumber salads, garden salads, in sour cream or yogurt dips, fish, herb vinegars and butters. When cooking with dill, it is best to add the dill near the end of the cooking time to preserve the flavor Here are a few of my favorite dill recipes.