Organic. Period.

Seed savers all over the world love the old varieties of open-pollinated plants. Herb plants are usually open-pollinated, and I always save seeds or make cuttings in the fall to carry over annuals or to propagate more plants of my favorite herbs. Saving pure seeds helps preserve biodiversity. Go to www.seedsavers.org for lots more information about this.

Parsley is a biennial plant. It grows the first year, and you can make many, many cuttings of its leaves for drying or fresh use. I’ve frozen parsley, too, and used it in soups, but I prefer using it dried if I can’t have it fresh.

The second year, parsley will grow back from the same root system, and it will be a lovely, leafy plant. It will suddenly send out flower heads in late spring. They look like Queen Anne’s Lace, and are very pretty in the garden, bobbing around on the breeze. Once the flowers are pollinated, you’ll have plenty of seeds to save, or just let them fall to the ground if you want them to re-seed themselves.

I have a parsley bed that I planted two years in a row, then I just let it re-seed every year. This way I always have some really leafy first year plants, and some second year plants going to seed.

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