Herbs
Dill
Anethum graveolens
Timings for your region
Suggested: Moderate · Explained in the glossary
Sow outdoorsearly April – early August
Harvestearly June – late September
Practical tip
Hates being transplanted — always sow it straight into the bed. It self-seeds happily if you leave a few heads standing.
Origin & history
Dill comes from western Asia and the eastern Mediterranean and is among the oldest spice plants of all; it reached Central Europe by way of the Romans and later the monastery gardens. Its culinary map is striking: in Scandinavia, Poland and Russia dill is the herb, whereas in Italy and Spain it plays almost no part. Its old German name “Gurkenkraut” — cucumber herb — gives away its chief role here: what traditionally goes into the preserving jar is not the fine foliage but the half-ripe flower head.
Varieties
There are two breeding directions, and the packet unfortunately does not always say which. Leaf-dill varieties such as “Tetra” or “Dukat” stay bushy, keep pushing out side shoots and bolt late; types grown for the seed head such as “Mammut” or “Bouquet” flower quickly and form large umbels. If you want leaf dill all summer, look specifically for “blühfaul” (slow to bolt) or “Blattdill” on the packet — the cheap packet without a variety name is usually the fast-flowering kind.
Care
Dill is hardly any work, but it asks for two things: a drill kept evenly moist until the seedlings appear — which can take two to three weeks — and then thinning to about ten centimetres, because plants standing too close stay spindly and go over in the first thunderstorm. Do not feed it: on freshly manured ground it grows soft and short on flavour. Rather than sowing a whole packet at once, sow a short row every three or four weeks; that gives you tender foliage continuously instead of far too much once and nothing afterwards.
What can go wrong
On heavy, cold soil dill comes up patchily, and individual plants later collapse at the base — light, warm, free-draining soil and thin sowing are the answer to that. Like all umbellifers it is incompatible with itself and with carrot, parsley, celery and fennel; leave three to four years before that bed sees any of them again. Aphids like to gather on the umbels — pinching off the affected shoot tip is usually enough. The strikingly green-and-black banded caterpillars, though, should be left alone: that is the swallowtail, specially protected in Germany, and the plant copes easily with a few nibbled leaflets.
Harvest, storage & kitchen
Leaf dill is cut whole shoot by whole shoot and goes onto the dish only after cooking — heated, nothing of the aroma remains. For pickled gherkins cut the head once the seeds have formed but are still green; that is the most aromatic moment. Let it ripen on until the fruits turn brown and you have dill seed for bread or coleslaw — hang those heads upside down in a paper bag, or half the crop trickles back into the bed. Fresh foliage dries badly but freezes well, chopped into portions.
All timings are guide values for the given climate, not a guarantee. Weather, aspect and variety all have a say.