Anethum graveolens.
An herb of literally biblical antiquity — cultivated in pharaonic Egypt more than 5,000 years ago, distributed to Roman gladiators as a symbol of courage and victory, ordered by Charlemagne for the royal Carolingian gardens (that same famous Capitulare De Villis), and present alongside humanity through nearly all written history. The name itself is ancient: anethon in Greek, taken up as anethum by the Romans. In the Middle Ages it was also credited with protective virtues against witchcraft — a few dried leaves were tucked into cradles and over doorways to ward off evil influences.
An annual plant 60 cm to 1.2 m tall, airy and light in habit, with finely cut blue-green plumed foliage that takes on silver-grey tones at maturity, crowned in summer by flat umbels of small golden-yellow flowers that delight hoverflies and parasitic wasps — beneficial insects valuable to the vegetable garden. Everything is edible and useful: fresh leaves (the English dill weed) chopped generously into cucumber pickling brines (the famous North American dill pickles), onto Scandinavian cured salmon (gravlax), in Russian and Ukrainian borscht, on new butter potatoes, in Greek tzatziki, Indian raita; and mature seeds, more pungent and warmer than the leaves, dry-toasted in a pan for pickling brines, seeded breads, and spice blends. Garden bonus: an excellent companion to cucumber and the brassicas, whose pollinators it attracts and (it's said) whose pests it confuses.
Grower's tip: Dill hates being moved — it develops a fragile taproot that breaks during transplanting. Direct-sow in place only, as soon as the soil can be worked (May in Québec), then new windows every 3-4 weeks to stretch the fresh-leaf harvest through summer. For seed harvest, aim for a single early-spring sowing and let the plant flower and seed over 90-100 days; collect the browned umbels at the end of summer before they scatter in the wind. The plant self-seeds generously once established — a single sowing often gives volunteer dill in the garden for years.
- Open-pollinated. Annual. Insect-pollinated; crosses very little with other umbellifers in the garden — low crossing risk for seed saving.
- Height: 60 cm to 1.2 m.
- Maturity: 40-50 days for leaves, 90-100 days for seeds.
- Exposure: full sun.
- Ordinary to rich, well-drained soil. Tolerates drought well once established. Thin to 20-25 cm.
- Direct-sow as soon as the soil can be worked (May in Québec), in successive rows every 3-4 weeks for leaves, or a single spring sowing for seed harvest. Self-seeds generously.
