herb

Dill Weed is Waist-High by the 4th of July

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In one month’s time the dill that re-seeded itself in the garden has grown a foot and a half or more. It’s almost waist-high!

That reminds me of the old saying we have for the fast growth of corn as in, “It’s knee-high by the fourth of July!”

Corn stalks will be shorter or taller than depending on the amount of rain received and of course the crop planting time. Knee-high is around 18 inches for someone 5’8″ tall, so that’s about a foot and a half tall corn stalk.

For an adult waist-high is in the range of 30 to 40 inches, so that’s about three feet tall. Take note of the yardstick in the photo below taken 1 July 2014.

Flowering dillweed plants 2-3 feet tall on July 1st.
Flowering dillweed plants 2-3 feet tall on July 1st.

Dill weed plants in our garden are 2-3 feet tall and they’re starting to flower. They’ll soon be growing their seeds, so it won’t be long that we can use them to make dill pickles.

Time to Make the Dill Pickles

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In the garden we had a dill forest about 4-5 weeks ago. I wish I got a picture of how nice the tall herb looked before that storm blew through here. All the seed heads now lay on the ground or each other, strewn every which way. That area of the garden looks a mess, but it’s the flavors that count.

Dill forest about 4 feet tall in the garden.
Dill forest about 4 feet tall in the garden.

There’s still a lot of dill in the garden even though we used quite a bit for making dill pickles. One head per jar is enough dill weed or dill seed to flavor the cucumbers. We found out we could use the green seed heads just as well as the brown seed heads for flavoring the pickles.

Pickle ingredients of cucumbers, dill and garlic.
Pickle ingredients of cucumbers, dill and garlic.

After another day or two of sunshine we’ll harvest some of the dill seed and dill weed for the pantry and let other stalks release their seeds into the garden. That way, we’ll be guaranteed more dill herb for next year’s fun. Some of the seed that falls to the ground now will be able to germinate and grow a little bit into September, but the small sprouts will die off after the weather freezes. They won’t survive in a hot box for very long into the Autumn.