Seeds will only germinate and become plants if they were mature to start with. Seeds will only mature on a living plant. It's doubtful if a plant grown indoors will have reached maturity before it died, or lived long enough for any seeds to have reached maturity - but there's no harm in trying, is there?

Curly parsley, like other parsleys, is a biennial. That means that it lives out its entire life cycle over 2 years. In its second year, it will produce flowers, then seeds, and those seeds take quite some time to reach maturity.

No amount of watering will bring a dead plant back to life.

Certain deciduous plants can LOOK dead during winter, but there is still life in the roots, and usually in the stems (branches) as well - it shuts down and goes to sleep, and will bounce back in spring - but parsley is not one of these. If parsley looks dead, it is dead. Thoroughly dead.

You can grow coriander (cilantro) at any time of the year, provided the conditions provided for it are right. Because it is a very short-lived plant (about 2 weeks in my subtropical part of the world), you'll need to do successive plantings, about every 2-3 weeks. Best to allow it to self-seed (ie drop ripe seeds and go from there without any intervention on your part). Hence - best outside.

To again quote a long-departed old gardener friend of mine: "God didn't make houses, and he didn't make pots, either". Which means that most plants do better planted outside in the garden. What a lot of people forget is that (a) plants usually get much bigger and healthier when planted outside; (b) indoor plants are inhibited by the amount of dirt and grease which covers their leaves (c) all plants will be stunted to some degree when planted in pots (and usually the pots will be several sizes too small!); (d)the light coming through glass windows is FILTERED light - filtering out certain rays of the sun which plants need.

I suggest you use the search facility here to browse through the many posts on the herbs you mention.

eg:

Here is a link that might be useful: search results for 'parsley'

Thank you Daisy!

"If parsley looks dead, it is dead. Thoroughly dead." LOL, I will remember that one for sure!

I woulda liked your departed gardener friend! I have the room to plant everything I want outside. I just haven't had the time to learn, but now I'm making it a priority. There's also the husband issue, he wants to do things the easy way and I know better because I watched my father grow veggies. His father has always had a garden too, only my husband never paid attention like I did. :)

So - he wants me to do rows, and he wants to be able to drive the tractor and / or tiller through the rows to avoid a lot of weeding. It's exactly what my father wanted to do as well, so I can live with it. But I need my own separate garden too. I need help deciding what vegetables and herbs I can grow together, along with a few flowers to help with pests. I could then have my own garden, I'll weed it myself, and use only the tiller. Mine will not made up of rows, and then I can help him with the stuff that does best in rows - he'll have his own garden. Does that make sense?

I wanted to plant my lettuce in rows 6 INCHES apart, with his plan, I can't. So now I have one row of three kinds of lettuce started and one row of cucumber that's halfway seeded. I planned to put beans in the rest of the row but he flips out when I want to use anything needing support, again, it messes up his run the tractor through the garden plan!

Right now, with HIS plan...we have cantaloupe and watermelon growing amongst a freakin jungle of grass and weeds. Would it not make healthier plants to simply hoe?

Tell your hubby that YOU need a space to experiment in. It needs to be separate from the rest of the garden. If he is a neatness freak you could do a potager garden, go to that forum and see what you think.

I don't know how long you have been married but tell him from me one of my husbands favorite sayings to other men is "if he wants a happy wife he will do what mama wants". He will get benefits also. If he does not go along with this he will get worse as he grows older.

As far as the melons I find that unless they are thickly mulched they will do better in a grassy area especially if you have a hot summer. The vegetation shields the melons from some of the sun and hot winds that normally accompany that type of weather. It does make it difficult to find the melons so perhaps sticking a flag close to one when you locate would be of assistance.

I want to eventually learn to plant only non GM seeds and save my seeds for replanting.

Seed-saving is one of our oldest agricultural traditions and a very natural one.

If you look for "open-pollinated" or "heirloom" seeds to start with, you will be able to collect seeds from some of your best plants for future planting. Check out the book "Seed to Seed" by Suzanne Ashworth at your local library for a wealth of info on seed saving.

FataMorgana

"If he is a neatness freak you could do a potager garden, go to that forum and see what you think."

Thanks so much for mentioning this, it's exactly what I want to do. I've been looking at pictures and designs for days now - I love the idea!

"I don't know how long you have been married but tell him from me one of my husbands favorite sayings to other men is "if he wants a happy wife he will do what mama wants". He will get benefits also. If he does not go along with this he will get worse as he grows older. "

It's too late, he's not fixable. We moved in together in 1989 and got married in '92. My friend's husband is always reminding him of the the happy wife sayin' and sometimes it works! Only 'cause it's just easier that way ;).

Based on what you said, I think I should let him grow corn and melons, I'll do the rest in my "potager" garden and since we sound way too redneck trying to pronounce it, we've decided to call it our "kitchen" garden, lol! We are teaching our kids how to grow food so this idea is perfect for us - thanks again.

FataMorgana - thanks for your help too! I have the book on my Christmas list. So far, everything I've bought for my fall garden has been heirloom seeds but I don't expect to learn how to save them all at once. First, I just need to figure out how to plant lettuce and carrot seed in my GA soil, it's very dense(?) I guess? My first planting got washed away with a hard rain. My next planting didn't come up, it's been 8 days now and nothing. I covered it with potting soil because I thought my soil was too heavy, that was a waste! At least I'm learning what not to do. I know my seeds were good because what I put in containers came up.

Glad to help.

I have heavy clay soil - about as dense as it gets! The garden beds have been amended - I turn compost into the beds to 1.) loosen the soil and 2.) put nutrients in the beds. The soil was pretty spent from the previous owners who used only chemical fertilizers in them. The soil gets better each year.

Next time you add "potting soil," mix it with your existing soil to get the best of both worlds - the great water retention that heavy soils have and the improved lightness and nutrients that your "potting soil" brings. You're plants will appreciate it.

FataMorgana

bugtusselmom - start reading up on square foot gardening and lasagna gardening. Potager style is also a great idea. Wide rows are ok for things like corn, potatoes etc or devoting a large area to winter squash or melons but small easy-to-weed, narrow beds are much better for many vegetables. How large is your family and do you plan to freeze/can? This is my second year of vegetable gardening after a long absence. I found a 10' double row of beans produces too many beans for the two of us. I've been giving beans away. Next year I will plant a five foot double row (one row of green, one of yellow) and after a few weeks, plant the rest of the 10' to give us a longer period of production and not too much at any one time. I have 4 beds which aren't too much work to weed esp if you have a good hand tool like a Cape Cod weeder. My husband likes neat but the veggie beds are my province. He does the lawn. The smaller beds with wide paths between allow him to mow (as long as he uses the bagger). I suggest you divide up garden responsibilities and areas. He gets the big plot for space hogs. You take some small beds for things like lettuce, beans, carrots, etc. ALSO, the less walking and machinery on the soil the better condition it has. My beds have loose, easy to weed soil (lots of wood chips in composted manure). There are tons of earth worms. We had a long rainy cold beginning to summer and some people around me lost their gardens to mud and disease. Good luck!

"Next time you add "potting soil," mix it with your existing soil to get the best of both worlds - the great water retention that heavy soils have and the improved lightness and nutrients that your "potting soil" brings. You're plants will appreciate it."

I think we need to consider that we should be working the soil more often. Thanks for your ideas. We have started a compost "pile" but we've got a lot to learn about soil maintenance. The seeds seem so tiny and I wondered if the clay-like soil in the garden would be too heavy for germination. I think what happen with my lettuce is that the soil temperature is too warm, it likes cool temps for germination. We have had a really mild summer and just now having our usually hot days.

Compost, compost, compost: the cure for clay soil OR sandy soil. Can't have too much. Fiind out if your municipality has compost for sale (made from leaves, yard waste, etc. but NO SEWAGE SLUDGE --you do NOT want that coming in contact with food plants).
Lettuce & other small crops planted in beds is much easier and space-efficient than in rows.
Do not plant a garden larger than you have time to weed, water/care for.
Zone 7 has a long growing season; stagger plantings of fast-growing things like beans, summer squash, and so many other veggies. Read seed catalogs & packets & pay attention to "days to maturity." Plant accordingly. Check with your local extension office for spring & fall frost dates and take advantage of their FREE garden info specific to your area. (Your tax dollars at work!)
And your assignment for winter: get to the library, borrow books like square foot gardening and any organic gardening books you find and READ, READ, READ!
Oh, yes--and remember that fall is the best time to amend garden soil. Have it tested at your extension office (call & ask them how). Gather, shred, and compost or store in a big pile (chopped w/the lawn mower or whatever) all the leaves you can get. Use as mulch next year the ones you do not compost.

Most of all: enjoy yourself, experiment, and bask in the ability to grow your own food. I do not know of anything more empowering or satisfying (unless it is preserving that food!--but all things in good time).

Most of all: enjoy yourself, experiment, and bask in the ability to grow your own food. I do not know of anything more empowering or satisfying (unless it is preserving that food!--but all things in good time).

I couldn't agree more!! :)

The garden offers you an endless supply of "second chances" - where else in life do you get that? Enjoy!

FataMorgana