The Charleston Real Estate Search.com

Got parsley?

Often when people walk around my garden they comment on the beautiful Queen Anne’s Lace and ask how I get it to grow in Charleston.  I just smile and tell them, “that’s parsley.”  

In this area, most herbs can be grown as small shrubs or large outdoor plants.  Rosemary makes a gorgeous hedge. Marjoram and Oregano are beautiful full-sun mounded specimens. Thyme will easily creep along a paving stone pathway or gracefully spill over a wall or hanging pot.  Basil will fill in all of the sunny spaces between your tomatoes, peppers and eggplant.  Mint, well, mint will take over any damp space in your yard. 

I grow and use all of these herbs and more, but by far, parsley is one of my favorites.  As a biennial, parsley grows leaves the first year and sets flowers and seeds the second year.  After seeding, the original plant dies off and new babies sprout up around it.  Most people treat it as a garnish but I use it in everything, adding leaves to salads, soups and vegetable dishes.  Sprinkling seeds on salads and adding them to breads.   

Here’s why:

• Parsley has more vitamin C than lemons, oranges or any other fruit
• It also supplies Vitamins A, B, E, K, Beta-Carotene, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Manganese, Sodium, Potassium and Calcium
• Research has shown that parsley aids digestion, stimulates the appetite, neutralizes strong odors like garlic and onion, stimulates the liver, spleen and endocrine organs.
• Believe it or not, parsley seeds are an aphrodisiac, enhancing the sexual glands, stimulating fertility.  They are also known to protect the brain against the side effects of alcohol and brain tumors.

Aside from its status as a super food, Parsley enhances the flavors of other vegetables and herbs, which is why it is so often combined with other herbs in recipes. It also helps the body absorb the nutrients of other foods. 

In the garden, parsley is also a butterfly magnet.  It’s tender leaves are host to at least 20 different caterpillars and its flowers attract butterflies,  sweat bees and beneficial wasps.

Add parsley to your butterfly garden, your herb or kitchen garden and any full sun to partially shaded spot.  For those of you who hate the taste, try the flat leaf variety over the curly variety.  It has a much milder taste and contains all of the same benficial qualities.

For more information go to http://www.liveandfeel.com/medicinalplants/parsley.html