Dill is an annual herb grown for its feathery leaves and seeds, which flavour food across Eurasia. It needs warm, sunny weather and rich, well-drained soil to do well.
Family
Apiaceae (Carrot family)
Grows as
Annual
Light
Part shade
Water
Keep soil evenly moist, especially while the plant is growing, and avoid waterlogging.
Soil
Rich, well-drained soil
Temperature
15–30 °C; protect from frost
How easy
Easy
Safety
Not known to be toxic
Edible
Yes, some parts
Native range
N. Africa to Chad, Iran to Arabian Pen.
Climate
temperate
About
Dill (Anethum graveolens) is an annual herb in the celery family Apiaceae. Native to North Africa and West Asia, dill is grown widely in Eurasia, where its leaves and seeds are used as a herb or spice for flavouring food.
How to grow it
Successful cultivation requires warm to hot summers with high sunshine levels; even partial shade will reduce the yield substantially. It also prefers rich, well-drained soil. The seed is harvested by cutting the flower heads off the stalks when the seed is beginning to ripen. The seed heads are placed upside down in a paper bag and left in a warm, dry place for a week. The seeds then separate from the stems easily for storage in an airtight container.
These plants, like their fennel and parsley relatives, often are eaten by black swallowtail caterpillars in areas where that species occurs. For this reason, they may be included in some butterfly gardens.
Where it grows
Dill is native to North Africa, Iran, and the Arabian Peninsula.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Dill by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.