Dill 'Mammoth Long Island' Seeds

'Mammoth Long Island' is the big, generous dill: tall, leafy plants topped by wide umbels of yellow flowers that turn into the seed heads used for pickling. This American heirloom gives plenty of feathery blue-green leaves for fish, potatoes, cucumbers and yoghurt sauces before it flowers. The flower heads bring in ladybirds, hoverflies and other aphid eaters, so it pulls its weight in the vegetable plot as well as the kitchen. Anethum graveolens grows fast from a direct sowing and also does well in a deep container.

Sowing and growing

• Sow outdoors where it is to grow from April to July, every few weeks for a steady supply of leaves
• It dislikes being moved, so sow direct or in modules rather than seed trays
• Sow about 1 cm deep in rows
• Germination takes 7 to 21 days
• Full sun, sheltered from strong wind, in well-drained soil
• Grows to about 90 cm tall; taller plants may need a cane
• Pick leaves from about eight weeks after sowing; seed heads ripen in late summer
• Hardy annual

What you receive: a packet of about 150 seeds from Piccolo Seeds, with growing instructions on the back.

Find more culinary herbs in our seed range. Its flat flower heads are a favourite of beneficial insects, like the plants in our pollinator collection.