The seed succeeded

You know how seed packets are always carefully marked with a "sow by" date ? Well, my advice is: forget it, hang on to your seed, use it when you are ready; and not before. We grew two types of parsley this year, flat leafed (on the left in the picture above) and curly leafed. Admittedly the flat leafed is, for the moment, looking the more vigorous, but it may come as a surprise - certainly to all those seed companies whose best advice is to buy fresh each year and chuck out anything past date - to learn that "Old Curly," as Spuds will insist on calling it, was germinated from a packet dated... 1976 ie: the seed was 46 years old when we planted it (and we've still got a bit left for next year)