Growing Dill: A Complete Profile
By Growing Home Greens Team · July 18, 2026
Dill is an easy, low-maintenance herb that mostly takes care of itself once it’s in the ground — the main thing to get right is where you plant it, since mature dill doesn’t get along with one of the garden’s most common root crops.
What to expect
Direct-sow seed about 1/4 inch deep roughly a week before your last frost — dill doesn’t transplant well, thanks to a taproot that resents disturbance. At 4 plants per square foot, it grows quickly, reaching usable size in under two months. Left alone, dill will flower, set seed, and often self-sow for next year, which is a feature if you want a returning patch and a nuisance if you don’t.
Common problems
Dill that bolts almost as soon as it’s established is usually a heat response — like cilantro, dill is a cool-season herb at heart, and hot weather pushes it to flower early at the expense of leaf production. Choosing a slower-to-bolt variety helps but doesn’t eliminate this. Yellowing on lower leaves that spreads upward can be a sign of overly wet soil rather than a nutrient issue.
Where this fits in your garden
Dill attracts beneficial predatory insects that help protect nearby brassicas like cabbage — see the full companion guide for dill. Keep it well away from carrots: mature, flowering dill can inhibit carrot root development and cross-attract shared pests. In the Garden Designer, its self-seeding habit is worth accounting for — a dill patch left to flower will likely come back on its own the following year in the same spot.
Companion planting guide for Dill · Find your planting dates
Typically viable in USDA zones 2-10. Not sure your zone? Look it up by ZIP code.
Method: Direct sow — Direct-sow outside — Dill doesn't transplant well, or doesn't need the extra time indoors.
See exact start-indoors, direct-sow, and harvest dates for your zone →
Spacing: 4 per square foot (square-foot-gardening spacing).
Varieties worth considering
- Dukat (also sold as SuperDukat) — Wisconsin Horticulture Extension notes Dukat and SuperDukat have strong flavor and high oil content and are slow to bolt — a better pick than standard dill if you're growing mainly for leaves (dill weed) rather than seed heads. (source)
Cited from the source shown next to each variety — we haven't grown these ourselves yet, so treat this as a research-backed starting point, not a personal endorsement.
Where to buy dill seeds
Some links on this page go to retailers we may eventually earn a commission from as an affiliate, at no extra cost to you. We only recommend products with a genuine consensus of positive, independent reviews — see the sources cited on each item.
See it growing
Search YouTube for "growing dill" videos → (a live search, not a hand-picked video — results vary and aren't vetted by us)