Last summer, chervil did well in my garden as one of the constituents in a seed blend I purchased. I remember reading that chervil actually liked a cool garden and wondered why I hadn't taken advantage of it before. But of course being a blend, there wasn't a lot of it, and I had to be very judicious through the summer about not picking too much at any one time. At the end of the season, I thought it was gone along with everything else; I'd used up the lettuces and ripped out everything else except the chives. But a brief warm spot in September caused a lone little saucer shaped patch of green lace to pop out of the ground, not leggy like the summer chervil had been but, I was pretty sure, the real deal. And there it stayed all winter long, getting thick and dense and darker green than my summer chervil had ever been. I thought any day it would die but though temps sunk into the teens at points for days on end, the chervil sat there brightly, nonplussed. I didn't pick at it, I just waited to see what it would do.
It just got stronger, apparently.
Yesterday I realized that the saucer had become a dinner plate. It's spreading itself, little tendrils of root travelling under the surface to make new, tightly nested clumps. As well, mache, which had apparently gone to seed, sent up some volunteers, and between the two and a head of store-bought bibb lettuce I had enough to make my first spring salad to celebrate the solstice with. What heaven: this is the most assertively flavored chervil I've ever had.
Is anybody familiar with growing chervil? Is it like parsley that survives for a second season but bolts early and becomes a big stemmy nuisance? Or is it like tarragon, a reliable little survivor that comes back every year stronger and better? Or was this just a fluke that shouldn't have survived at all? Would really love to know so I can best nurture it. Of course, I'm hoping for answer #2.
