Are there any tricks to growing celery? This is my first year growing it. I try to experiment with something each year and this was my choice.
Growing Celery!
Celery likes lots and lots of water. So make sure you plant it with other water loving things.
Agreed, Celery is really a marsh plant.
is it the kind you have to earth up or not?
I grow celery every year in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The plants aren't huge but of a good enough size that they are useful. At the end of the growing season, I harvest a whole bunch of it and make caponata. I just love being able to go out and grab a stalk every time I have a recipe calling for one or two celery stalks! So much better than keeping a celery plant in the refrigerator until it rots after using a stalk or two in a dish.
I don't water my celery any more than I do my lettuce, beets, carrots, etc. etc. They are all on the same watering system. 3 days a week for 1/2 hour, I think it is. We get 18 inches per year ave. rainfall, so though it may like a lot of water, it does great with less.
In Louisiana, it would probably be blissful, except for the heat. I think it likes cool weather. Try it in fall, winter and spring. The ones I grow, don't require blanching, but you can blanch them if you wish. Frankly celery is healthier unblanched and if you use it in cooking, no one will notice.
Celery is one of the plants I never skip in my garden.