I grew it once. It was easy to grow from seed, but as it matured the slugs ravaged it. We almost never have slug problems, but they loved the newspaper wrapped celery.

I’ve grown it from seed. It was too fussy for me, and I found that growing lovage was much easier.

Not necessarily hard, just different than some other veggies. It can take a long time to germinate. I think some people think they have bad seed and don't wait long enough for sprouts to appear. The seeds are tiny and so are the seedlings....this makes some people nervous. The plants grow slowly and mine have never looked anything like grocery store celery. That probably discourages some people. The thin stalks and leafy tops make great additions to soups and other cooked dishes so I grow it some years. Maybe sometime I'll get it to look "normal" :)

They are very slow to germinate and mine never look like the ones in the store either, however they have more strong celery flavor in one bite than 10 stalks from the store.

@Shuffles. Maybe you know this already, but placing crushed dried eggshells around plants really does deter the little bas*ards. Tks for your reply!

@Nature girl. That's what I like about home-grown celery - the thin green stalks. (even if the baby plants come from a nursery). It just bothers me to buy plants from a nursery. I like to do things from scratch.

Blue Skink, if you are growing other transplants already you should be able to grow celery. Its slow germination and small size initially remind me of parsley. If you have grown that from seed, celery should not be a problem. As I recall the seeds are similar in size, too. Celery seed is small, but not tiny like petunia or snapdragon seed. I agree that there is a lot of satisfaction in seeing the plant grow from seed to harvest all under your care.

As an aside, I'm curious to know if there are skinks in your area. Zone 3 sounds extreme for them. If they are around, what kind of habitat do you see them using? Five-lined skinks are supposedly common in our state. But I spend a lot of time outdoors in supposedly suitable habitat and have yet to see one.

celery needs blanching if want milder flavor, like soils with high organic matter and celery is heavy nitrogen feeder.

@Nature Girl. Many thanks for the encouragement. I do grow parsley and also take a crack at snapdragons but my ratio of seeding to success is about 1 to 20.

As to skinks, we do have them in Manitoba though I don't think they are in our particular area. There is a sandy, desert-like part of the province where they stay. Apparently they live underground for 7 (count 'em - 7) months as they don't like even mildly cold weather. Probably they spend a lot of time hiding in Michigan, too!