Vegetable Growing 2024

Another good one especially for the Onion family are Marshalls, but they do all the main ones. DT Brown are good for price but the range is more basic, another very good one for price and quantities of seed in a pack is Franchii, they are still a family firm and they grow their stock in Northern Italy, in an area that has a surprisingly similar climate to most of the UK. Again a slightly more basic range but excellent for salad, Rocket , lettuce beans etc.

 

I often just wander around the racks at the garden centres, mostly after Christmas.
I'm never really looking for unusual varieties, mostly tried and tested when it comes to veg, not that I grow much these days.

 

I also do that @pete, especially if it's for lettuce, and the stuff I have is too old to germinate, or I don't have enough. The supermarkets and DIY stores are good for that as well.

 

Well I am hanging my head in shame this year. For the first time in over 40 years we will have to buy potatoes and parsnips for Christmas dinner. The spuds are just so full of slug damage it takes 30-40 minutes to cut my way round the mess just to have enough for the two of us. The prospect of doing that for the bakers dozen of family we will have on Christmas day is just too much. The parsnips are all fibrous or spindly split roots. I know why, the cold wet spring meant they just wouldn't germinate so I gambled on starting them in modules and transplanted, always a risk, I've got away with it before, not this time.
We have sprouts squash, beetroot, even some winter salad in the greenhouse. We have soup, beans, and some soft fruit in the freezer, but my usual proud boast of "growing my own Christmas dinner " will not be true this year.

 

I've had that problem in the past, when starting in modules, this year I started the parsnips in root trainers giving the roots more depth and I've had some of the best parsnips I've had; certainly positive enough result to repeat next year.

 

I try sowing parsnips from the end of march, I had to resow them in may and June. Some of the may ones came up in the end and they are a good size, the June ones still useable albeit smaller.

I've got a lot of people round for Xmas this year so I'm not going to bother with the allotment veg for them apart from squash, it's too much effort to clean everything up

 

Yes @Loofah , that's the point I was making. I've been growing them successfully for decades, this is by far the worst I have ever known. Another consequence of climate change, I guess.

 

For the past couple of years my first sowing of parsnips has failed, I've always sowed around mid April, however the second sowing in mid May has been good, I always use fresh seeds. Not sure of the reason but I'll probably hold off sowing until May this year

 

I sowed direct three times, the last time was May, I sowed into modules in parallel with the last direct sowing, as back up. As I said I've done it before and it's worked just not this time.

 

Vesca Stawberries ripe at Christmas!

 

Best I've ever grown were by self seeding from a neglected (missed !)root. Left as a flowering plant and forgotten, until next year when there was a carpet of parsnips just waited to be hoed, those left were superb.

 

Yes that's why direct sowing is always best, but you need suitable conditions for germination, which can be erratic even in a good year.
Today I harvested the sprouts, I cut the whole stem with loppers, then pick them off as we want them. They keep fresher like that anyway. I also picked up some beetroot, and very tiny, celeriac. I might mix the latter with what few parsnips I did get and make soup.

 

Parsnip seed doesn't keep well and I get a fresh packet every year.
Growing up in Lincolnshire parsnips were sown in mid to late March and it was the same in Essex.
Here in Devon if they germinate from a March sowing pigeons and molluscs ensure none are left by mid April. Late April early May works quite well some years. May/June sowings give better results, but the resulting parsnips tend to be small.
I get better results if I start the seed in modules in the greenhouse in early March and then plant out in April, but the parsnips tend to be multifanged and twisted. Having tried modules for a number of years last year I tried root trainers to give the roots more length to grow in and these were planted out before the roots reached the bottom. So far I'm pleased with the results.