Last week several friends told me that parsnips are the “it” vegetable for 2015. One foodie friend even went so far as to proclaim “parsnips are the new kale!” Needless to say, I’ve made some space in my garden for parsnips this year, but will still plant lots of different types of kale. One of the parsnip people also sent me this great quote, which made me laugh:
“In gardens, beauty is a by-product. The main business is sex and death”. – Sam Llewelyn
Although many things are already starting to bloom, this definitely still seems like the “death” time of year in the garden. I’m finding my gardening mojo in short supply.
A lot of changes are in the works. Two weeks ago The Man took down the deteriorating treehouse and we are now waiting to have the cryptomeria removed. This will create more light for the raspberries. I still haven’t moved the plum tree to make space for another, but that will happen soon. This week I will finally prune the straightest branches from the forsythia; once inside, they will explode into yellow blooms.
kalegrower 
Good on The Man for doing the grunt work. More sun in the garden is a good thing, methinks!
Your parsnip thoughts caused me to recall a trip to Wales I made in March, 1984. There I met with a old friends of my dad’s, Harry Gent, and his wife Blodwyn, in their house on the beautiful Gower Peninsula near Swansea. Harry was a Commonwealth Games cycling champion as a young man. His voice commanded attention. He was a spellbinding storyteller in any pub. That March however, he had turned his full attention to starting parnips in his greenhouse. He loved his parsnips.
He was also a thrifty recycling soul, old Harry, and he didn’t want to carelessly scatter the precious, and slow to germinate parsnip seeds recklessly. In late February, he had taken scissors and snipped his many Christmas cards into 4 or 5 inch long strips of card, about 2 or 3 inches wide, and rolled them into cigar sized rolls which he secured with elastic bands. He had carefully stood about a dozen rolls up in each plastic pot, of which he had a tray full. He then sifted fine dry potting mix into the rolls. He had dampened the soil afterward, and carefully placed a single parsnip seed on top of each roll and then, ever so carefully, added a wee bit more soil on top.
That March, he proudly unwrapped one roll to show me the hair-like , fragile and delicate root which was almost the full length of his card roll. He said that once the leaf was established, he’d be hardening off the seedling, carefully slipping the elastic off the card, and placing his parsnip plug, minus the card, into a hole tapped in the garden. He said it worked like a charm.
I plan to try it this spring.
Happy gardening!!
Happy New Year Bryn! Thanks for sharing this great story. Let me know how this works. The part that always gets me is the hardening off part. Send photos of parsnips sprouts when they start to grow… Chrystal
Love the update….I am sitting here freezing -4 this morning with wind chill and feeling a bit down and out about gardening! But you brightened my day. Thanks Chrystal.