Growing Gardens

with Julia Hancock

Preparing for parsnips

Parsnips are an old-fashioned vegetable that deserve to be more widely grown because they are both delicious to eat and easy to grow. Seed sown in the next couple of weeks will be ready to harvest in approximately five months' time - just when the weather is at its coldest and you're hankering after comfort food. Parsnips are terrific roasted in the oven like potatoes, mashed with potatoes and butter, or mixed with meat and other vegetables in a warming and nutritious stew.

Parsnips are root vegetables like carrots, but unlike carrots they do not resent being grown in soil that has been recently fertilised. So now is the perfect time to prepare a parsnip bed with all the lovely goodies they like for optimal growth.

Because parsnips develop large roots they need to be able to burrow down into the soil with ease, so the first step is to dig the soil over to break up large clods and remove weeds. Next incorporate a light application of complete granular fertiliser and some organic compost, dig over again and water well in. No further fertilising should be necessary.

Parsnips are not available as seedlings in garden centres, so sow seeds directly into drills in the garden bed according to the instructions on the packet. Water well and lightly mulch the soil between the drills. The seed bed should be kept damp until germination approximately three weeks later, and then watered to maintain adequate moisture levels.

Thin out emerging seedlings to allow approximately 8cm between each plant, to provide enough space for the roots to plump up. The parsnips are ready to harvest when the crown is the diameter of a 50 cent piece.

The beauty of growing parsnips is that you can leave them in the ground until you need them, and plants started now will keep till Christmas providing we don't get heavy spring rains.

Lismore Garden Club News

There is still time to register for the club's Hunter Valley tour, which departs Tuesday, March 30 and returns Friday, April 2. The main feature of tour is the beautiful new Hunter Valley gardens at Pokolbin. You don't have to be a club member to go. The tour costs $370 p.p.t.s (s/supp. $100). Includes luxury coach, motel, 3 breakfasts and dinners and 1 lunch. Contact Mary on 6621 5293.

Autumn is one of the best seasons for local gardens. This month we can begin to plant spring bulbs. Not all bulbs thrive in our subtropical climate. The best ones are Freesia, Ixia, Sparaxis, Babiana, Jonquil and paper-white narcissus. Don't plant tulips yet, but put them in the fridge crisper for around six weeks and plant in May. Prepare bulb gardens now, adding well rotted cow manure.

Gardening Tip

Plant bulbs at a depth that is about twice their width.

Happy Gardening
Ron Burns