The rising stars of Walney Island and Windermere!

Whilst in the Lakes I had the pleasure of spending a few hours discussing veg in the company of James Park (see link to blog) and Paul Wlodarczak.....he did tell me how to pronounce his name but I was half wankered when he told me (it was something like Winklecrack I think!). Anyways, it was great to witness such enthusiasm for growing to show and I'm predicting great things from these two at their local shows. I do hope however, that Paul is better at growing veg than he was at remembering where his B&B was !!! Drunken git.

In the meantime, my parsnips are now all up and all but two have developed their first proper leaves. I'm leaving glass panels over the drums for now, slightly to one side to let air in on hot days. Once the leaves are touching the glass (at about 3-4" high) I'll remove the glass and leave them to it, keeping an eye out for greenfly which do seem quite partial to them and which can pass on viruses.

As some stations have 2 seedlings in them I shall soon be thinning down to the best one. In previous years I have cut the surplus seedling away very carefully with fine scissors so as not to disturb the one I leave. This can be fiddly and a bit of a ball-ache. But I've seen an NVS DVD produced by the great Trevor Last where he just pulls the surplus seedling out.....it's a lot easier and quicker so if it's good enough for him it's sure good enough for me. The same applies to long and stump carrots.