Update:

Powys CC do not supply wood chip - they may have in the past but there are too many complications with Health & Safety now.

Gentle reminder: we used to rule 75% of the known world. You don't need air strikes to bring down a dictator, just send in Health & Safety.

Trying different sources and so far I am up to £145 per tonne. I am close to giving up and just sticking with the mud (which I could theoretically hurl at 'celebrity' gardeners who go on and on about using bark and thus force up the prices).

Hi I live on the Powys/Shropshire border (near Welshpool), what we don't have here is a shortage of trees (or sheep but that's another matter). Given that, can anyone tell me why decorative bark is so damned expensive here? For example, i went to a local builders yard and was cheerfully informed tha...

Its interesting that you used a compost filled hole; I have read that parsnips don't like a freshly composted/manured soil and it causes them to fork.

A 9" bed, now that's interesting; i was going to use the potato growing 'bags' as i have seen that ye olde parsnip requires about 2 foot depth. Is that the case or have I been mislead (not that difficult to do really)?

'pelleted seed'- i haven't come across that term before.

'the growing tips stop growing and split', and that's exactly what happened to mine - the ground i have is heavy clay with rocks (lots and lots of rocks) so this year i am going to grow them in the same 'bags' that i grow potatoes in.

thanks for all your help.

Hi Last year i tried growing my parsnip seedlings in those cardboard pots you can buy from the garden centres; when it came time to transplant them in the soil, i planted the whole pot (based on the theory that the pot would disintegrate or that the seedling would grow and destroy the holding pot). ...

Ok so I have two of these things growing in my greenhouse and, apart from a lot of foliage,nothing. No berrys no goose nothing - does anyone else grow these things and, if so, what am I supposed to expect.

Regards

Bill

Hi I am trying to germinate some Parsnips (I have been since March); I have sown two seeds to 'dissolvable' pots (about 20 pots) with the idea of planting the pot directly into the ground thus minimizing the impact upon the root. The little beggars will not grow - I have tried multi-purpose compost ...

Many thanks to all those who posted responses to this subject. Lots of good advice and food for thought. Much appreciated.

I guess I am looking at Spring to late Autumn; the reasoning behind this is I have just found a top link for building your own polytunnel: (m) so I am thinking of using the one my original question was about until the Autumn then having a go at building my own as per the link. I already have a large...

I understand when you say it is rather small; however, I cannot afford anything bigger (cannot justify >£100) and so, back to my original question of green covers - are they any good?

Hi, link to aforementioned polytunnel:

http://www.charliesdirect.co.uk/products/gardman-waterproof-polytunnel-
with-windows

Unsure as to how the cover is constructed, perhaps you can tell by the picture?

The polytunnel in question is 3 metres in length, 2 metres in width and 1.9 metres in height - a standard gardeners polytunnel I would have thought (though I admit I could be incorrect).