Tender and true does well for us. A lot of calabrese were blind last year due to the very odd seasons.

We've grown tender and true this past year. And it is. Lovely flavour, too.

Didn't do parsnips this year - germination rate been poorly in recent years, but had no trouble with the broccoli - Six planted, of the strongest germinators, and six lovely plants grew - lots of rich, moist compost provided, and regularly watered. I just kept re-filling water butts from the hosepipe then leaving them 48 hours to reduce chlorine content before watering to veg plot. Bugs are a problem, nibbling away at the new shoots, but a good douse with bug and slug killer will solve this, giving shoots time to produce under the cabbage white netting??!! Could be a question of compost and water, Avon? Also, from parsnip trials in the past, they do like lots of depth to grow in - allow 12-18 inches from top to bottom and the less they are watered the longer they get!! So you get lots of lovely long tender shoots. Over-watering leads to hairy side-shoots and a woody centre.

Difficult to control the watering of a parsnip if it is raining for weeks on end...

We had not such good results with our broccoli this year, too: lots of lovely growth but poor head production. I hadn't appreciated there had been problems elsewhere: I thought it was just us.....

We had little rain here in the midlands this year, but i do use a plastic sheet on a hoop system (like a poly tunnel) for when it does get too wet, and with raised beds the watering is easier to control. I have found that broccoli need lots of compost and since I started treating them like beans, have had a much better crop. Could be worth a try? Your compost may be nitrogen rich but mineral poor, if that makes sense?