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Saturday, February 17, 2007

Long time no post!


Been a busy few weeks at work and socially so it's a good job the weather's been against me as far as getting any gardening done.

I have however managed to empty the sand out of my parsnip beds and refill it, sterilising each 8" layer as I went along with Jeyes Fluid. I'll be sieving my mixes (more on this soon) in the next couple of weeks so that I can sow them early March.

My exhibition onions and leeks came last week from Vin Throup the legendary onion grower(saves having to grow your own and keeping them under lights and heat). They were all potted up into 3" pots and put into the greenhouse in a boxed off area to keep the frost off. A grolight over them keeps them ticking along nicely.

Apart from that I have only the shallots and a few potted up onion sets in the greenhouse. I'm hoping to empty my carrot drums out tomorrow and refill them, weather permitting. This afternoon I'm driving over to Ockbrook near Derby to collect my potatoes from Exhibition Seed Potatoes (ESP). The varieties I'll be growing this year are Winston and Nadine (whites) and Kestrel, Amour and Maxine (coloureds).

I've also just completed a 5 page 'showing hints' guide for publication on the website of my local show, as well as racking my brains for ideas for different classes.....we like to mix it up a bit each year to stop things getting stale.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where can i order onions/leeks from vin throup? or is this just a personal order. I am looking for more exhibition varietys to grow this year.

Great blog, some useful tips.

Make money from..hah just kidding.

Simon (Smithyveg) said...

Hi Liam,

My leeks and onions from Vin last season were rubbish I'm afraid so I scrapped them and started again with some from a grower local to me.

Let me know where you're from via email (smithyveg@aol.com) and I'll try and steer you in the right direction.

Regards
Simon