My Leicester exhibits

This is quite a large show and a first prize has to be earned. I got six '1sts', seven '2nds' and three '3rds' which wasn't bad out of 18 entries. My '1sts' were for stump rooted carrots, courgettes, pickling shallots, Top Tray, a succulent pot plant and of course the basket of veg that the wife put together. The stump carrots looked particularly good and I was very happy to get 2nd for my onions which is as good as I've ever done.

However, some shows always baffle you as to how the judge arrives at his decision and I've never won with tomatoes at Leicester. I came 3rd this year and I'll never be able to fathom out why. When I walked away after staging I thought my toms were a 'stitched on' 1st place....as I did last year and the year before that ! But some small, pallid looking specimens gained 1st and 2nd places......ah well. Sometimes you just have to accept it. The cucumber class was also a puzzle, where I lost out to two tiny little gherkin type cucumbers.

Sadly, next year's show will probably be the last as the City Council are not funding it any more as it doesn't 'tick enough boxes' on the funding criteria! However, if you're a tattooed, pierced, organic ethnic with an animal sanctuary catering for fluffy puppies and homeless ducklings who otherwise can't be arsed to get off your lazy backside and do a proper job I'm sure the Council will be falling over themselves to throw money at you!

My Hathern exhibits

Didn't put too many entries in at Hathern this year as I was trying to make a bit of point (eeeeee I seem to be single handedly taking on the World at the moment don't I? LOL) but still managed to come away with three trophies for best carrots, tomatoes and pot plant (for a standard fuchsia).

I did manage to beat our friend Wendy at tomatoes for the second year running, which is the single most important class to win in terms of avoiding 12 months of ridicule from her hubby Graham. And if I'd entered my leeks here instead of Moorgreen I'm sure they'd have won 'best veg in show' but that's the chance you take. Do I want to be a small fish in a big pond or a big fish in a small pond in future? Trouble is, if I don't put my stuff in at places like this there doesn't appear to be many other growers in the area and the shows will die....especially if the organisers don't help themselves by forgetting to send previous exhibitors a schedule or by getting the schedule completely wrong in places!

She's a star!

Today is mine and Leesa's 20th wedding anniversary. Quite how she's put up with me for all these years is anyone's guess but I'm glad she has because she comes in very useful when it comes to the more artistic classes such as 'a basket of vegetables arranged for effect'. 'We' won this class at Leicester Show with a small basket of red and purple vegetables such as tomatoes, purple carrots, red onions, purple cauli, peppers, chard, beetroot, purple beans etc. Other exhibits were huge baskets of large veg and I didn't think we stood a chance but it just shows you never know....the judge was obviously impressed with Leesa'a artistic arrangement.

So....here's to another 20 years of running around like mad people in the days leading up to each show!

Happy anniversary

xxx

My Moorgreen exhibits.

As I've said not much to show for my efforts at Moorgreen but the competition was at a much higher level than anything I've come up against before. I'm not a million miles away however and was very pleased to get a 3rd in tomatoes out of 20 entries.

The leeks I put in were superb....far and away better than anything else I've exhibited before but I didn't even manage a place, that's how good the 1st, 2nd and 3rd placed exhibits were. At both Hathern and Leicester leeks got 'best in show' but neither set was as good as mine were. Ho hum!

My onions looked quite good on their stands but could have done with another week's ripening. I came 2nd with a set of 5 onions at Leicester and reckon if they had been a bit riper also I'd have won the class, but even so 2nd is the best I've ever done with onions before.

Quick Bank Holiday weekend show report

Well....that was an interesting weekend. I competed at Moorgreen Show near Hucknall for the first time and came away with a bit of a 'bloody nose'. It was a real step up in class to what I've been used to and I only managed to come away with a 2nd (for cucumbers) and five '3rd's'. The leeks and long carrots I put in would have won at just about every other show I enter but I didn't even manage to get a place! It was a chastening experience but a useful and educational one also.

I'll be publishing photos of the shows and looking at things in more detail in the ext few days. However, I would just like to mention that I did win the annual Smith/Hallam tomato challenge at Hathern Show again!

A big day in the Smithy year.

After all the hard work of the last few months today is the big day when I'll finally know whether my root crops are any good. You always have half an idea judging from the health of the foliage or the diameter of the shoulders at the top but until you actually pull the first one from it's bore hole you never really know for sure. It could be forked halfway down, or full of holes caused by carrot root fly or it might not carry its weight evenly all the way down.

However, I suspect things will be ok and it's just a case of finding 3 specimens that are well matched. In that case it's just a matter of how many I have to pull as I want to leave plenty of specimens for later shows. I'll be pulling about a dozen long carrots for the three shows over the weekend, 7 or 8 parsnips and a similar amount of stump rooted carrots. I'll probably have an audience as my new neighbours want to watch them come out of the drums......they cannot believe carrots could possibly be that long.

Last night I tied the tops of my onions and shallots with raffia and sorted them into sets. It's amazing how much better they seem to look after they've been tied. My onions are certainly the best I've ever grown.......not huge but an even, well matched set.

Also tonight I'll be lifting 4 leeks and 3 celery. The leeks need the roots washing, any split skins removing and the foliage tying. The celery will need the roots trimming to the

Preparing carrots & parsnips.

As I've said previously, this Friday night I'll be lifting my root crops for the weekend's shows. I'll know exactly how many long carrots, stump-rooted carrots and parsnips I'll need to lift so I'll start by clearing the sand from around the shoulders and trying to match them for size. If the shoulders are the same diameter the roots should all be of similar length and girth....you hope!

I'll lift the exact amount I need and try to match up the various sets that I need for each show. If I'm happy with them I won't pull any more....but if I'm not I may have to pull a few more until I'm satisfied with my sets. Those that don't match may be used in the one veg/one flower classes.

As soon as they are pulled they are hosed down and stored in a bath of water until I'm ready to take them all into the house for further cleaning.....as you can see from the pic I use one half of the kids' old plastic sand pit. Once in the house I fill a bath with cold clean water and proceed to wash each root with a sponge, around each root not up and down. This cleans all the mud from inside the root crevices and prevents scratching.

After cleaning they are wrapped (in their respective sets) in old, dampened towels and put in a cool dark place ready for loading into the car.

Another dictionary explanation

Just looked in the dictionary for a definition of 'Animal rights activist'

=Twat.


So....once again....there you have it.

Another good year for tomatoes?

Despite suffering blight on my indoor tomatoes (it gained access via the odd splash of water through gaps in the glazing) I seem to be getting plenty of good sized specimens ripening in good time for the weekend's shows. I've kept on top of the blight by removing any leaflets showing signs of infection and disposing of them, but I was half prepared for the whole crop to fail.

However, I've been lucky and I'm confident that my toms are better this year than last year when I won 5 out of the 7 shows I entered. They're certainly a better shape than last year due to the fact that I thinned my trusses to give the remaining fruit more room to develop fully, and not get 'flat sides' from overcrowding on the truss. There also seem to be more large fruits than in previous years, again due to thinning out early in the season as soon as the tomatoes are about the size of a pea.

I'd also recommend the idea of sinking a 2 litre lemonade bottle upside down into the soil (with the bottom cut out) and watering into this. This keeps the soil surface dry and prevents any dampness in the glasshouse which tomatoes hate. This can manifest itself as white 'ghost spots' on the skins and can lead to downpointing.

Last night our Society had a tour round a crysanth enthusiast's garden. I thought I was obsessed until I saw what he had to do to keep hundreds of crysanths fed, sprayed and watered....all growing in pots! I admire the dedication of these growers and there's nothing more stunning on the show bench that a vase of large ball shaped blooms but I think if I got into 'crissies' then Leesa would divorce me....she thinks I spend far too long in the garden as it is! He's also growing a few 'tommies' for Hathern Show and took us into his greenhouse to show us. He seemed quite proud of them

A different approach

The failure of certain veg this year should create some advantages in that I won't be rushing around the night before each show as I won't have anywhere near the same amount of exhibits to prepare. Most years I leave my spud washing until last and have often been scrubbing them over the kitchen sink well past midnight.....this year I have very few that are of a showable size. Hopefully, I'll be in bed at a more reasonable hour.....or else I might even bake a cake for the men only section!



I also have very few dahlias ready (if any), my runner beans are at least a week away from reaching the right length, my beetroot are all very small and my brassicas are so far behind that I've lost interest in them and left them to the devices of the cabbage white caterpillars.



Fewer exhibits should mean I can go at a more leisurely pace and enjoy things a little bit more. Therefore, I shall be concentrating on making sure my carrots and parsnips are as well prepared as I can possibly get them. The first ones will be lifted on Friday night ready for the 3 shows I have this weekend.



My weekend timetable will be something like this:
Friday night: Lift roots and load car with exhibits for Moorgreen.
Saturday morning: Stage at Moorgreen.
Saturday afternoon: Prepare exhibits for Hathern and Leicester.
Saturday evening: Attend gala evening at Moorgreen.
Saturday night: Load car with exhibits for Hathern and Leicester.
Sunday morning. Stage at Hathern and then Leicester.
Sunday afternoon. Attend Hathern Show. (exhibits auctioned off)
Monday afternoon. Attend Leicester Show.
Monday evening. Bring back exhibits from Leicester Show and go straight to Moorgreen to bring back exhibits from Moorgreen Show.

A hectic schedule ! But all worth it if I can pick up a few trophies along the way. My best year was 2004 (above) when I won a total of 18.

A day off from veg !

Decided to have a day off from tending the veg on Saturday and have a nice stress-free stroll up Snowdon in North Wales.....some hope!

Got up at 4 a.m. to drive the 150 miles to Pen-y-Pass, and started climbing at 8am in driving rain that never relented all day. By the time we reached the summit at 10.15 I was soaked through to the skin so we didn't linger to take in the non-existent views. I was looking forward to changing into some dry clothes at the bottom but they too had got completely soaked in my rucksack.....waterproof my ass!

And to round the day off perfectly my mate cut my bleedin head off when he took the above pic of me (honest) on the summit.

But know what? Twas a cracking day and I can't wait to go through it all again!

Can't wait......

Couldn't resisit exposing the shoulders of some of my long carrots last night to try and gauge how good they might be......and they look huge. Many of them are a good 3" dia. at the top so if they carry their weight all the way down to the bottom of the barrels and haven't forked, split or been nibbled by carrot fly I could be in for a good few weeks.

The carrots in the pic were one of my earliest efforts back in 1998 (I had hair back then!) pulled from a maximum of about 15 'stations' (I now grow nearly 50). They were by far the best 3 that I grew that year and had reasonable uniformity and won me my first ever trophy for veg at Hathern Show in Leicestershire.

However, things were a lot more hit and miss and I used to get of lot of weaker carrots. This year I think I've solve

d that particular conundrum by doing my 'mixes' in smaller batches so that the nutrients get more evenly spread. Certainly all the carrots seem to be similar in size to each other

Where everything is at......

Long Carrots. Could be belters. Foliage strong and healthy and shoulders look heavy. Unfortunately, no way of telling for sure until they're harvested.

Stump carrots. One bed of Osiris looks ok but the main bed of Heracles appears to be struggling for size. Foliage is small and weak looking although no real sign of pest or disease.

Parsnips. Foliage good. Shoulders look large but as with long carrots only time will tell if they're good ones.

Large onions. 9 decent ones harvested. Stripped to the first unsplit skin, dusted with talc and now ripening in boxes of sawdust.

Shallots. Hopeless. Far to small to be serious contenders. Pickling shallots reasonable.

Tomatoes. Nice round fruits ripening due to policy of thinning the trusses. Some blight damage on 3 or 4 plants. Affected foliage cut off.

Cherry tomatoes. All suffered blight. Most plants died weeks ago. Some plants soldiering on forlornly.

Potatoes. All plants affected by blight although some tubers are being harvested that are of a 'showable' size. Kestrel in particular very poor.

Cucumbers. Growing well and many fruits forming.

Courgettes. Have been harvesting for several weeks. One Ball is a lovely round, yellow fruited variety that should look good on the show bench.

Marrows. First fruits formed on one plant but probably won't be big enough for first shows.

Two other plants haven't started to 'trail' yet.

Runner beans. Struggling. Plants look healthy but lack of bees means not many beans are showing.

French beans. No problems. 'Prince' looking the best bet for showing.

Beetroot. Struggling. All roots appear to be no more than marble size.

Celery. Foliage excellent. Needs regular checking to remove decaying foliage and weak stalks.

Leeks. Excellent size although splitting is a problem. Lost up to seven layers at the weekend on some of the larger specimens.

Cabbages. Massive disappointment. Not hearting up.

Caulis. Hopeless as usual.

Brussels. 'Brilliant' plants poor although some buttons now growing. Red 'Rubine' is a better looking plant but no buttons making size yet.

Aubergines. 2 tiny fruits have finally formed.

Radish. Plenty to choose from for the 'trug' and 'basket' classes.

Pumpkin. 1 fruit the size of a grapefruit. Not going to be a winner in the heaviest classes !

Swiss chard. Small.

Okra. Give up on this next year

Hot peppers. In pots in greenhouse. Not turning red yet although loads of 1" long fruits.

Purple carrots. Foliage looking good. Will be interesting.

Purple caulis. Have all struggled. Some small hearts have formed but shall not be growing again.

Long beetroot. Poor size.

Longest beans. Runners now starting to grow and several pods showing at 6" ('Yardlong') beans Stopped growing straight after planting and have done nothing.

Dahlias. Very small plants that are really struggling. Emma's Coronet is the best of a poor bunch.

Fuchsias. Looking ok.

Collections

The premier class at any large veg show and which most growers aspire to is the class for a collection of vegetables. Very often this is for 4 or 6 kinds and can put a drain on the resources of those with limited space and so very often the class isn't that well supported and gets dropped from the schedule.

Collections of 6 kinds may be very well at large NVS shows but I would like to see schedule makers at smaller village shows use a bit of imagination and reduce the number of specimens in each dish.

For instance, I would have to think twice about finding 3 carrots/3 parsnips/6 tomatoes/4 potatoes/3 celery and 3 caulis for a collection of veg especially if I also wanted a similar amount in the main classes. However, if the collection called for 4 kinds of 2, or 6 kinds of 1, then it's a lot easier to harvest and match some more veg for a collection.

The RH picture above shows a winning collection of veg at Malvern Show in 2003 and as you can see every dish is stunning and would win the individual class in most village shows up and down the country. The LH pic is from Sturton Show where they ask for 6 kinds also, but only 1 specimen of each. It's usually well contested as exhibitors can put all those subjects that they couldn't quite match up with another 1 or 2 to make a dish in the individual classes.

A season that promised so much.

This was supposed to be the season that convinced me I could compete against the 'big boys' at Midland and National level but it's only shown me I still have lots to learn. The pics above were taken at Malvern Show in 2003 and were totally awe-inspiring to see.

Admittedly, it's been a horrendous season and I dread to think what newcomers to veg growing must be thinking. The hot, dry Spring followed by the wet summer has been a terrible combination and this year I suffered from potato blight for the first time ever. I only hope it doesn't put them off as I can assure them you don't get many seasons like the one we've just had...thank God!

It's not all doom and gloom....my leeks, onions, carrots and parsnips all seem better than usual and of course at this point I still don't know what my competitors on the local scene have.....I will only know after the first shows during Bank Holiday weekend. But having adjusted my timings for certain veg because they matured far too early last year, the lack of sunshine this year means they are weeks behind....I will be struggling to show things like tomatoes, runner beans, marrows and beetroot. Just when you think you have things cracked a new set of problems rears up to test you in a different way!

Back to plan1 next year

I'm stood behind some cabbages here that I grew in 2003 (variety Globemaster) that I grew under green netting, the sort they use on building sites and throw in the skip at the end of the job. The netting was great for stopping pigeons and cabbage whites getting in but I did find it very fiddly and it makes spraying and watering awkward.

These last two years I've tried to grow my cabbages without netting and things haven't been nearly so successful. Last season I wrote off because of the hot weather but that hasn't been the case this season obviously. This year my cabbages are ok but they don't seem to have the same 'bloom' as they did when they grew under a bit of shading. Seeing pics like this one makes you realise just how good things have been in the past so next season I shall be dragging the old netting out of the garage and growing my cabbages under them again.

Best weekend of the year!

After a long wait through the summer months we have finally arrived at the best weekend of the year.......a weekend when mankind can put down that paintbrush or garden hoe and tell his missus he's got better things to occupy himself.

Ladies and gentlemen I give you.....the start of a new footy season!

Organic

Just looked in the dictionary for the meaning of 'Organic';

=Expensive. When used in conjunction with vegetables it usually means covered in slug snot, aphid poo and susceptible to the World of Fungus!

So....there you have it!

Any other veg !?! (AOV)

At most village shows there is a class called 'Any other veg' and people are often confused as to what this means. Basically, if there isn't a class for it in the main schedule then you can enter it into this class......but the same rules apply for any other veg in that you should make sure you have good quality and uniformity in whatever veg you choose to display.

However, you need to think about what you enter and try and use a veg that is reasonably 'high pointed'. Lots of shows don't bother to have separate classes for caulis or pot leeks these days as they don't tend to get many entries......and the 'AOV' class would be a good one to put these into if you had grown some. Caulis and Pot Leeks are worth a maximum of 20 points and are more likely to beat courgettes, sweetcorn, radishes, lettuces or any of the other veg that are usually seen in the AOV class.

Remember also, that if there are no classes for 'quality' marrows then you can enter them into the AOV class.......even if there is a class for 'heaviest marrow' as that doesn't count. Marrows are worth up to 15 points so have a reasonable chance.

The pic above shows a cardoon I exhibited at Littleover a couple of years ago. I only dropped it in to see if the show organisers knew what it was (they didn't) and I ended up getting a '3rd'.

The Annual Smith v. Hallam Tomato Challenge

Last year you may remember I finally beat my tomato growing friend Wendy after several years of ridicule. She had somehow conspired to beat me on every occasion we had competed in tomato classes due to illegal drug injections to her plants and the occasional bout of eye fluttering in the judges' direction !

OH YES SHE DID!

Last year I devoted an obscene amount of time making sure my tomatoes were spot on and managed to win 5 of the 7 shows I competed in. However, much of my other produce suffered as a result, notably runner beans and carrots. So this year I've not gone too over the top on my tomatoes but I do appear to have quite a few reasonable looking fruits ripening and I'm hopeful of doing well again. One thing I've done differently to previous years is to thin the fruits out on the truss in order to give the remaining ones more room to develop. It does appear to have worked and they seem a lot rounder than usual without the slightly flattened sides you can get.

However, I'm sure Wendy and Graham have pulled out all the stops this year to try and put me in my usual place so we shall have to wait and see.....let battle commence !

The King of the Pfaffers!

Each night when I return to the house from the garden, my missus will invariably ask me what I've been 'pfaffing about at down there?' Despite my protests that I'm performing vital tasks she's not wrong.

The thing is you can sow your seeds or plant your plants in the Spring, do a bit of watering and feeding during the Summer, pull your veg on show day, plonk them on the benches and no doubt you'll pick up the odd prize along the way. But to be sure of getting first prizes, best in show awards and trophies etc you need to become a bit of a pfaffer! This means doing all those little 'tweaky' jobs in the last few weeks that just add those finishing touches and can make all the difference to your exhibit. The sort of things I mean are:

Straightening runner beans, french beans, cucumbers and courgettes in their earliest stages when they're only an inch or two long. If done in the evening after a hot day they are quite easily to manipulate.

Shielding cucumber and marrow fruits with bits of polystyrene to stop them getting scratched.

Cutting back tomato foliage to ensure ripening fruits aren't too shaded.

'Talcing' onions and storing in boxes of sawdust.

Measuring shallots in special rings to ensure they are graded according to size and tying the tops carefully (a pleasant task from a garage armchair on drizzly evenings whilst listening to the radio).

Untying celery and leek collars, removing yellowing foliage and split flags and checking for pests.

Checking fuchsias for any yellowing leaves, spent flowers and picking off.

Disbudding dahlias to leaves the strongest, central bloom to grow away.

Making display aids such as 'Top Tray' boards and spraying them black.

Writing down a 'schedule' for each show noting staging times, items to take etc (essential when you might have 3 shows on one weekend)

and so on and so forth !

It's no good getting up on the morning of the show, throwing everything into the car and setting off. You have to plan things and prepare properly in the days and weeks beforehand so that you don't make silly mistakes

Spuds blighted ?

After all the hard work in the Spring sifting the peat and filling the spud bags it's really disappointing that my potatoes all seem to have suffered badly from blight. My white Winston variety was worst affected and I thought I wouldn't be able to salvage a single tuber.....so much so that I pulled up all the bags (about 20) after my holiday and shoved them to one side under a hedge in disgust. As I said a few days ago, it was my own fault as I should have sprayed them before I went on holiday.

But I emptied them out two nights ago and was quite surprised to be able to salvage a dozen or so spuds of showable size. The only problem might be that blight affected tubers don't keep as well as they would normally......fingers crossed they'll last a few weeks. However, they're perfectly fine for eating.

Last night I pulled up 20 or so bags of the variety Kestrel. Again, I managed to salvage 20 or so tubers. I have another 15 or so bags of Kestrel to harvest, 15 of Nadine, 15 of Maxine and 15 of Amour. .......so I may well be able to stage some spuds this year after all but they certainly aren't up to the standard of previous years.

I've asked for advice from the National Vegetable Society as to whether my peat needs to be sterilised in any way........does blight stay in the soil? I don't think it does but I'll let you know as soon as I find out. One thing I do know is that the haulms should NOT be composted. I have a separate bin full of them which I intend to add to my bonfire and burn.

Well done Dorset boy !

Congratulations to Richard from Dorset who won his first ever prize at a veg show for his outdoor cucumbers at the weekend. I reckon he's got the bug and we have a budding Medwyn Williams on our hands now. And his 10 year old daughter also won a prize for her carrots.....Sherie Plumb had better watch out!

I remember my first ever 'red card' back in 1996 for beetroot. I'd been as nervous as hell in the lead up to the show wondering whether I was wasting my time trying to compete against the 'big boys'. But most of them are as helpful as possible and welcome the chance to encourage future opposition. The smell and feel of the marquee (sometimes it's the village hall! LOL) has stayed with me ever since. I seem to remember I also won prizes for parsnips & pot plants and there was no stopping me after that.

If any others of you reading this blog have shows coming up in your area in the next few weeks try and have a go......even if it's for baking a cake, jams, flower arranging, photography etc. It's a great part of the British heritage and there is nothing like it anywhere else in the World. Shows even took place during the wars between the Home Guard/RAF/WRENS etc. This year Sturton Show in Lincolnshire is holding its 120th annual show.....incredible.

He's got away with it !

After the doom and gloom of the 'Great Onion White Rot Disaster' I'm all smiles again as I think I may just have got away with it. Having harvested all my onions and dried them off, washing them and then taking off the outer skins there is only minimal damage around the base plate areas of some of the bulbs. I think I may just have harvested them at the last possible moment before further internal tissue damage rendered them useless for showing.

I shall have to keep my eye on them to make sure the rot doesn't spread but hopefully now they're dry and have been dusted with talc and stored in sawdust they should be ok. An experienced judge will mentally downpoint me for the imperfections to the skins around the root plate but so long as they ripen evenly I should pick up good marks for uniformity and shape.

Out of the original 20 planted I have 9 to choose from.....3 the size of the ones in the photo and 6 that are slightly smaller. It should allow me to stage a set of 3 and a set of 5 depending on the show.

Bugger!

This season is fast turning into a disaster. Not only have I lost my spuds and cherry tomatoes to blight but my indoor toms are now looking poorly too. And woe of all woes last night my large onions were starting to look stressed.......I thought I'd best lift them just in case it was white rot and sure enough it was. All the bases are showing varying degrees of rot and I'm not sure if I'll be able to salvage them.

My stump rooted carrots appear to have suffered an attack of willow aphid which introduces a virus that quickly causes them to collapse, and my dahlias are miles behind where they should be at this point in time.

Having said that I spoke to an old friend yesterday who has 3 brain tumours and has only a few months to live. What the hell's a bit of blight and white rot compared to that?