Malvern (4)

Darling....for the last time 1395 feet is not a mountain...it's just a big hill....ok?

Malvern (3)

Malvern (2)

Malvern (1)

'Wow' is all I can say after seeing the veg at 'The National' at Malvern yesterday. These boys are the Premiership of vegetable growing whilst I'm still at Nationwide Conference Midland Division level (playoffs!). The winning long carrots of Graeme Watson in particular were stunning......milk bottle size at the top and the picture doesn't really convey effectively just how huge and perfect they were.

Having said all that, for the second year running I came away thinking I would have definitely won a card with my tomatoes, maybe even a '1st' so I really am going to have to bite the bullet next year and have a go. I certainly wouldn't have been disgraced.

Told you so

I keep banging on to people who shy out of having a go at their local show that biggest doesn't always win. If the biggest is in the best condition then of course it will......but your little onions can win against the big boys if you remember the golden rules.....condition, colour and uniformity.

At Sutton Bonington Show this year my tiny 8oz onions 'Tasco' won 'Best Onion Exhibit' because they were all the same size, a nice evenly harvested nut-brown colour and in good condition. The winning onions in the 'heavy class' were huge....maybe 5lbs each......but fell down on the other merits and so my dish was given the overall award, much to the surprise no doubt of the other exhibitors and the paying public who come to the show.

The same rules apply in all the other veg classes.....look for quality before anything else. A good judge will never be blinded by size. If only I could convince my missus!

Sunny by name and by nature

I've been very impressed with the lettuce variety 'Sunny' that I 've grown for the first time this year. Not only does it have a nice peppery taste but it's an excellent plant that's stands well in rows and is easy to match up. I grew about 20 plants specifically for the 'Any other veg' classes and picked up a few '3rds' along the way, but they've looked their best in the last week or so when I haven't had any shows. Next season I'll be sure to get them in a little earlier.

If 'showing' lettuce dig up the whole plant roots and all and knock off any large lumps of soil. Wash the remaining soil under a tap or hose jet. Wrap these exposed roots in some damp kitchen towel and this should keep the plants fresh on the show bench for a couple of days. Remove any of the lower leaves that may have gone yellow or suffered pest damage.

Cactus road trip

Here are just a few of my cacti and succulents in my conservatory ready for their annual trip to Sturton. The one nearest the camera is an aloe vera that has just been repotted and consequently looks quite architectural with the granite chippings around the base. I find these 'mulches' show off the plants to best effect.

The only thing I do to them really is give them a watering once a week during the summer with a solution of special cacti feed. During the winter they are only watered once every month if that. Some of the succulent leaved plants need a tidy every now and then and they get repotted maybe every couple of years, very often into a same size pot but after having the roots 'teased' and trimmed and new compost added. I make my own 'crunchy' mix with 50% sieved soil and 50% washed builders sand. You need to keep a close eye out for mealy bugs and I find a spray of neat whisky kills them.

When displaying cacti just give the pot a wipe and give them a spray of luke warm water to freshen up their appearance. Make sure any gravel or stone mulches are neatly arranged and that no soil is showing.

Last night was very cold but not quite cold enough for a frost and so the dahlias have survived. Hopefully, if won't get that bad before Sturton as I have quite a few decent blooms starting to form and always enjoy the challenge of transporting them so far and trying to stage them at their best. This may mean cutting some of them 3 or 4 days before the show and keeping them in my darkened garage.

Kenora Sunset

I think this yellow and red small semi-cactus dahlia is a beauty. I've been told by an experienced judge that it's not the greatest for show but I don't care as it's a real firework of a flower. My winning set of 3 fetched over £20 at Seagrave auction a few years ago so I know people like it and want it.

Whilst on the subject of dahlias many thanks to Kevin Broxholme for showing me round his allotment last night. It was certainly a sight for sore eyes and he had some truly gorgeous blooms.....especially that highly top-secret one we're not allowed to tell anyone about (nudge, nudge, wink wink!)

And if any of my kids have put that other vote on in favour of the scouse scum......it's not funny ok! I can delete these polls just as soon as I put them on if they start going against me!

Malvern

This weekend me and Leesa are having a weekend away in Malvern for the 2007 Autumn Show. The National Vegetable Society are holding their National Championshps there and it's always a humbling experience to see the level you aspire to and realise you have a long way to go.

All the country's premier growers will be there.......Medwyn Williams, Vin Throup, Ivor Mace, Jim Thompson, Graeme Watson, Sherie Plumb, Dave Thornton etc. It's a great chance to see which varieties they are growing and how they compare to your own efforts. A lot of them can be approached for advice also.

There are also very competitive dahlia section and I'll also be making a note of any new varieties I might want to grow in future. Every year I go and threaten to actually compete next year but I always bottle it. I remember thinking last year that my tomatoes would have warranted a place based on what I saw.

Having spent an hour in show tent it'll be on to the rest of the showground to see all the other multitude of attractions from the hundreds of trade stands to birds of prey display, and James Martin the TV cook. If you go get there early as there's far too much to pack in to a few hours.

Planning for Sturton Show

No shows this weekend....a chance for a bit of a sit down perhaps? Not very likely though seeing as we have builders in and our house currently resembles the American mid-south dustbowl!

It's now a case of keeping my tomatoes, cucumbers and beans ticking over until the 6th October when I compete at my last show in the Lincolnshire village of Sturton by Stow. My cucumbers have been a real success story this year and they've obviously enjoyed the moist, warm conditions. At Sturton the class is for a single 'cu' so I don't need to match them up and will probably make 2 or 3 entries.

I picked a Tesco carrier bag full of runner beans two nights ago and there are plenty more beans around 2-3" long. These should be ok for Sturton and I'll keep a close eye on them from now on to make sure they grow straight and don't go 'beany'.

Sturton has several classes for cacti and succulents so I need to make sure they are all looking good. The pots need cleaning as several of them have spent the summer outside. I find this makes the foliage and flesh look clean and healthy and keeps mealy bug at bay. I have a bag of granite chippings that I use to cover the surface of the compost and give the plants a professional look.

The dahlias are now starting to give up some decent looking blooms and with Sturton in mind I must continue to disbud them so that I have plenty of good sized flowers in 2 weeks time. Hopefully we won't get an early frost between now and then. Since I've been growing dahlias for show the first frost has always been in early November so I should be ok. I've been very pleased with the variety Emma's Coronet which I first saw at Malvern last year (see pic above of the vase in question). It's a really 'zingy' pink...if there is such a thing!

My large onions are starting to wrinkle on their outer skins and some have actually cracked. Last night I removed one of these on a single onion and was quite pleased to find a nice, tight, reasonably ripe looking skin, so I shall do the same to all of the others and hopefully they'll look ok for Sturton.

Steaming!

I need to find some of this and get it on my garden this autumn......and it needs to be well rotted. I haven't put any cow shit on my plot now for a few years and I think it's starting to show. The soil looks tired and lacking in substance.

It's basically clay and whilst I've improved it over the years my intensive growing regime means I expect a lot of my soil. It can get very wet and cold in the spring meaning I can't sow or plant too early and it bakes hard in the summer. Things like cabbages especially have been disappointing this season simply because I think the soil runs out of steam. I plant quite close together and don't believe in watering unless I really have to. You can apply fertilisers to the soil but unless the soil is meaty and full of humus I don't think it does an awful lot of good.

So........

Homemade tomato feeds

This season has been another good one for my tomatoes. I've won 3 out of the 7 shows I've entered, and can't believe how I didn't win 3 more. On each occasion the judge's decision seemed totally baffling and that belief was reinforced by other people saying the same. I came 3rd out of 20 entries at Moorgreen which was perhaps the most satisfying of all the results in that the quality was very high and the show was judged by Gerald Treweek.....one of the now legendary judges from TV's 'The Great British Village Show'.

I put my improved success these last two years down to my feeding regime. I alternate the feeding with 3 different feeds. One is the usual tomato fertilisers you can buy from the garden centres and the other two are homemade 'stews'. I cut down comfrey and nettle leaves and soak them in buckets of water for a few weeks. The liquid is strained off into bottles giving the red comfrey liquid and the green nettle liquid. A capful of each of the 3 feeds in turn is put into each watering can at every watering during the season, AFTER the first fruit on the lowest truss has reached the size of a pea.

The only other feed I might give is a spraying of epsom salts over the foliage if the leaves start to turn a little yellow. This is a possible sign of magnesium deficiency, and spraying epsom salts on the leaves seems to miraculously turn them back to green within a few days.

Because of my feeding programme I've now won 6 shows in a row against our friend Wendy in the Smith v. Hallam tomato challenge after going several years unable to beat her.

Fuchsias on show

I used to grow some cracking fuchsias years ago but as I've got more into the veg they've tended to get shoved into a corner and not get the attention they deserved in recent years.

The trick is to pinch out the growing tips regularly over the spring and early summer months to create an evenly shaped compact bush (or head if growing standards). The last 'pinch' needs to be approximately 90 days before the show date although this varies slightly depending on variety. All flowers are then removed as soon as they form until about 30 days before the show date. A regular feeding regime needs adopting during the growing season with a high potash feed in the last few weeks. The things that 'do' for most fuchsias are too much direct sunlight and overwatering. A semi-shaded position and careful watering are required.

Remember to give the pot a good clean before dispaying on the bench and remove any detritus from the soil surface. Any yellowing leaves or flowers that are past their best should also be snipped off carefully. This is called 'dressing' the plant. Some shows specify a maximum pot diameter so make sure you have potted it on into too big a pot.

A class we have at Sutton Bonington Show (and which I won for the first time this season) is for 6 fuchsia blooms (minimum 2 varieties) displayed on a special board. There is a water reservoir beneath. You need to choose 6 perfect flowers with no blemishes that are as fresh as possible with no pollen dropping. Cut a long stalk as this draws up the water from the reservoir.

400 up!

Again not many successes at Sileby on Saturday, but my winning tomatoes signalled my 400th 1st place since I started showing in 1996. It's a very small show in only it's 2nd year after a break of ten or so years, but is going in the right direction with the people involved and will hopefully go from strength to strength.

Apparently many years ago it was a huge event and the whole village would turn out in their Sunday finest. We're a long cry from those heady days and I can only imagine what the local rivalries must have been like and I bet the quality was amazing, especially among the crysanth growers. I only know of a couple of local growers who show chrysanths these days and it seems to have become a bit of a dying art. As usual it was Mick Mills from East Leake who took all the awards at Sileby as he did at Seagrave with his superb 'crissies', pot leeks and potatoes. He's the man to beat as far as I'm concerned.

My '1sts' were for cucumbers, tomatoes, longest runner bean and pot plant. I managed a rather pleasing '2nd' for runner beans and a 3rd for my onions. With only one show left this season my tally of 35 wins so far is going to mean I will finish well down on last year's total of 62.....unless everyone else fails to turn up at Sturton! Having said that in many ways it's been a successful season despite the difficulties as my leeks, parsnips and onions have been my best ever so far. Some of my carrot entries have also been exceptional if lacking in uniformity from time to time. The important

Sabotage?

I've had the following email from a reporter on the Daily Telegraph:

"Dear Simon, I'm a journalist on the Sunday Times and writing a piece for our gardening section on rivalries in the world of vegetable shows. As you do. It follows a story in the Telegraph this morning about an allotment gardener whose leeks were attacked. Searching about for inspiration, I stumbled across your blog and notice that you've not only personal experience of sabotage but hint that it's relatively common. Or at least, not entirely unknown. Would you be available to chat about it briefly?"

I've found the article in question http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2007/09/13/noindex/nleeks113.xml . I've replied to the reporter asking him to contact the National Vegetable Society. Thankfully this sort of thing is very rare in the showing fraternity but it's more prevalent in the north east of England where big money is at stake for the best leeks. I'm glad to say round my way there isn't really a problem and as I keep insisting most other growers are more concerned about helping fellow competitors rather than doing them harm.

There is perhaps more of a tendency for cheating, or at least bending the rules as far as they can go. I know of a few growers locally who allegedly buy their produce at the after show auction and then put it in another show the next day in their own names. Quite what satisfaction they get from this is anybody's guess and they're not kidding anybody.

Year's ago I came across an old boy who tried to take off the leaves of my cabbages saying they would look better. Whilst inexperienced I still had enough about me to insist that he left them alone and I duly beat him to 1st place. He also had a knack of being able to accidentally knock the flower from the ends of your cucumbers when you had so carefully managed to transport them to the show intact! Luckily he no longer shows and we're better off without such people. The village show is a uniquely British affair and is there to be enjoyed by everyone, with nothing more than the odd bit of friendly banter between fellow exhibitors.

Nearly all over for another season.....

The garden is looking a little sorry for itself as it often does at this time of year. I have tried to tidy up as I go along, but inevitably as I'm rushing around getting everything ready and loaded for the various shows things get left lying around......secateurs, string, canes, cabbage leaves etc.



The wet summer seems a long way away now, and we've had a few weeks of sunshine and fine days........a good job at the moment as we're having an extension built and half of our roof is off! I'm starting to get a few runner beans at last and my cucumbers have been one of the season's success stories. The plants in the greenhouse have gone mad and the foliage is still lush and rampant. My dahlias have been ok but I wonder what size tubers I will get up in the autumn. The plants just sat there for weeks because of the incessant rain in July and only started to grow about the middle of August. A stange thing is that all the blooms seem to be at their optimum in the midweek between shows and have gone over slightly come show day. They don't seem to be holding as long as they used to.



The potatoes have been a total disaster. There's been plenty of small ones for the kitchen but I haven't exhibited a single spud all season. After spending so much money, time and effort on the preparation it was a real heartbreaker to lose them to blight.



But it isn't all doom and gloom. I've displayed my best ever carrots, parsnips, leeks and onions although I haven't picked up as many wins because the competition has been so high. I'd rather get a place in a good contest than a win against far inferior exhibits, and I think it shows that the future of the hobby is good as I'm seeing quite a few new exhibitors on the local scene.



I only have a couple of shows left now....Sileby this Saturday and then Sturton at the beginning of October. In between those two me and Leesa are having a weekend away at Malvern Autum Show where it's the National Championships of the National Vegetable Society. The setting for that show is truly stunning, at the foot of the Malvern Hills and you could spend a fortune on plants and sundries at the hundreds of stalls on the showground. It's well worth a visit and although it gets busy there's plenty of room to move around and it's also a doddle to get in and out of......a far cry from the likes of the NEC, Tatton Park and Chelsea.

Seagrave 2007

Despite putting some of my best veg here I only came away with six '1sts' and failed to win the trophy for most points in show, that honour falling once again to Mick Mills. The fact that I put such good stuff in and didn't win as much as usual meant that the quality far exceeded previous years which makes any win far more satisfying. Growers come from quite far afield for this show, despite it being quite a small affair, simply because of its friendly atmosphere.



I've been drafted onto the orgaising team this year and suggested that the carrot, parsnip and leek classes were reduced to 2 per class....a decision that paid off as there were more entries than usual. It's easier to match up 2 of a kind than it is to find 3 (obviously!).



I only came second in the 'Men only' Victoria Sandwich class, losing out this year to the show's charismatic auctioneer Rod Bint. It was my 4th attempt at making one....the first two burnt and I knocked the 3rd onto the floor on the morning of the show meaning I had to make one quickly before I left the house. I've duly challenged Rod to a re-match at this weekend's Sileby Show.



My dahlias were a mixed bunch. My Jomanda had slightly gone past their best and my Emma's Coronet needed another day or two so for once I ended up with no cards for dahlias......but we had a glut of top quality dahlias this year so it was no surprise. All-in-all it was the best Seagrave Show for some years and we raised over £1200 for local charities.

Littleover 2007

I was only able to muster up 12 entries for Littleover this year but still managed to walk away with a couple of trophies for the 1 flower/1 veg class and the Top Tray. My Grange Collection was not a patch on my winning entry last year and I only managed a 3rd place.

My cherished 'marigold in a marigold' in the 'Plant in an unusual container' class came 2nd to universal disagreement apparently, beaten by a leek in a welly! Ah well, at least it made everyone laugh!

The dahlias here were of a superb standard and Paul Harvey's blooms were up to his usual high standard, but he'll have Kevin Broxholme challenging him in the years to come I think. And Leesa managed to get a couple of '1sts' also.....one for her fruit cake and one in the photography classes where she also picked up 3 other prize cards.

Pick of the shows

I know he'll be reading this blog but I just had to mention Kevin Broxholme's 3 vases of the giant dahlia 'Bryn Terfel' from the weekend's Littleover Show. They were stunning....and huge! The picture perhaps doesn't do the size justice but imagine 3 footballs....these were bigger and hardly a mark on them. Some achievement.

Well done Kevin!

Heroes

After two cracking shows over the weekend it's time to name my heroes and they are:

Melvyn Hoyes

Kay Bint

Richard Smith

Brian Eagers

These four and people like them all over the country give up their spare time to lay on flower and veg shows for people like me. Every year they must wonder why they do it as the effort and stress involved can be incredible at times, and after a year like we've just had you always wonder whether the growers will have anything to show. But both Seagrave and Littleover Shows were both superb and the quality of produce on show would have

Can't believe I just heard that....

Just been shopping with the missus (under duress) and whilst walking down the tioletries aisle overheard a young man on the phone to his wife or possibly mother. Now if I ever have to go to a supermarket for a bottle of shampoo I would walk straight to the relevant section and as soon as I picked up the first bottle bearing the legend 'shampoo' that would be it....into the basket it would go and thence to checkut to pay for said item.

But this fella said 'Hi, do I want revitalising shampoo or re-energising shampoo?'

I felt like slapping him. And if he hadn't been about two foot taller than me I probably would have done.

Jomanda

I won the trophy for best vase of dahlias at Sutton Bonington on Sunday with this set of 3 Jomanda. It's a 'small ball' type and is very popular with a lot of growers as it doesn't often let you down. The stems grow straight and firm and the blooms themselves very rarely suffer from markings or blemishes.

I only grow 8 plants of it but it throws up an awful lot of blooms and I usually manage to have a couple of vases most weekends during the growing season. However, all my dahlias have been slow to get going this year and last weekend was the first occasion where I was able to stage a vase of 3. However, I should have

Is this just phallus-y?

People laugh when they see this cactus and I don't know why! It managed to net me a 3rd place at Sutton Bonington at the weekend and I think it's a beautiful thing!

Another weekend, another show, another win for wifey!

This is my winning trug from Sutton Bonington Show last weekend. All the veg was either red or purple and I managed to achieve the effect I've been thinking about all season.

I say 'I' but as ever it was put together by Leesa which was no mean feat as she was suffering from a heavy cold at the time. I'll have to come up with a different idea for next season....perhaps yellow and orange veg?

You numbnut Smiffy!

At Sutton Bonington we have a class called 1 veg/1 fruit/1 flower which I've mentioned before and it gets quite popular as most people are usually able to rustle up 1 good specimen of each.

The pic shows my entry of a white gladioli, an onion and an apple. I'd had the gladdy under a black polythene sack for 4 days as it started to open out too early and I needed to hold it back. When I unwrapped it on the morning off the show it looked lovely and several 'florets' had opened out.

However, whilst it had been under the black sack I'd had it tied to a cane to keep it straight and I forgot to take off a small piece of string at the top of the gladdy. For this reason my entry was disqualified and I could have kicked myself. I should have known better but less experienced exhibitors would possibly have felt seriously aggrieved

Sutton Bonington Show 2007

What a show......there must have been a record number of people who visited yesterday and they had plenty to see as far as the horticultural marquee was concerned. We had nearly 800 entries and there appeared to be many new entrants which is always encouraging. In view of the weather we've had this summer the standard was fantastic and I had my work cut out to retain the Society Cup for most points in show for the 7th successive year.

I seemed to spend yesterday in the role of 'vegetable guru' answering questions from gobsmacked people wishing they could grow veg like mine. But I always try to get across to them that anyone can do it with a bit of willpower and the right strain of seed of course. One of the best growers in the country is a busy housewife from Essex who also runs a guesthouse called Sherie Plumb. If she can do it anyone can.

This is one competitive hobby I've come across where your competitors are always willing to pass on their tips so that you can beat them, a rare thing indeed in this day and age. And after helping a fellow competior with advice on Saturday about the display of his veg in the Top Tray class he promptly beat me to first place which in many ways was just as satisfying as winning it myself!

More pics in the next few days.

More Leicester exhibits