I'll remember that!

More than 24 hours have gone by and Pakistan still hasn't started an earthquake disaster fund for us! I say next time they have one they can get stuffed!

Imagination and schedule makers

Every year when the schedules pop through your letter box you invariably find that the same old classes are churned out with few, if any changes. I believe the key to keeping good shows going is down to changing things every year and introducing new classes that mix things up a bit. At Sutton Bonington we try and alter the schedule each year by getting rid of those classes that haven't been well supported for a few years and replacing them with quirky new ones if possible. One class we've had for 3 or 4 years now is a class for runner beans/tomatoes and round beetroot (2 of each) and it's always been well-supported. The key is that just about everyone grows all of these crops and it's usually quite easy to find a matching pair.

Plonker!

ARSENE WENGER called for Martin Taylor to be banned for life after the defender broke Eduardo's leg at St Andrew's. Wenger demanded the ultimate punishment after discovering Eduardo is likely to miss the start of NEXT season.
The Gunners boss fumed: "This guy should never play football again. What is he doing on the football pitch?
"But it’s like a guy who kills one time in his life. It’s enough and you have a dead person.
"This tackle is absolutely horrendous. If you watch it again, you can’t say the guy has played the ball. It is not acceptable.
"I've gone along with the idea for a long time that to stop Arsenal, you have to kick Arsenal.
"I knew that an injury like this had been coming for a long time now.
"We have escaped a few horrendous tackles since the beginning of this season and I knew something like this could occur sometime."


YOU Two-faced French prat. What about last week when your players were trying to break more skilful Man Utd players in half simply because we were wupping your asses? 70-odd red cards since you took charge at Arsenal tells a story!

Drums on raised sand bed

Further to yesterday's post I think it's important to show this picture. My plastic drums have the bottoms cut out so in effect they're just big tubes. If I just stood the drums straight onto the ground it would be impossible to get them to stand straight so I have metal frames about 12" high which are also filled with sand. The drums are stood on this sand so that it's an easy job to get them to stand up straight with the use of a spirit level. The sand in the metal frames means I can also get an extra 12" of length in my roots.

Parsnip drums

As mentioned in the previous post I'm growing my parsnips in drums this year. A couple of weeks ago I emptied them all out and refilled them. If you don't do this the sand gets compacted and it's very difficult to bore the holes. There is also a lot of compost from the previous year's bore holes so you are also able to mix this with the sand so that over the years the sand starts to get darker and darker.The first drum is emptied into a large rubble sack, the second drum is empied into the first drum and so on until the sand from the rubble sack is put back into the final drum (see arrows in pic).


As you're doing this every 10 spadefuls or so I sterilise the sand to get rid of any nasties that may be lurking such as various root rot spores or carrot fly eggs. I use a strong solution of Jeyes Fluid or Armillatox. Each drum is filled to 6" or so of the top and then covered with a pane of glass to allow the sand to settle. The pane of glass also stops the cats from doing their business.

This year's red cards?

Right....let's get this blog back on track! I've just got back from a long weekend walking in Scotland so now my thoughts need to turn back to gardening. I've done very little on the garden for several months so I'll need to seriously drag things back in the next few weeks. All of my seeds (see pic) have now arrived and I'm hoping there are plenty of 'red cards' within the magic sachets! But unless I prepare everything (soil/compost mixes/feeds etc) properly in the coming weeks it won't matter a jot how good the seed is so I need to get cracking.

I have a small tray of Tasco onions on the go and my shallots are potted up in the greenhouse, but that is all. I've emptied the sand out of my carrot drums and refilled them as this season I'm going to grow parsnips in them instead, and grow carots in the raised slab beds that I usually grow parsnips in. Don't ask me why......I can't really explain it! Sometimes you just have to go with a hunch.

We wuz all robbed!

Bobby Charlton played with George Best, Denis Law, Booby Moore, Jimmy Greaves, Tom Finney and Nat Lofthouse. He played against Pele, Puskas, Di Stefano, Beckenbauer and Eusebio. He saw Cruyff, Maradona, Zidane and more recently Henry and Ronaldo. But he says Big Dunc was the best of them all.

6th February 1958.

Baldy's going to be in print!

I've been accepted as one of the guinea pigs for a monthly section in Garden News about people who 'grow for show', the idea being to try and get people to enter at least one thing in their local show in 2008.

I hope people don't read it after eating.....my face is enough to bring anyone's breakfast back up! And I guess from now on I'll have to watch my p's and q's and become an all round much nicer human being! I've already joined the National Society for the Prevention of Slug Death and shall soon be donating to the Old Folk's home for Retired Traffic Wardens....bless 'em!