A season's haul!

Not a bad season all things considered. But I'd swap it all next season for a 3rd place card at Malvern.

What a whopper

I hasten to add I haven't grown this onion.....I've been given it to have a go at getting my own seed and pips from. It weighs about 7lbs.

If anyone has any tips on when I should be planting it and what to do exactly feel free to pass comment.

Join the NVS

I think anyone interested in growing veg for show should join the NVS. For £14 you get 4 quarterly bulletins packed with information on growing all sorts of veg for the table as well as the showbench. You have access to specially produced DVD's on growing different veg, a library and of course entry into the various NVS-run shows should you wish.

Depending on where you live you will also get a newsletter from your local branch (mine is the Midland Branch) as well as booklets listing judges and lecturers which is useful if any of you are involved with your local horticultural society and need to book speakers.

You also get the chance to buy garden sundries at subsidised rates. However I think that the spectacle of the NVS shows is enough reason to join as there is nothing like it anywhere else in the World.

LINK

http://www.nvsuk.org.uk/index.php

Yet another European pumpkin record

Further to my post of 29th September the British and European pumpkin record has fallen again this time to a couple of brothers from Hampshire.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3183369/Brothers-smashing-pumpkin-breaks-European-records.html

Incredible but you have to feel sorry for the guy who only held the previous record (the one I saw at Malvern) for a few days before losing it to the guy from Belgium, and also that guy who in turn lost out to this new record.

It was hard work but.........

..........NOW I'M BACK!!!!!

Narak iktar tard

Off to sunny (I hope!) Malta for a week so there'll be no more posts for a short while folks.

Chick with big knockers!

So you bloody should !

Funny how England play better when he aint in the team! Spraying long balls around in the Premiership might look good and get Alan Green creaming himself but you get found out at international level with your telegraphed passes!

Anally retentive!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…….I’m a sad bastard!

Since I started ‘showing’ in 1996 I’ve won 1,136 prize cards of various colours and denomination (I know this because I keep a spreadsheet….told you I was sad!). Of those I have been most successful with the following:

Carrots 94
Pot plants 90 (various guises)
Beetroot 62
Potatoes 61
Cacti 60
Onions 58 (In various guises/weights etc)
Shallots 58
Dahlias 57
Parsnips 49
Top tray 44
Tomatoes 43

If like me you find that information interesting then we both need to get out more. Where are you taking me?

She wuz robbed!

Totally different subject today! Photography! My wife likes to enter a few photos at the various shows (in fact she has a certificate cos she went on a proper course and is now a bona fide photographist!) and has picked up a few cards in the process including a cup at Littleover.

One thing she keeps coming up against is photos like this that have been digitally enhanced or generally fecked about with! Now I'm no expert but once this happens it isn't a photograph then....is it?

I'm sure I'd soon get disqualified if I painted my carrots bright orange, whitewashed my parsnips or pumped mercury into my pumpkins to make them weigh more!

All not lost on the long carrots

Unusually I've hardly staged any long carrots this season due to the failure of my first two sowings. The first failed in the cold snap in March and the 2nd struggled through the mini heatwave in April and May. When I eventually got some going it was far too late for them to be any good in the earlier shows. However, for Sturton I was able to pick up a 1st and 3rd as they'd had that extra month or so to grow. Although they were nice clean specimens they were far smaller than I've been used to in recent seasons

Osiris

Having used up all my Sweet Candle at previous shows I used a set of Osiris at Sturton to win the stump carrot class. I'd grown these in short pipes 'plugged' into the soil in my raised leek bed and filled with my usual carrot mix. They were a little coarse and heavy because of this and the 'whips' broke off very close to the stump end because they were into the soil rather than sand at that point.

I hadn't given them any TLC at all really and I did have some fly damage which made choosing a set not as easy as it had been with the Sweet Candle but all in all I think I'll give this variety another chance next season, sowing sooner and growing in a raised sand bed.

Another Pinnacle of success

I won the parsnips class at Sturton......my 6th win out of 7 shows this season....with the variety Pinnacle. The skin condition was still good although I did have a little canker spot on one of them, which I put in my 2nd place winning set.

I shall certainly be growing this variety again next season assuming I can get hold of some seed. I'm convinced that this is a better variety than any I've grown before, such as Gladiator and Princess. I used to struggle to get Gladiator to carry its weight all the way down.

I may just switch to a slightly stronger mix next year in any case.

Transportation of produce

One of the things I've promised to get sorted before next season is to make some wooden boxes to transport my veg, especially my onions, tomatoes and long roots. At the moment I ferry my onions around in a large trug with foam packing wedged between each onion but this is far from ideal and allows them to move around too easily, potentially causing bruising (especially if you drive like I do!). Also, as my onions get heavier I feared that the handle may one day fail and the whole lot crash to the floor just as I was carrying them to the benches!

My long carrots and parsnips are simply wrapped in towels and then laid on the back seat of my car, often with other heavy veg such as cabbages placed on top of them! I will try and make some long boxes to ensure they get to the show in tip top condition.

My tomatoes generally get placed in plastic seed trays, the ones with individual compartments for square pots, each wrapped in a section of kitchen towel. Again, this has potential for disaster if something falls on them during transit so I will make wooden carry cases with compartments and a low lid so that they can't bounce out.

The advantage of wooden boxes is that they can be stacked in my boot and other produce packed around them without fear of damage to either.

2 more wins

Another couple of pleasing wins at Sturton in cucumbers (1st/2nd/3rd) and brussels (1st & 2nd). The brussel variety I grew this season was Abacus which is by far the best I’ve ever grown and gave me plenty of good sized, compact buttons to choose from.

My Carmen ‘cus’ were past their best as they had been on the vine for well over a week but were still good enough to win. Next season I may sow even later….say the end of June in order to have better cu’s for Malvern and Sturton.

Collection classes

As I’ve said before shows need to be imaginative when they produce their schedules, particularly the smaller shows and especially when it comes to the collection classes. Unless they’re going to offer big prize money it’s doubtful people will enter the collection that call for 6 ‘dishes’ of 3 or 5 specimens. Collections of this size are fine at large NVS shows and the like but are quite inappropriate at village shows. Sturton has a good idea by making it 6 single vegetables and I managed to get 1st and 2nd this year. Most growers will probably have one good specimen of each type and the class is useful for showing off all those good veg that are too large to match up with other specimens.

As you can see I put in two entries that were quite different to each other but I still put in 12 quality vegetables. I had one superb runner bean that I couldn’t match up in a set of 6 and one good shaped marrow that I didn’t have a partner for in the marrow class. At NVS shows growers will have large display boards draped in black cloth to enhance their veg but at most small village I like to keep things simple by just having the veg arranged attractively straight onto the show bench.

Another tomato win

My win at Sturton (in fact I was 1st and 2nd) with Cederico was my 6th win out of 7 shows this season, and I reckon I should have won the only show I didn't but hey-ho! I've had some lovely looking tommies this season justifying my feeding regime of alternate feeds of Tomorite, nettle 'soup' and comfrey 'soup'. I also thin my fruits out in the early stages when about pea-size, removing every other one which gives the remaining fruits more room to grow. I don't seem to get the flat sides so much these days where neighbouring fruits squash against each other.

I also managed to get 1st and 2nd in the class for a truss of tomatoes. I could have staged another set of 5 from the fruits on these two trusses.

Next year's varieties

Long carrot – Resel. New Red Intermediate from Graeme Watson
Parsnip – Pinnacle (Medwyns)
Stumps – Sweet Candle (Medwyns/Shelleys)
Potatoes – Kestrel/Maxine/Winston/Pixie (ESP)
Tomatoes – Cederico (Shelleys)
Cherry toms – Sakura and Sungold (DT Brown)
Onions and leeks – bought in plants from top growers
8oz onions – Vento (Medwyns)
Shallot – Hative de Niort (new stock hopefully!)
Celery – Red Star (Medwyns)
Beetroot – Red Ace (Shelley)
Cabbage – Globemaster (Medwyns) Kilaton (DT Brown)
Red Cabbage – Autoro (Shelley)
Runner beans – seed from a secret source!!!
French beans – Declic (DT Brown) & Purple Speckled (own saved seed)
Peas – Cavalier (DT Brown)
Marrow – Blyton Belle (own saved seed direct from Les Stothard breeding line)
Pumpkin – sent off for some from the grower of the recently crowned european record (should be fun!)
Courgette – Ambassador (DT Brown)
Lettuce – Sunny (DT Brown)
Brussels - Abacus (Medwyn)
Caulis – bollocks to caulis!!!

Shallot dilemma

Well that’s thrown a spanner in the works! I won both shallot classes (exhibition and pickling) at Sturton unexpectedly. I say unexpectedly because as you’re running around concentrating and staging your exhibits you’re only half aware of the quality of the opposition, and I was half aware that there were some big looking shallots up against me so assumed I had no chance. It was only upon my return to the show after judging and I had the pleasing spectacle of 1st and 2nd prize cards in both classes that I realised mine were more uniform and in better condition than those of my competitors. These really were bonus wins and helped me to most points in show again.

However, my dilemma was that I was going to pickle all shallots after my last show and start again next year with fresh stock, as I didn’t consider their size good enough for competing at a higher level. They do seem to have ripened nicely as the weeks have progressed and I find it quite easy to pick a matching set…..it’s just they aint very big! I think I’ll keep a couple of handfuls back for the pickling classes and grow them well away from my new stock….there….decision made!

Parsnip pulling power

I thought a posting about how I actually get my parsnips up out of the growing medium may be of interest….if you’re a saddo like me that is! Years ago I used to excavate a hole around the crown of each root then drench the hole and let the water sink in before pulling. This was (and still is) the method advocated by Medwyn Williams. Now I don’t bother and simply pull it dry with slow, firm pressure. I go around the plants and dig down a few inches with my fingers to expose the crowns and try to match up those with similar diameters. Good tapering, parsnips really do pull themselves quite a way down into the bore hole. Those with crowns nearer the surface tend to be misshapen I find.

Once I’ve selected the ones I want to ‘pull’ I will excavate the hole as I’ve already said and may just give a dribble of water over the top of the parsnip to wash off any sand, as leaving rough sand on it may risk scratching the skin when you handle it. Then I stand over it with both hands around it and pull upwards. Don’t do it quickly, but firmly and slowly. Eventually there’ll be a ‘click’ as the bottom of the tap root way down in the bore hole breaks away from the sub soil, and you can then extract the whole root, hopefully with a smile on your face as you expose a smooth skinned, gradually tapering parsnip with no side roots. I immerse the parsnip in a drum of water to wash off any excess sand and compost and then lay it gently on a soft surface (the lawn is good) out of the sun whilst I continue pulling more roots to make a set.

My selected set is then taken upstairs to the bathroom and laid in a bath full of water. I generally do my final cleaning once it’s dark, preferring to get back out in the garden to do other tasks whilst it's still daylight. It does however mean that my teenage daughters aren’t able to shower or bathe for several hours so I have to run a constant gauntlet of abuse!

Les Stothard ponders what to call his latest dahlia......

Kev Broxholme (far left) to Les Stothard (2nd from left) "What about Blyton Geovanni, Les?"

Les Stothard "I think Blyton Rooney sounds better Kev"

Blyton Lady in Red and Blyton Eureka

A couple of Mr Broxholme's vases from Sturton

Spurs 0 Hull 1

Bugger!

70 and out

My winning entry in the one flower/one veg class (Kenora Sunset dahlia and Pinnacle parsnip) at Sturton was my 70th red card of the season which is a personal best (previous PB was 69 in 2005) . It's been a heck of a season and certainly my best in terms of the quality I've exhibited, particularly in parsnips, stumps and tomatoes.

Normally I'm quite sad at this time of the season as the showing year fades out but I'm now feeling quite hopeful of making the step up to a better level next season by competing at Malvern in the NVS Midland Championships. I will be lucky to win a card there and I'm sure I will have to take disappointment in my stride, but I'm sure that chatting to some of the 'big boys'can only help me make further improvements.

Sturton 2008

Sturton in Lincolnshire is a small village with a very big show. I had a good one this year (the 121st annual show!), winning 13 'red cards' for long carrots, stump carrots, parsnips, heaviest carrot, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, exhibition shallots, pickling shallots, tomato truss, brussels, collection of veg and one flower/one veg.

I was lucky enough to win trophies for most points in the veg for the 7th year running and the most points in show for the 5th time, although I have some way to go to match the record of the legendary Les Stothard with 22 wins! Best in show this year was for a marvellous set of leeks by a Mr I.Justice, and me 'ole mucker Kev Broxholme won most points in the flowers winning all 3 dahlia classes in the process. A good day then became excellent as I had a pint in the local pub as I watched Man Utd beat Blackburn and thus leapfrog Hull in the table! Phew!

Gardener's World

Let's face it.....since Geoff Hamilton's sad death this programme has been going downhill. Alan Titchmarsh was great but the feel of the programme wasn't right....too glitzy with too much reliance of trendy camera angles. And although Rachel de Thame was very good to look at she wasn't a proper gardener was she? I know someone who was interviewed by her once about roses and apparently she didn't have a clue what she was on about.

Monty Don's tenure was a total disaster. His total non-acceptance of anything other than organic gardening was a mistake and nothing was explained properly. The show flitted from subject to subject to try and cram as much in as possible. And quite why Carol Klein got as much air time as she did bewilders me. All she ever did was pack Berryfields with cottage garden plants. Blindin!

So I wasn't very hopeful when it was announced that Toby Buckland was to be the new presenter after Poncy Don quit. However, after catching a couple of episodes recently I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised. He puts forward the case for chemicals where absolutely necessary and does appear to be very knowledgeable about plants, and edible crops in particular. If you've not bothered watching it recently then I do recommend that you give it a go although be warned.....that Klein bird still has the odd slot!

No laughing!

Just found this old pic from about 1996 and one of my first ever winning entries for 'heaviest marrow' at a now defunct show in Loughborough. Where did all that hair go?