Blyton Bella bella

Two winning marrow entries this weekend, including this pair at Leicester. Unlike Hathern all produce is not auctioned off so this pair will compete again at Seagrave next weekend.....remember to cut a very thin slither of stalk off after you put it on the showbench......gives it that 'just cut' look. Of course, you must cut as long a stalk as possible in the first place.

Leicester 2009

9 firsts at Leicester today including wins in all 3 of the potato classes which has pleased me no end. All my fellow exhibitors were saying how they'd been affected by blight but I've been lucky this season and escaped it on my spuds.

Fellow grower Terry Leach was really on form at this show winning best in show with 3 superb leeks, and I had to be content with 2nd to him in the collection of 6 veg class. But I did manage other wins for pickling shallots, marrows, a basket of veg (prepared by my good lady Leesa....more on this in a later posting!) and these parsnips. They weren't quite up to last year's standard.

Straightening your bendy beans!

Take one bent french bean....leave it for an hour at room temperature after cutting....














Apply gentle and steady pressure in the opposite direction to the bend for a minute or two. ....















Voila! Now it's one straight bean! Runner beans take a little more care and attention but they can be straightened too.

Hathern 2009

I won 7 red cards today at Hathern (tut...2 short of my prediction!). I'm not quite sure how I managed it but I also picked up 6 trophies in the process, including one entitled Hathern Master Gardener which I won for the first time at my 13th attempt! It calls for a dish of veg (I had a plate of 5 gleaming white Winston spuds) and a vase of flowers (I chose dahlia Mary's Jomanda). My thanks to the 'git from Humberside' for giving me the wrong plants in the Spring. If anything I think I prefer them to the ordinary terracotta Jomanda. Here I am celebrating with a pint of tonic water....honest!






















I also claimed the best exhibit in the veg classes for these long carrots....despite a little carrot fly damage.

Personally I would have given it to my Cederico tomatoes which I thought were superb....even if I say so myself!

Mixed feelings

It's a quarter past midnight and I've just finished washing my tatties. It's been an up and down sort of day. Biggest disappointment are my Sweet Candle stumpers which were pretty useless all in all. I got a reasonable set for Leicester but too many were riddled with carrot fly maggot holes. Getting a cover over the beds next season is a must.

My parsnips were pretty good although I did have small patches of canker here and there. I think the change in my mix to a heavier soil percentage might have contributed to this. They weren't as heavy around the shoulder but did carry weight quite a way down the root.

I am however ecstatic about my tomatoes and spuds. The spuds cleaned up very easily indeed, and I have some cracking sets of tomatoes. Now it's time for bed and a 6am start to load the car for the first show at Hathern.

Get down shep!

Went up the allotment tonight to see how my biggest pumpkin has fared since I last saw it a week ago. Is it right that I should be getting sexually aroused at the amazing growth of a vegetable or should I really be keeping such admissions to myself?

It's absolutely huge! (the pumpkin that is!!!)....and I have 3 more that aren't far behind. With the first shows that have a class for heaviest pumpkin still over a week away I really am going to have a problem shifting them. Out of curiosity I may just leave the big one (my new love interest! I've named it Heidi after the blonde one in Sugababes!) to grow as big as possible. However, it may have catastrophic implications for my marriage!

It's showtime!!! (again)

Two shows this weekend...both have to be staged on Sunday morning so there's a lot of running around to do tomorrow. I'm not going mad on entries....maybe 20 at each show but I'm confident I have quality for each and every one, although of course as yet I have no idea how good my carrots and parsnips will be.

I'm going up the allotment tonight to pick some beetroot (and also to check how my megapumpkins are coming along after all this rain and sunshine). My shallots and onions have all been dressed and boxed up ready, my marrows are safely stored in pairs and my display boards have all been given a nice coat of matt black paint.

On the subject of my shallots, I really do have some cracking shaped one's from the bulbs that Dave Thornton gave me. Not huge, but classically flask shaped. My own strain produced humungous bulbs but they all went deformed shapes during drying out. I shall be discarding these next season. The variety Longor that I was trialling all went rotten during drying out and storing so I shan't be growing that variety again either.

I want to be up early tomorrow so that I'm not leaving my spud washing till too late tomorrow. I have about 40 potatoes to clean and each one takes a good 2 or 3 minutes to get to a showable standard.

Before that though I still have roots to extract and wash, tomatoes and cucumbers to pick and store for safe transportation, and dahlias to cut and get into a bucket carrier.

Before each show I like to have a punt at how many classes I think I could win.....I'm going for 9 at Hathern and 8 at Leicester!

Flower judge needed ....quick!

We need a judge for the flower section at Seagrave on 5th September. I'm looking at possibilities myself but if anyone has any suggestions in the meantime please drop me a line....

Well done Wullie!

Had this very nice message from a follower I didn't know I had!!!


"Hi Smithy, id just like to say thanks for sharing your tips and advice. Ive been a gardner for yrs but had never shown anything so i was quite nervous about being laughed out of the hall but after reading your advice i became quite confident and went to show. I placed 15 exhibits and got 15 prizes, 8 firsts, 6 seconds 1 third and took home 2 cups.
I was too exited and diddnt even remember to take any photos, i celabrated with a litre of vodka.
Many thanks once again.

Wullie McMaster."


All I can say is I'm glad to have been of some help but at the end of the day you did all the hard work yourself! Well done indeed!

If anyone else is contemplating having a go for the first time in the next few weeks then do try and pluck up the courage. Believe me the 'old boys' are more worried about you than you are about them, and many will actually become good friends and go out of their way to help you out.

Nightmare and reality?

At this time of year I always have the same dream. It's show day. I'm outside the marquee. I haven't yet staged my stuff and I'm panicking.

For some strange reason I haven't yet fathomed out my garden is about 20 yards from the marquee. I start to extract my carrots from the sand beds to find forked or split carrots. Choice swear words are uttered. I rush into the marquee to stage a few entries and suddenly realise I have left my spuds, shallots and marrows at home. The entries already staged in those classes are very poor and I realise I can win them. There's a couple of minutes left of staging time so I rush out of the marquee with the intention of rounding up the missing veg. Except now my garden is about 20 f***ing miles away!

I always wake up in a cold sweat !!!

If I want to make sure the real show day doesn't become a nightmare there are many things I need to be doing in the run up to the day......

1. Make sure top tray boards are clean and in a fit state of repair. (I gave them a coat of matt black paint last night). Similarly with bean and pea boards.
2. Sieve enough dry sand for displaying onions and shallots on. Some growers use vermiculite but I favour sand.
3. Tie onions and shallot tops and store in sets ready to load the night before. I put each set in a labelled box.
4. Measure runner and french beans daily. Pick when they get to your desired length and store in a cool place wrapped in a damp towel.
5. Protect cu's and marrows against marking from the coarse foliage. I use sheets of thick polystyrene.
6. Pick beetroot a couple of days before the show. Wash and store in a bucket of salty water. (more on this later in the week).
7. Post your entries in plenty of time if the show requests this. Read and double check the schedule.
8. Check flower carrying devices are maintained and ready to go.
9. Buy paper plates and florist's foam.
10. Remember to fondle your wife every now and then to make them realise you haven't totally forgotten them.
11. Keep calm!

Toooo big!!

Tomatoes for show should ideally be about 65-70mm dia. These are superb specimens but are about 80-90mm diameter. I seem to have an awful lot of big tommies this season for some reason.

I may risk some of these bigger ones on a Top Tray.

Blyton yellow

Those yellow fruited Blyton Belle sports that I first posted 2 or 3 weeks back are still growing away well. It will be interesting to see how they fare against green marrows.

Note the polystyrene sheet protecting the skin against damage from the coarse foliage of the plant itself.

Taking the bad with the smooth

My outdoor cherry toms have been decimated by blight. There's a lot of fruit but I don't know if they will hold until the shows.

My cabbages have been a waste of time. Despite being netted cabbage whites still got in when I was suffering from swine flu. However, all may not be totally lost.....at Sutton Bonington we have a fun class for 'laciest brassica' !!!

My 'Pinnacle' parsnip foliage seemed to start looking sickly 3 weeks ago. Furtling around the crowns it would appear that the shoulders are nowhere as big as last season's specimens.

My large onions have been one monumental disaster. Not being able to get them from my usual source I acquired some from a guy who advertises in Garden News. I have 3 about a pound if I'm lucky and the rest have been all shapes and sizes. These have also succumbed to white rot.....but with yearly applications of Basamid I do seem to be beating this disease slowly.

The veg garden has started to look very tired. I really need to keep getting plenty of muck dug into the beds during the autumn, to give my soil a bit more 'oomph'.

Good!

Hurry up and get on with it!

Pointing of vegetables

I've been asked a question about the pointing of vegetables. This can be a confusing issue to the novice but needn't be.

The first thing you need to know is that there are two pointing systems that judges can apply, either RHS rules or NVS rules. There are subtle differences between the two but for most village shows I think it's fair to say RHS rules will dominate.

There are some veg that are deemed worthy of 20 points as these are considered the 'top veg' that are the most difficult to grow. These are:

Long carrots
Parsnips
Caulis
Trench Celery
Long leeks
Pot leeks
Onions (over 8oz)
Potatoes
Peas
Tomatoes

These are the ones that most showmen will choose from when compiling collections but if they're struggling with the quality of one of their 'dishes' they may well turn to one of the 18 pointers such as aubergines (rarely), long beet, stump carrots, cucumbers (indoor type), and shallots

In truth you only need to worry about the points value of veg when you're making up a collection. When judging individual classes a judge will be comparing your dish against all the others and it's rare for them to go to the bother of pointing each dish. Instead they will have in mind the attributes that make up a good 'dish'. (p.s. this is just a term and not all veg are actually displayed on dishes!)

For instance, consider long carrots. The 20 points are broken up as follows:

Condition 6 points
Size & shape 4 points
Colour 5 points
Uniformity 5 points

The important thing for all novices to realise is that size only warrants a fifth of the total points available. The overall quality takes up the other 16 with condition being the most important consideration. As I said there are some subtle differences in the NVS rules but I think their philosophy is much the same.....quality counts!

I'd advise novices to get hold of the RHS's 'Horticultural Show Handbook' ISBN 0-906603-73-0.

Some 15 pointer veg include broad beans, french beans, globe beet, cabbage, capsicums, outdoor cucumbers, lettuce, marrows, squashes, 8oz onions and sweetcorn.

If you start to show at NVS level beware as some collections call for 20 pointer veg only. I'm sure the NVS boys will put me right but I'm not sure if tomatoes have been downgraded to 18 points and exhibition shallots upgraded to 20 points under NVS rules.

She's still growing

My pumpkin plants at the allotment are amazing. I went up a couple of nights ago and was taken aback by how much they had grown in only a few days. This one is the biggest and is easily a hundred pounds or so. It might not break any records and indeed it is probably not the biggest grown by a git from Loughborough, but it's the biggest grown by this git.....and I still have a couple of weeks to my first shows that have a class for heaviest pumpkin. You can tell how big it is by comparing it to my head which is also massive in order to house my enormous brain. I have another 3 slightly smaller than this one.

The only problem I might have is physically shifting the damn things!

These are my best ever runner beans.

I've already picked a good couple of dozen 17 -18" long beans like these but I'm not sure if I'm going to have another crop ready in time for my first shows. They really have been exceptional, easily reaching these lengths with no sign of bean bulge. I shall go through the vines tomorrow and start to straighten any bent ones that are about 10" or so. Come Monday I will start to pick any beans that reach the desired length and store these in a damp cloth with a wooden batten to keep them straight. Further beans will be picked during the week as and when they reach size.

U2 .....wow!

Went to see the boys again last night at Don Valley Stadium Sheffield. What an experience. First saw them 29 years ago!

They're still the best rock band in the world.



What about Coldplay I hear you say? Don't make me laugh, miserable suicide inducing tw*ts.



However, just one thing......Bono......please leave all that saving the world shite and just stick to the music !!!

Top Tray

At most shows you will see a class called 'Top Tray', which is often popular and well contested.
This is for 3 sets of vegetables chosen from a list as follows:

3 onions
3 potatoes
6 pods peas
6 runner beans
6 tomatoes
3 caulis
3 carrots (foliage cut back to 3")
3 parsnips (foliage cut back to 3")

The veg must be displayed within an area of 24"x18" which is usually a piece of board cut to the required dimension with a lip all round. Alternatively, a piece of cloth can be used. I favour a well made board with a good coat of matt black paint to set off the colour of the veg.No 'aids' such as onion rings are allowed (unless the show allows it) and the carrots and parsnips cannot be bent round to fit within the allotted space......so sometimes you have to cut the tails of the roots down to size.

It was originally sponsored by Garden News and a seed company, and seed vouchers and small medals were competed for. Lots of shows have kept the class and now have a specific trophy for it.

It can be a popular class for beginners but you should still bear in mind that good quality veg needs to be shown. Each set of veg will be marked out of 20 points according to RHS rules, and the tray with most points wins first prize.

Mixed spud success

Emptied out my Kestrel and Maxine tonight. I got some reasonable sets of Kestrel sorted but there were far too many small ones, and I really need to do away with the pot method as these cause funny shapes. At least the bags 'give' and allow the swelling tuber to grow to a reasonable shape.

The Maxine however were a huge letdown. I've persevered with this variety over the years because when you get them right they do tend to clean up nicely and judges seem to like it. I've noticed it consistently score highly in collections at Malvern. I had lots and lots of very clean but tiny tubers which will however come in handy for my trugs. I think next season I need to put quite a bit more feed in each bag with this variety, and a smidgeon** more in the Kestrel.


**about a handful...a technical term common to Loughburians.

First trophy 2009?

Cut my 2nd Blyton Belle marrow tonight, the one's from the posting a couple of days ago. I cut one yesterday and it was a good half inch longer than the one I left on, and fatter. But when I offered them against each other tonight they were well matched so I cut the other one. It just shows how quickly they can grow.

These will be entered at Hathern in two weeks time, where there is an accompanying trophy to go with the class. I've won this damned thing for the last few years. I say 'damned' as it's a blown glass marrow in a case that is so fragile. Getting it home from the show is always fraught with problems. I reckon my two marrows tonight are as good as any I've grown in a few years so I'm hopeful of already having bagged my first trophy of the season. Big headed tosser.

RIP Thomas 'Wally' Middleton

It's the funeral tomorrow of the guy who got me into showing. He died at the all too early age of 62 from prostate cancer. Wally was a work colleague and it was 1994 when I first saw some of Wally's entries at Hathern Show and decided to have a go the next year. I didn't do very well but with his encouragement and endless supply of tips by 1996 I was winning my first red cards, something which I know pleased him no end.

He could be an awkward bugger at times but his heart was always in the right place, and it's strange to think he's no longer going to be around as I know he'd planned to get back into showing after taking a 'few years out'.

Wally was the local tomato and runner bean king, but I also saw him stage some great long leeks, dahlias and gladioli. Rest well friend.

That git from Loughborough

This is embarrassing! It would appear I've labelled my marrows incorrectly. The ones I thought were Blyton Motley but which didn't appear to be any different from Blyton Belle, are indeed Blyton Belle it would seem.

I had a close look at what I thought were my Blyton Belle tonight and they are indeed very pale specimens, albeit they're all very small fruits so far. These must be Blyton Motley. The yellow fruited marrow is also amongst this batch.

I am a twat.

Blyton Motley....oh no they're not, they're Blyton Belle...see next post!

Can't see a great deal of difference between this and Blyton Belle, except it does appear to be marginally paler. It has the usual speckled markings and has very good form so it should be a winner. Here are my first two fruits growing a few inches apart on the same plant which is growing up a frame. The one on the right is a bit bigger and will be cut this weekend allowing the other to match it for size after another few days. I'll keep bringing the cut one out to put next to it to check them against each other for identical size. There are many more fruitlets forming for later shows.

As I've mentioned before Blyton Belle was raised by Les Stothard, who incidentally also knows that 'git from Humberside' ;o)

Never trust a Hull fan!!

In the most outrageous case of sabotage I've ever come across I've discovered that 4 plants of my usual dahlia 'Kenora Sunset' are actually a pink decorative type.....probably Emma's Coronet? Obviously some errant tuber labelling is to blame here, and as these plants were 'kindly' donated to me by me ol'mucker Kev Broxholme he will forever now be referred to as that 'git from Humberside'.

Only joking...love you really mate! (not in a gay way you understand!). Good job I quite like Emma's Coronet! However, you can bet your bottom dollar I will now be raising this matter at every conceivable opportunity at the top of my voice when I bump into him at the shows in the coming weeks!

I shall be interested to see if the Jomanda he also gave me turn out to be Jomanda at all. It'll probably be Bishop of bloody Llandaff!

The monsters in the undergrowth

I planted 3 pumpkins up at the allotment which were grown from seed I begged from the growers of the european record pumpkin seen at Malvern last September. Illness and holiday have kept me away from the allotment until tonight but lurking within the huge plants are 4 or 5 potentially large fruits that are already the size of a beach ball. I shall be very interested to see how big these get because they've had absolutely no TLC from me........but being planted where last year's muck heap was may have got them off to a flying start.

Blyton.......???

A strange thing appears to have happened to one of my Blyton Belle marrows. It's early days yet but the little fruitlets all appear to be bright yellow. They're only thumbnail size so far so it will be interesting to see if they retain the colour as they grow....indeed if they grow!

Now I know the raiser Les Stothard says this marrow has a tendency to throw up different sports, and indeed I'm also growing another one Blyton Motley which is a paler version of Belle.......but YELLOW?

I think I ought to start thinking of names for my new marrow named of course in my honour. Blyton Smithyveg perhaps? Blyton Parsnip King? Blyton Swine Flu Survivor? Blyton Scouseshite? But before any of my Scottish friends make the suggestion Blyton Arrogant English Bastard will be a complete non-starter ok!

Don't stress about it.

Life is difficult enough without letting your hobby stress you out also. Every year is different and throws different weather conditions, pest and disease at you. Just when you think you have one crop cracked you encounter problems you haven't experienced before and you have to solve them, albeit very often too late to make an impact at that year's shows. But in doing so you're learning all the time and so next season you're able to keep more of the 'plates spinning on the tops of the poles' without too many crashing to the floor!















So, whilst this season I appear to have 'upped my game' on the 8oz onions, potatoes, and possibly runner beans, as well as consolidated previous good performances with tomatoes, parsnips and stump carrots, I have also had problems (for the 2nd year running) with long carrots. I had a poor germination rate and those that did come through have grown very slowly indeed, especially when compared against the Sweet Candle stumps. I'll be very surprised to stage any sets of real quality. The seed I use is from former National Champion Graeme Watson but I've heard a few stories of bad roots from that particular source this season. Not his fault...just the way it goes. I know Gerald Treweek sells his seed in GN in the autumn so next season I will give his strain a try.

Either way, the point I'm clumsily trying to make is that this is my hobby and I won't let problems upset me, merely try and find a way to solve the problems from one year to the next. In the same way I've always vowed never to let a judge's opinion (and it often is just that!) get the better of me. Too often I see little old men having a go at hard working, VOLOUNTARY show organisers about this, that and the other. For feck's sake just accept the decision with good grace and have a pint!

Fobbed off!

One complaint I've heard from other growers from time to time is when they get a wrongly labelled packet of seed that turns out not to be the variety they thought they were growing. It often doesn't become apparent until it's too late. Luckily, this is not a problem I've ever had to worry about.....until now!

I bought some french beans seeds 'Declic' from DT Brown which is described as a green pencil pod type. They've grown fantastically well but the beans are purple speckled. In itself this isn't a problem for me as they look great and I'm hopeful of staging a few good sets because they get to 8" very quickly and don't show any sign of bean bulge.

But I need to know the variety so I emailed DT Brown to see if they knew. I got some nonsense back about 'a lot of green french beans are showing purple speckles this year'. They reckon it's caused by the weather conditions or a virus. What guff !!

First entries 'put to bed' !

I've lifted the last of my Vento and Tasco onions for the under 8oz class. After stripping to the first unsplit skin......

....they are washed, dried and stored in sawdust. I don't bother talcing them these days. I just haven't the time to mess about with them.

As I mentioned I got the first of my spuds emptied out last weekend. These are Winston (ohhhhh yes!). I find all those that have show potential with no blemishes, including some smaller ones that can be used in trugs.

Here they are being sorted into sets which is not as easy as you might think. Finding 4, 5 or 6 that are similar in size and shape is not easy at all in fact. My admiration for Sherie Plumb is now enhanced.

The sets of 3 are for Top Tray classes.

After I'm happy with my sets they are stored back in the same compost they were growing in, with labels on the surface so that I can go straight to them the night before the show. Only then will they be washed.

Rejects end up in the kitchen.....and Winston is very nice roasted or boiled. Very tasty......and I don't particularly like spuds!

Top tip to transform tomato tone*

My tomatoes aren't ripening so in the next few days I'll be hanging a few ripe bananas from the bottom foliage of each plant. An old greengrocer trick, ethylene gases rise up and persuade the green fruits that they'd better get a bleedin move on and ripen up. It's something that has worked well for me in the past.



* best the thesaurus could offer for a word beginning with T meaning colour!

He's back!

In a move likely to outrage the grass chewers at the organic brigade I've not only survived swine flu but returned safe and sound, fit and raring to go from my Scottish holiday!

We had half decent weather on the Mull of Kintyre but I understand chez Smithyveg has been well and truly pissed on all week so my undergardener has had no problems keeping everything well watered. Everything looks reasonably good although my cabbages have succumbed to the usual caterpillar damage. Next season I'm growing them on the allotment where I'll have plenty of room to construct a net tunnel to keep the butterflies at bay. I have quite a few marrows forming and I picked an absolutely humungous runner bean this afternoon with no sign of beans showing. It's a variety Les Stothard gave me so I hope to do better with this crop this season after several poor years.

Before I went away I got up several bags of Winston and Pixie spuds and left them in my garage for the skins to harden. I emptied them all out today and was ecstatic to find the Winston in particular had performed brilliantly. In fact I had some super heavy specimens in amongst many good sized tubers, so for the first time in 3 years I'm going to be able to exhibit some good spuds again. The Pixie was not so good.....lots of tiny spuds despite limiting each seed tuber to just the one shoot. But they're pretty enough and I've set aside a load of egg sized ones for use in my trug displays.

I understand it's Bakewell Show this week.....Wednesday and Thursday. What stupid bloody days to hold a show! I wouldn't have minded going along to that to see how my mate Dave Thornton fares, but as it is I still have 4 weeks to my first shows.....time I shall need to make sure everything is in tip top condition.