Keep it going!

With Malvern now looming large on the Smithyveg horizon I need to congratulate Kev Broxholme for winning a class of dahlias at Harrogate last weekend (any photos boy?). He's the first of my pals to win at such a high altitude and I hope to emulate him before too long with vegetables. Well done Kev. With that in mind I've vowed to compete at Harrogate next season along with my fellow blogger Paul Bastow the loser having to sleep with Ed Milliband. If neither of us wins a card I guess we'll both have to give him one. If we can just persuade Dan Unsworth to have a crack i'm sure he wouldn't be out of his depth with his onions and what's more we could all have our photo taken together for the cover of Nuts Magazine.


I managed to pick a few dahlias for the house and seem to have plenty coming for Sturton Show a week Saturday where I shall be pitting my wits against the new Harrogate champion! The white decs are Ryecroft Jan which has stood up to the recent rains quite well. The orange cactus is Ryecroft Zoe and I'm really impressed with the form on this one. I shall be trying this one next season for sure.



















And so Malvern at the weekend but I won't be pulling any parsnips as they simply aren't good enough. I have a couple of drums left ........














.....and a couple of drums of long carrots. I'm toying with entering some at the RHS Westminster. There is a class for 2 long carrots, 2 stumps, 2 parsnips and 2 long beet which looks interesting.















Elsewhere on my plot the runner beans are about spent. I really shall have to find some 10' canes next season as the string wasn't rigid enough and when the wind blew some plants were simply ripped from the ground.
















My outdoor cherry toms Sungold have been cropping heavily for weeks but have now succumbed to blight.














But my indoor toms Cedrico are still growing very well and I have reasonable hopes of staging a good set or two at Malvern at the weekend.
















And I heard on the radio tonight that Liverpool were playing Cobblers. No change there then!!!