Preparing for a Royal visit

My Kelsae onions are starting to bulb up nicely although I only have three that look as if they might make a decent size. The biggest is about 7" around and about 10" to the growing point. Hopefully they will complete their growth before the cucumbers growing over them shade them out too much and I can get a set of three which covers most of my local shows.



My long beet have really put on a growth spurt in the last couple of weeks. The foliage shows no sign of the leaf miner damage that I suffered from last season but on one of the larger plants some of the leaves were stuck together as if they'd been glued. It was quite weird and they took some prising apart, and a strip of one leaf remained 'welded' to the other. I expected to find some caterpillar that had cocooned itself in there but there seemed to be absolutely nothing. Strange.



The same story of clean foliage applies to my globe beet which is without doubt the cleanest i've ever seen thanks to regular applications with Decis. This bed is for a show in less than two weeks and some of them are already grapefruit size but there are several that give me confidence of getting a good set of three.

My first sowing of Stenner runner beans are really motoring up the metal rods and I have another batch of plants to go in the next week or so.

And my first batch of peas for the National look as if they're ready for planting but reading my notes from the Ian Simpson talk last year he plants his after 27 days! As I don't have my own experiences to call on yet I shall follow this information to the letter which means they are going in this Friday! Another batch will go in a week later and hopefully from 22 plants I can muster up the 12 pods required for an entry at Llangollen.....there's a lot of pest and fungus fighting between now and then though!

Last night I uprooted all my pathetic Cedrico (bar one plant that had turned green again!) and went to get some rooted cuttings from my very old pal Ian Taylor in Nuneaton. Whilst there I had a goosey gander at his allotment where he had some quite impressive onions and celery. It will be nice to have some competition at the local shows. He won't beat me though.

Anyway, this morning at 5.30am I was to be found replanting these new Cedrico. Examination of the outgoing plants showed me that the roots had barely got through the compost in the bottomless pots so my theory of them getting their roots into dry manure flies out of the window. When I cut the stems they were fresh green so that means it wasn't verticillium wilt. On reflection and having spoken to John Trim I now think my plants got a chill just after planting out which has thrown them out of kilter.I tried to plant early in order to make sure I had plenty to choose from at Llangollen where I felt I had a genuine chance of getting in the tickets. Not any more but at least I should now be back in business for Malvern and Westminster.

So all in all things are looking pretty good although I now have to pass inspection from Dave Thornton who has never visited my garden before but who is due in the next week or two. I think there are a few things that will impress him although he'll never admit it.