Back to reality!

We had a wonderful break in Tenerife, our first holiday in 26 years without kids! I can highly recommend it! It was however a huge culture shock when you've been used to Greek islands for many years. The Spaniards actually finish building things! Pavements didn't suddenly end in a huge pothole. Everything was neat and tidy. The roads put ours to shame. However, Spanish cooking isn't a patch on Greek cuisine although we ate well enough. I'd never had paella before....and I won't in future. What a disappointment that was! And the Spanish cannot cook fish to save their lives. But we'll definitely be going again.

It was a real culture shock flying into a very windy Manchester Airport last Sunday evening. Not only did I very nearly shit my pants during an extremely turbulent landing but the change in weather from Tenerife made me fear for any progress on the plot. I needn't have worried. My tomatoes in particular have grown off the scale, to the point I probably need to get them planted this weekend rather than at the end of the month. I've never had such strong plants as these before and the roots have already gone right out of the bottoms of the 4" pots.

Elsewhere, my shallots are also looking good, with strong, thick tops that are bigger than I've ever known at this stage of the season. I wonder if the deeper planting has had anything to do with this? I really am hopeful of getting some good bulbs this season and will be spraying with Rovral towards the end of the month to avoid the usual yearly botrytis losses in storage.

All of my stump rooted carrots Sweet Candle are through and will need thinning in a couple of weeks or so. The long carrots are also through but a little on the small side for now, as are the pre-chitted parsnips.

I've had several folk saying to me something along the lines of 'my roots are just sitting there and not growing' and getting quite worried about the fact. Whilst it has been quite cold on occasion recently I do think there is nothing to really worry about, and things will be happening below the surface that you cannot see, so as long as the seedlings look healthy then don't panic. I find that parsnips especially will suddenly take off in June. There's a long way for most of us until show-time. Before I went away I made sure I scattered a few slug pellets on the drum and sand bed surfaces, as snails in particular will happily scrape themselves across a gritty surface for a few carrot seedlings. The snotty trails and empty shells lying around on my return have indicated I was right to do so, especially as I have lost a few onion sets planted outside to the little buggers. It just goes to show that when food is scarce on a cleared plot they will eat anything if they have to, even plants that you wouldn't normally associate with slugs and snails.


Before the holiday I visited Dave Thornton's plot in Derby as he had a few 'goodies' for me that I won't mention by name on here for fear of upsetting those of you who actually want to eat the veg you grow! He gave us a quick tour of his plot and it was reassuring to note that his long carrots and parsnips had only just popped through in many cases. We can all learn from each other, no matter how experienced we are, and when he mentioned that one of his parsnip stations had drawn a blank despite being primed with a chitted seed I said "why don't you place two chitted seeds like I do?" He never said anything but the look on his face told a story along the lines of 'now why didn't I think of that you smug Loughborough bastard!'


One of the things Dave supplied me was an industrial sized bag of seaweed meal which I have been using to top dress where a lot of my leafy crops will be growing.....cabbages, celery, beetroot and leeks. I also chucked a handful in the bottom of each of my spud bags. I'm very scientific as you can see! I managed to get 15 bags of Kestrel done before I went away, leaving them on the floor in my garage, and as yet no shoots have emerged.

These will be put in trenches outside this weekend. The chitted shoots on the Kestrel were 1/2" or so long and therefore ready for planting, but the Amour are still quite small so I'll be leaving those until next weekend. I'm only going to bother with 20 bags of each, as I only need a few dishes this season and I won't be bothering growing any whites at all.

Actually, that last statement isn't strictly true as I am growing some Maris Piper at the request of my wife. These were planted in the ground purely for kitchen use and as a way of breaking up the newly dug ground that i've recently cleared of trees and shrubs.

They'll no doubt have a few slug holes and scab marks but will be perfectly fine for eating, but as I haven't grown spuds in soil for 10+ years it'll mean reacquainting myself with the method of earthing up. I well remember my first forays into showing veg, when I proudly placed my scabby earth grown spuds in a class where there were several plates of spuds that were gleaming in comparison. The concept of growing in bags or pots filled with peat was in its infancy and it took several years for me to work out why I could never get the skin finish on mine, mainly because no-one was forthcoming with the method when I asked them. Thankfully, this need no longer be the case if you join the National Vegetable Society where problems are aired in the online forum and solutions are usually forthcoming within a few hours. There is now a nationwide network of members who are all only too willing to share their growing methods and ideas, all for the measly sum of 19 quid a year!


This is a diagram of how I grow the spuds in bags in the ground...

This weekend as well as planting my tomatoes, I'll also have to get my blanch leeks in which are straining to get out of their pots.

My onions need tidying up and i've started putting bigger ring supports around them to support the leaves. I've made them from some aluminium welding rods that can easily be formed into hoops.

That's pretty much it for now. I'm happy with the way things are progressing and looking forward to entering my 2nd National in September and catching up with friends and 'foes'. As a final thought, John Branham has been our top showman for many years, winning the National Collection class on many occasions. In the individual classes I believe he has won virtually every one at some point or other, but at Llangollen last season he didn't win anything, some new faces coming to the fore for once. But John is still the best and he will be back this season at Malvern I have absolutely no doubt. Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Leeds United fans might do well to remember it takes more than one lucky season to achieve true greatness! Manchester United have shown true dignity in congratulating their City counterparts and I shall be showing the same restraint, decorum and etiquette. Now fuck off and stop texting and emailing me you Yorkshire bastards because you're annoying me now!