Give and take, ups and downs

I've often said that when growing veg for show you have to accept that some years you are the pigeon and some years you are the statue! Some years you are both on alternate days and you have to be prepared for the inevitable problems.

I went to swap some pepper plants with Dave Thornton yesterday and found him in a very melancholy mood. He reckons he has given up on this year already, and was complaining about how the weather has set his growth back several weeks. His long carrots were certainly a little on the small side, he had lost several stumps to willow aphid, and his parsnips had a strange purple mottling that even he hadn't seen before. I tried to point out that there were still three months to the shows but there was no shifting his malaise and I left him looking very glum and dejected. It was very funny and made me feel very, very happy on the drive back, even more so when I got back home and realised my leeks, celery, long carrots and parsnips looked better than his.

Then in the afternoon my daughter Jennifer introduced us to her new boyfriend. He seemed nice enough, but after some intense interrogation he revealed that he is a Liverpool fan, thus illustrating how one's emotions can reach intense heights of pleasure and trawl the depths of despair in but a few short hours. She seems quite keen on him so I may have to kill him.

Dave mentioned in the morning that he is intending to show lettuce and turnips this season, such was his lack of faith in being able to compete with his usual strongpoints. Both can be sown 10-12 weeks before your show. Another crop he could try are marrows, as there is still time to sow seed for Malvern. The NVS have introduced a new class for the National Championships this season, for three marrows. They are usually shown as a pair and it's going to be a real tall order to get a matching set of 3. Today I set up a framework of metal poles securely attached so that they won't fall over under the weight of the plants. I'm growing 5 Blyton Belle, and will be training them up the poles as the leading shoot grows. I won't allow them to fruit for the first 3 feet of vertical growth, but then the poles start to incline so that the fruits can hang down, away from the coarse foliage to minimise the possibility of any skin marking.