Hathern Show 2010

A poor weekend. My long carrots were as forked as my stumps and I had to pull 20 to get this set for Leicester. An even poorer set of two for Hathern came unplaced.

The Pinnacle parsnips cleaned up quite well in the bath. I had two sets of three for Leicester, one in the collection class that I'm quite hopeful about. I was unplaced at Hathern where the judges always go for some huge un-uniform roots that are quite pitted. Most of my roots had some canker damage but I find that it can be rubbed off for these early shows as it's usually only just on the surface. In a couple of weeks it will have gone a lot deeper and be impossible to hide. I am going to have to find something to combat this next season.

My useless potatoes did manage 2nd but I would be ashamed to show these at a higher level show.

A bonus 2nd place for my disappointingly poor Sweet Candle. Great skin finish but poor form and I'd had to carefully slice off a couple of fairly large side roots that the judge would have noted.

In the 'any other veg' my mexican mouse melons were a talking point.

Only entry in the shallots but they would have taken some beating.

1st and 2nd for globe beet in a hotly contested class.

Got a pleasantly surprising bonus 2nd for this vase of 2 gladioli.

For some reason that the organisers couldn't explain my entry in the Master Gardener class never got judged. The flowers weren't great but it should have got a 2nd at least. Instead 2nd place went to 3 tiny sets of scabby veg and a flower arrangement!!! Not even a vase of flowers so that should strictly have been disqualified. However, in view of the weekend's disappointments it was par for the course. I didn't make a big fuss as I've always said the day I get upset by a judge's decision is the day I give it all up. Judges are human beings at the end of the day and can make mistakes like the rest of us. Blind twat.

But at least I managed best exhibit with these tomatoes that were a little on the small side but perfectly formed. A nice little NVS medal made the day's tribulations worthwhile

A chance at last to show off the Midland's soppiest grin. 6 red cards and three trophies wasn't a bad haul but I'm peeved about my roots and potatoes. I would have walked these classes in previous seasons. I'm going to have to seek some advice as to why my carrots were so poor this season.

On now to see the results at Leicester this afternoon where the standard of competition is even higher. All in all I may have to rethink my ambitions for places like Malvern.

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.

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!

Stumps 2009

I've been on a high all weekend after my Crib Goch experience, but I got back down to Earth yesterday by sowing my first 22 stations of stump rooted carrot 'Sweet Candle'. Traditionally my stumps would not be sown much before the end of April but this variety appears to need longer to develop the distinct rounded 'stump' end, hence the need to get it sown around now.

My first batch of 22 will serve my August Bank Holiday shows and I will make another 50 sowings in the next week or so to cater for my September/October shows. I actually won against some good long carrots last year at Hathern with this set of 3......there was no separate class for stumps.

As you can probably see the root on the far left is slightly 'pointier' than the other two, as they weren't sown until late April last year. I wouldn't get away with that at a higher level of competition and would have been downpointed.

A cluster of 4 or 5 seeds is placed in a 1/4" deep dimple in the middle of each filled bore hole, covered over with compost then well watered.

The final finished frame....the wood and mesh cage to keep the cats off and little panes of glass over each bore hole to keep the compost surface moist. These will be taken off as soon as the seedlings emerge through the compost surface. The total depth of sand is about 18".

Just another 50 to bore and fill in this larger bed now!

AOVeg

I only grew radish to add another variety to my trugs but I had a load of quite large ones left over so I bundled them together and entered them at Hathern in the 'any other veg' class. Won me a 2nd prize card!

Toms at Hathern 2008

These are probably the best tomatoes I have ever staged.

My Moorgreen exhibits.

As I've said not much to show for my efforts at Moorgreen but the competition was at a much higher level than anything I've come up against before. I'm not a million miles away however and was very pleased to get a 3rd in tomatoes out of 20 entries.

The leeks I put in were superb....far and away better than anything else I've exhibited before but I didn't even manage a place, that's how good the 1st, 2nd and 3rd placed exhibits were. At both Hathern and Leicester leeks got 'best in show' but neither set was as good as mine were. Ho hum!

My onions looked quite good on their stands but could have done with another week's ripening. I came 2nd with a set of 5 onions at Leicester and reckon if they had been a bit riper also I'd have won the class, but even so 2nd is the best I've ever done with onions before.

Quick Bank Holiday weekend show report

Well....that was an interesting weekend. I competed at Moorgreen Show near Hucknall for the first time and came away with a bit of a 'bloody nose'. It was a real step up in class to what I've been used to and I only managed to come away with a 2nd (for cucumbers) and five '3rd's'. The leeks and long carrots I put in would have won at just about every other show I enter but I didn't even manage to get a place! It was a chastening experience but a useful and educational one also.

I'll be publishing photos of the shows and looking at things in more detail in the ext few days. However, I would just like to mention that I did win the annual Smith/Hallam tomato challenge at Hathern Show again!

A different approach

The failure of certain veg this year should create some advantages in that I won't be rushing around the night before each show as I won't have anywhere near the same amount of exhibits to prepare. Most years I leave my spud washing until last and have often been scrubbing them over the kitchen sink well past midnight.....this year I have very few that are of a showable size. Hopefully, I'll be in bed at a more reasonable hour.....or else I might even bake a cake for the men only section!



I also have very few dahlias ready (if any), my runner beans are at least a week away from reaching the right length, my beetroot are all very small and my brassicas are so far behind that I've lost interest in them and left them to the devices of the cabbage white caterpillars.



Fewer exhibits should mean I can go at a more leisurely pace and enjoy things a little bit more. Therefore, I shall be concentrating on making sure my carrots and parsnips are as well prepared as I can possibly get them. The first ones will be lifted on Friday night ready for the 3 shows I have this weekend.



My weekend timetable will be something like this:
Friday night: Lift roots and load car with exhibits for Moorgreen.
Saturday morning: Stage at Moorgreen.
Saturday afternoon: Prepare exhibits for Hathern and Leicester.
Saturday evening: Attend gala evening at Moorgreen.
Saturday night: Load car with exhibits for Hathern and Leicester.
Sunday morning. Stage at Hathern and then Leicester.
Sunday afternoon. Attend Hathern Show. (exhibits auctioned off)
Monday afternoon. Attend Leicester Show.
Monday evening. Bring back exhibits from Leicester Show and go straight to Moorgreen to bring back exhibits from Moorgreen Show.

A hectic schedule ! But all worth it if I can pick up a few trophies along the way. My best year was 2004 (above) when I won a total of 18.

Pics from last weekends shows