Sheer show madness!

I got Leesa to take this photo to illustrate the lengths I (and others) go to in our quest to win a red card or 6. After the final whistle at Leicester there's a mad dash to get all your stuff back off the various benches ready for loading back into the car. I always commandeer a section of table where my collection was exhibited which is handy for the exit door. And it's surprising just how much stuff you take.

There were 6 parsnips, a dozen or so carrots, two sets of shallots, two plates of beet, two sets of french beans etc etc.Throw in a few cacti and it's little wonder that i'm totally shagged out by the end of the day. I started preparing everything for Hathern and Leicester on Friday evening, took all day Saturday and some of first thing Sunday morning. That's not including the onion and shallot tying that went on in the days leading up to the show. And I shall be doing this now every weekend until early October, plus one more at the end of October. Madness.

Notes and plans for next season

1) Don’t give precious growing space to caulis. You’ve never been able to grow them successfully. In fact, you’re shit!
2) Build wooden retaining walls for the parsnip and long carrot drums and do away with the old metal frames.
3) Grow Pinnacle parsnip and sweet Candle stump…..definitely…..no if’s, but’s or maybe’s!
4) Buy new peat for the spud bags…..but start soon so you can be sieving over winter.
5) Get some cow muck dug in this autumn to the brassica and onion beds.
6) Put netting over cabbages. Only thing that stops cabbage whites.
7) Dig up some shrubs and trees up the garden for extra space for growing dahlias in.
8) Erect a proper f*cking bean fence…..preferably one that doesn’t go ‘ I can’t stand it any longer’ and falls over at the first breath of wind!
9) Growing broad beans for August and September shows…..it can’t be done! Stop it!
10) Aubergines…..waste of effort. Stop it!
11) Grow ‘Vento’ small onions if you can find some seed. Saw some at Littleover and they looked very good for the under 8oz class.
12) Pluck up courage to have a go at the NVS Midland Championships at Malvern in September 2009….probably in tomatoes & parsnips only for now….don’t go mad at first!
13) Get the polytunnel sorted once and for all so that you can grow better quality onions and leeks.
14) Sell the kids….they’re expensive.

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.

I have a cunning plan........!

I've done what I said I was going to do and made a cropping plan of my veg plot so that I know exactly what I'm going to grow in each bed and where. That way I won't be tempted to grow too much and any plants that are left over will simply be given away. Too often in the past I've fallen into the trap of squeezing in those extra few seedlings that I've grown because I couldn't bear to throw them on the compost heap. It's false economy and you have to be ruthless.

Last night (after watching Man U's glorious victory against those mardy French gits) I sowed a pot of red onions. They don't usually win in the quality onion classes but I have a plan to grow as many red/purple veg of different types for entry into the 'trug of veg' classes. I think a basket full of dark coloured veg could look quite striking. So as well as red onions there'll be red tomatoes (obviously), radishes, purple carrots, aubergines, purple sprouts, beetroot, purple french beans, red potatoes etc etc.

I hope it'll look stunning and catch the judges eye. But there's a long way to go yet!

Hurry up 2007!

Not much happening in the garden at the moment apart from tidying up still....as and when the weather allows. We've had loads of rain so everywhere is waterlogged.

I did manage to drench the beds in my two greenhouses last weekend with several buckets of rainwater. This needs to be done over winter to stop a build up of salts in the border soil which can prevent the roots of plants taking up nutrients. Some growers will remove the glass (or polythene if polytunnel) and allow the winter rains to get at the soil. However, I have some pots of show daffodils in mine and my growing cabinet will be assembled soon so that I can grow on my show leeks and onions (more of this in the New Year).

I also spread several bags of horse manure over the soil in one greenhouse and will do the other one when more is forthcoming from my daughter's friend who owns a horse. I'm intending to grow my large onions in the greenhouses next season in order to give them a more even growing cycle. They will be lifted before the tomatoes and cucumbers are too big and blocking out the sunlight (I hope).

Only other thing to tell is that all my seed orders are starting to drop through the letter box. I've ordered over £200 worth of seeds/sets/plants and spuds with quite a few new varieties to try. But I will have to do a proper 'cropping plan' so that I know exactly what is going to be planted where and when. Last season I was poking plants in where I could with no thought as to how they would grow and when they would be harvested. This caught up with me in the long-run as the season petered out disappointingly, with many crops running out of steam.

When 'growing for showing' things have to be timed to come good when you need them so you have to count back from the show date and sow/plant accordingly. Again, more of this in the next few months.

Bye for now.

The big clean up !

I only now have one show left to do in early October so the next couple of weeks will be used to clean up in the veg garden. Whilst I'm running around like a headless chicken getting things ready for the shows that I do during late August/into September then foliage, pots, secateurs, string and all manner of other items are strewn around the plot, leaving it looking like a bombsite.

I pride myself on keeping my garden tidy so I hate to see it in its current state. I shall also be making copious notes about things I shall be doing differently next season. One major task will be to erect a permanent bean fence. No matter how well you do the job in the Spring with canes and string, they always seem to suffer damage from September winds and this year has been particularly bad. I've not won a single prize for runner beans this year, which is most unusual for me. In truth, I've been so obsessed with getting my tomatoes right that I've not given my other veg as much attention as in previous years and it's showed. So I've settled on a permanent location and will erect some sturdy wooden posts by concreting some metal sockets into the ground.

I will also be sorting my seed orders as the catalogues land on my doormat. I will be ordering a mixture of the tried and tested favourites as well as one or two new varieties for the 2007 season. Therefore, I need to assess my successes and failures for the 2006 season very soon.

This Sunday however, I am off to Malvern for the Midland Branch NVS Championships as part of the Malvern Autumn Show at the Three Counties Showground. However good I might think I am at growing veg for 'show' the exhibits there soon bring me down to Earth.......they are simply awe-inspiring. (See attached pics)

It's SHOWTIME!

Sorry for not posting for a few days.....had a situation at work that has caused some stress. You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to sack someone these days ........even if they're a lazy, lying, incompetent idiot who steals from you! Ah well!

Ok.....first couple of shows this weekend and round 1 of the great tomato challenge with my friend Wendy. 2 weeks ago I had world beating tomatoes....a few of the better ones have started to split but hopefully i'll have more than enough to choose from. I need about 36 in all to cover 6 classes at 2 different shows.....a tall order.

Other things have 'arrived' on time but others just haven't quite made it. My cucumbers need another 3 or 4 days for instance. In a previous post I mentioned how I protected the 'cus' with sheets of polystyrene to prevent the spiky foliage scratching the skins. Above is a pic showing this.

Both shows need to be 'staged' on Sunday morning and they're some 20 miles apart so a lot of rushing around is involved. For that reason, all of Saturday will be spent washing or preparing the exhibits, checking and rechecking the schedules and loading the car up ready for an early start on Sunday morning. I'll only be able to get the stuff for the first show ( which is at a village about 5 miles away) in the car so once I've staged there it's back home to reload for the other show in Leicester.

On Saturday morning I will 'pull' my carrots and parsnips. After months of work you finally get to see if they are any good or not, as until that point you just cannot see whether they are any good. They might have 'forked' halfway down making them no good for exhibition purposes.

I'll let you know how things went in the next few days.

List of jobs

It's a week or so to my first shows and here is a list of things I'll need to do before then, in no particular order.

1 - Unwrap all onions, check for rot and tie tops with raffia (see pic).
2 - Check schedules for number of exhibits required and staging times.
3 - Tie shallot tops with raffia.
4 - Get together all display aids such as trays of dry sand (for onions and shallots), paper plates and wooden boards for 'Top Tray' class (see pic)
5 - Straighten runner beans as they grow and pick any that grow to your selected length (say 14") and pick these and store in a damp towel in the fridge.
6 - Check which dahlias are likely to be 'right' on show day, check for earwigs and stake if necessary.
7 - Pick dead leaves/spent flowers off pot plants.
8 - Straighten cucumbers and protect from scratches by placing sheets of polystyrene between the fruit and the foliage.
9 - Scrape around the tops of carrots and parsnips selecting those whose shoulders are the same size and put a label next to them. This saves time when pulling....you know exactly which ones to go to.
10 - Polish the trophies won last year!!!

My veg patch

Right then....here goes.

As you can see from my profile and picture below I grow and 'show' flowers and veg. I've been doing this for over 10 years now mainly at small local shows but I am hoping to start showing at National Vegetable Society Shows in the near future.

A common misconception people have is that the 'big veg' they see at shows are no good for eating. I can assure you that they are as good as, or even better than any supermarket veg or stuff that you would grow on your own plot. When 'showing' any veg quality MUST be as important a consideration as the size and uniformity. The only difference is that 'showmen' use seed that has been re-selected so that they naturally grow bigger than the seeds you might acquire from the usual seed sources.

We've just returned from a 2 week holiday in Scotland and The Lakes and this is always a nervous time for me as I have to rely on others to look after my produce while I am away. Apart from a few 'holey' brassicas everything seems to be looking good so I'm hopeful of some good results once the show season starts at the end of August.

My growing regime differs to anyone else who grows veg in that I have to 'time' all my stuff to 'come good' at roughly the same time.......from late August to early October. I grow all my veg in my garden which is over 300' long, but I only have quite a small veg patch at the bottom. I'm trying to take over more of the garden for veg growing but domestic politics mean that I have to leave some flower border space and lawns for the kids to play on.

Also, the way I grow means that we have an absolute glut of veg during September (rejects not destined for the show bench that is LOL) so family and friends benefit from fresh veg that month.

I'm am NOT organic as I do use sprays ........although I do try to companion plant where possible. If I didn't grow tagetes in my greenhouse my tomatoes would be infested with whitefly......I don't know what it is about tagetes but they really do work. Otherwise I reckon growing organically = dead veg and flowers. I hate the way organic growers bang on about 'saving the planet' etc and look as me as i'm Beelzebub !

Anyway....enough for today......attached is a pic of my veg patch from the middle of June.