Long carrots in pipes

Back in the Spring I set up some 4' pipes on my greenhouse border soil with the intention of growing some long carrots for a local show in July. However, when the time came the foliage was so strong and lush that I decided to let them carry on growing to see what turned out come the main show season. I pulled some stump carrots 'Caradec' for the July show instead.

At the weekend I finally exhibited these long carrots at Seagrave, winning with some stocky specimens that were a little bit lacking in uniformity and were a bit rough towards the bottom of the root. This roughness was down to the watering, or rather lack of it from July onwards when I really left them to their own devices. The top 18" were a good condition, but then there were many side roots as the plant sent out secondary roots in search of moisture. I plucked these off so that each carrot appeared to be one long root but you could clearly see where I had done this. However, they were good enough to win a village show and I think it's an experiment I will replicate next year and try to do a better job with the watering to get better roots ultimately.

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Seagrave 2011

I never cease to be amazed by the residents of this small village as they bid silly money for each lot at the after show auction. I've been attending this show for over 15 years now and whilst the flower exhibits were understandably down this year it was still a quality show and a privilege to help Kay Bint organise it.

It's a few years since I managed to win most points in show but I finally cracked it this year thanks to 12 wins. I also won best exhibit in show for the very first time with my Top Tray entry. My Sweet Candle are getting better with each passing week.

In a moment of huge controversy I also picked up a bonus win in the fruit cake class beating many women, including my wife into third place. In a particularly squalid case of sour grapes she complained that my cake was burnt! I mean....honestly! If I was fairly beaten I pray I'd show a little more decorum and accept defeat with good grace!

Errrr...you still ok to do me a trug for Harrogate this weekend my darling?

Celery lessons to learn

I came 2nd at Seagrave in the any other veg class with a couple of Redstar celery. These aren't great specimens and in fact I was beaten by my own courgettes, but they

did have clean foliage as I haven't succumbed to celery rust as I did last season. Celery is one crop I really need to learn to grow better.

In the past I've grown celery but not properly observed how it grows. You need to learn new things each year about your crops, especially ones you're not used to growing and I have certainly made a few useful notes about my celery this season. For one thing they are evidently gross feeders and I need to make sure I give them much more nutrients next year throughout the growing cycle. I read about one top grower who gives several regular dressings of cow slurry so I shall be soaking some well rotted muck in a bucket next season for this very purpose.

I also need to collar sooner in the early summer as the sticks haven't blanched very well. The plant seems to grow from the inside out so by picking off the weaker outer stalks as soon as possible it seems the stronger inner ones are encouraged to grow up quickly and are much wider for it.

And slug pellets are an absolute must. Not only do the snotty little bastards love munching on the sticks, but they like to live in the dark, damp atmosphere afforded by the damp proof collars. Once a slug or snail chews on your plant allsorts of problems can be introduced such as celery heart rot, not to mention the fact that the plant looks awful for all the tiny little teeth marks.

One final observation......Man U will absolutely stuff Liverpool on Sunday or else I will appear on this blog with a stick of celery protruding from my chuff.

Seagrave 2010

My 'other' local show that I am quite heavily involved with was another huge success with 350 entries which was a record.

It's always well supported by the local community especially the homecraft and children's classes.

As for me, I got 9 red cards, most pleasing of all in the Top Tray class. My tray is nearest camera with 3 Vento onions, 3 Maxine spuds and 6 Cederico tommies. We had the usual yearly complaint from a miserable exhibitor who can never understand why his veg never wins. The answer is invariably that his stuff is crap. The stuff that he does occasionally win with is purchased from after show auctions. He's never actually grown it himself. Wanker. And if he talks to my missus again like he did on Saturday night I'll break his f***ing legs.

Another 1st for tomatoes. This is the only crop where I think I may be able to compete at Malvern in a couple of weeks time.

My winning cucumbers would have been excellent in a couple of days, being a bit on the small side, but they won nevertheless.

I managed to keep last week's winning leeks for a week by re-wrapping the barrels and keeping the roots moist in wet tissue paper. They came good for me and won again.

Last year we raised £1000 for the local Rainbows Children's Hospice and a representative came to collect the cheque and handover the trophies.

Despite winning 9 red cards, 5 more than anyone else, and a few other 2nds and 3rds I still couldn't get my hands on the trophy for most points. That accolade went to my 118 year old (approx.) apprentice Ian Taylor, who has learnt everything he knows from me. Bloody young upstarts! Next year the gloves are off and we have a wager arranged. Full details to be finalised but you'll need to be on top of your game next year Ian !!!

Ester weighed in at a disappointing 185 lbs or 87 kilos or 13 stone. Still big enough to win the heaviest pumpkin class as it was indeed the only entry. Here I am with a pal loading her back up in the van. She now resides in my back garden ready to be carved out on Hallowe'en.

This weekend I have an unexpected break as the organisers of another local show decided to change the usual date to a week ago and forgot to actually inform one of their regular supporters. i.e. MOI! I'm quite upset about that and won't be going to this show in future. I've since heard that the benches were way down on produce from previous years. Therefore, i'm taking the opportunity to go up Kinder.....and before Dan interjects that doesn't mean I'm performing an unnatural act on a chocolate egg but walking up and around the Peak District's tallest hill Kinder Scout. Should be a welcome break from scrubbing veg for a weekend.

Then it's off to Malvern for my now yearly humiliation amongst the big boys of the veg growing world.

2 more shows.

Not long back from staging at Littleover in Derby where i've put in 18 entries.This is a lovely little high quality show where every ticket is hard earned. You have to put good stuff in to win here.

Tomorrow morning I shall be staging at Seagrave, a small village with a fun show that has managed to attract several good local showers. I haven't won most points here for a few years now so I hope to have a good go at this tomorrow. With that in mind i'm just waiting for my victoria sandwich to cool down before I can put the raspberry jam filling in. There is a very hotly contested 'men only' victoria sponge class at Seagrave. Now, ordinarily a man baking is a distinctly homosexual and Yorkshire thing to do, but it is a perfectly manly operation when performed for horticultural show purposes when there are important points at stake.

Parsnip canker

Pinnacle is supposed to be one of the more canker resistant parsnip varieties but I’ve had it with a vengeance this season. Virtually every root I’ve pulled up has had it to some extent although I have managed to clean a lot of it off with the rough side of a scouring pad if it hasn’t gone too deep. According to Dave Thornton of the NVS it starts as yellow spots on the leaves and then the spores get washed into the growing medium and hence works its way into the root from the crown downwards. The only surefire way to combat it is to grow them under cover so it looks as if I shall have to erect some form of enviromesh barrier in time for next season. Some people suggest that it can be carried on the actual seed casing so I must try and soak them in a fungicide next season also.

I’ve won at Leicester, Seagrave, Sutton Bonington and Sileby but could never have considered showing them at a higher level as I could have last season. Perhaps I just got lucky last season, but I had toyed with the thought of showing parsnips at NVS Branch level this season. Maybe next year?"



My winning set at Sileby.....





...and Seagrave.

Seagrave 2009 (and 500 up!)

For the 2nd year running it was held on the same day as Sutton Bonington which means an awful lot of running around and late nights washing spuds. Thankfully next year we're deferring it a week to its traditional day of the 2nd Saturday in the month. However, I did manage to pick up 7 red cards for long carrots (these were actually the carrots from my Leicester collection last week), shallots, tomatoes, marrows, cucumbers, parsnips and heaviest pumpkin (Marg!!).....a mere 70-80 pounds probably.

The show also signalled a personal milestone in that I picked up my 500th red card since I started showing. With the Sutton Bonington result I'm now up to 523, not to mention the numerous red cards I've also picked up at various Spring Shows over the years.

More importantly we raised at least £1200 for local charities. Mick Mills won most points for the 3rd year running. Again he reckoned he'd had a disastrous year! And biggest laugh of the evening was dainty looking Gary Price winning the cup for flower arranging! What a poof!

Seagrave 2008

First the important news……we raised over £1200 for local charities which is another record. The generosity of the villagers never ceases to amaze me. This in spite of the fact that show entries were slightly down on previous years which was understandable given the atrocious weather conditions on the day. Having said that standards were still high and Mick Mills won Best in Show with his stunning yellow crysanths and also the Smith & Byatt Shield for most points in show. I had a mixed day but I was happy that I managed to beat Mick for the first ever time with my blanch leeks, as well as other wins for beetroot, cucumbers, parsnips, onions from sets, any other veg (lettuce) and the heaviest pumpkin. I thought I should have won with my tomatoes(3rd), carrots(2nd) and Top Tray(2nd) but hey, you can’t win ‘em all!

Seagrave and Sutton Bonington in the rain, rain, rain!

What an absolute stinker of a weekend weather wise. I've never known a weekend like it for persistent downpours whilst I've been lifting and preparing my veg and flowers, to the extent that it had started to become too much like hard work.

Due to an early August Bank Holiday both Seagrave and Sutton Bonington Shows fell on the same weekend which meant a crazy amount of hard work accomodating the two shows I'm most involved with. However, I still managed to pick up 23 red cards and 4 trophies although I did lose the Society Cup at Sutton Bonington for the first time in 8 years! However, trophies for the best dahlia (Kenora Sunset) and best veg (Sweet Candle) did compensate somewhat.

Full report in the next few days.......right now I need sleeeeeeep!

Pablo can't 'beet' the trusty old favourite

After very successfully growing the beetroot variety 'Red Ace' for many years I inexpliquably decided to grow the variety 'Pablo' this season because it was the winner (and 2nd/3rd/4th and 5th) at last year's NVS Midland Championships held at Malvern.

Well, all I can say is it certainly doesn't like my soil as it's failed to make much of an impression on me. I have had some success with it....a first at Seagrave and two '2nds' at Littleover and Sturton but I've really struggled to get matching sets and most of the roots have hardly got beyond walnut size. Whether the poor summer has had an effect I don't know, but other growers seemed to manage to grow it well enough and it was prominant at the National.

What I do know is that 'Red Ace' used to get me 3 or 4 wins per season and I sowed the 'Pablo' seed on the same weekends and in the same manner as I always have done.

Seagrave 2007

Despite putting some of my best veg here I only came away with six '1sts' and failed to win the trophy for most points in show, that honour falling once again to Mick Mills. The fact that I put such good stuff in and didn't win as much as usual meant that the quality far exceeded previous years which makes any win far more satisfying. Growers come from quite far afield for this show, despite it being quite a small affair, simply because of its friendly atmosphere.



I've been drafted onto the orgaising team this year and suggested that the carrot, parsnip and leek classes were reduced to 2 per class....a decision that paid off as there were more entries than usual. It's easier to match up 2 of a kind than it is to find 3 (obviously!).



I only came second in the 'Men only' Victoria Sandwich class, losing out this year to the show's charismatic auctioneer Rod Bint. It was my 4th attempt at making one....the first two burnt and I knocked the 3rd onto the floor on the morning of the show meaning I had to make one quickly before I left the house. I've duly challenged Rod to a re-match at this weekend's Sileby Show.



My dahlias were a mixed bunch. My Jomanda had slightly gone past their best and my Emma's Coronet needed another day or two so for once I ended up with no cards for dahlias......but we had a glut of top quality dahlias this year so it was no surprise. All-in-all it was the best Seagrave Show for some years and we raised over £1200 for local charities.

Heroes

After two cracking shows over the weekend it's time to name my heroes and they are:

Melvyn Hoyes

Kay Bint

Richard Smith

Brian Eagers

These four and people like them all over the country give up their spare time to lay on flower and veg shows for people like me. Every year they must wonder why they do it as the effort and stress involved can be incredible at times, and after a year like we've just had you always wonder whether the growers will have anything to show. But both Seagrave and Littleover Shows were both superb and the quality of produce on show would have

Jomanda

I won the trophy for best vase of dahlias at Sutton Bonington on Sunday with this set of 3 Jomanda. It's a 'small ball' type and is very popular with a lot of growers as it doesn't often let you down. The stems grow straight and firm and the blooms themselves very rarely suffer from markings or blemishes.

I only grow 8 plants of it but it throws up an awful lot of blooms and I usually manage to have a couple of vases most weekends during the growing season. However, all my dahlias have been slow to get going this year and last weekend was the first occasion where I was able to stage a vase of 3. However, I should have

Seagrave Show 2006/Norman Byatt

The second show that I did over last weekend was at Seagrave in Leicestershire (see link to their website). It was a hugely sad occasion as the show's founder Mr Norman Byatt died on the Tuesday before the show at the age off 77. Norman was one of the most entertaining characters I have ever come across and it wasn't until his funeral on Thursday that I realised just why I liked him so much......the vicar said in his address that Norm was a Man. Utd supporting, pro-fox-hunting, staunch Conservative. I'd never known any of this before Thursday but it also describes me to a 'T'!

The show went ahead in his honour and I managed to regain the 'Smith&Byatt' Shield for most points in show, a trophy I have been fortunate enough to win on 5 previous occasions. It's also an incredibly friendly show, well contested and supported by local growers who are now coming from far afield. There may well be bigger and more 'important' shows on that day but I will always attend Seagrave because you simply have so much fun.

The after show auction conducted by Mr.Rodney Bint is now legendary. You scratch your nose at your peril for fear of bidding 20 quid on a jar of pickles! Me and the kids have been eating the cakes that we bought all week and there's still half a chocolate cake left!

Oh, and for those following the Smith/Hallam tomato challenge........I won again!