Top tip from the Macemaster

I went to a lecture given by top amateur grower Ivor Mace last night. Best known for his chrysanths and huge onions he's also been a national champion with carnations, roses and daffodils. One excellent tip I picked up was the way he mixes his potting mix for chrysanths and I shall be bearing it in mind this weekend when I do my parsnip mix. He recommended mixing the light ingredients first, such as the compost, vermiculite and the nutrients and getting them all thoroughly mixed before adding the heavier ingredients such as the soil (and sand in the case of parsnips). It certainly makes sense and should ensure a more even distribution of the nutrients.

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!

400 up!

Again not many successes at Sileby on Saturday, but my winning tomatoes signalled my 400th 1st place since I started showing in 1996. It's a very small show in only it's 2nd year after a break of ten or so years, but is going in the right direction with the people involved and will hopefully go from strength to strength.

Apparently many years ago it was a huge event and the whole village would turn out in their Sunday finest. We're a long cry from those heady days and I can only imagine what the local rivalries must have been like and I bet the quality was amazing, especially among the crysanth growers. I only know of a couple of local growers who show chrysanths these days and it seems to have become a bit of a dying art. As usual it was Mick Mills from East Leake who took all the awards at Sileby as he did at Seagrave with his superb 'crissies', pot leeks and potatoes. He's the man to beat as far as I'm concerned.

My '1sts' were for cucumbers, tomatoes, longest runner bean and pot plant. I managed a rather pleasing '2nd' for runner beans and a 3rd for my onions. With only one show left this season my tally of 35 wins so far is going to mean I will finish well down on last year's total of 62.....unless everyone else fails to turn up at Sturton! Having said that in many ways it's been a successful season despite the difficulties as my leeks, parsnips and onions have been my best ever so far. Some of my carrot entries have also been exceptional if lacking in uniformity from time to time. The important

Another good year for tomatoes?

Despite suffering blight on my indoor tomatoes (it gained access via the odd splash of water through gaps in the glazing) I seem to be getting plenty of good sized specimens ripening in good time for the weekend's shows. I've kept on top of the blight by removing any leaflets showing signs of infection and disposing of them, but I was half prepared for the whole crop to fail.

However, I've been lucky and I'm confident that my toms are better this year than last year when I won 5 out of the 7 shows I entered. They're certainly a better shape than last year due to the fact that I thinned my trusses to give the remaining fruit more room to develop fully, and not get 'flat sides' from overcrowding on the truss. There also seem to be more large fruits than in previous years, again due to thinning out early in the season as soon as the tomatoes are about the size of a pea.

I'd also recommend the idea of sinking a 2 litre lemonade bottle upside down into the soil (with the bottom cut out) and watering into this. This keeps the soil surface dry and prevents any dampness in the glasshouse which tomatoes hate. This can manifest itself as white 'ghost spots' on the skins and can lead to downpointing.

Last night our Society had a tour round a crysanth enthusiast's garden. I thought I was obsessed until I saw what he had to do to keep hundreds of crysanths fed, sprayed and watered....all growing in pots! I admire the dedication of these growers and there's nothing more stunning on the show bench that a vase of large ball shaped blooms but I think if I got into 'crissies' then Leesa would divorce me....she thinks I spend far too long in the garden as it is! He's also growing a few 'tommies' for Hathern Show and took us into his greenhouse to show us. He seemed quite proud of them