Gin & Turnip anyone?

Whilst I was staging on Tuesday morning at Westminster Dave Thornton suddenly said stop what you're doing and come and look at this. He led me to the fruit section as he wanted me to see this set of three lemons exhibited under the name of the Duke of Devonshire.

These were without doubt the biggest three lemons I've ever seen together since I witnessed Medwyn talking to Ian Stocks and Gareth Cameron last month. They barely fit on the plates provided by the RHS and carried off a first prize in the any other fruit class. The only thing I don't like is that the gardener who grew these doesn't get the recognition he deserves because I doubt very much whether the Duke of Devonshire ever kicks off his privileged slippers and actually sets foot inside the glasshouse at Chatsworth!

There were several exhibits of blanch leeks at Westminster but I had to look twice and have a sly giggle at Dave's anorexic set which were incredibly long but only smartie tube thickness. Still, at least his hadn't gone to seed like all of mine, the foliage was clean and I think they got him a 4th!

And I made a note to look out in the seed catalogues for this variety of turnip, the winners in the class, variety 'Oasis'. I've found turnips quite awkward to grow successfully for the showbench. They either get slug damage, the leaves get nibbled by caterpillars, or they split underneath rendering them useless for show. They are also prone to the tap roots getting brown marks and looking very unappetising so this exhibit really shone out on the showbench in London. I can only assume they were grown indoors in raised beds filled with good quality compost as they were absolutely gleaming.

There is so much to see in London these days and shortly after a quick whizz round Harrods where I was very tempted to buy one of their bling-bling watches for the knockdown price of £45,500.00 I was very taken by this 'living wall' of the Athenaeum Hotel, Piccadilly. This is watered by 3000 integrated drip feeders and looked very naturalistic indeed. By the way Oscar now points at me and shouts 'cock'....he's actually pointing at my £22.50 Sekonda watch.....I think!

Trugtastic

By popular demand here are some views of Leesa's trug which secured us 3rd place for an annoying 4th year running. We just can't seem to do any better despite this being the best one we've done by a long chalk. Most years we've lost out to a Mr Porter and Alan Young who have always contested first and second. Whilst we did manage to beat Alan this year a Mr T Smith who beat us into second at Harrogate decided to come down to Malvern and took the honours meaning we stayed in 3rd place. This class has really improved over the last few years and there were a good half dozen or more entries to go with the dozen or so at Harrogate so people really are having a go. Jim Pearson in particular was amazed at the standard of this class at Malvern.

I've told Leesa she can give up now if she wishes but she enjoys doing them and is secretly determined to get that elusive red ticket I reckon. A little tip.....the leeks in my trug were oblong in shape as they had gone to seed months ago! By turning them on their sides and burying them no-one can tell!

Easier to enter, harder to win!

I caught up with Ian Simpson over the weekend at Harrogate. Ian is a really top grower and was to the fore in several classes despite having a lot of his produce pinched from his allotment. His stunning stump carrots (below) deservedly took the premier award of best in show. He has limited space and facilities however.

As well as being a really great grower he's also a top bloke and talks an awful lot of sense when it comes to the future of our veg shows. At the NVS's AGM to be held on the 29th September at Malvern he has put forward a motion to reduce the quantities called for in 4 of the National classes, namely long carrots, parsnips, long beet and blanch leeks. 5 are currently required and he and several others, myself included, are calling for that to be reduced to three. So-called purists have criticised us, saying that you should have to bench more specimens in a class because 'It's the National!' If that is the case then why are the quantities for potatoes (5) and 250g onions (5) the same as they are in all the Branch Championships? Those classes are ALWAYS well supported with entries.
At last year's National in Llangollen, there were only 3 entries of blanch leeks. That was in Wales, the home of the leek for fuck's sake! Ronnie Jackson has won the British Leek Championships a couple of times when it is held annually as part of the Welsh Branch CHampionships. He came 3rd at Harrogate this weekend in the National Leek Championships. Both classes call for three leeks. He has never competed in the National with blanch leeks because of the quantity differential.......and it has to be said the prize money isn't that great compared to the effort involved. Jim Williams, National Scottish Branch Chairman is another good leek grower who has never exhibited blanch leeks at National level.

For Harrogate I prepared a total of 5 long carrots, 3 for the National Carrot Championships, 1 for the Tap Root Class and one for the 6x1 class. Quite frankly I was utterly pissed off with carrots by the time I'd finished! One of the country's top growers was present at Harrogate and I won't name him but he is vehemently against the class quantity reduction idea. He retired early from work and can devote his whole life to growing for show if he so chooses. He has several large allotments and gardens i'm told. I'm not criticising anyone who wants to do this, or who is lucky enough to have the facilities, but he and one or two others like him cannot go on forever, but while they do entries will continue to dwindle in the nation's premier vegetable show.

I overheard him say that he had never won the National Carrot Championships before although he has come 2nd on several occasions. I venture to suggest that if the class had called for 5 long carrots and 5 stumps he would have won it several times before now! By reducing it more folk like myself would be prepared to have a go just to see what your produce looks like against the very best, and the top blokes like Ronnie and Jim would definitely have a go....and they'd probably win tickets. In effect it would be making it easier to enter, but much harder to win, contrary to what several people have said to me that it would be easier to win. Far, far from it.

I have to say I don't particularly give a fish's fuck if the motion doesn't get passed at Malvern, as I have more important things in my life than veg. It just seems to make sense to me that if the Society is to continue into the future they need to encourage the keen as mustard smaller scale exhibitor with limited facilities. I would urge anyone who is an NVS member to attend the AGM and make sure their vote counts......whichever way you agree with.

Honestly, I'm carrying out vital tasks down there darling!

It's a sad day that I have to report the death of Paul Bastow.....i'm assuming he's dead as he hasn't posted anything on his fucking blog for nearly a month now the lazy northern homo fertiliser. (If you are dead Paul can I have your polytunnel? Ta xxx)

For many of us there's still a few weeks to go until showtime. You should have planted pretty much everything you might need so from now until your big day you just need to keep an watchful eye over everything and try and spot problems and act accordingly before things get irretrievably bad. My wife calls it 'faffing about' but I prefer to call it vital observation. We have a few areas in our garden that have been allowed to go wild with weeds this season whilst we draw up new plans to re-arrange the plot to allow for a chicken house and more veg growing space. Rather than get to grips with these areas she will very often find me quietly looking at my plants and apparently achieving fuck all, but i'm actually observing how plants are growing, what the insects are doing and checking for the first signs of any disease. Here are a few things I might be looking out for at this time of the season.....

Carrot tops......make sure the shoulders aren't becoming exposed to the light, drawing more soil or sand around them if possible to stop them going green. Also, look out for secondary growths on your carrots and snap them off cleanly before they get too big. See my previous post for what this looks like http://smithyveg.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/secondary-growth-on-carrots.html?m=0

Beetroot foliage......can get infested with leaf miner and these little critters can quickly ruin a bed. I spray with Decis but if you 'pop' the burrowing maggot before it does too much damage you can halt their march.


Celery foliage......celery leaf miner. Treat as for the beet miners. Best to take preventative measures as the foliage is part of the exhibit, unlike beetroot, and any sign of pest damage will result in you being downpointed.

Tomatoes......look for droppings on the upper surfaces of leaves, an indication you have tomato moth caterpillar chomping away at one of your fruits. Locate the culprit which will be somewhere above the droppings, pick off the fruit and destroy.

Parsnips.......the past few years i've had red spider mite despite them growing outside, mainly because it had been so tropical....not something i've had to worry about this season! However, I have had one or two snails rasping their way up a few stalks. Damage is superficial but you want to pick them off and boot them over next door as soon as you see them. I'm still hugely pleased with my parsnips, and the foliage is already as big as when I've pulled them in September the last few seasons' shows so i'm hopeful of a good year if I can keep those pesky carrot fly off.

250g onions......I've fashioned a simple cardboard 'prong' gauge set at 82mm so that I can go along the rows looking for any that might be approaching that diameter. Once they reach this size they should be bang on 250g (for the varieties I grow, Vento from seed and Setton from sets) and I will strip back any split skins and leave them to grow on for another couple of days. This allows any 'ribbing' on the base of the bulb to flatten out.

Marrows....if training up vertical supports do this every 3 or 4 days as they will start extending out quickly and you don't want a flappy bits that are in danger of being broken off in high winds. I am also taking off any immature marrow fruits for now and any side shoots are taken back to the first pair of leaves.

Peas.....look out for marauding tartan clad pea moth grubs. Spray with Bugclear when in flower. I shall be planting mine on the 31st July, 27 days after sowing which is following Ian Simpson's timeline. I'm growing Dorian and although this variety will have a snowball's chance in hell of doing any good I am determined to get a set of peas on the bench at Malvern somehow, to prevent another year of ridicule from former champion Ian Stocks of Scotland. Ian is currently on holiday in the Baltic so don't be surprised if we are soon at war with Russia. Dorian is supposed to be mildew resistant, something Show Perfection is not, and I'd be wasting my breath growing it in September.

Leeks....where do I start? You are looking for little lime green caterpillars of the leek moth munching on your flags. When startled they roll themselves up and tumble down into the growing point and are a complete fucking bugger to pick out. Leek rust can quickly decimate your chances if left to go unchecked. I spray with Bumper as a preventative measure. Aphids will also rapidly colonise the barrel inside your collars so keep checking inside them regularly during the season. And this year is a bad one for leeks going to seed prematurely. So far 16 of my 23 plants have succumbed and I can only really blame the weather as many people up and down the country appear to be suffering.

Potatoes......despite regular sprayings against blight i'm not taking anything for granted and I monitor the foliage daily to check for the first signs. If you're fast enough you might get away with picking off the affected leaflets but more probably you'll have to get your spuds up immediately and use them up before Winter as they usually won't store as well. I'm told that even Sherie Plumb has got badly hit by blight this year and didn't sweep the spud classes at the Southern Branch Show as she usually does, so there may be a chance for someone else at this year's National Championships at Malvern. I bet Owain Roberts is chomping at the bit!

Brassicas....check for tiny eggs of the cabbage white butterflies on the underside of the foliage. Despite spraying with Decis I still get some kamikaze butterflies who manage to lay the odd egg and these need squishing before they hatch. My cabbages are well behind and haven't even begun to think about hearting up yet.

You also need to be regularly checking your stored shallots that none have gone rotten and bin these immediately to stop them spreading onto others. I went through mine again yesterday and discarded another pile that had gone double, leaving me about 30 to make a set of 12 from, but they don't look great, another product of this crazy season's weather.

The last couple of days have been hitting 30 degrees here so the season has just gone from one extreme to the other, and i've now used virtually all the water from my two large butts to keep the tomatoes and cucumbers ticking along. This season really has tested the mettle of anyone who grows to show so we may have to give it up as a bad job and look for something else to amuse us this Autumn.

Triumph and disaster

At last we've had a couple of dry days and that hot yellowy thing in the sky even put in a few sporadic appearances. It only served to illuminate a growing disaster on the leek front, as I went through the bed and counted 10 that had definitely gone to seed. This equates to just under half my crop and if any more go then I won't be making many entries of leeks at shows this Autumn. They certainly haven't gone short of water and I think in view of tales of woe being recounted to me from all four corners of the land this is most probably weather related. A very warm Spring followed by a deluge of water over the last month or so, continuously low-ish temperatures, dull, miserable days have all contributed to sending the plants out of kilter so they don't know whether they're coming or going. You have to be philosophical about it and at least we've got some early leeks for the kitchen now!

One of my four cucumber plants wilted over night and closer examination revealed a rotting stem close to soil level. This could be cucumber wilt which I was recently fascinated to learn is a virus that overwinters in the belly of a little striped beetle so it could be that I lose the other three plants as the beetle traverses across the greenhouse border. I haven't spotted any beetles and to be fair when i've lost plants in the past it has only ever been one rather than all of them, so perhaps I just have a considerate little chappie who wants to be my pet? When I find him I shall pop him in a box and call him John.

I had a few Sungold cherry toms ripening in the conservatory. HAD! The conservatory is temporarily an Oscar-free zone as I also have my onions in there for now. Whilst Leesa and the kids were watching a recent deluge from the conservatory door, unsupervised little fingers were helping themselves to my ripe Sungolds behind their backs. Quite funny now I grant you, but woe betide if it happens in 2 months time......

I said a few days ago that I was going to leave my shallots in a pile and leave them to it, but the recent cool, moist weather meant that the tops just weren't drying out properly and I was concerned they could all rot if I didn't do something about it. So I topped and tailed them, having first checked that any decent ones had rounded up and any flat sides had disappeared. I was still left with quite a quantity of split and misshapen ones that will be used for pickling or cooking.

However, all is not doom and gloom. I have a decent selection of pickling shallots this year although I doubt very much I'll be giving Sherie Plumb, Andrew Jones, Ray Bassett or Ray Sale sleepless nights. Despite harvesting at 27mm I still had quite a few that swelled to larger than the 30mm maximum, a few that just about went through the ring with some pressure, and others that were evidently still at the 27mm mark. Weird.

And my Dorian peas have germinated so I'm hugely looking forward to showing Andy Murray how to beat the odds at Malvern in September. Remember Kipling Andy! I may have joked about winning the National with peas last year, but this year I really, really mean it.

Rain still hoggs the headlines.

This just goes to show what bollocks organic gardening is. On Gardener's World Friday Night, a special feature from Hampton Court Palace, avowed ecomentalist Monty Don was interviewing a beardy weirdy organicalist who put forward the idea that ants hate mint, and that if you put a sprig or two of mint near an ants' nest they'll fuck off elsewhere (that bit was bleeped out...honest!). I bring this up because I uncollared my leeks at the weekend to turn the DPC collars round 90 degrees to the next length, and inside one of the collars, more or less the full length of the leek barrel was a perfect column of soil surrounding the plant, an ants nest with an intricate system of tunnels and hundreds of large ant eggs. It did look magnificent I have to say but I washed it off with a dilute solution of Jeyes Fluid expecting the ants to bugger off but they started to rebuild the nest almost immediately. Remembering the advice proferred by Bill Oddie's mate on GW I went to my mint patch to be greeted by....yes you've guessed it.....ants crawling all over it! I think companion planting and organic gardening is a bit like Chelsea FC........it all looks rosy on the outside but when you delve deeper you see what a rotten, stinking thing it really is.


As for my leeks I am mildly happy with their progress although I have noticed a seed head starting to emerge from one of them. I had expected this as the growth at the top started to elongate (see photo below). This can be due to a sudden growth spurt induced by a deluge of water i'm told, but is also a fair indicator it's about to go to seed, and the latter has now happened.

I may have another 3 or 4 that appear to be going the same route, but the majority look sound thus far. Earlier in the year I attended a talk by John Soulsby and he ventured that leeks go to seed because of a lack of water and not because of temperature extremes. Well, these leeks certainly haven't suffered a drought recently, so I can only assume I didn't give sufficent water to some of them when the were under the lights in Winter or in the greenhouse during Spring. I can accept this small failure rate and the rest of them look good, and I now have 18" collars on them.

My ground is absolutely sodden, wetter even than a whore's knickers, and I had to run for cover to escape another amazing downpour Sunday afternoon. This is now quite comfortably the worst year weather wise that I can ever recall for growing exhibition veg and as I write I'm awaiting yet another deluge after yet another 'amber alert' was issued for our area. Lots of growers all over Britain are bemoaning the lack of sunshine so anyone winning a red ticket this season will have done exceptionally well. I'm now starting to fear for onions in the ground, the Vento and onions sets 'Setton' that I'm banking on for a set of 4 for the Millennium collection class at Malvern. Everything else should be fine (certainly anything under cover) but I don't think we need much more precipitation, and when the sun shines you can almost hear the plants growing. My Blyton Belle marrows have started to extend and I am now tying them to the vertical supports. I won't be allowing any fruit to form for the first 3' or so. The NVS have included a class for marrows in this year's National Championships, and despite the fact they've made a huge error in calling for a dish of 3 rather than 2 and expecting novices to enter, I shall be attempting to bench a set.

My runner beans were sown late with half an eye on getting a set for Malvern but it won't be the end of the World if I fail as i've always considered runner beans a bonus entry. These are just starting to get going now.

My globe beet 'Pablo', another requirement for the Millennium class, are at the seedling stage in this old water tank. I have other rows alongside my leek bed so I should have plenty to choose from.

My phone has been bleeping like mad with email blight alerts so i'm really glad I sprayed with Bayer Disease Control as a preventative measure. In dry moments (!) I've re-sprayed the foliage and so far so good. It's quite interesting watching the online blight map as the little 'x marks the spots' creep ever closer to your postcode area. So far we've only had notifications of full Smith periods rather than confirmed cases in LE11 but it's nice to know you're prepared.

I had set up my usual yearly crop of Kestrel potatoes in buckets for a local show last Saturday, the idea being that I could bring them indoors if frost was forecast in Spring. In the end time issues prevented me from competing in the show but as it's been 14 weeks since setting them away I thought I'd best start drying them off as the compost is absolutely sodden. I have 8 buckets in all and I laid them on their sides to let any surplus water run out and prevent any more rain getting in. A quick furtle in the compost failed to reveal any decent tubers anyway, but they may be a little deeper so we'll have to see. I don't get great shaped spuds in the rigid buckets but they were always good enough to win locally, so these may end up in the kitchen or for trug displays.

And my onions in pots continue to swell and the foliage still seems to have a fair bit of vigour so I'm wondering how these will end up as I'm currently averaging 16.5-17.5" circumference. I've never had onions this big at this stage of the season before and I've been advised to forget about the 1.5kg class and just let them grow. The only concern I have is being able to get a matching set shape-wise, as when you look at them all closely there are a variety of different forms, some squat, some rounded and some a more elongated flask shape (the shape I personally prefer). There is one that is bigger than the rest and I think could end up 4 or 5 lbs which will make up one of my set of 6 at Harrogate where you only need a single specimen. I've cut right back on the watering now to encourage ripening and swelling, and also to minimise my chances of them getting botrytis or other soft rots. Having the foliage supported with no chance of it flopping over and thus ending all future growth really allows you to squeeze out every last drop of weight potential.

And finally, I have to say that I was unashamedly rooting for Roger Federer in Sunday's Wimbledon tennis final but Andy Murray's tears at the end almost had me getting my glass eye out for a polish. If he'd only say sorry for wearing that Paraguay shirt before the 2006 World Cup Finals I might even start to support the miserable little snivelling sod. I mean....I always support Scotland when they get to the World Cup Finals! When I say I support Scotland......I mean that my grandad once told me that his great grandad supported them in a World Cup Finals once.

Sunday visit to church

I love my veg, but I refuse to be tied down to it. Recently I've been itching to get out walking so despite the 27 degree temperatures I took Leesa out for a leisurely 10 mile hike yesterday. She'd heard me enthusing about the 'Roaches' in Staffordshire and decided she'd like to come and see what all the fuss was about, so I left the veg to fend for itself in the heat, packed the rucksack, donned a ridiculous pair of shorts, laced up the boots and off we went. Leesa likes to walk light.....

...so guess which turnip had to lug the heavy rucksack as usual?

First stop was a 200' long chasm 50' deep in the wooded hillside called 'Lud's Church'. It was much cooler down here and as you can see from the ferns and mosses clinging to the side, sunlight doesn't penetrate much.

I made a new friend along the way!

After some gentle uphill plodding we reached the top at approx. 1660 feet. A young lady kindly took our photo. Always offer to return the favour.....then run off like billyo with their camera!

At the end of the day a deserved pint of Abbot's Ale....

....and half a shandy!

Back on the plot things didn't suffer too much in the heat but I am having to give the onions quite a lot of water to keep them ticking along. I should shade them or lug them outside but to be honest I just can't be bothered, and they seem to be doing very well despite the heat. There's a class in the NVS National Championships for onions over 1kg but smaller than 1.5kg (3.3lbs)so I will try and get a set of 5 for that for a giggle, although they're easily the best i've ever had at this stage of the season and we still haven't reached the longest day yet so who knows what size they'll end up.

I did manage to get the leeks collared on Saturday. This year i'm using these plastic coated twist wires that you cut to your desired length (Dave Thornton gave me a huge bundle of it) and they make the task of collaring and uncollaring the plants on a regular basis much easier than fiddling about with bits of string as i've done previously.

I got all the shallots 'dished', that is the soil removed from around the clump so that each bulb can swell out without any chance of stones or hard lumps halting their progress. I'm still watering them at the moment but will stop this in the next few days with a view to starting to get them ripened off by mid-June. They're all roughly 33mm diameter in the main at the moment. As soon as these are lifted I'll sow some globe beet in their place which should be about right for Malvern or Westminster.

As well as 15 bags of Kestrel (just popping through) I got 10 bags of Amour set out. I was going to do 20 of each but I may well leave it at that now.

My celery plants have continued to grow well and I'll be planting them out over the coming Jubilee weekend. I am having to make sure the pots are thoroughly wet at all times and having the plants in these blue trays means I can pour an inch or more of water to achieve this, celery being bog plants in the wild that don't much care for wilting sunshine.

The long carrots in pipes in the greenhouse are another crop that are suffering in the heatwave, and I think I may have to abandon this idea as an alternative way of growing long roots in future. A few that were growing away ok have just been cooked to a crisp! Getting enough water to them is proving to be problematic, and I think i'm probably only wetting the top few inches but I'm also worried about flooding them. Back to the drawing board.

However, mad mexicans seem to be enjoying this sunshine......

....and the herbs also love it, being mainly of Mediterranean origin. Funnily enough I thought I heard the ghostly voice of Robin Gibb emanating from my herb bed earlier but when I went to investigate it was just the chive talking.