Over-rated useless git !

England 2 Croatia 3

Twats!

Safety first

I'm all for safety in the garden so this website is worth a mention:

http://www.safegardening.co.uk/

Showing onions (part 3)

Further to my posting of the other day here is a pic I found where the grower has bent the tops over and tied the double thickness with raffia. It's just a personal thing and I know a few top growers prefer this method but I just don't think it looks as neat as cutting above the tie and leaving it at that.

Herbal cures not so wacky?

At our horticultural society the other night we had a talk from Lynne Tann-Watson on 'Herbs through History'. Now, she turned up dressed in black and with a shock of aubern hair and proceeded to lay out a load of pamphlets entitled ' The Witch's Garden' and I though 'Oh shit here we go' as I'm not shy at admitting I think herbal cures and the like are a load of mumbo jumbo but I must say she gave a very entertaining talk that almost had me believing that a tincture of lemon balm and spearmint can cure my upset stomach (or was it piles?). Anyway, she has a website:

http://www.witchsgarden.i12.com/

And she has some very interesting looking recipe books that I was almost tempted to buy. It seems our ancestors ate just about anything that they found growing underfoot and the Romans introduced all sorts of goodies when they invaded our shores......especially rosemary which is about the most fantastic herb I can think of, but only when used in conjunction with a lovely slab of dead Larry the lamb! Anyway, as I said she was very entertaining and I'll certainly be looking at planting more herbs in the garden with a view to using more in the kitchen.......when I say 'I', I mean Leesa as I don't 'do' kitchen.

Black devils!

They may look cute but don't be fooled. If I catch either of them poo-ing in my carrot beds again they're pig feed!

Still mild

Such mild weather we're having........here in Leicestershire we still haven't had a proper frost and my dahlias are still flowering. However, I think I'll dig them up this weekend come what may and start the storage process. I'll take some pics and post them over the weekend.



I've sourced a good supply of well-rotted cow muck and need to get that collected in the next few weeks. I'd like to get it spread on the plot by the end of the month so the worms can start to do their stuff. I'll also put a sackful to one side to soak in a barrel of water in the spring for a liquid feed for the celery, beans and peas.



All the seed catalogues have come and I've more or less decided what varieties I want to grow next year. As I said before I'm drastically reducing the selection so I don't get too bogged down growing what I term 'non-essentials' in the show world...........radish/chard/okra/turnips etc. I only grew them last year to make up a different take on the trug and basket classes.



Between now and Christmas I need to have a damned good tidy in my garage and greenhouse. I have pots/compost/tools/old seed packets etc all over the place and need to get things back to a level of normality and good organisation ready for the next season. What tends to happen as I'm running around at show time preparing different veg and loading the car is that things get thrown down where I last used them, despite my best intentions. I have a load of old Beano and Dandy books that could go on Ebay......the proceeds can go towards my seed purchases!

Dressing and displaying shallots

Treat shallots like little onions with one or two slight exceptions. After lifting cut off the tops and roots and store them in a dry place for a few days. If you do this in your greenhouse make sure you cover with some fleece otherwise they'll dry out too much and wrinkle.

After a few days sort them out and grade them into different sizes. Rub off any loose skins and trim the roots right back and cut back any hard pads on the base plate. The neck can also be trimmed to about 1.5". They are now stored in boxes of sawdust and left until just before showday.....as shallots are usually lifted during June this means they'll be in store for up to 2 months depending on your show dates.

Before the show, select your bulbs matching up for size and shape. If entering the pickling class make sure they pass through a 30mm ring easily (some shows still insist on 25mm). Rub off the outer skin........a forceful twist between thumb and forefinger is best....practice on a reject or two to get the hang of it. You will find the next skin should be a nice, even nut-brown colour. Tie the tops carefully and trim the neck to just above the tie.

The pic shows the winning set from this years National at Malvern

Dressing onions Part 2

Here is one of my smaller onions for the 8oz class, the variety Tasco. On these I favour a shorter raffia 'tie' of no more than 1/2 an inch.

Note how symmetrical the onion looks also......the judge will imagine a line going down through the onion and will not want to see a bulbous specimen that is bulbous or the main stalk not central.

How to 'dress' onions

There was a letter in Garden News last week from a lady asking how she should tie and display her onions. The picture at the top (one I found on the internet) illustrates what I consider to be a poorly presented pair of onions. The shame is they had great potential to be an excellent exhibit but the necks have been cut far too close to the 'shoulder' giving them an awkward appearance. They are also far too 'green' and should have been lifted earlier so that the skins had time to ripen.

The bottom pic shows one of my onions tied with raffia and cut a quarter of an inch or so past the top of the raffia. Some exhibitors bend the tops over and tie raffia over this double thickness of stalk but I don't think that ever looks very neat. As you can see the nut brown colour is more appealing although this onion has been lifted since early August and is now starting to wrinkle and show its age. I just pulled it out of our veg basket to illustrate this posting.

Onions should be exhibited on specially made stands with rings to support the bases and black cloth thrown over the lot to hide the often ugly contraptions. Alternatively, trays of DRY sand can be used....if you use wet sand the onions may start to root or rot can be induced into the base. Again the pair at the top doesn't quite work on the shallow silver tray somehow......although having said that it did win.....the rest of the entries cannot have been up to much.

Besiktas 2 Liverpool 1

Hehehehehe....once again I'm soooo happy.

p.s. I WILL get back to veg growing very soon but at the moment I'm desperately trying to get our house back into some sort of liveableness (is that a real word?) after our recent building work. I'm still finding bits of brick dust in my arse crack......it gets absolutely everywhere!

Just a reminder to get those seeds, tatties and onion sets ordered asap before they get sold out. I'm told that leek pips

More time for walking

Had a fantastic day's walking yesterday in Derbyshire, the first time I've managed to get out since before the shows started. The pic shows me inching towards the edge of Long Cliffe above Speedwell Cavern, trying to ignore the shouts of 'a bit further' from my mate taking the picture.

From here we went onto Mam Tor and then completed the ridge to Back Tor and Lose Hill back to Hope near Castleton for a well-earned pint, a total distance of about 8.5 miles. The sun shone and the wind kept away making it a stunning day for walking.

A marrow escape

2007 was an awful year for me as far as marrows went. They've always been a strong point for me but I didn't win a single card this year. In fact, I only really managed to grow about 4 or 5 small, weak looking fruits that didn't match up.

The plants didn't like all the rain in July as they just sat in waterlogged soil just after planting time and the foliage suffered from mildew badly.

The variety I grow is one called Blyton Belle raised by Les Stothard, and I've been reselcting my seed from my best fruits for about 4 years now. Obviously having poor fruits this season means I don't really want to harvest seed from this year's crop. I do have several seed left from last year's best fruits which I could easily grow next year as they should remain viable for a year or two yet, but in consideration I think I'll just get some fresh seed.

Sweet Candle

This is a new variety of stump carrot which I saw for the first time at Malvern and which won the National title for a Mr. J. McCartney. They were very large....about 10" long and 1 1/2" in diameter.

They're available from Medwyn's seeds but you need to hurry as they're sure to sell out soon.

Pot black !

Back in March I sowed some parsnips in these old sections of drainage tube that I'd managed to acquire. The intention was to 'show' them at Sturton where I'd noticed that the judge always seemed to go for shorter and fatter specimens, and the metal tubes I'd grown them in for several seasons had started to rust quite badly.

However, when harvested the roots had forked several times about 8-10" down and were useless for showing, although the foliage was lush and strong. The reason for this is quite obvious and I should have known better.......black absorbs heat. The compost must have dried out too much.......indeed it was dust dry and hence the roots had forked in order to go off in different directions looking for moisture.

If I use them again next season I will have to give them a coat of white or silver paint to reflect the heat, or else wrap them in some of that silver material that builders use to insulate walls. Ho hum......I hope you all appreciate me telling you about my cock-ups so that you don't make the same mistakes as I did?