Shame on you!

Most of us who enter flower and veg shows do so to try and see how good we can get, trying to improve things year on year. We accept judges’ decisions with good grace and congratulate our rivals when they do better than us whilst secretly plotting to beat them next time round. I enjoy the light hearted banter between competitors and the after show auctions are also an enjoyable part of the experience.


However, every now and then you come up against a character who you wouldn’t piss on if he was on fire! One particular chap who has a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp that’s covered in dogshit really annoys me each year by buying all the best veg and then entering it into another show the next day in his own name. Everyone knows he does it. Luckily for him it’s not a show I enter but one year I’m going to seek him out and call him a cheating bastard to his face for entering my veg under his name. What satisfaction can it possibly give him to know he’s beaten someone who’s toiled all season doing things the proper way and might only enter that one show but gets beaten into 2nd place and denied by someone who cannot grow decent veg to save his life?

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!

It's not all coming up roses!

Despite my success with parsnips, tomatoes and stump carrots this year every season has its disasters and you need to learn from these as much as you do your triumphs. This season’s undoubted disappointment has been my potatoes which I’ve always been quite strong with in the past. They got away well, initially the top growth looked very strong but within a few weeks the foliage started to go yellow and then died back entirely. I suspect it’s because I didn’t put enough feed in the bags (if I’m honest I didn’t put any in!!!) and thought I’d rely on the roots quickly getting through the bottoms and into the well rotted manure I’d put in the trenches beneath them. Alas, t’was a lesson learnt! Also, I used the same peat I’ve had for two years albeit I thoroughly sterilized it after last year’s blight problems. However, I’ve emptied out all the bags onto the garden borders and I’ll get new bags in for next season and make a fresh start. Also, I tried to grow 4 varieties this season (Kestrel/Winston/Nadine and Malin….I still have to harvest Malin…they were the only ones that carried on growing) but I’ll reduce that to 3 varieties next year as I simply haven’t got the room.

My caulis have also failed yet again. Despite applying insecticide at soil level after planting the majority were attacked within days and had to be pulled up, the roots having been eaten entirely by maggots of cabbage root fly. Next season I shall have one last try with the variety Clapton which is supposed to be clubroot resistant and I shall also invest in some collars to see if I cannot deter the root fly. If they fail again I shall just accept I cannot grow caulis and not bother again.

After initial good growth my celery succumbed to some strange rust like disease on the outer foliage. After I picked off the worst affected stalks they looked very spindly but a week has gone by now and they seem to be picking up. Hopefully, I’ll have a couple of heads to display at Sturton, but they’ll be nowhere near what I was hoping they would be.

My pot plants haven’t exactly run away this year either. I really do grow too much and at times I’m like one of those plate spinners trying to stop them crashing to the ground. Each year I keep saying I’ll cut back on the amount of different things I grow so next year……………..errrrr…….

Sileby Show has its own website

Worth a look.....


http://www.silebyflowerandvegetableshow.btik.com/

One week to Sutton Bonington

As a member of the committee Sutton Bonington is my main show although not the most important in terms of the opposition I perhaps come up against. As many family members and friends visit the show I feel duty bound to put plenty of good exhibits in, the advantage being that it's not auctioned off afterwards (unless you want to) so you can get your best exhibits back for showing at later shows.

One class that is always well contested is the class for a single veg/flower and fruit and I've won it on 6 previous occasions, including last year with a stump carrot, Jomanda dahlia and a Cox apple (I only have one apple tree in the garden and no other fruit so it's always an apple!) I need to start looking at the dahlias to see which blooms I will be entering and make sure I protect them from earwig damage. In view of my parsnip success I think I'll be using a parsnip as the veg as I only need 2 more for the main class since we reduced it from three a couple of seasons ago.

Other exhibitors go to quite elaborate lengths to display their produce but as I keep saying the judge (if he knows what he's doing!) will only compare veg against veg, flower against flower and the antique dish displaying the grapes has no impact on his final decision.

Gold medalist?

I may have mentioned once or twice.....ok 3 or 4 times.....5 times tops (per day) that my parsnips were considered 'National level' at Leicester Show. Well it got me thinking.

Medwyn always says that the British grow the best show veg anywhere in the World so therefore (and I think you can see where I'm going with this) it follows that my parsnips were actually World class no less!

I can see it now.....London 2012........

Winning Top Tray Leicester....third year running.

I've been really pleased with my small red onions 'Red Baron' the past couple of years. Picked 3 weeks ago and packed in sawdust they ripened to a lovely deep red/purple.

AOVeg

I only grew radish to add another variety to my trugs but I had a load of quite large ones left over so I bundled them together and entered them at Hathern in the 'any other veg' class. Won me a 2nd prize card!

Toms at Hathern 2008

These are probably the best tomatoes I have ever staged.

21 years ago today!

Happy Anniversary. I still do! xxx

My babies......am I boring you yet?

Just in case I haven't mentioned it before have I told you that these parsnips were up to National standard?

What do you mean.....yawn?

Just fecking great!

Charnw**d Borough Council are a complete bunch of incompetent wazzers!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1049413/New-data-blunder-details-thousands-council-taxpayers-6-99-sold-eBay.html

Round up

Hathern

1st
Carrots
Marrows
Tomatoes
Onions from sets (only entry!)
Top Tray
AO Veg (french beans ‘Prince’)
Fuchsia (only entry!)
Shallots

2nd
Cabbages
Runner beans
Beetroot
Foliage plant
Parsnips
AO Veg (bunch of radishes)

3rd
Foliage plant


Leicester

1st
Parsnips
Tomatoes
Top Tray
Pickling shallots
Stump carrots
Basket of veg
AO Veg (Lettuce)

2nd
Collection of 6 veg
Pair of cactus
Single specimen succulent
One succulent/1 cactus in 5” pots

3rd
Onions
Leeks
Basket of herbs

Blyton Belle

I have a trophy on my shelf from Sturton that I'm proud to have my name engraved on a few times. This is because it has the name of Les Stothard on about 20 times from the early 1960's!

He's retired from showing now but his stuff was absolutely incredible and he was a real all-rounder showing veg, flowers and fruit to the highest standards. I understand he's been ill so I hope he gets better soon and can make it to Sturton Show in October.

Les bred the marrow 'Blyton Belle' named after where he lives and it's a marrow that is virtually unbeatable when grown well.I managed to win at Hathern with this variety and a trophy that goes with this class.....which is a blessing in disguise as the trophy is actually a very delicate looking glass marrow in a case which always makes you shit bricks when you're travelling back home in the car with it!

Sweet candle is a success.

As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts this year I was growing the stump carrot Sweet Candle and I must say I’ve been very happy with the results. I won the carrot class at Hathern with them (see above pic....no separate class for stumps there) and the stump class at Leicester.

They didn’t take much cleaning at all and there was no sign of root fly damage. The only thing I would say is that they do need a longer growing season to develop the stump end (sow middle of April maybe) as one or two were still a little ‘pointy’ (I put these in the Top Trays both of which I won over the weekend). Also, they have perhaps grown a little long for my liking…..up to 12”. I think the sand beds should be kept a bit more on the moist side but hey ho…..you live and learn!