Vegpatchblog

Spring has sprung.....but for how long!

2012-03-01T14:04:00.003Z

Unbelievable weather for the time of year. The sun was out soon after 7 yesterday morning and the temperature steadily rose throughout the day. I didn't check the thermometer, but suffice to say it was comfortably t-shirt weather. Now, all we need is a few nights of steady rain as everything is very dry.

Exactly 3 weeks ago, I bought a couple of large white onions from our local farm shop with view to setting them for seed production later in the year. They very quickly produced roots but as at yesterday there was no sign of top growth. However, this morning both had sprung into life, so we're away, by the look of it.

Unfortunately, nearly all of the morning was taken up with general chores, but I did manage pop into my local nursery where I bought the above somewhat expensive rake. With most things, I prefer to buy the best I can afford, a practice that I believe pays in the long run. The rake is by Wolff Tools and has a detachable handle on to which various other tools can be fitted. A good, heavy rake is, in my opinion, one of the most useful garden tools and I'm well pleased with it.

I sowed my first batch of tomatoes which will be grown outdoors in containers. Varieties are 'Gartenperle', which will be planted to hang over the edge of my shallot planter. This plan worked very well last year and produced a massive crop of fruits. The second variety is 'Black Cherry' which arrived free with a magazine a few weeks ago. I've not heard of them before, but they look as though they'll make a nice change from the 'Gardener's Delight' I usually grow in big pots.

A few weeks back, I built a new rather large box for carrots. After building it, it soon became apparent that it really was rather too big and unwieldy. The answer was to divide it into 2 separate boxes which gives me the flexibility lacking in the first incarnation. It just over the hour to take the old one to bits and reconstruct the 2 new ones. The result...........

Logistics etc

2012-02-27T13:12:00.002Z

Having been thoroughly berated by the follicularly challenged, dwarf, neanderthal retards of Leicestershire and Yorkshire, I thought I'd better make the effort and post at length today. So, if you get bored around halfway through, just remember that today I'm posting so that the mentally more primitive amongst us can understand a word or two.

With the Met Office promising we would not get even close to a frost on Saturday night/Sunday morning, I was somewhat hacked off to find the garden covered in the stuff. However, it had virtually gone by 7am as the sun started to rise. I had turned all heat off in the greenhouse last Wednesday, rather prematurely as it happens, but the temperature without it on didn't go below freezing so I doubt any damage has been done.

The problem with starting seeds off in a small growing chamber housed away from the greenhouse is that what can comfortably fit in to the chamber from germination to the potting on stage, needs a huge amount of room after re potting. It's a problem I have every year and I invariably have to spend a disproportionate amount of time reorganising the greenhouse on virtually a weekly basis just to fit things in. The problem will go away in a month or so when the hardier plants can go outside or in the cold frame, but for now it's a logistical nightmare.

Extra low level staging, from Smith's of Loughborough, has been employed to keep stuff off the cold floor which has reduced the walkway width to the bare minimum. Here we have seed leeks, shallots, onion sets and plants.

The benches are filled to capacity with young onion plants and my 'Pendle' leeks that came from John Trim.

Talking of seed leeks, here's a close up picture showing their current stage of development. I'm not really sure how long they need the protection of the greenhouse, so I think I'll leave them inside until all chance of frost has passed, just in case.

I have the same problem with my Autumn sown 'Trevor' carrots. When can they go outside? Whatever, they're coming on fine and should produce some decent specimens for the local early Summer show in June.

Last year, like many others, I had considerable trouble with the germination of 'Vento' onions, to the point that I'm growing 'Toughball' instead this year. However, I had around 40 'Vento' seeds left over that I sowed in a module in mid-January. Just 6 have germinated! Maybe I'll have another go next year. We'll see.

Out on the plot, it's the garlic that's stealing the show, having survived temperatures as low as -14deg a fortnight ago with no apparent ill effects. Respect!

Last year, the carrots that I grew in purpose made boxes with net surrounds weren't touched by the dreaded Carrot Fly and they got me 1st. and 2nd. place in the village show. However, the rest that I grew purely for the kitchen were, together with my parsnips, without exception subjected to heavy attacks, especially later in the season. In an exchange of emails this morning with Darren Blick (Blick's Blog), a garlic 'barrier' was suggested. To that end, I've ordered 500gms of 'Garlic Wonder' concentrate from Tuckers Seeds which is supposed to help if regular spraying is undertaken.

The other 'find' is the above. Just 11 quid on Ebay and hopefully the ideal cure for my wife's anger when she finds her kitchen pestle and mortar full of Vitax Q4 and other granular substances that go into my growing mixes. It was a hard choice between the coffee grinder or a roll of gaffer tape!

That's it for now.

After thought........

Finding pictures of neanderthals is easy. Finding pictures of baldness is easy. Finding pictures of bald neanderthals is a real challenge. LOL!!

Diary note

2012-02-24T11:23:00.000Z

'Setton' onion sets planted in 24 cell modules.

Those lazy, hazy days of winter!

2012-02-23T10:35:00.002Z

15°C in the greenhouse at 8am this morning! Thought the thermometer had gone tits up for a moment.

Edit.....

Had a pack of 'Setton' onion sets turn up in the post today. I want to see how these compare with 'Centurion' as Faversham HS has a class for onions from sets in both its early and late Autumn shows.

Leeks and Ferret Poop

2012-02-22T20:06:00.000Z

As I mentioned last week, following on from my successful foray into the world of pot leeks last year, I decided to have another go. The plants were ordered in October from John Soulsby, but instead of sticking with 'Yorkshire Giant', I'm having ago with 'The Cumbrian' this season. The plants arrived today in great condition and everything else came to a halt so that I could pot them up ASAP so as to avoid too much shock and reduce the risk of them bolting.

First job was to give the roots a good drink. The pint glasses seemed totally appropriate vessels for this operation. The plants were left in water for a couple of hours while I messed about sowing my first batch of cabbage seed. I've chosen to go with 'Golden Acre' from Mr Fothergill for the third year running for the early harvest of a really good, firm head aroud mid-June.

The compost mixture is my standard 9 parts Sinclair Professional, 1 part Vermiculite and a liberal dose of Nutrimate. Here you see 8 plants ready to be set out into 4" square pots. There are also 2 more which are quite a bit smaller, but have been potted up nevertheless. The other 10 plants are winging their way to Paul Bastow even as I write.

In exchange for the pot leeks, Paul's got a few top notch blanch leeks, a Yorkshire Cloth Cap plant and a bag of ferret droppings for me.

Search facility

2012-02-20T10:29:00.000Z

As my blog has now been running for over 2 years, I thought I'd make life easier by adding a search facility. See the top of the page and try it out.

The perfect day!

2012-02-19T18:20:00.001Z

5 hours of pottering around the plot and greenhouse, 2 hours in the pub, a superb lunch created by my beloved, a bottle of red followed by a few glasses of Port = the perfect Sunday in my eyes. The only hiccup was that my lightweight mini-trailer got a puncture on the way to the tip this morning.

Being a southern softy, it was too cold first thing to work outside, so I busied myself sowing a few more seeds. Today it was leeks, more 'Toughball' onions and 'Gold Coin' cippoline onions. As far as leeks are concerned, I've sown 20 stations of 'Musselburgh' and a further 20 of that well known variety, 'Starozagorski kamus'. For those whose horticultural knowledge does not encompass such a World class leek............Google it! In addition, I've sown a small tray of Musselburgh for my brother-in-law who's an all round good egg!

The second batch of 'Sizzler' chillies were potted on into 3" pots, while the first of the seasons cauliflower seedlings now reside in a 6 station module.

The Peter Glazebrook Selection large onions from Medwyn's were potted up after a disappointing germination rate of just 30%. Even then, the 10 that were ready to pot up were nowhere near the stage that both Toughball and Red Baron have reached having been sown on the same date in December.

Before I was persuaded, despite intense protest, to go to the pub, I did manage to checkout and tidy up the Musselburgh leeks I've overwintered in pots and have started to send up fresh growth.

OK, so they've over-wintered, but as far as being good enough for the Early Spring Show, that's another matter. We'll see.

For the record, as usual, I'm using Humax MG for seeds, followed by Sinclair Potting-on Compost.

First the village society.......

2012-02-16T21:39:00.001Z

Well, I always said I wouldn't get too involved with the vegetable showing scene, but I guess I must have caught the bug to a degree.

Tonight was the AGM of my village horticultural society, which was hardly an exciting event, as one might imagine. However, it was well attended by a seriously enthusiastic bunch of good country folk. I've re-joined and confirmed that I'll certainly be entering the autumn show and might just about be able to cobble something together for the spring and summer events, with luck. However, on reading the show schedules, I discover that leeks still only feature in the spring show on the 24th. March and that the marrow class has been dropped from the autumn show. So my leeks and marrows will have to be 'Any other vegetable' entries.

The above encouraged me to write a cheque for the mighty sum of £5 to Faversham Horticultural Society, an altogether bigger and broader minded society as far as showing is concerned. I just hope their shows don't clash with each other.

And to think, if it wasn't for bl**dy Smithyveg convincing me to get involved, I'd be £12 better off. Oh well, better make the most of it I suppose!

Yippee......the snow's gone!

2012-02-16T13:16:00.000Z

I suppose we were lucky in that we only had the one day of heavy snow and it only left us with 4" or so. The real problem was the temperature getting down to -14C some nights, which is virtually unheard of in this part of the country. I hate to think what my electricity bill will be with the greenhouse heater on 24/7 for best part of a week! Anyway, it's all gone now and we're back to normal as far as temperature is concerned with no immediate prospect of frost.

Yesterday, I made sure that I made the most of every bit of daylight available. The first task was to fit my John Trim 'Pendle' blanch leeks with their first collars cut from lengths of pipe lagging through which a 12" split can is pushed. This results in an adjustable 3" collar which is positioned to cover the growing point of the leek thus encouraging it to lengthen. The collars will stay in place for a couple of months until full soil to button 'jackets' are fitted to encourage blanching.

The 200gm of 'Centurion' onion sets I bought from Shelley's seeds contained just 26 large bulbs. I've no problem with this as they really superb. However, I need rather more than 26, so I bought a pack of Taylors much smaller sets to supplement the numbers, giving me a further 48. The large bulbs went straight into 3" square pots, while the smaller ones were planted in 24 cell modules. The picture above shows the modules containing the smaller bulbs together with the leeks, white onion experiment (see previous post) and 'Senshyu' onions.

After an email conversation with Smithyveg, I decided to re-pot my own stock of 'Hative de Niort' shallots and the new 'Aristocrat' bulbs bought from Medwyn's as the roots were completely filling the original pots. They now reside in 4" square pots where they will stay until planting out time.

The rest of the day was spent generally making the place look half respectable and trying to make better use of available space in the greenhouse.

I heard from my pot leek supplier, John Soulsby from Gateshead, that my order is to be dispatched on Monday, which suits me just fine. This year, I've bought 'The Cumbrian' by way of a change. I've decided not to grow as many as last year, so have arranged to swap part of my order with some 'Pendle Improved' from Paul Bastow having has success with the couple he kindly gave me last year.

Onion trial (reprise)

2012-02-08T16:19:00.000Z

Last year I started an experiment to see whether I could get some seed from some particularly nice shaped, large white onions I discovered in our local farm shop. I'm pretty sure they originated in Spain and Spain has farms, therefore selling them in a local farm shop is quite legit in my view. Whatever, the experiment didn't come to fruition 'cos I lost interest in them, but I won't this year.......honest.

It's too cold to do anything much veg-wise, so here we go again. They're sitting in coarse compost in 5" square pots' I'll endeavour to see them through to seed production this year and post accordingly.

Love-Hate

2012-02-05T19:27:00.000Z

Who was the idiot that decreed that love and hate were similar emotions? What a moron! I love beer, wine and good food almost as much as life itself, but I hate snow with a passion that I can't begin to describe.

OK, so it fits well into my photographic world, but, in the big picture of things, that's insignificant.

Having to heat my greenhouse causes my electricity bill to go into orbit.

It stresses me out when I see the sorry state of my Senshyu onions.

So, I hate it. Simple as that.

Other than shift bloody snow, all I managed veg-wise was to sow a few more chilli seeds.'Stumpy' from Sea Spring Seeds and 'Avalanche' cauliflower from T&M. And that's it..........bloody snow!

Construction and generally farting about!

2012-02-01T22:16:00.001Z

I came to the conclusion last year that I might as well give up growing carrots other than in purpose built boxes. I've no idea why, but whatever I do to deter the little buggers, the carrot root fly ruins my efforts and devastates both soil grown and container carrots to the point of being inedible. Why then is it that I get no sign of attacks in those planted in my raised boxes? I thought it was because they were over the magic figure of 2' above ground level, an altitude that is supposed to be unattainable by the Carrot Fly. Explain to me why those in a tub 4' off the ground where virtually annihilated. A carrot fly with a jet pack, or a hang glider, perhaps. Whatever, this year I'm growing all my carrots in boxes and today knocked up a 67" x 29" x 18" mega-box.

Unfortunately, I had to get the timber for the box came from B&Q at vast expense, as my usual source of supply had nothing suitable, but being pressure treated, at least it will last many seasons if I look after it. It took an hour to build using my cheapo power saw, a rechargeable drill/driver and around 40 screws.

Last Autumn, Smiffy kindly collected some difficult to acquire chemicals for me from the NVS Scottish Branch. To be honest, I would prefer to use few if any chemicals, but just can't afford to waste space with failed crops. So, I've got some 'Rovral' fungicide, 'Bumper' for leek rust and 'Dynamec' to control thrips in onions and leeks, all of which arrived today. Thanks, Simon.

That was to be it for today, but when I arrived to pick my car up from its annual service, I had ½ hour to kill. It so happens that the local Audi dealership is right next to a branch of a big garden centre chain. I rarely visit these over-priced emporiums, preferring small local nurseries, but hit lucky today in that I got a few more 'Centurion' onion sets, some 3 for a fiver packs of sowing modules and a packet of my favourite cauliflower seed, 'Avalanche'. With regard to the onion sets, they are nowhere near the size of those that I got from Shelley's, but they'll bring the numbers I grow up to a respectable level. Also, as there is a school of thought that believes size doesn't matter, it'll be interesting to see whether starting from Shelley's larger sets makes a difference when compared with todays smaller examples.

Raised beds and lowered veg growers.

2012-01-30T20:17:00.001Z

What a change in temperature! It's suddenly plummeted down here and sat around 3-4°C today after consistently reaching double figures for much of January. Just goes to show how easy it is to be lulled into a false sense of security.

Having had a really busy weekend, I really didn't feel like doing a lot today. After all, why do today what you can put of until tomorrow? Nevertheless, I did manage to knock up the new raised bed and temporarily re-position a small one from last year into a spare bit of the plot. (next to the carrot box.). Next year, this, plus the garlic bed, will be replaced by a new 10' x 4' raised bed made from the spare scaffold boards I acquired last week.

The last of my seed orders arrived today from Shelley Seeds.

Together with with the seeds came 200gm of 'Centurion' onion sets. I bought a few of this variety locally last year and was very pleased with the results. However, looking at the size and quality of the sets from Shelley's, I'm hoping to do even better this year. Perhaps I should have ordered more as 200gm is just 26 sets!

Well, that's almost it for today, accept that some of you might be interested in a rare photograph that I recently came across showing Smiffy with some of his little chums. I think that's him second from the left, but I can't be certain. No doubt someone will be able to confirm.

2012 Odds & sods - Part 2

2012-01-25T15:51:00.001Z

Yesterday, it rained from dawn to dusk - not hard, but enough to stop working on the plot being feasible. So, today was another odds ans and sods day both outside and in the office.

Last Winter, I bought a soil warming cable off Ebay for not a lot. I can't remember how much it was exactly but certainly no more than 50% of the price of the cheapest I could find anywhere else. I dug it out today, checked that it still works, and fitted it, with gaffer tape, to a 4' gravel tray. It will be a month or so before it's put into the greenhouse where it will be used if the weather turns seriously cold. Last year I started my pot leeks on it with good results.

Much as last year, the coated 'Vento' onion seeds are way behind non-coated seeds and germinating very erratically. Thank goodness Medwyn is now supplying the uncoated variety, which I'll likely have next year. They were sown on the 11th. January and just one out of 40 has germinated so far. The 'Toughball', sown on the same day, have all germinated and are just starting to uncurl themselves from the crook stage.

It's not what you know, etc, etc......

2012-01-23T17:53:00.002Z

When we moved to this village almost 19 years ago, I made a point of getting to know all the decent local tradesmen, via the occasional (!) visit to the local pub. Over the years, these guys have had a fair bit of business from me including plumbing, electrical work, building an extension and general maintenance that I just didn't have time to do myself. Most have become good friends. One of the benefits of this is that, as long as I don't take the p*ss, I can usually acquire virtually anything to do with the building trade at prices ranging from a pint of Guinness to not a lot.

As mentioned in my last post, I've been waiting the arrival of a couple of scaffold boards so that I can get on with knocking together the new raised bed extension The original plan was for a roofer friend to pick up a couple of new ones from his supplier next time he was in that direction. However, for one reason or another, they hadn't yet materialised, which wasn't really much of a problem. This morning, however, I get a call from another mate asking if I wanted 4 lightly used boards for 20 quid delivered. It took less than a nanosecond to make up my mind!

So, I'm now the proud owner of the aforementioned 13' boards from which I shall make the 6' extension to the existing raised bed and a new 10' bed. The latter will not be completed until this Autumn because of stuff already growing on the site, but at least I've got them in stock.

Today was spent soaking them with Cuprinol to ensure they last a good long time. Before anyone asks, no, I haven't had any problem with preservative leaching into the soil with any of the treated timber around both the plot and the rest of the garden.

An added bonus is that the guy who got the boards for me is, in exchange for some spare attic flooring boards (acquired from another friend), going to 'acquire' about a ½ tonne of extremly good quality rich, dark topsoil from the job he's currently working on. Just the job for the new beds!

A good day!

Rough cider and a bonfire substitute.

2012-01-22T20:10:00.000Z

Those sad enough to have followed my ramblings for a while will be aware that I have a passion for proper cider. I don't mean the likes of Strongbow, Magners and other ladyboy brands, my passion is for the strong, seriously rough stuff, straight from the farm. My never ending search for the ultimate rustic brew took a giant step forward last week thanks to Darren of Blicky's Blog who pointed me in the direction of Roger Wilkins of Wilkins Cider near Glastonbury in Somerset.

Roger Wilkins of Wilkins Cider

Roger produces what is probably the finest farm cider I've ever tasted. The label says it's 6% ABV, and if you believe that, you'll believe anything! More like 7½%. I reckon. Whatever, its bloody awesome! Roger also sells locally made Cheddar Cheese which is also sublime. Worth a diversion if you're in that part of the world.

Anyway, back on the plot, with a couple of days off, I've had a chance to do a few odds and sods, starting with adding a higher support clip to the 'Pendle' leeks I got from John Trim. They're really motoring despite being in the greenhouse with no supplementary lighting. They do receive some bottom heat and a space heater set to keep everything above freezing, not that that's been much of a problem so far this year. I think they've got to the stage where I'll fit collars to encourage the start of the lengthening process, as recommended by Smiff

Given the rubbish soil my garden is blessed with, I've been progressively adding raised beds to the plot. The next will be a 6' extension to one of the originals. I'm just waiting for a couple of scaffold boards to arrive and I'll knock it up. Then I'll be on the lookout for some half decent soil to mix with compost and manure ready for use in late Spring. Not sure what I'll grow in it this year, but watch this space.

Both the 'Aristocrat' and 'Hative de Niort' exhibition shallots are coming on fine in the greenhouse. They're a bit ahead of last year due to the generally warmer weather.

Ever since I can remember, each year I've looked forward to the Winter bonfires. I love the smell and the warmth emanating from the fire on an otherwise cold day. A couple of years back, I bought a dustbin-type incinerator which is just perfect where there's no waste ground on which to build a traditional fire. Other than its mobility, its major plus points are that everything you put in it is totally reduced to ash, and it needs little attention. Twenty quid well spent. Having said all that, apparently it isn't a good idea to light it when there's washing on the line, unless you like your towels smelling of smoked bacon!

Other odds and ends dealt with today included a second sowing of 'Sizzler' chillies and a further 24-cell module of 'Toughball' onions. I disinfected a couple of the empty raised beds using a weak solution of Jeyes Fluid, which should kill off a few nasties.

Pre-holiday odds and sods.

2012-01-12T14:47:00.002Z

On Sunday we're off on the first of our 3 annual buying trips, followed by a couple of days holiday. We'll be based in Crewkerne in Somerset which is perfect for our purposes, which comprise a trade show in Exeter, visiting the odd cider farm or two and a few bracing walks with the dog. This year, we'll be visiting the eastern side of Dartmoor and the Somerset Levels.

Despite still suffering from this bloody cold, I did do a few chores yesterday. It's a pure coincidence that Darren of Blicky's Blog and I have chosen the same onion varieties this year. I sowed a 40 cell module of 'Toughball' and another of 'Vento'. The latter being some of the leftover seed from last year, which, despite being somewhat disappointing in terms of germination, are just too expensive to bin. Perhaps I'll have better luck this time.

The problem with the 'Vento' seed was the hard shell applied by the original supplier which is designed for commercial growers to obtain even germination. My experience was that germination was all over the place, both in terms of time and the percentage that actually sprouted! I understand that Medwyns are supplying uncoated seed this year after a lot of client moans and groans.

On checking the growth progress of my exhibition shallots, I was horrified to find that several of the 'Aristocrat' shoots had been attacked by an unknown and unseen predator. After extensive research, the aforementioned culprit was found to be a pair of kitchen scissors in the hands of moronic vegetable grower who trimmed the bulbs just a little bit too much! Fortunately, no permanent damage appears to have been done.

The 'Pendle' leek plants from John Trim are growing well. The tallest are now around 12" high and it won't be too long before they'll need collaring.

I'm growing 2 batches of 'Senshyu' onions. The first, destined for an early show, are from bought in plants and reside in the greenhouse and growing well. The second batch are from sets growing in one of my raised beds and are, as can be seen, looking rather sorry for themselves. Unfortunately, the high winds we experienced in November and early December have taken their toll and I can only hope that they'll revive as we move towards the Spring.

Well, that's it for now. I'll be back in 10 days with a further update.

Severe illness and pre-historic North of Watford dwellers.

2012-01-10T16:12:00.006Z

I do not have 'Man Flu', I have a cold. As it so happens, it's quite probably the worst cold that has ever inflicted a member of the human race, but it isn't 'Man Flu'. 'Man Flu' exists only in the mind of unkind, over indulged women. And to think us men have given you the best years of our lives!

On a marginally more serious note, I haven't done a lot veg-wise thanks to my cold - I just haven't felt like it. However, I did mess around in the greenhouse on Sunday with the Musselburgh leeks I'm over-wintering in large pots. I need just 3 for my local Spring show, but am not confident I've grown them well enough. They have suffered badly from the storms of late and needed tidying up as a matter of urgency.

As we don't open the shop on Mondays in January, I managed to virtually finish off the greenhouse insulation, which is nothing more than bubblewrap. So far, we've not had a cold spell of note, but Sod's Law means that it will come next week when I'm holiday in Somerset.

Huddersfield Man - circa 2012

Talking of Somerset, thanks to Darren of Blicky's Blog for pointing me in the direction of what looks like a seriously dangerous cider farm and cheese emporium. What a shame our Yorkshire and Derbyshire Neanderthal cousins are unable to enjoy such delights. Never mind boys, a couple of pints of your local 2% session p*ss will help get over the shame of not being able to take a real drink.

In the growing cabinet, as at this morning, the 'PG Selection' large onions are at about 50% germination. The 'Red Baron' are germinating well as are the 'Sizzler' chillies.

Lights, camera, action!

2012-01-05T08:11:00.000Z

Several of the Peter Glazebrook Selection onion seeds from Medwyn are now sowing through, so it's time for the lights to go on in the growing chamber. I'm not trying to grow monsters this year, so the timer is set to come on at 5am and go off at 10pm and just gives a boost to the natural light coming through my office window. This regime worked for me last year, so, if it ain't broke...... etc etc. The ambient temperature is currently varying between about 14⁰ and 18⁰C

Diary note.

2012-01-02T21:26:00.000Z

First of the PG Selection onions is just showing through in dead on a week. Ambient temperature between 16 and 20C. No secodary heat.

It's life, Jim, but not as we know it.

2012-01-01T19:10:00.000Z

My beloved modelling the latest in hearing aid technology.

First day of 2012, last day of the holiday.

2012-01-01T17:53:00.000Z

Other than starting 2012 with a new grandson, born on Christmas Eve, it's back to normal tomorrow. As far as business is concerned, 2 days of stocktaking to look forward to. Joy of joys!

I've learnt that chillies from the Assam region of India need a longer growing season than most others if they are to fully ripen to red. Don't get me wrong, they are perfectly acceptable when green, but I always think red looks better. For 2012, I'm changing from my habitual 'Firecracker' to another Assam variety, 'Sizzler', I'm told that this chilli is not quite as pungent as 'Firecracker', but extremely well flavoured and still quite hot. Whatever, I planted 8 seeds today in fine MG compost and lightly covered them with vermiculite. They now reside in a heated propagator in my growing chamber at a soil temperature of around 26°C. With luck, I should see signs of germination in 7-10 days. I source my chilli seed from just one supplier, namely Nicky's Nursery, whom I have no hesitation in recommended for their service and no nonsense approach.

Talking of chillies, my youngest daughter gave me the above for Christmas. Bloody cheek! I gave her life and she repays me with a gift that only a dwarf, Munchkin-like vegetable grower could relate to. Accordingly, I shall have nothing to do with them other than growing them. I shall send the resultant produce to a suitable person currently residing in Loughborough.

I've moved the leeks plants that I received from John Trim last week onto a heated propagator base in my greenhouse. This, combined with the unseasonal high temperatures we're experiencing, should ensure they establish well in their new environment. In the background you can see pots of 'Senshyu' onions which I'm growing for an early village show.

The leeks that are set away to produce 'grass' later in the year are coming on fine. The old flesh is now dying off in stages and is being removed as and when necessary.

Outside, my garlic is really coming on strongly, again because of the warm weather we're experiencing. Every clove planted is growing at a rate of knots, including the 'Elephant Garlic' which is in the background.

Reading back through this blog to this time last year, I found that I started my red onions off somewhat early and ended up with some really good, large bulbs. Accordingly, I sowed a 40 cell module with 'Red Baron' today.

Well folks, all that remains is for me to wish all who follow or visit this blog by accident, a very happy, peaceful, healthy and prosperous New Year.

The season of goodwill!

2011-12-29T16:15:00.000Z

I'm sure I've said it in a previous post, but it's worthy of repeating. Ever since I started this blog 2 years ago and, more specifically, since I joined the National Vegetable Society, I have been absolutely astounded by the generosity of so many fellow vegetable growers. Today, the postman delivered a tube containing 21 'Pendle' leek plants from John Trim FNVS which he had promised me back in July.

They are all around 30cm tall and in super condition. They will be grown for my local shows and then the best will be set for grass in the Autumn. Together with a few 'Pendle Improved' that Paul Bastow is letting me have in exchange for some pot leek plants, I should then have the basis of a sound stock for years to come.

The priority was to get them back into pots so as to minimise any transplanting shock they may have suffered. They're now in 3" square pots in a mixture of Sinclair Fine Growers compost mixed with vermiculite and a dose of Nutrimate. For the moment they're in the greenhouse with only enough heat to keep the atmosphere above 5⁰C. I just don't have the facilities to provide greater heat, so I'm hoping the mild Winter will continue and this will be enough.

2012, here we go!

2011-12-26T19:20:00.001Z

Firstly, a very Happy Christmas to all those who follow the diatribe on this blog.

Well, at last I've been able to do something significant for the forthcoming season. Firstly, the improvised growing chamber came out from the eaves of the garage, cleaned up and put back together. It's in kit form above, but so brilliantly designed that it all fits together in under 10 minutes. Copies of the plans are available at just £15,000 each. Seriously, this rather heath Robinson chamber has served me well for the past 2 seasons, so I see little point in changing anything. The front is open and located right up against my office window. Above, is a 4' Grolux tube which is just about adequate and very cheap. The photo below shows the reconstituted chamber.

So far, the only occupant is my new electric propagator with a 40 cell unit of Peter Glazebrook Selection, large onion seeds acquired from Medwyn's last season. This will be my only sowing of large onions this year as I need more space this year to grow 'Toughball' quality onions for the under 250gm class at the 2 local shows I intend to enter.

My remaining 'Hative de Niort' shallots have been potted and put into the cold greenhouse. Unfortunately, from a stock of about 15 really nice bulbs, I'm down to 6, thanks to my dear wife - see previous post. However, in an effort to build my stocks up, I've also potted up some smaller bulbs which I hope will produce some good 'seed' bulbs for the 2013 or 2014 seasons. To supplement the aforementioned, I've potted 20 'Aristocrat' bulbs (those with the plant labels) bought from Medwyn's at great expense.

Lastly, I've got half a dozen 'H de N' bulbs which sprang into life about a month ago and are now in my cold frame. The 3 on the left look as though they might be OK, but the others don't look too promising. Only time will tell.

You give them the best years of your life, the benefit of your body, then..............

2011-12-13T10:56:00.000Z

The above is what I discovered in my garage last night. On Sunday, this was a tray of the 12 best Hative de Niort shallot bulbs which had been carefully nurtured in readiness for planting between Christmas and New Year.

Last night, my beloved presented an absolutely delicious supper of chicken pie. "The addition of onion was a nice touch", says I. "You mean shallots", says she. The conversation didn't quite end there, but you'll have to guess the rest, as to print it would be offensive to any readers with a delicate disposition!

It seems that the sodding great tray of culinary shallots at my dear wife's disposal, the contents of which she has been using for several months, did not feature on her radar yesterday.

Fortunately, all is not totally lost as I have a few more rather lesser H de N bulbs plus 20 Aristocrat bulbs. BUT THAT'S NOT THE BLOODY POINT!!!!!

Preparations - Shallots, Chillies and a new propagator.

2011-12-08T07:22:00.001Z

Activity on the plot has now pretty much reduced to zero, but there's still odd bits of preparation I need to do for next season. The most important has been deciding exactly what I'm going to grow for both the kitchen and the local showbench. Seeds have mostly been ordered from Shelley's, but a few have also come from Medwyn's and Nicky's Nurseries, together with a small number which were in the sale at my local garden centre a month or so ago at 50p. They're mostly T&M and well in date. Yesterday, I received 20 'Aristocrat' shallot bulbs from Medwyns to supplement my stock of 'Hative de Niort'. Although rather expensive, hopefully, I can build up a good stock from these and be self-sufficient from now on. Also in the post yesterday were chilli seeds from my preferred supplier, Nicky's Nurseries. For 2012, I'm growing another Indian variety, 'Sizzler', which is similar to the 'Firecracker' I've grown for the past couple of years, but slightly less hot.

For years I've used a very basic heated propagator to start off some of my early sowings, particularly chillies. After about 18 years it started behaving erratically last season, so now rests in a landfill site somewhere. Whatever, I got it's replacement yesterday in the garden centre end of season sale for just £13.99, which was cheaper than the one it replaced, although slightly less well made. Certainly, it'll do the job asked of it.

Rain, at last!

2011-12-01T17:01:00.000Z

Seems hard to believe that, although it's now the beginning of December, we have had drought conditions for at least 2 months with only the very minimum amount of light rain. That was until today, when it's poured down most of the day and shows no sign of abating this evening. It seems hard to believe that the soil was dry enough yesterday to rotovate the largest bed which is now not far off being ready to sow. Really a case of strike while the iron is still hot and save some of the hard work that would normally be done in the early Spring.

I have to say that the electric rotovator that my beloved bought me for my birthday is absolutely ideal for my little plot. So far, it's handled the heavy clay soil I'm blessed with without missing a beat. For those with a handy electricity supply, I'd thoroughly recommend it. £70 well spent.

I would guess that not much will happen on the plot this side of Christmas. The next major tasks, between Christmas and New Year will be to re-construct my growing chamber in readiness for the early sowings of onions, and to build a bigger and better new box for my stump carrots.

Worth a try? We'll see.

2011-11-21T11:51:00.001Z

Unfortunately, another 3 of my 'Hative de Niort' shallots have thrown up new growth somewhat prematurely. As previously posted, the advice from 'Smithyveg' was that bulbs that produce shoots early are unlikely to be any good in the long run, but what is 'early'? As I see it, I'm only 6 weeks away from planting the good bulbs that haven't started into growth, so perhaps the early ones might just do OK. Whatever, I've potted them up and put them in my coldframe for the time being. Let's face it, there's no cost, so it's worth giving them a chance.

The plot is nearly clear now, with just leeks, parsnips, a few beetroot and spinach still remaining. The spinach has been superb all season. We started harvesting it in June and we'll get another meal from the short row this week, but that'll be it. The picture shows the Director of Horticulture inspecting the last of the crop before 'helping' me with the last lawn mowing of the year.

That's really about it for now. Other than generally tidying up, I doubt I'll be doing much on the plot for the next few weeks. As I'm now working 6 full days a week until Christmas, that's probably a good thing. I have a few construction ideas in my mind which I'll do over the holiday, so I'll post as and when there's anything of interest to report.

Shit!

2011-11-13T17:42:00.001Z

Family-wise, we've had a particularly sad and shitty week which I won't bore you with, so it seemed quite appropriate to empty my rotted horse shit bin. I make no apologies for not calling it manure, but normal service will be resumed at some time in the future!

Whatever, 5 barrow loads of the aforesaid equine waste product has been spread and rotavated into the largest bed, with a further barrow load worked into one of the 6'x3' raised beds.

The October sown garlic is starting to appear. The picture shows one of 3 elephant garlic cloves coming to life.

Other than harvesting the last of the Sweet Candle carrots, that's it for this shitty week! However, I did manage a couple of well deserved hours in the 'Queens Head'. Trust me, it can only get better!

Whatever the weather, there's always something to do.

2011-11-07T14:01:00.002Z

The great thing about growing veg, or for that matter gardening in general, is that there is always something to do, whatever the weather. Even the most mundane of tasks, such as washing pots, trays etc., while hardly fun, evokes thoughts of a new season yet to come, with all its trials and tribulations.

Of course, not all tasks need to be as boring as watching paint dry. As reported over the past weeks, and inspired by Paul Bastow, I'm growing some Japanese over-wintering onions this year, both from seed and sets, with a view to having quality entries for a couple of June shows. Currently, the seed grown stock are just developing their fifth true leaf and the sets are growing well. Tending to them has certainly got me counting the days until the first sowings of my conventional crops and inspired me to make firm plans for next year.

As can be seen, the pot leek I set last Wednesday has put on significant new growth already.

That's about it for now.

Hardly a proper Autumn!

2011-11-03T14:31:00.000Z

Down here in the South East, temperatures are still in the mid-teens both day and night and we're officially experiencing drought conditions. It's certainly the warmest Autumn I can remember in the recent past. We've had just the one very light frost. So light, in fact, that there has been no noticeable damage to even the most tender of plants. With the threat of the drought ending with lots of rain, I managed pretty much a full day in the garden yesterday and got quite a bit done

I wanted to start using the greenhouse staging for various bits and pieces, so it seemed prudent to fix up the insulating bubble wrap behind it before it became a real pig to move. I'd kept last years cut to size pieces, so it was a very quick job. The picture shows some of my 'Senshyu' onion plants with the beginnings of the insulation, the rest of which will not be fixed until we get proper signs of Winter with a real prospect of frost.

The 'Senshyu' sets that I started off about 3 weeks ago are coming on just fine.

As can be seen, they're making strong little plants with a good root system.

I've put a row outside with the seed grown plants (in the foreground) and 10 plants in pots in the greenhouse. It'll be interesting to see which make the better bulbs.

The 'Trevor' carrots that I'm growing for a early Spring show AOV class, are coming on well, I thinned them about a week ago and they're now about 3" apart. I'll thin them again around Christmas to their final distances.

I checked up on my 'Hative de Niort' shallot stock to make sure there were no rotten bulbs, only to find 3 that are sprouting. After a quick exchange of emails with Smiffy, they are now ex-shallots! For 2012, in order to supplement the 'Hative', I've ordered a few 'Aristocrat' bulbs from Medwyn's. I shan't be growing any shallots from seed next year.

Finally, I decided to pot up another 'Yorkshire Giant' pot leek, making 3 from which I hope to get heads of grass for the 2013 season. The photo shows, from left to right, a 'Pendle Improved', followed by 3 'Yorkshire Giants'.

2011-10-27T06:59:00.000+01:00

Inspired by Smithy's efforts last year - (Click HERE) , back in the Spring I sowed a few cardoon seeds and almost completely forgot about them! They were planted out in a totally unsuitable spot in the garden and left to completely fend for themselves.

It was not until yesterday that I noticed that they have survived and one has produced the rather attractive flower head illustrated above. I'll have to see if I can do rather better with the remaining seeds next year.

Dear Simon............

2011-10-24T11:36:00.001+01:00

Manchester United 1, Manchester City 6

Love and kisses,

Dickie

Now where was I?.............

Yesterday was probably the last Sunday of this year that I was able to spend any length of time in the garden, which is one of the downsides of owning a shop that gets 35% of its annual turnover in the last 2 months of the year. There have been no further signs of frost despite glorious, cloud-free weather and temperatures still well in double figures.

Back in June, my beloved bought me an electric rotavator for my birthday. If I'm honest, I really didn't thing it would be man enough to tackle our clay soil, but I've been pleasantly surprised. After just 2 passes I have a very fine tilth on the newest part of the plot which will only need a quick rake over at the beginning of next season. I've still to mix in some rotted horse manure, but have no doubt the machine will cope admirably. Obviously, it isn't the machine for a full sized allotment, but perfect for my small operation. Thanks, darlin'.

The bed I usually use for my large onions has been allotted to 'Senshyu' onions for over-wintering. I intend to grow a greater number of quality onions for 2012, so they will go into the largest of the raised beds. I've set out 27 of the plants that have been raised in the greenhouse and these will be followed by a row of 9 from sets as soon as they're ready.

For the worst of the Winter, these onions will be have a cover over the framework shown above in the hope that by protecting them a little, I'll get a good selection of quality bulbs next Summer. The balance of the plants will be grown on in the greenhouse with a view to getting a decent entry ready for the local Summer show in mid-June.

The only other work done was to mix some cow manure into the large planter that will house my exhibition shallots next year. (no photo)

Decided to have a go at long carrots instead of show parsnips for next year. 'New Red Intermediate' ordered from Shelley Seeds.

Oops! Nearly forgot.........

Manchester City 6, Manchester United 1

Obviously, I spoke too soon!

2011-10-20T11:42:00.001+01:00

Yup, you guessed it, we had our first ground frost this morning, albeit a very light one. Date wise, it's one day earlier than last year, which in turn was one of the earliest I can remember in this part of the country. Now, from a business pint of view, I just hope we don't get snow before Christmas. A seriously cold snap is fine, but please, no snow.

Many a magazine article has been written assuring us that the carrot root fly is not a strong flyer and rarely travels above 24" high. The photo above shows a carrot grown in a shrub container on an outdoor bench that is 3' off the ground. In order to get to the soil level, the fly must have reached almost 5' above ground level.

It has been suggested to me that maybe localised wind turbulence may have lifted the fly much higher than normal. This may well be correct as I only seem to get attacks in the somewhat enclosed area where my greenhouse is located, the path to which maybe acting as a funnel for the wind.. The carrot boxes, which are just 2'6" high, but on the main veg plot have never had the problem.

The Autumn cleaning blitz around my greenhouse is now finished. The only plants remaining are 8 collared Musselburgh leeks which are part of the over-wintering project I started earlier in the year. I checked them all yesterday and am pleased with their progress. The blanched stems are around 12-15" long and starting to bulk up. With the impending colder weather, the growth will slow down but, with care, I'm hoping for some decent leeks for the village Spring Show in April. Although Musselburgh is generally a very hardy variety, I'll move them to the greenhouse if the temperature looks like dropping to the very low levels we had as last winter.

The balance of of the overwintering leeks are in the main plot and are also coming on reasonably. The variety Bleu de Solaise is not doing as well as the Atlanta, but it's early days yet.

Inside the greenhouse, we now have 2 pot leeks and one blanch leek set for grass next year. Also there's my stock of Senshyu onions, both seedlings and sets some of which will go out into the plot over the next couple of weeks or as soon as the immediate threat of frost recedes.

A frost, or not a frost, that is the question.

2011-10-17T11:37:00.000+01:00

Totally relevant to this post, I offer you the following quote from Michael O'Leary of Ryanair, and the response from Greenpeace:

"I mean, it is absolutely bizarre that the people who can't tell us what the ******* weather is next Tuesday can predict with absolute precision what the ******* global temperatures will be in 100 years' time. It's horse ****."

The response is a classic.........

Greenpeace spokeswoman Joss Garman said: "Personally, I wouldn't trust 'O'Really' to tell me the price of a seat on his own airline, but to be fair his position does have the support of such intellectual heavyweights as Nick Griffin, Sarah Palin and George W Bush."

Why relevant? Well, the Met Office forecast on Saturday for my part of the world virtually guaranteed heavy frosts this week, yet this morning, they say nighttime temperatures will not approach any where near freezing! So, with this in mind, I decided it was time to start preparing my greenhouse for the forthcoming Ice Age, just in case.

As with most greenhouses, at this time of year mine looks like a Tracey Emin reject. In other words it's a monumental mess. Just the very thought of emptying it and cleaning it fills me with dread. Still, it has to be done.

Having suffered all kinds of unwanted beasties and plant ailments back in 2009, I have settled on a strategy that works for me and has, for 2 seasons, kept the greenhouse problem free. Firstly, I completely empty it. I give the whole interior a thorough sweeping followed by a good going over with a pressure hose. I do the same with the staging and the various bits of scaffold board and blocks I use throughout the year and then put them back inside.

I then burn a sulphur candle (£7 well spent) which takes around 3 hours and kills everything hiding in the nooks and crannies.

I stand the tinned candle on a brick, light the wick and get out quick.

After letting the fumes completely clear, which can take up to 12 hours, everything is put back in and we're pretty much ready for the winter.

The only disadvantage I can see is that the sulphur fumes kill everything, including both good and bad beasties. However, this is a price I'm prepared to pay and trust Mother Nature to restore the balance ready for next season.

It's worth emphasising, that the expression, 'light the blue touch paper and retire immediately' is particularly relevant as far as sulphur candles are concerned, so read the instructions and keep well away while the thing is burning and sending out fumes..

Here's one I prepared earlier.............

Onions, leeks and garlic

2011-10-13T06:51:00.001+01:00

A quick visit to a local nursery to get a sulphur candle in readiness for the annual greenhouse fumigation was the start of a day primarily given over general maintenance. While at the nursery, much to the amusement of the staff, I bought 48p. worth of 'Senshyu' onion sets in order to compare them with the seedlings I already have.

Last Sunday, I prepared a leek for grass production next year. The picture above shows just how quickly new growth starts.

The only other thing of consequence achieved was the planting of my garlic for next year. See the video below.

First attempt at setting a leek.

2011-10-11T07:10:00.000+01:00

The two most common ways of growing leeks are from seed or from so called grass. The advantage of the latter is that the resultant plants will be exact clones of the parent. So, a good parent will produce good offspring.

When Paul Bastow kindly gave me a couple of 'Pendle Improved' blanch leek plants in May, I immediately decided to see whether I could grow the plants through this season with a view to getting them to produce grass in 2012 ready for growing on in the 2013 season.

This being only the third video I ever produced, my amateur film making skills are quite apparent. However, things can only get better.........can't they?

Avoiding Raised Bed Rip Offs

2011-10-10T07:55:00.001+01:00

Raised bed gardening is generally acknowledged as one of the best ways for growing quality vegetables unless you're blessed with the near perfect soil that is to be found on Paul Bastow's allotment near Huddersfield. Yet, every time I pick up a magazine on vegetable growing I'm assaulted by a plethora of adverts for simple raised beds at prices that are nothing short of extortionate, and I hate rip offs.

A good sized, serviceable and long lasting raised bed can be very easily cobbled together by anyone with the most basic of DIY skills for a cost of next to nothing. So, I thought it might be a good idea to roughly describe how I go about it using, as an example, the 34"x49" extension to one of my existing beds that took me just an hour to construct this morning. So, here we go...........

Tools required........

Saw - electric is nice, but manual is perfectly adequate.
Screwdriver - again, electric nice but not essential.
Heavy hammer
Tape measure
Pencil
Spirit level - useful, but not mission critical

Components.......

Scaffold boards - secondhand is good and often available from local builders for next to nothing. A new 13' board will cost around £16. Buy from a proper builders merchant, not the likes of B&Q etc.
6' of 1½"x1½" timber, or similar for pegs/corner fixings.
20 or so, 2-2¼" wood screws
Cheap wood preservative, such as Creasote Substitute which is easily available quite cheaply from any half decent builders merchant. Again, buy from a builders merchant.

The site

In this case, I'm adding an extension to an existing raised bed.

Method..........

Carefully work out the exact finished size of the proposed bed and cut 4 pieces of scaffold board for the sides and ends.

Cut 4 pieces of the square section timber to about 13" each and roughly cut a point on one end of each. These will be used to fit the boards to each other and double as pegs to hold the finished article in place. Lengths in excess of 6' will benefit from an extra peg in the middle.

Smother all surfaces of the timber in preservative and leave for 2 or 3 days to soak in.

Using 2 screws for each, attach 2 pegs to each of the longest 2 boards as illustrated.

Accurately screw all the boards together using 2 screws per corner.

Carefully lift the finished article into place and gently tap each peg until the bottom of the boards touch the soil level. My photos illustrate an extension to an existing bed and construction mostly happened 'on site' as accuracy was paramount.

If the chosen part of your plot is on a slope, you may need to build up the soil on one or more sides of the bed until the whole structure is level. This is, of course, where a spirit level comes in handy, and although absolute accuracy isn't critical, the finished article looks better when it sits right.

Basically, that it. If the whole thing costs more than 20-quid, you've not shopped around properly. Mine set me back around a fiver using free secondhand boards that were no longer sound enough to use on a scaffold. The timber for the pegs was about £3 from B&Q and the screws around £2 for 50 from Screwfix.

All you need to do now is fill your new growing area with some sort of soil/compost mix. In my case, for this bed, I stated off with a 3" layer of well rotted cow manure, followed by a couple of inches of chopped up tomato plants, the contents of 2 spent gro-bags and a final layer of old potting compost mixed with topsoil to bring the level up to the top of the boards. The whole mixture will settle over the next 2 or 3 weeks and will be topped up as necessary. Normally I would now leave the bed untouched until planting out in the Spring, but this one may well get my garlic or over-wintering onions very soon. I haven't decided yet.

The finished and filled article

RHS Westminster 2011

2011-10-08T07:40:00.000+01:00

On Tuesday, I took myself off to London for a few hours to visit the RHS Autumn Harvest Show at the Royal Horticultural Halls in Westminster for the second year running. To my untrained eye, the overall quality of the vegetables on show seemed up on last year and were a great inspiration as far as I was concerned.

It never ceases to amaze me the kindness that comes naturally to certain folk. This year, I had the pleasure of meeting Leesa (Mrs Smithyveg), Simon Smith's wife. What a lovely lady! You just have to admire someone who, for over 24 years, has selflessly dedicated her life to what must at times seem an impossible task. She carried him around the whole show so that he could easily see the displays without having to stand on tiptoe like last year.. She really does deserve a medal. Unfortunately, they had to leave early as Simon threw a bit of a tantrum because the cafe didn't do 'Happy Meals' and nothing was going to quieten him down short of a visit to see Ronald McDonald.

Well done Leesa for the 2nd place card with your trug of superb veg. Don't you think it's about time you put your own name on the cards, rather than Simon's, or perhaps that's just another manifestation of how dedicated you are to the little chap.

Being serious for once, the show provided me with another opportunity to play around with my camcorder, so rather than describe everything, take a look at the video below which will give you a general feel for the entries together with illustrating some of Simon's successes, although I missed his first placed cylindrical beetroot.

Florence Fennel

2011-10-05T08:11:00.000+01:00

I've grown Florence Fennel in a container for a couple of years and learnt a couple of valuable lessons. Firstly, the container needs to be deeper than the 10" one I've been using, as can be seen by the length of the tap route which is 9" on the pictured example. Secondly, it needs a hell of a lot of water, and thirdly, they don't grow well in my garden soil.

Seeing that they may have potential in a 'Any other vegetable' class, next year, although I'll keep with container growing, it will be a much deeper one which, combined with a good compost I hope will give me better quality bulbs than I've grown to date.

Hot, hot, hot!

2011-10-03T11:40:00.000+01:00

Apparently the hottest October temperature (29.9°C) since records began was recorded at Gravesend on Saturday. We live just 30-odd miles away and I certainly wouldn't doubt that figure. In fact, the past 10 days or so have been warmer and sunnier than any comparative period since early May. I honestly can't remember having to water the garden in October before, but felt that the late leeks in particular needed a drink.

Talking of leeks, all 3 varieties of those that I'm growing for a Spring show are doing well. The photo shows one of 7 'Musselburgh' that I'm growing in pots which are destined for the greenhouse as soon as we start getting seriously cold weather. I would imagine I'll be able to keep with the pipe lagging for quite a while before changing to damp proof course. So far, the blanch is around 10" above the soil level, with another couple of inches below.

As far as pot leeks are concerned, I'm going to try and get some more plants from John Soulsby soon after Christmas, but thought I'd have a go at setting 2 or 3 of this years best examples for seed and/or grass. The picture shows one that I lifted a week ago. I'll dig and prepare another couple on Sunday and try and do a short video of what's actually involved.

This is the second year running that I've had a totally trouble free crop of chillies. I've been growing them seriously for around 15 years, mostly successfully. However, I've occasionally had issues with various virus-type problems and also with small green caterpillars of some unidentified beastie. It all came to a head in 2009 when my crop was virtually decimated by a number of problems. That Autumn, I totally cleaned and fumigated the greenhouse and subsequently had the best crop I've ever had. A one off? No, I did the same in Autumn 2010 and the resultant harvest from just 2 plants can be seen in the 9" square, 5" deep bowl in the photo. The variety is 'Fire Cracker', an Indian chilli from Nicky's Nursery.

The 'Senshyu' onion plants I bought in just over a week ago for over wintering have settled in well and are growing away rapidly in this warm weather. I'm looking for a really early crop from these, so I'm going to try a few in pots in the greenhouse with the balance going into one of the raised beds.

Last October, I visited the RHS Autumn Harvest Show in Westminster. I learnt a lot, met up with Smithyveg, joined the National Vegetable Society and generally had a really good day out. I going to this years show tomorrow and am really looking forward to it. If you think you might be able to make it, check out, http://www.rhs.org.uk/Shows-Events/RHS-London-Flower-Shows/RHS-London-Autumn-Harvest-Show.

Lessons will be learnt.

2011-10-01T15:17:00.000+01:00

I always have a chuckle to myself when I read that a government minister, defending yet another monumental cock up in his/her department, vomits up the phrase 'Lessons will be learnt.' Basically, this means that scapegoats will be identified, reprimanded and sent on an 'Advanced cover you tracks strategies' and 'Bulls**t for Civil Servants' courses at great expense to us gullible tax payers. However, with gardening of one sort or another, learning by ones previous mistakes and experiences is essential and goes some way to ensuring that our harvests get better year on year. Perhaps a degree in horticulture should be made mandatory for wannabe MPs. So, it's with this in mind, I find myself listing what I've done wrong in 2011, and how I'm going to do better in 2012.

Firstly, I've had to make the decision as to how far I'm going to embrace growing vegetables for showing. Basically, I'm going to extend my activities to my local town (Faversham) show as well the village show, but only grow those crops that I know I can be competitive with. To that end I'm going to grow:

Onions (short day) - Senshyu - young plants already growing strongly in the greenhouse.
Onions (long day) - Toughball (Shelley Seeds - ordered) + Vento (seed leftover from this year)
Onions (large) - Medwyn's Peter Glazebrook Selection (seed already in stock)
Onion Sets - Centurion (Shelley Seeds - ordered)
Tomatoes - Gardeners Delight (seed already in stock)
Tomatoes - Shirley (Shelley Seeds - ordered) + Dometica (Shelley Seeds - ordered)
Carrot - Sweet Candle (Shelley Seeds - ordered) + Trevor F1 (seed already in stock)
Marrow - Table Dainty (Shelley Seeds - ordered)
Beetroot - Pablo (Shelley Seeds - ordered)
Blanch Leeks - Summer sown plants for the early shows doing well, followed by bought in plants for the Autumn.
Shallots - provided not too many rot over the Autumn, I'll be planting around 20 good size bulbs and a similar quantity of smaller bulbs that were the thinnings from this year. I'd like to get 2 good sets of 10, plus increase my stock further.

In addition, I'll also give the following a crack to see if I can grow them to an acceptable standard:

Runner Bean - Enorma (T&M - seed already in stock)
Parsnip - Pinnacle (Shelley Seeds - ordered) - did OK this year, but not of show standard.
Courgette - Venus F1 (Shelley Seeds - ordered) - did OK this year, but suffered heavily with mildew.

Pot Leeks - from bought in plants. The space they take up is my only concern.

After consultation with the domestic staff, purely for the kitchen, in addition I'll be growing:

Spinach - various
Cabbage - Golden Acre + Unifor

Onion (Cipollini) - Gold Coin
Garlic - yet to be sourced

Lettuce - Little Gem
Cauliflower - Raleigh
Florence Fennel
Dwarf French Beans - Speedy

I won't be growing:

Turnips - nobody in the family likes them.
Radish and Spring Onions - neither have ever been any good for me,
Chillies - we've got a freezer load from 2010 and 2011 and I need the greenhouse space for other things.
Broccoli - we just don't eat enough of it. I might be overruled on this one!
Red Cabbage - no demand from the family.

So there we are. I imagine the above lists will change over the Winter, but that's as I see it today.

Back to reality.

2011-09-25T22:06:00.000+01:00

It's very easy to think that those that achieve success on the show bench grow nothing but perfect examples and that the day before a show it's just a matter of picking 3 tomatoes, pulling 5 carrots etc. If I'm honest, a couple of years back I was totally ignorant of how much time and effort goes into growing, harvesting and selecting vegetables for showing.

To get my 5 carrots for my winning set at Hernhill show, I pulled roughly 30 examples of wildly varing size and quality. In deed, my second set was really rather mismatched, but surprisingly got a card nevertheless.

Every single carefully nurtured parsnip that I painstakingly grew in tubes was rubbish in terms of uniformity and size.

Every parsnip displayed signes of disease - canker????

My beetroot were comical in terms of size and uniformity, and trying to select a set of 3 decent beets from a total of 20 specimens grown in grotty heavy clay was about as likely as buying a pork chop from a Kosher butcher.

Lessons will be learnt!

As promised..........

2011-09-25T21:23:00.004+01:00

A really busy day with my granddaughter taking precedence over you lot, but here, at last, is my view of my very first veg show.

Firstly, as you can see, the Hernhill Horticultural Society's Autumn Show is hardly a major event in the veg growers diary. However, what a great load of truly dedicated enthusiasts they are. Here, it genuinely isn't about whether you win or not, it's all about being part of it and that, to me, is its great appeal and why I shall continue to support the Society. Obviously, wiping the board with pretty much every thing I entered at my first attempt was fantastic, but without the genuine good wishes showered upon me, it would have been a hollow victory. Thanks to all those who took the trouble to say 'well done'.

Now to my successes..........

Tomatoes - 1st.

5 Carrots - 1st. & 2nd.

3 Onions - 1st & 2nd.

10 Shallots - 1st.

Any other vegetable - 1st. and Best in Show with a pair of fairly average size pot leeks.

(plus unplaced chillies)

So, there we are, 7 cards and a trophy. Unsurprisingly I'm like a pig in shit.

OK, so I grew some good vegetables this year, but yesterdays results would never have happened without the genorous help, encouragement and abuse so freely given by the likes of Simon (Smithyveg) Smith, Dan Unsworth and Paul Bastow. Of course, the several other blogs that I regularly and avidly read and take inspiration from have very much played their part as well. I have learnt that in order to succeed in the world of showing, particularly with those crops that can be raised from sets etc, the very best stock is vital. Last Autumn, Simon very kindly supplied the original stock that produced my winning shallots and Paul gave me a couple of blanch leeks in order that I might have a go at starting my own strain from grass. The pot leeks I got bought John Soulsby will, I hope, be the basis of my own selection in the coming years.

As to the future, with all my various other interests competing for my time, particularly my photography, I'll never reach the dizzy heights of the top show orientated growers. However, I've certainly caught the bug and will likely be increasing my show efforts next year to include the shows in my local town, Faverham where the competition is certainly higher.

It's a little too early to finalise plans for next year, but the one decision I have already made is to specialise in a few quality varieties that I know I can be competitive with, rather than try to grow everything but to a mediocre standard. As I did last year, I'm visiting the RHS Autumn Show at Westminster next week, after which I'll start thinking seriously about seed orders and what I need to do on the plot over the Winter in order to maximise the quality from those seeds.

Over and out!

Bloody amazing!!!!

2011-09-24T16:14:00.001+01:00

Hernhill Horticultural Society Autumn Show

9 entries in 5 classes.

Results:

1st.& 2nd. - Onions
1st & 2nd - Carrots
1st - Tomatoes
1st - Shallots
1st - Any other vegetable - Pot Leeks
Cup and certificate for Best in Show - Pot Leeks

Not too bad for a first attempt at showing.

Need to recover from the shock so, full details + snaps tomorrow evening.

Past the point of no return.

2011-09-24T13:27:00.001+01:00

Well, it's done. In the end I managed 9 entries in 5 classes. My parsnips grown in tubes, which I pulled last night were a right mixture of sizes and heavily canker infected. I couldn't get close to making a set of 3 matching beetroot and my miniature tomatoes were past their sell-by date. So, somewhat disappointingly, it's just carrots (2 entries), onions (2), shallots (1), tomatoes (2) and 'any other vegetable' (2) - a pair of pot leeks and a plate of chillies

The show opens at 2pm. To say I'm not confident is an understatement.

The condemned man ate a hearty lunch! May God have mercy on his soul.

Overwintering onions

2011-09-22T19:27:00.000+01:00

2 years ago I had a go at growing Japanese Autumn planted onions, but with little success. I'm fairly certain the reason for their failure was due to the fact that I grew them in a newly made raised bed which was filled with bought in topsoil of dubious nutritional quality. I haven't bothered with them for this year, but talking to Paul Bastow about them and seeing his results first hand has rekindled my interest.

Paul is growing from sets for his 2012 crop, and I was going to do the same. However, I was wandering around a local garden centre yesterday and came a across modules of the well respected variety, 'Senshyu', grown from seed. Currently, the plants are at the second true leaf stage and around 6 - 7" tall and seem well grown. Whether they will perform as well as sets remains to be seen.

They've now been potted on into 3" square pots in a mixture of Humax MG compost, a bit of vermiculite and Nutrimate. As soon as they are well established I'll pot on the strongest of them on into a medium texture Sinclair Potting Compost with a view to them spending the Winter in either the cold frame or the greenhouse, depending on the weather, and in the hope that they'll be at a sensible size for the local Summer Show in the middle of June. The balance of the plants will reside alongside my yet to be sourced garlic in one of the raised beds outside.

HSBC - The world's local bank.

2011-09-22T11:17:00.001+01:00

As a business owner, it's always gratifying to know that your bankers have your interests at heart and can be relied on to develop innovative ideas to make our life easier. Today, to reinforce their commitment to us, I received from HSBC a leaflet entitled, 'Important information about changes to your Business Current Account'. It reads as follows:

Changes to Business Current Accounts credit interest.

With effect from 23 November 2011, business current accounts will become non-interest bearing when in credit.......... The published credit interest rate for business current accounts is currently 0% AER.

As you can imagine, we are seriously concerned that, in these times of austerity, changing our account from 0% interest bearing to non-interest bearing may well have a significant effect on our bottom line.

And these people are allowed out in public unsupervised!!!

Innovative idea.

2011-09-20T10:34:00.002+01:00

Brighten up your garden shed/growhouse, perhaps? See:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14967535

Creeping apprehension.

2011-09-19T20:17:00.001+01:00

It's strange that I regularly prepare and enter my photographs into major international exhibitions at home and overseas without so much as a second thought, yet as the days count down to my first vegetable show I find myself quite nervous, despite the fact that it really is a very minor show. Perhaps, when I first entered a photographic exhibition some 20 years ago, I felt exactly the same, but the passing of time plays tricks with the memory and exhibiting photography at 'the highest level', now comes completely naturally

The dilemma I have is what classes to enter. As with most things in life, I strive for excellence when it's appropriate, and although there's a very limited choice of classes that are open to me, I'm finding it really hard to decide what to settle on. Currently, I'm thinking as follows.

Carrots (5) - I think I've got some good 'Sweet Candle', so that's a likely entry.

Tomatoes (3) - My 'Cedrico' are looking good. Another likely one.

Minature Tomatoes (8) - Possible, but with only 2 remaining 'Gardener's Delight' plants , I may struggle to get a half decent set.

Beetroot (3) - I think they're a bit on the small side and maybe a bit corky round the tops. Decision on Friday.

Onions (3) - 'Vento'. By no means perfect, but reasonably even in terms of size and shape.

Shallots (10) - 'Hative de Niort'. I've got 10 reasonable sized bulbs, but I'm not convinced they're even enough in shape to pass muster even at this low level. We'll see.

Any Other Vegetable - the choice is between parsnips, pot leeks, chillies and florence fennel. I can put in 2 entries, as with all classes. If I'm honest, I think the pot leeks have suffered with too much rust despite being of a reasonable size. I've no idea what the pasnips are like, but they have decent sized tops. Chillies are fine and a plate of 6 even specimens shouldn't be an issue. The florence fennel is beautifully clean but maybe a bit on the small size. Also, is it an acceptable AOV?

So, there we are. 7 potential classes, with up to 14 potential entries. Lots to think about before Saturday. Staging isn't until 9.45am, so there's plenty of time to get stuff sorted and last minute decisions, which I think will be the order of the day, shouldn't be too much of a problem.

A plug for the boys

2011-09-16T07:54:00.002+01:00

Today is the Harrogate show at which 3 of my fellow bloggers are in direct competion with each other. Normally, I can be found relentlessly taking the p*ss out of them, but today that just wouldn't be appropriate.

So as not to show any bias, in height order, good luck to:

Simon Smith - Smithyveg

Paul Bastow - Paul's Allotment Diary

Dan Unsworth - Dan's Allotment Diary

........but can they match recent achievements of Darren Blick from Hampshire - Blicky's Blog and Damo -Two Chances Veg Plot

As for myself, I'm now off to sow pipe number 8 with 'Trevor' carrot seed. Not only did I forget to sow the 8th. tube last week, but I also lost the seed and had to buy some more. It's an age thing, I think!

Bits and pieces.

2011-09-14T21:04:00.001+01:00

The Autumn tidy up continues, as it must. There's something rather satisfying about having a plot that's still reasonably attractive to look at even during the endless Winter months with no outstanding jobs. That way, when the weather is kind for a day or 2 during the non-productive months, the plot is ready to be worked in anticipation of the good things to come.

This winter, I'm planning on reorganising the older bit of the plot to make it much easier to look after. It's not an easy shape to work with and the soil quality is crap. So, I'm planning to move one of the raised beds to give less of a disjointed feel to it and really work hard on the soil. To that end, I collected another trailer load of horse muck to add to the pile that is gently rotting away behind my garage. I still need a bit more to achieve the kind of soil quality I aiming for.

Growth has slowed on the pot leeks at last and the very best are destined for the village show next week. Inevitably, the few spare plants I had in the Spring were dotted around the plot wherever I had a leek sized space. Today was the beginning of the harvest and a couple of small specimens found their way into a smoked haddock risotto for supper. Lovely! Click HERE for the recipe, it's so easy even I can cook it!

The beginning of the end?

2011-09-11T20:25:00.000+01:00

September is always an extremely busy month in our household with little spare time. Work wise, we're busy buying stock for Christmas which entails visiting trade shows and wholesalers throughout the Country followed by sorting out the resultant purchases which are delivered in a constant flow until mid-October. Unfortunately, this means little time to keep the plot neat and tidy. At first glance, it's now starting to look very autumnal with empty patches and plants now well past their sell by date. However, closer inspection reveals that there is quite a bit still going on. Still to harvest are courgettes, marrows, tomatoes, chillies,leeks, beetroot, lettuce, parsnips, french beans, runner beans, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach and florence fennel.

My 'Cedrico' tomatoes have done really well for me and I'm hopeful of being able to enter a set of them in my local show on the 24th. I've now stripped them of all foliage in order to assist the ripening of the remaining fruits.

My planter grown 'TumblingTom' have also done well and have now been cropping for well over a month. The plants are now looking a bit sad, but are still doing their bit.

I've removed all the anti-Cabbage White netting from the remaining brassicas to make their management much easier. Although I won't be exhibiting either cabbage or cauliflower, the best of my beetroot were under the same netting and I'm hopeful of an exhibition-worthy set.

One trip I always enjoy in September is to a trade show at the NEC, followed by a visit to my youngest daughter in Manchester. This time, as in May, I put my watch back 200 years, donned a flat cap, stuffed a ferret down my trousers and crossed the Pennines into Yorkshire via the truly spectacular landscapes of Saddleworth Moor. My ultimate destination, prior to returning to the 21st. century, was Slaithwaite and a cuppa with Paul Bastow and his wife, Linda. Paul is the author of 'Paul's Allotment Diary' which catalogues his 3 year journey from novice to serious exhibitor. I find his allotment really is a great source of inspiration and freely admit I'm quite envious of the amount of space he has, the soil quality and the growing facilities at his disposal. The quality of his vegetables is quite superb and it will be interesting to see how he fairs at Harrogate next weekend when up up against top growers. My own view is that he, along with Smithyveg and Dan, will do themselves proud.

The 'Trevor' carrots sown for over wintering in a large container are coming on fine. The later pipe sown seeds are just starting to germinate. Unfortunately, I've mislaid the seed packet which had plenty left in it, so that's the lot for this year. However, I will sow some 'Eartly Nantes' early in the new year, also in a container.

The pot grown leeks, also destined for over wintering are also doing fine. They now have around 12" of blanch which I'm pleased with. As the plants grow, I'm removing split flags before they start to rot.

The 'Firecracker' chillies are now starting to turn red from the bottom of the plant upwards. As you can see, this is a heavy cropping variety so fewer plants are necessary, this freeing up quite a bit of greenhouse space. In a normal Summer, I would have expected to be harvesting by now, but the cooler than normal weather we experienced in July and August has taken its toll. Having said that, I'll end up with a good crop in a month or so which will see us through the next 12 months.

Spinach is a favourite in our house all the year round and certainly one of the most cost effective crops you can grow. Being a 'cut and come again' vegetable means it takes up relatively little space. The short row (4') you see above has yielded a good meal for three of us every week since mid-June and is so idiot proof to prepare and cook, even I can do it. Also, like me, if you don't much like the strong tasting brassicas, spinach is ideal.

Finally, I was given a spaghetti squash plant a couple of months ago which looked like it wasn't going to fruit However, at last I have a fruit set. I never grown one of these, so I'm looking forward to seeing what all the fuss is about, so watch this space!

Tribute to Heath Robinson + Bank Holiday update

2011-08-29T20:54:00.003+01:00

Last weekend I started mucking about on yet another Heath Robinson-type job - see http://vegpatchblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/wtf.html . Well, here's the finished article.

The first reaction for 99% of visitors to this blog will likely be reach for the phone and swiftly dial a) the police, b) the MOD, or c) my local psychiatric institution. Seasoned veg growers will immediately recognise it as a highly innovative carrot tube setup designed to produce stump carrots par excellence. The idea is to produce a set of three carrots for both the Spring show in our village in April and the early summer show in June.

Basically, it's little more than a few bits of timber screwed together and fixed with a couple of cable ties to the handles of a 50ltr shrub pot. Roughly 6" of old compost is put into the tub for 8 lengths of 3" down pipe, cut to 2' lengths, to sit on. The framework thus holds the tubes vertical. The tubes are then filled with the compost mixture (see earlier post) using my patent funnel and left to settle for a week. Next weekend, the tub will be moved into the greenhouse and all 8 tubes sown with 'Trevor F1' seed.

This will be the second sowing of 'Trevor', the first of which, sown rather more conventionally on the 17th. August, are now happily germinating. Only time will tell whether this will do the job for me, but I'm hopeful.

For me, the nice thing about florence fennel is that it's aniseed flavour gives a new twist when sparingly added to a summer salad. For the second year running it's done well for me and really is a doddle to grow. This batch, growing in a fairly small container, is bulbing up nicely and a little bit ahead of plants I've got in the plot. Whether it has potential as a show vegetable, I really don't know, but it certainly looks the part when grown well. I sowed mine fairly late this year as an afterthought and expect to be harvesting them by the end of September, but late August cropping is quite easy to achieve.

The John Soulsby 'Yorkshire Giant' pot leeks continue to surprise. I'm still having to remove spent flags on a regular basis - today it was from 4 plants. As you can see from the photo, growth is still very much the order of the day and although I don't expect them to come close in final size to those grown by the true experts in the North East, I'm confident I'll have some respectable examples come lifting time in a month or so. I originally thought the mottling on the flags was due to thrip damage, but I'm now wondering if it's some sort of virus that this particular strain is susceptible to. The barrels are fine and growing well, but the flags are a bit of a mess!

Spring Show Leek Project

The project continues without any hitches. The plants growth has slowed a little, probably due to the somewhat cooler weather we're experiencing. The picture above shows the leeks before I did today's maintenance.

For the worst of the Winter, I've decided to give the plants a little protection in the form of a self built mini poly tunnel. I sorted out the frame work today but won't put the polythene on for another couple of months.

*******

I'm pleased to say that out of my harvest of 23 'Hative de Niort' bulbs of show size, just the one has rotted so far and all rest seem sound as a pound. With only 4 weeks until my show, I'll soon have to think about trying to get a set together.

The only other job today was to remove the greenhouse shading today. The lack of sunshine and autumnal temperatures aren't exactly helping with ripening of both tomatoes and chillies. A little more light certainly won't do any harm.

Finally, my congratulations to Paul Bastow for virtually wiping the board at his local show. See his photos and show report HERE

Big onions and their future.

2011-08-25T12:25:00.001+01:00

This morning I lifted the last 3 onions on the plot as they had just about stopped growing. These were those that I had grown for size, but it just hasn't happened for me this year. The biggest has a circumference of 17¼" and weighed in at 2lb 13oz with the foliage removed. The other 2 came in at 2lb 11¼oz and 2lb 6¾oz.

I've come to the conclusion that attempting to grow giant onions requires facilities that I just don't have, such as a top quality lighting and heating system and a preferably a polytunnel. Consequently, I've come to the decision that with the limited space I'm working with, it's a project that just isn't worth the time, effort and money one needs to spend on it. However, as I've already got seed stock for next year, I'll have one more go at them, but unless my results change dramatically, I'll concentrate 100% on quality onions rather than giants in subsequent seasons.

As far as the quality bulbs are concerned, for next year I'm inclined to grow them in pots in the greenhouse and develop a strict watering regime to help ensure they suffer not sudden shocks which can so often lead to splitting. As for the variety to grow, I may stick with 'Vento' or perhaps try 'Toughball' by way of a change.

My first time.........and it didn't hurt!

2011-08-22T06:10:00.000+01:00

I've always shied away from video, but, being a sucker for a bargain, a couple of months back I bought a brand new basic Canon camcorder on Ebay for silly money. I've been fiddling about with it since I got it with little success, but now I feel confident enough to upload basic short movies on the blog. The inspiration for this came from Dan Unsworth's superb allotment blog which is rich with highly competent video content. In time, I hope I'll be proficient enough to produce short clips illustrating the way I actually go about things on the plot. So here we go......

WTF?

2011-08-21T21:05:00.000+01:00

Other than general maintenance, going to the pub and eating a substantial helping of a particularly nice shoulder of lamb, I've done not a lot today, except having a meaningful email discussion about Mr. Bastow's erstwhile hairstyle. He advises it used to be pink.

Simon, I have to admit I thought you were being a trifle harsh casting doubts about the Yorkshire contingent's sexual orientation. I take it all back.

Other than the above, I did manage to make a start on my next masterpiece of constructional genius..........but you'll have to wait a week to find out what it really is. Patents pending, don't you know!

Ongoing problems and carrots for the Spring

2011-08-17T21:13:00.000+01:00

As I've mentioned before, my local village horticultural society has adopted some strange ideas. Firstly, leeks only feature in the Spring show in April. This suits the few who over-winter their leeks, but not the rest. Carrots feature in both the Summer (set of 3) and Autumn (set of 5) shows, but not in the Spring show. Why 5 in the Autumn show? What's the point? Yet again the odour of rodent assaults my nostrils. Whatever, I shall be entering leeks in the Autumn in the AOV class, and likewise carrots in the Spring.

With the above in mind, I've sown a tub of carrots for over-wintering. The variety, suggested by the NVS guru, John Trim, is 'Trevor F1' which is a very hardy stump end carrot needing 24 weeks minimum to fully mature. Subject to no Autumn heatwaves, these will be grown in the greenhouse right the way through. Hopefully, I can get a decent set for the April show and, with a slightly later sowing, a set for the Summer event. Growing medium is a minor variation on my 'Sweet Candle' mix from the Spring. This was based on Smithyveg's formula and is:

15 litres sieved Humax MG compost
4 litres Vermiculite
4 litres sieved sand
2oz Vitax Q5
2oz superphosphate
2oz potash
1oz calcified seaweed

Regular followers will probably remember that a little while ago I had a problem with rotting at the base of some of my onions. I'm still getting it, but there doesn't seem to be any consistency as it's affecting all varieties and randomly round the plot. The only thing that seems a feasible explanation is that it's a form of botrytis caused, perhaps, by a wet July and maybe a bit of over-watering. Whatever, there's little point in worrying about it for this season at this late stage. Rather, I'll develop a cunning plan for next year. The photo shows a 'Unwin's Exhibition' bulb that has been hosed off to clean it up. All comments/suggestions/remedies welcome and greatly appreciated.

I have to admit that I've done little else so far this week due to the boss insisting I tidied the garage. However, I did manage to strip a few split flags from both the pot and the blanch leeks. Because of the rot issue with the onions it seemed prudent to dig the last few bulbs just in case. The only bulbs now remaining on the plot are the five I was growing purely for size. They're still putting on a bit of size, but are still way behind 2010. Such is life.

Harvesting continued today with cherry tomatoes, spinach, french beans and the last of the 'Red Baron' onions.

It's party time............well, nearly!

2011-08-10T13:34:00.001+01:00

I was always under the impression that pot leeks are effectively self-blanching and need no human intervention to do the business. However, a comment left by 'stig' on a previous post states that he's just started the blanching process. Unfortunately, 'stig' has left no further info as yet, despite being asked to clarify. So, I'm now find myself torn between a rock and a hard place, as Paul Bastow of 'Paul's Allotment Blog' fame reckons no blanching is necessary. Paul's view, which I respect, is also supported by John Soulsby in his NVS video on pot leeks. But then again, although I've no idea who the mysterious 'stig' is, from various comments he's made, I get the impression he's a reasonably accomplished pot leek grower from the North East. Whatever, I built up a bit of compost around the barrels of mine on the basis it won't hurt one way or the other.

My 'Cedrico' tomatoes are starting to change colour. Hopefully, I'll be able to stage a set in my village show next month.

It's time to start harvesting the indoor 'Gardeners Delight'.

This year I've experimented with starting some of my chilli seed off in January, rather than in March as I've been doing for many years. The variety I've used is 'Firecracker', a very hot variety from Assam. The January plants stayed well ahead of those sown in March until early June when the later sowing caught up. Now, I honestly can't see any difference between the 2 sowings. They'll be ready for harvest in a month or so with around a 70/30 split of red to green, at a guess.

This is a view across the brassica bit of the plot. It's covered with anti-Cabbage White netting which has changed allegiance and actually seems to be inviting butterflies in. There hasn't been quite as much damage as in previous years, but it's still a good job I have no intentions of showing cabbage or cauliflower. From a culinary point of view, my spinach has been a huge success and being a 'cut and come again' crop, is very economical, and....the Cabbage Whites' don't touch it.

Seeing as tomorrow my Mother-in-law celebrates her 100th. birthday, Liz and I have spent a lot of time making the place look tidy in readiness for her lunch party. Despite still having some sort of dreaded lurgy, I think I've done my bit around the place. The veg plot is tidy and completely weed free, the lawn has been mown and edged and, most importantly, the wine and beer is in the fridge. Liz has made the pretty bit of the garden look absolutely lovely, so we're now just hoping the weather will be kind. I know very little about flowers, but thought I'd share a couple of snaps.

We grow Cosmos every year as they're super for filling the backs of the borders and flower right up to the first frost. I grow varieties which, in general grow to about 2'. This is a new double variety which Liz's Mum chose for me to grow. Sorry, can't remember the variety name.

This is a corner of the small patio above our pond with a bank of mixed cosmos, nasturtiums and roses behind it.

Well fokesfolks, that's it for now. We're going away for the weekend to give Liz a well-earned break. My brother-in-law, and sometime drinking compadre, and his wife are looking after Mum while we slob it out in a bit of 'peel me a grape' luxury.

I shall return!..............Sorry.

On death's door!

2011-08-07T20:48:00.000+01:00

Tired, lethargic, headache etc etc! Bugger!!

All I managed to do today was tidy up the greenhouse area and hand weed the plot so that it looks nice for the Mother-in-law's 100th. party on Thursday. To add insult to injury, I've completely lost my voice. Double bugger!!!

' Stig' has posted a comment on my last post asking whether I've started blanching my pot leeks yet. The answer is no, as I was under the impression that they didn't need it. Obviously I was completely wrong! So, Stig, let's hope you're reading this and can tell me what to do. 4 - 4½" collars are mentioned in Calderbank's book for certain varieties, but others are virtually self-blanching. Is that what I need? If so, I'll do them on Tuesday.

Onions...............again!

2011-08-02T21:13:00.001+01:00

Had to change my day off to Tuesday this week, so it's only 2 days since I last posted and not a massive amount to report. Currently, much of my spare time is spent tidying up the place in readiness for my mother-in-law's 100th. birthday party on the 11th.. She lives with us so we're hosting the party. It'll be mostly family as many of her friends can't make it because, in her own words, most of them snuffed it years ago!

My large onions have been a disappointment this year as far as size is concerned. If it wasn't for the fact that I've already got seed for next year, I don't think I'd bother with them again and concentrate purely on quality onions. I grew both 'Ailsae' and 'Unwin's Exhibition' this year and neither have performed. The last remaining bulbs, from right to left in the photo measure, 16"(Unwin's), 16"(Unwin's), 14"(Ailsae) 15"(Ailsae) and 12½"(Ailsae). I have one more Unwin's on the plot which measures 15¾" as I write. The same pattern emerges with the spare plants I kept for the kitchen with the Unwin's outperforming the 'Ailsae'. Much the same thing happened last year with Unwin's doing better than both 'Mammoth' and 'Kelsae'. leaving me wondering whether they're better suited to my conditions. You know, no alcohol, a healthy lifestyle, early nights and a low fat diet.

Each year I grow a few red onions for the kitchen and 'Red Baron' has my variety of choice for a while.. This year has been no exception. I lifted all the bulbs today which were a little disappointing as far as uniformity of size is concerned. As with a number of crops, I thing the relentless high winds we endured during June and most of July did , as I feared, wreak havoc and the onions in particular suffered the most. With their leaves being constantly battered, they were fighting a losing battle when bulbing up commenced.

The top photo shows the planter I knocked up last winter for my 'Hative de Niort' shallots which were harvested back in early June, and now resplendent with its second crop of the year. I'm just starting to pick 'Tumbling Tom' tomatoes in the foreground and enjoying the mini-sunflowers ('Teddy Bear') behind them. Lurking unseen between the two is a row of young beetroot that don't go a lot on their somewhat shady conditions.

Summer, at last???

2011-08-01T14:32:00.001+01:00

Woke up to sunshine and warmth, which made nice a change. We haven't really had any proper Summer weather since May, so hopefully we'll at least get a few weeks of decent conditions.

The harvest is now in full swing and we're getting a selection of beautifully fresh veg with every meal. Currently, we have the choice of cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, onions, turnips, radish, lettuce, courgettes, dwarf french beans and mini tomatoes, plus, of course, garlic.

Onions and leeks were, once again, the recipients of my attention yesterday. I've now harvested all my 'Centurion' and 'Stuttgarter Giant' sets which will see us through the winter. I've also pulled all of my 'Vento' bulbs and might just be able to make a set of 3 up for the show. Whatever, with all the bulbs I've harvested, I've stripped them down to an undamaged skin and set them out to ripen. Still remaining to lift are 'Wellington', 'Ailsae' and 'Red Baron'. Looking at the whole collection, I feel reasonably confident of getting a moderate quality show entry, but will have to wait 'til next year to enter with a reasonable chance of success. What all this has taught me is that to get top quality results, you need more than just top quality seed. You need to spend lots of time on top quality care, which is where I need to get my act together.

If I look back to last year's notes, I've actually had quite a good year with onions. True, I've had one or two problems, but nothing major. The suspected White Rot looks to be something less dramatic and as it only manifested itself away from my raised beds, I'm hoping disinfecting the soil will go some way to preventing it next year.

Just two onions have split - an 'Ailsae' and the 'Red Baron' above. Annoying though splitting is, at least they're perfectly OK for the kitchen.

As for lessons learnt, next year I shall give my quality onions far more attention than this. One area I must particularly concentrate on is ensuring they remain bolt upright no matter what the weather throws at them. I've also learnt that trying to grow massive bulbs without absolutely ideal conditions is like trying to swim through treacle. So, for 2012 I'll concentrate on trying to get a set of good size bulbs and a further set or two for the 250g class. Varieties have yet to be decided although I do have some 'Peter Glazebrook' selection from Medwyn's which I ordered a bit too late for this year. I might try 'Toughball' for the standard size bulbs.

Spring Show Leek Project - Part 7

For those who've not followed my 'Spring Show Leek Project', the idea is to try and produce a competitive set of 3 leeks to enter in my local horticultural society's Spring Show in early April. For reasons not disclosed, there's no leek class in the Autumn Show which is surprising as it's generally regarded as the norm.. Including it in the Spring Show severely restricts the number of entries as very few overwinter their leeks. Consequently, the same people win year after year. I do believe that the odour of a rodent assaults my nostrils!

I digress.

This will be the last regular post on the project for a while as everything is now in place and all that has to happen is for the plants to do their bit.

The photo shows a section of the raised bed that yesterday received 6 each of 'Atlanta' and 'Bleu de Solaise'. Over the next couple of months, the plan is to construct a removeable tunnel-type affair to the bed, covered with Enviromesh to protect the flags against the worst of the Winter weather. At the same time, I'll add supports for the flags so that I minimise any damage. As a back-up, I have a further 6 'Musselburgh' plants in large pots which will spend the coldest part of the Winter in the greenhouse.

It's now time to sit back and let them settle in for a couple of weeks before starting the blanching process. I'll write a short update at the vbeginning of every month if there's anything worth reporting.

White Rot??????????????

2011-07-28T20:14:00.000+01:00

1. Is this White Rot, or something else?

2. If so, are the bulbs totally useless?

3. Should I soak the bed with Jeyes Fluid?

4. Should I avoid onions in that part of the plot?

The bulbs concerned are all from sets. Varieties are 'Stuttgarter Giant' and 'Centurion' Roughly 20% bulbs are affected. The rest appear to be completely clean. Apart from a couple of 'Vento', the majority of the onions I've got growing in the raised beds don't seem to be affected.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Everything looking good except the bl@*dy weather!

2011-07-28T13:57:00.001+01:00

Well, the weather's changed again. This time, the sun's gone and it's bloody cold, which doesn't exactly raise too much enthusiasm in me to work on the plot. However, with only one day a week that's totally free, it was a case of just having to get on.

Firstly, a quick general update.

Tomatoes: Coming on just fine. The picture show the 'Cedrico' in my greenhouse which have now reached right up to the ridge. Hopefully, I'll be able to enter some into the village show in September.

The greenhouse is also home to my annual chilli crop. These are 'Firecracker, a very pungent variety from India that we particularly like.

I'm growing a few 'Red Baron' red onions, primarily for the kitchen, although I've got a few in the bed I'm using for the large onions. They're all doing well except for this one which, as you can see, has split into two. Both halves are sound so they should be fine to eat.

Next month I'll start sowing carrot seed for overwintering in the greenhouse with a view to putting together entries in my local horticultural society's Spring and early Summer shows . As I'm planning to grow them in large containers, I've been doing a trial run with seed sown back in May in smaller containers which, in theory, should mature in October and November.

A couple of weeks ago, the one remaining 'Pendle Improved' leek from Paul Bastow seemed to have slowed down a bit, but it's suddenly got its act together again and is producing new flags at good rate. The barrel is now a little thicker than the handle of a yard broom stick. Being as I've got just the one plant, the plan is to set it for seed and grass for next year.

Spring Show Leek Project - Part 6

Although I glance at the plants growing for the project every day, I check them properly once a week to see if I need to do any work on them. The best of the 'Musselburgh' plants that were selected to be grown in containers about 3 weeks ago had filled their 2ltr pots with roots so I decided to them on into 12" pots. Whether they'll need to move up again remains to be seen, although I've been advised that this size should be big enough to see them through the winter. We'll see.

The new compost is a blend of Humax MG and Sinclair Pro Growing compost. At this stage I've just added a handful of slow Miracle Gro slow release fertiliser which should last a few months. As this is very much suck it and see, I'll experiment a bit with fertilisers and hope for the best.

I've now got 6 plants in big pots in the hope that I'll get 3 good-uns. Optimistic? Probably, but I've got a good back-up stock of 'Musselburgh, 'Atlanta' and 'Bleu de Solaise', so I'm hopeful. The next operation will see the best of the 'Bleu de Solaise' planted into the raised bed my shallots have vacated. It's all prepared and ready to rock and roll.

From the BBC News website.....

2011-07-27T22:08:00.000+01:00

Lord Coe, Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson and former Olympic silver medallist Colin Jackson have made plaster casts of their feet at London's St Pancras Eurostar terminal to mark the "first steps" toward the 2012 Games

Wow! This makes me sooooooo happy. Must go, I need the lav!!!

Busy Sunday and quaint Yorkshire goings on.

2011-07-24T21:34:00.000+01:00

I'm one of those sad people who can't sleep after 5.30am, so I get up and do a bit of business paperwork, muck around on the PC and do a bit on the plot if the weather's fine. I also check for new posts on the blogs I follow. This sort of start to the day suits me just fine, but this morning was a little different. Or do I mean surreal? Or perhaps bizarre would be a better word. I'm still chuckling to myself 12 hours on. Judge for yourself......

Click: Dan's Quaint Yorkshire Customs

Dan, can we talk about a marketing deal?

*****

For a while, I've been trying to get hold of a copy of 'A Comprehensive Guide to the Practical Growing and Showing of Exhibition Leeks' by Geoffrey F. Swaddle with little success. There is one on Amazon Marketplace at a silly price and from a reluctant seller. Eventually, I mentioned it on the NVS forum and a regular contributor named Paul came up trumps and it turned up yesterday. Embarrassingly, and despite nagging, Paul won't accept anything for the book, or the cost of p&p to me, so I've added to the contents of the local hospice collection tin that resides on my shop counter. Thanks, Paul - you're a diamond geezer!

My onion efforts have been a bit of a trial this year, starting with 'Vento' germination problems, wind damage and my inability, so far, to get decent specimens from those I'm growing purely for size. To add to the list, yesterday I pulled the last 6 'Bedfordshire Champion' that I've been growing for the kitchen. Without exception, every plant has run to seed out of the 30 I planted out in early May. They've been treated exactly the same as the other varieties I've grown, which haven't had a problem. The seed was from Suttons, so was of reasonable quality. The only difference I can think of is that all the rest of my seed grown stock are in raised beds, whereas the 'Bedfords' are in straight plot soil, albeit well cared for etc. Why? Buggered if I know. Funnily enough, this is the second year this has happened with this variety, so perhaps it's just not suited to the conditions on my bit of earth. Whatever, I shan't be growing them again and will probably stick to sets for the kitchen specific planting. Talking of sets, I've grown around 40 'Centurion' from sets for the kitchen and they've produced some quite nice bulbs. Today, I harvested those that had suffered most from wind damage that were no longer actively growing. Not worth a photo, but quite nice bulbs. The remainder, I'll pull in a couple of weeks or when they've definitely stopped growing.

Of the 2 'Pendle Improved' leeks that Paul Bastow gave me in May, one through up a flower spike, while the other, shown above is doing fine, with a new flag appearing weekly. Hopefully, it'll behave itself and I'll be able to set it for either grass or seed for next year.

All my tomatoes are doing well. I've moved the 'Gardener's Delight' back into the greenhouse as they were getting bashed to pieces by the wind. The crop looks to be heavy and I would expect to be picking them in around 3-4 weeks.

I've 2 lots of Florence Fennel on the go, both in the plot and in a container as shown above. I was quite late sowing the seed this year, but am confident of a decent crop by early September.

I've decided to have a go at over-wintering carrots with a view to entering the village Spring Show next April and the Summer Show in mid-June. Some seed will be sown conventionally in 50ltr shrub pots, while another batch will be sown in 2' plastic tubes which were cut to size today. Sowing will start in about 3 weeks time.

That's really about it for today, other than just doing general maintenance jobs like weeding and cropping courgettes and cauliflower.

What a difference 4 months makes.

2011-07-21T12:58:00.004+01:00

It doesn't seem possible that there's just 4 months between the 2 photos above. The one on the left was taken on the 20th. March and the other yesterday, the 20th. July. It's so easy to get depressed when things don't go quite according to plan but these photos serve as a stark reminder as to what has been achieved in just 17½ weeks. The following is a prime and gloomy example.......

This is the second largest of the onions I'm growing purely for size. The largest is awkward to photograph. As you can see it's hardly massive considering it's mid-July. In fact it measures just 14½", with it's neighbour coming in at 15", a full 2½" smaller than the largest at this time last year. I can't think of anything I've done differently other than taking more care in preparing their bed last Autumn, so why? Weather, perhaps, or have I used too much rotted horse manure. I really don't know. Incidentally, as last year, the 2 largest bulbs are 'Unwins Exhibition' while the balance are 'Ailsae' (Hmmm!!!) which are quite a bit smaller despite being sown on the same date, the 1st. December. The only other difference that I can think of is that last year I sowed on the 29th. December which rather implies I've wasted 4 weeks of electricity with the gro-lights. For next year, I've got some Peter Glazebrook Selection from Medwyn, so we'll see if that makes a difference. But, when should I sow, that'll be the next dilemma!

Keeping with alliums, I've now tidied up my previously reported garlic harvest and am delighted with them. They're certainly the best I've ever grown. Drying them the same way as I've done with my shallots seemed like a good idea. Talking of which...........

Although my main exhibition shallots were harvested some weeks ago, I'd left those grown from seed as they take rather longer to mature. At the weekend, I noticed one or 2 going out of shape, so it seemed wise to lift them all. It's too early to judge whether they'll be any good to show, but initial inspection would seem to indicate some nice shaped bulbs around the 45cm mark.

I've rabbited on in a number of posts about the devastation caused by the high winds of late, but never really got a decent photo with which to illustrate the damage. Above you'll see my patch of 'Centurion' onion sets. Speaks for itself, I think. Amazingly, they're still growing!

Last year I had a really good crop of 'Purple Haze' carrots, both in terms of quality and flavour. This year I've grown 'Purple Dragon'. Big mistake! Good size, but little flavour and minimal bleed of the skin colour into the flesh. Back to 'Purple Haze' for 2012.

Back in the 60s and 70s, my Dad used to grow around 2 acres of courgettes which he sold at the local market. This is the first year I've grown them seriously and am well pleased. We're harvesting several fruits a day which is most gratifying.

Spring Show Leek Project - Minor update

I've now fitted 9" colllars to the best of 'Musselburgh' leeks. All 3 varieties that are still in pots are doing fine and I've started preparing an empty raised for those that I won't be growing in big pots. They'll get planted out just as soon as the roots fill their current pots.

The Day of the Triffids.

2011-07-16T10:36:00.001+01:00

OK, so I lied. They're not exactly triffids, but are growing as though they are at least related. They are, in fact, my John Soulsby, 'Yorkshire Giant' pot leeks which have now had higher supports fitted as the longest flags are around 4½' long and getting longer as each new one matures. I may be underestimating here, as the raised bed they're in is made of standard 10" wide scaffold boards with around 2' of Enviromesh screening above. The supports are another foot higher and the flags are folded over them.

Although I haven't measured them lately, the barrels are about 3" in diameter and expanding by the week. The only problem I have is that I've got nothing to judge them by, so I've no idea how they're the right size for mid-July or not. Comments welcome.

I'm enjoying growing this crop and am very glad I took note of the NVS Forum advice to buy in young plants. I'm also growing some Robinsons Mammoth from seed which are embarrassingly small in comparison.

In conclusion, I'll certainly be growing them again next year. Whether I stick to 'Yorkshire Giant', or try another variety, such as ' Cumbrian' remains to be seen. Whichever I choose, I'll certainly construct a more substantial support system before they get to any appreciable size, and space the plants at 2' intervals, rather than 18", which is too close for good management of the flags.

A bit of philosophical navel contemplation!

2011-07-14T07:39:00.003+01:00

'Gardeningbren' from Canada posted the following in her comment on yesterday's post, and I thought my response worthy of a complete new post, rather than just a comment reply.

"Who knew an onion would 'twist' in the wind making it not as acceptable as a winning veg. However..as the wind is also being experienced by your neighbor competitors...don't despair and enter what you have."

Brenda

My conclusion, regarding the wind damage issue, is that those with polytunnels have a distinct advantage as far as producing show veg is concerned. Greenhouses, even small ones, are a help, but there are often ventilation and over-heating issues. Having said that, experienced and respected growers and showers, such as Smithyveg, manage with most of their produce grown outside and get consistant show success at a high level, thus proving that there are other factors involved to a greater or lesser degree, not the least of which is good old fashioned experience.

At this early stage with my growing to show efforts, I think it's a matter of taking stock of my successes and failures, my fixed facilities, such as plot size and location, soil types, prevailing weather conditions etc., and adapt accordingly.

Having several other time consuming and money swallowing interests, such as photography etc.,which I'm certainly not prepared to compromise on, I simply cannot afford to invest in the facilities needed to show at a very high level, nor do I want to. For me, the growing and eating of produce will always come first. As with most things, I'm a bit OCD as far as quality is concerned and growing to show provides me with the target of producing the highest end product that I crave, albeit within the limits of my ability, facilities and money.

In conclusion, as each season passes, my determination to get better at what I do increases. As an example, this Winter, I'll work out a cunning plan to minimise future onion wind damage. My leek and parsnip growing techniques will be examined, as will a number of other areas.

All good fun, despite the bl**dy wind!

More high winds and other woes.

2011-07-13T20:32:00.000+01:00

I honestly can't remember a Summer with such relentlessly high winds. Yes, we're back to them again but this time they're coming from the northern quarter and bringing with them temperatures more akin to March than July and bordering on jumper weather. At least the devastation the plot has suffered with the earlier south westerlies has not been exacerbated as it's well sheltered from northerly blasts.

This is my largest 'Vento' onion which I pulled yesterday. It weighs exactly 8oz. (227gm), has a circumference of 10¼" and a diameter of 8.5cm. But............the neck is not straight, illustrating the effects of this bl**dy, so**ing, shi**y wind! I'm still hoping to get a reasonable show set of 3 from the others not yet pulled, but wouldn't hard earned cash on it!

These are the first pulling of 'Ambition ' and 'Matador' shallots grown from seed. They measure between 42 and 50cm. I decided to pull them now as the larger ones are just starting to showing slight signs of going out of shape. I've still got plenty still growing, so I'm hopeful I'll be able to get a plate of 10 reasonable bulbs for the show, together with my earlier harvest of 'Hative de Niort'.

I've only got 4 tomato plants in the greenhouse this year and so far they've given no trouble of consequence. True, as previously reported, one plant is somewhat malformed but its fruit look reasonable although sparse. However, on a healthy plant, I spotted one fruit with Blossom End Rot today, but just the one at this stage.

The biggest of the large onions measures 14", with a further 2 at 13½". The one in the a pot in the greenhouse stands in at 11½", that's 1¼" growth in 6 days.

Last weekend, I was given a couple of Spaghetti Squash plants. I've never grown them before, but hey, they were free. I like free. I'll report on their progress.

Spring Show Leek Project - Part 5

The plants being grown as part of the Spring Show project are growing well. I checked each plant out today and adjusted their collars where necessary to encourage the lengthening process. While I was about it, I removed the outermost flags on those plants where they were that were starting to split. This is caused by the leek expanding from the centre outwards. As new flags are produced, the outermost stop growing and split as the barrel increases in size. Removeing the dead flag isn't absolutely critical, but it tidies up the plant and can help prevent disease.

It's a simple enough process entailing little more than splitting the flag and then carefully removing it right down to the root plate ensuring that nothing is left that could start to rot.

2011-07-11T10:18:00.000+01:00

I noticed this morning one of my 'Vento' onions had the very beginnings of a flower spike so up it came. Although small, as you ca see, it's a good shape, which is pleasing. Like several other growers, I had a fair amount of trouble germinating the coated seed supplied by Medwyns and the resultant plants were quite a bit behind other varieties sown at the same time. Although 2 or 3 weeks ago I was far from optimistic that I would be able to get 3 matching bulbs for my village show, it now looks like I might just manage it. This morning, a rough measure of the largest bulb indicated a circumference of 11" which, judging by other growers comments, indicates a dressed weight of a little over 250gm. So, not having much time, I just lightly lifted the one bulb this morning and tonight I'll remove the top growth and the broken skins and see what I end up with. Hopefully, I can grow a few of the remaining plants to the same size and give myself half a chance of getting a set.

It also looks like my 'Ambition' and 'Matador' shallots grown from seed are at, or approaching, the 50mm mark, so with luck I'll get a set of 10 to that will be reasonably competitive if the earlier harvested 'Hative de Niort' don't produce a matched set.

I'll update the state of play on Wednesday.

Sod it!

2011-07-08T10:35:00.001+01:00

I had just posted a message on Paul Bastow's blog commiserating with him over his leeks sending up flower spikes and thought I'd take a look at mine which are of the same strain............

The spike has shot up since I was messing about with them on Wednesday afternoon. In fact, I didn't even see it last evening. Only one thing for it.............

For the record, the blanch from root plate to the button was 16". It now resides in my fridge in 3 bits. Hopefully, with such a young flower spike, most of it will still be edible.

As for the remaining plant, no sign of a spike............yet!

Night of the living dead, ruined again.

2011-07-07T20:05:00.000+01:00

When we moved here almost 18 years ago, garlic was the first crop we planted. We had been advised that there was real risk of vampire attacks in the area and growing garlic was the best deterrent. I have to say it was good advice. We haven't seen a single vampire since we've been here.

This year I grew 3 varieties. 'Lautrec' and 'Cristo' I bought from a stall at the RHS Westminster last October and a further bulb from my local farm shop. The latter was harvested a couple of weeks back and are now in store. The other 2 varieties were planted in the plot last October and have survived through a particularly harsh Winter. However, the wind of late have taken their toll, as can be seen, so I wasn't expecting great things.

I shouldn't have worried. Here are the produce of 2 'Cristo' bulbs having just had the soil washed off them. The 'Lautrec' received the same treatment, but the bulbs are slightly smaller.

They'll now hang to dry for a few days before being trimmed of top growth and roots much like one does with onions. They'll then go into a bed of wood shavings to dry completely before being stored in the cool of my garage. With luck they'll last through to next spring. I'll photograph them again when I trim them up to give an idea of the size of the bulbs. However, they're mostly very good indeed.

Rootling around in my carrot box!

2011-07-07T10:12:00.002+01:00

Woke up to find we'd had some overnight rain which certainly won't hurt. Although the day started off sunny, it soon became a case of sunshine and showers. It's the first time for quite a while that I've had a wet day off, but other than general maintenance, there's not much to do right now. More concerning was the increasing wind and the forecast that were in for a return to gusts of 40mph and more for the rest of the week. It really is now becoming tiresome.

Had a rootle around my 'Sweet Candle' carrot box this morning and , despite fairly mediocre top growth, the shoulders seem to be around 1" across. With over 2½ months to go, I think I'm justified in being hopeful that I'll be able to make up a set of 5(?!) for the 24th. September show. God knows why they require 5 rather than 3, as they do in the Summer show. I lost several seedlings to slugs soon after germination, but still have a reasonable quantity of sound plants. I haven't bothered to photograph them because getting the camera into a sensible position within their growing box is just about impossible.

Harvested my first cauliflower of the season for the kitchen (var. 'Freedom'). Although I wasn't in for dinner last night, I'm informed that it made a delicious cauliflower cheese and that I'd earned a few bonus Brownie Points!

The 3 largest 'Ailsae' onions measure 12", 12¾ and 13" in circumference which is about an inch less than on the same date last year. I think it maybe due to 2 main factors. Firstly, I wonder whether I've over enriched the bed with manure and other composted stuff, and, secondly, I think the prolonged spell of high winds in May and June may have done more damage than I appreciated at the time. Whatever, there's nothing I can do about it except hope they'll have a last minute rush of growth, but I'm not holding my breath! I shall grow a few big onions next year, but transfer most of my effort to producing quality bulbs of a smaller size.

This picture above shows the one 'Unwins Exhibition' bulb that I'm growing in a fairly coarse Sinclair Pro compost in a 30ltr tub in the greenhouse to see how good a quality I can get. So far, I'm pleased with it. It's unlikely to attain a great size seeing as it only measures 10¼" at present but it's teaching me what I need to do to get a quality bulb. For next year, I shall concentrate on quality rather than size. I realise now that I'll never achieve the big onion fame that Dan and Paul get. To grow to that level, you really do need a polytunnel, but that just isn't an option for me.

The 'Pendle Improved' leeks that Paul gave me are doing just fine. They now reside outside as the greenhouse has been getting rather too hot of late. Their pipe lagging is removed once a week and any split flags removed. I check that the barrels are straight and make sure that the collars are big enough. Soon, the 38mm lagging will be replaced with damp proof course collars to allow further expansion. I have just 2 plants which, not being enough for my local show, will be set for propagation in the Autumn. As with the onion featured above, the progress of these leeks is very much part of my learning curve which hopefully will result in me becoming a better grower overall. While I was about it, I gave the same treatment to the 'Mammoth' and 'Lyon Prizetaker' blanch leeks which are also growing well, although nowhere near as well as those from Paul.

Leeks, leeks and more leeks!

2011-07-03T20:22:00.000+01:00

It was a day that everything other than leeks got neglected, as far as the plot was concerned. I was up before 6 but there were other bits and pieces that needed my attention, so it wasn't until 10 that I really got my arse into gear in the garden. While I had access to the mobile skip that masquerades as my wife's car, I nipped out and bought 12 bags of horse shite for the Autumn. All being well, it'll be rotting down nicely by October/November. That, coupled with the 50 gallons sludge from my pond filters, will do very nicely when it comes to tidying up in readiness for the winter. The fish waste, in particular, is a valuable asset as can be seen in recent photos of my pot leek and parsnip raised bed.

I've now planted out a small number of 'Bleu de Solaise' and 'Atlanta' leeks into the plot. These will be specifically for the kitchen rather than the project. I've planted them conventionally in 6" dibbed holes and hopefully they'll last in the ground until February at least.

Spring Show Leek Project - Part 4

Although still in its infancy, the leek project is coming on nicely. It won't be long before I can sort out the best plants to grow in large pots, while the rest will have to take their chance in the raised beds over the winter, albeit with some protection if the weather gets too severe.

I'd noticed during the week that roots were starting to appear through the bottom of the pots on several plants. Close inspection revealed that there's still at least a week before I'll have to re-pot. So, it was really just a general maintenance day. Every plant was inspected for any sign of pests and disease and the collars moved up to encourage good length.

The compost was topped up to give me just a fraction more below surface blanch.

The larger plants had taller canes pushed into their pots and a plastic clip added to protect the rapidly growing flags.

Well that's about it for now. Overall, I'm really pleased with these late sown leeks. Now, all I can do is hope that no disaster befalls the plants and that the growing cycle goes to plan. It does seem one hell of a long time to that Spring show in early April!

A bit of nostalgia.

2011-07-01T15:44:00.003+01:00

I never knew a great deal about my grandparents on my mothers side as they both died in the mid-1940s. (I was born in 1950). My grandfather was the gardener on a small estate near Shoreham in Kent which explains my mother's and her sister's lifelong interest in all things horticultural, and mine, I guess. When, after their deaths, I cleared my parents house I discovered the cup pictured above, dated 1891. Like so much memorabilia, it ended up in my loft and wasn't looked at again until last week when I noticed the inscription, better illustrated below after professional cleaning.

Amos Swaisland was, I believe, my grandfather, or possibly his brother, who obviously had a lot of pride in his garden, not to mention a bit of success with it. Whatever, it's discovery has encouraged me to delve rather more into my family's history than I have before. A good passtime for those long Winter evenings.

The cup is made of Britannia Metal, which is a pewter-type alloy, according to Wikipedia.

UPDATE - 9th. July

Subsequent research has revealed that Amos Swaisland was not my grandfather, but either my great-grandfather or my great-great grandfather, both of whom were named Amos. The research continues.

End of June update.

2011-06-30T13:26:00.002+01:00

The high winds that have plagued North Kent for many weeks seem to have subsided and we're at last getting some good growing weather. The worst sufferers have been my onions as illustrated earlier in the month. However, the raised bed in which I'm growing my large bulbs isn't looking too bad, although not up to last year's standard. As at this morning, the 2 largest onions measure at 11¾" and 11" which isn't too bad for outdoor bulbs. I have one in a 30ltr tub in the greenhouse, planted as an after thought which looks as though it might end up a fine shape, but it only measures 8".

The pickling size shallots that I harvested last week, which were the thinnings of the 'Hative de Niort', are now quite dry, having spent the week in the greenhouse, so I've now trimmed off the the leaves.

They've now joined the main batch in a tray of wood shavings in the garage where they'll stay until mid-September. At that point I'll be trying to put together a suitable set of 10 from the larger bulbs for my local show. This could prove something of a challenge considering I've only got 23 to choose from. Mission impossible? Probably! Whatever, having originally been given 12 bulbs, I've now got 23 large bulbs and 12 pickling size which I'll attempt to store until planting time just after Christmas. No doubt some won't survive storage, but I should end up with a good foundation from which to further expand my stock.

The 'Yorkshire Giant' pot leeks I got from John Soulsby are really motoring and are far ahead of the Robinsons 'Mammoth' that I started off from seed. The flags, up to 3'6" long, are, by my standard, absolutely huge considering they've got the best part of 3 months to go before lifting.

Serious pot leek growers would expect the circumference of a half decent plant to be 12-15" at the very least when they are pulled for showing in late September. The largest of mine currently measures 7" which would seem to indicate that mine aren't doing too badly. The one above, being easier to photograph, measures 6" as at yesterday

The garlic bulbs I bought at the RHS show at Westminster last October are still sending up new shoots indicating that they're still not ready to harvest. However, I've pulled up 2 that were wind damaged together with one other good one just to see how they're coming on.

As you can see from the snap, the bulbs are a good size already, so I'm hoping for a bumper crop by the end of July.

I have 3 lots of parsnips on the go, in pipes, in a planter and in the largest of my raised beds. The latter being the main supply for this coming Winter. As can be seen, they have stacks of top growth (about 2' high) and are doing well. However, I brushed past this lot on Tuesday and a swarm of whitefly rose from the leaves. 24 hours later, having been spayed, the plants are bug free with no signs of damage. I( shall, however, remain vigilant for another attack.

My greenhouse tomatoes this year are 'Cedrico', which is a favourite of the exhibition boys. Mine appear to be doing well and have now got several good trusses of fruit developing. Whether they will be any good for my show remains to be seen.

We're now cutting courgettes every other day from the 2 plants I've grown. Together with cabbage and an assortment of salad stuff, we're pretty much self sufficient as far as veg is concerned.

I've got 2 lots of Florence Fennel on the go, one on the plot and the other in a container, see above. This is a dead easy crop to grow and effectively adds interest to Summer salads.

These pots contain my third batch of our favoured dwarf bean 'Speedy' from Suttons which did so well for me last year. This lot were planted out yesterday and will be ready in around 5-6 weeks. They'll follow on nicely from the earlier 2 batches.

Under the fleece in the photo above are three Romesco broccoli plants, a sowing of White Lisbon and another of radish. Now all I have to worry about are slugs. Bring on the pellets!

Finally, a close up picture of one of my onion beds. Although most of the bulbs are at crazy angles thanks to all the high winds we've endured recently, they are now putting on weight. I think the kitchen will be well enough supplied over the Winter, but my hopes of becoming the 2011 Hernhill onion champion look somewhat thwarted!

That's it for June. I shall update the Leek Project progress at the weekend.

More Vento woes.

2011-06-27T06:34:00.000+01:00

You might remember that I, along with several others, had trouble with the slow germination of 'Vento' onions. Subsequently, they appeared to be growing normally, although a little behind the other my varieties. However, over the past few days I've had to lift and destroy 3 bulbs with the secondary growth symptoms illustrated above. I've not a clue what's caused it, so would really appreciate any suggestions from those with more onion growing experience than me. It's worth mentioning that the plants were not growing near to each other and no others appear to be affected.

Tiller we meet again.........

2011-06-25T07:43:00.001+01:00

I've run out of 'Pablo' beetroot seed so I popped into a garden centre on my way home last night and bought a packet of Carter's 'Globe 2', which get reasonable reviews. I sowed a few in 30ltr container filled with Humax MP compost and a handful of Miracle Gro slow release fertiliser. They might just be ready in time for my late September village show, but they'll certainly be fine for salads etc in the Autumn.

On Thursday, it was the 21st. anniversary of my 40th. birthday which was celebrated in appropriate fashion with a blindin' curry with friends and a somewhat disproportionate quantity of Cobra. My good woman, and household Obersturmbanfuhrer, bought me an electric tiller which will be absolutely excellent for my small veg patch and save me both time and back ache, to say nothing of producing a much finer tilth than I can obtain with hand tools. Fanks, darlin'!

By the way, I've noted the names of the 52 tight fisted followers of this blog who didn't send me a birthday card, but would like to thank the one who did. Thank you Mrs. H.

Guilt? Not a lot!

2011-06-24T07:12:00.000+01:00

I hate slugs. I hate them even more than BT's Customer Service Department, and that's saying something. When (if) I get to the Pearly Gates, I will only campaign for admittance if St. Peter can assure me Heaven is snail and slug free, although I shall pack a box of pellets just in case. However, being a kind hearted sort, I feel a very minor degree of guilt for blaming the aforesaid slimeballs for my latest problem, now solved.

Beetroot have always given me a problem. As soon as they germinate, they begin to disappear and virtually overnight I end up with only the odd one or two plants. Close inspection reveals that the young leaves have been nibbled leading to the not unreasonable assumption that slugs and/or snails are the culprit, yet slug pellets had absolutely no effect***. See left hand picture above. What I couldn't understand was why the single row under my brassica netting were not getting eaten, whereas those in other locations others had long since disappeared. Yesterday, the mystery was solved. There I was admiring my veg patch and watching a group of quite tame young sparrows enjoying the early morning sun and raking around for their breakfast of.....................beetroot seedlings!

Lesson learnt! All beetroot, or what remains of them, now netted!

*** Yes, I use slug pellets and various other chemicals, albeit sparingly. No, I'm not and organic gardener, although I will avoid using chemicals proven to be harmful to friendly wildlife, whenever feasible. In my 61 years on this planet, I've never yet met a slug or a snail I could honestly call a friend, so it's slug pellets.

Rain stopped play!

2011-06-23T12:27:00.001+01:00

Well, yesterday was the first day off I've had for a couple of weeks where I haven't had loads of non-garden related distractions, but with the weather more like April with on and off showers all day, not a lot was achieved. So, this blog entry is more of an update of those crops that I haven't written much about recently.

Sad bast**d that I am, I started measuring the girth of my large onions on the 25th. June last year when the circumference of the largest was 11¼". Today, my largest is 10½", which is somewhat disappointing, but hardly surprising considering the weather, which has really taken its toll with parts of my plot. The problem has been the relentless high winds which we've endured for around 6 weeks. The winds started just as the plants were establishing themselves and their roots really struggled to get a good hold in the soil, despite an enviromesh windbreak that was supposed to protect them. The result is that virtually all the plants are leaning at crazy angles despite my earlier efforts of trying to straighten them virtually every day. The same problem has affected the 'Vento' and 'Red Baron' onions which I was growing for quality at my local show, meaning it's going to be a challenge getting a really good set. Yesterday's forecast was for gusts up to 40mph which was pretty much spot on! All in all, hardly a life threatening issue, but a bummer nevertheless!

The shallot thinnings that I planted a few weeks ago had stopped throwing up new growth so I lifted them and put them in the greenhouse to dry off. Smithy reckons that if I store them and plant them next season, by careful re-selection over a few years, I'll likely be able to further increase my 'Hastve de Niort' stock. As they won't take up a lot of space, that's what I shall do.

I've only grown 4 'Cedrico' plants, 3 of which are doing really well. The fourth, while seeming to be producing a limited amount of fruit, has a problem which I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. The photo above shows a leaf stem that quite obviously has a problem. The strange thing is that it hasn't spread to the other plants. Anybody got any ideas as to what the problem is?

This photo (above) is a developing truss from the plant immediately adjacent to the problem one.

Overall, my parsnips appear to be growing strongly, both in the raised bed and in the pipes, as illustrated above. There is a variation in the height of the top growth, but it all seems very healthy, so I'm hopeful of some really good roots.

The first of the 'Golden Acre' cabbages are just about ready to harvest.

The remaining 'Sweet Candle' carrot seed was sown in a 30ltr container and has germinated well.

The pair of blanch leeks that Paul Bastow gave me have top growth more akin to a triffid rather than a leek!

The 'Firecracker' chillies are starting to form. These are a late fruiting chilli and, as last year, doing very well for me. These are a very hot Indian chilli from Assam with a great flavour.

These 'Karmen' onions from sets are pathetic! They appear to have stopped growing and don't seem to be getting any bigger.. They were only put in as an afterthought as backup for my 'Red Baron', but haven't performed at all. This maybe due to them being in a small, new raised bed that gets rather less sunlight than the others and hasn't the quality of soil that the other beds enjoy.

That's it for now.

Another attack of the wind.

2011-06-19T18:33:00.000+01:00

The high winds that have dominated the weather for the past several weeks are showing no signs of abating. The damage done has made it a virtual certainty that I won't be able to entre the onion classs at my local show. Having said that, I'm not throwing in the towel just yet. The photo above shows my one of my onion beds from which I'm unlikely to get anything other than for the kitchen. However, the bed containing the large onions has suffered least and I gave it a half dose of Chempak High Nitrogen Feed today in the hope that I might encourage a last minute growth surge, but I'm not holding my breath!

I've now topped and tailed my 'Hative de Niort' shallots and settled them in a tray of wood shavings to finalise the drying process. The largest has come in at 52cm, with the rest at betweem 42 and 50cm. I think there is a fair chance that I'll be able to stage a set come late September, always assuming they don't rot in the meantime.

I have 10 blanch leeks that I'm growing in the hope of getting a set of three to show. Currently, they are starting to bulk up, so I felt it time to fit 12" collars to encourage the blanching process. The new collars are 12" sections of 38mm water pipe insulation supported by 2 split canes and string.

Then disaster struck.............

Pete, my son-in-law insisted I accompany him to The Queen's Head and that I drink several pints of Somerset cider prior to forcing me to light the BBQ. A good rib eye, a chicken kebab and a few pinots of glasses grigio later.................oh, bugger!

New seasons garlic, repeat sowings and late leeks.

2011-06-16T19:43:00.003+01:00

I've grown 2 batches of garlic this year and both have done well. I always plant in the Autumn rather than early in the New Year as I find I get larger bulbs. Last October, I bought 4 bulbs from a stand at the RHS Westminster which are in a small raised bed and are still growing. The other lot was from a 30p bulb from my local greengrocer which produced 10 cloves that were planted in Humax MP compost in a small planter which I over-wintered in the greenhouse. These were harvested today and, as you can see, have produced 10 good size bulbs which are now drying.

Sowed a few more seeds: 'Little Gem' lettuce, Florence Fennel, Radish.

The 2 'Pendle Improved' leeks from Paul Bastow have had 18" lengths of 38mm pipe insulation instead of the 15" DPC that I put on a couple of weeks ago. Paul had already 'pulled' the plants to 18", so it seemed only sensible to continue as he started. I'll move up to DPC again when the barrels of the plants fill the pipe insulation.

Spring Show Leek Project - Part 3

It's exactly a week since I potted up the leeks for over wintering. Talk about rapid growth! Height-wise, they've put on around 25% and are really strong little plants. The roots have certainly settled in, as you can see. Because they've settled somewhat in their new pots, several needed straightening up.

So that I'm not forever repeating work, I've fitted short collars primarily as supports, although they have been set with a view to starting the lengthening process.

Pot leek maintenance.

2011-06-13T19:41:00.001+01:00

Old flag having split.

As with all alliums, pot leeks throw up new growth from the centre of the plant. As these new leaves grow, the whole barrel gets thicker causing the oldest fully grown flag to split as can be seen in the picture above.

After removal of the old flag.

Unless they are removed soon after they have fully split, eventually, these old leaves will die and rot away. Removal is simple enough and achieved by firstly scraping soil away from the base of the plant and splitting the flag down the middle before pulling each half away from the root plate. The soil is then pushed back to cover the exposed root plate. In a very short space of time the diameter of the barrel can be seen to have increased and the next flag will start to split. With each cycle, which is about a week at the moment, the barrel gets a little larger until the plant matures.

Like a blue arsed fly!

2011-06-11T12:11:00.001+01:00

A photography job near Southampton has meant that I lose this Sunday, so last night it was a case of rushing around getting the more important stuff done before driving westward this evening.

The collars on my seed grown Autumn blanch leeks were held in place with cable clips which were a bit too tight to allow even the slightest expansion of the foam. The answer was to re-fix the collars using string which offers much more flexibility. The collars currently fitted are 22mm pipe lagging, but this will be replaced with 38mm which is currently on order from my local plumbers merchant and should be in next week. The plants themselves look good, and despite being grown from seed planted in January, should produce leeks good enough for my village Autumn Show where I need a set of 3.

The other job that needed doing rather urgently was to temporarily raise the flag supports around my pot leeks. I say temporarily, because with 3 months to go before harvest, they're growing so fast that they're going to need a better support system which I hope to be able to work on over the next week or so. At least the flags are now supported high enough to avoid them being on the earth.

So, overall, the leeks, both blanch and pot, are doing well so far. Certainly, as I'm planning to grow to a much better standard next year, I need to spend some time on making sure I've got a sound plan for them, together with top notch plants.

Other than that, I managed to get in a row of Florence Fennel which is a popular vegetable in our household and a doddle to grow.

At last we're getting a sensible amount of rain and all the water butts are full again, which means can go away without worrying about watering.

Windy Wednesday.......again!

2011-06-09T10:39:00.002+01:00

There doesn't seem to be any end to the windy weather, except on the couple of occasions that we've had rain. The damage it's caused to any unprotected crops has been quite severe, although sometimes not immediately apparent. For instance, a cursory glance at my onions reveals damage to the leaves, but nothing terminal. It's only on close inspection that it becomes apparent that many have been virtually pulled from the ground and the developing bulbs are now at an angle from the vertical. For the kitchen, this won't be too much of a problem, but I was hoping to enter the onion class in my local show, but I think that unlikely now unless I get some decent specimens from the one bed that is protected by a wind break. Time will tell. Whatever, I feel a Winter project coming on!

Above you'll see a picture of my parsnip bed from which I'll feed us this winter. I first identified a problem early in May and initially assumed that the nutrients in the soil on the left side were lacking, but now I'm beginning to wonder whether it's partially to do with the fact that those in the left half of the bed are 'Gladiator', while those on the right are 'Pinnacle'. Theories appreciated!

The other mystery concerns broccoli. The florets didn't fully develop before flowering, for some reason. They are in the new bed, which again makes me wonder whether it's a soil issue.

My greenhouse tomatoes (Cedrico) are, in general, doing well, although one plant seems to be somewhat stunted and has had a dose of Dithane. The rest have reached the top of their canes and are flowering prolifically. So, it was time to bodge up some roof supports to allow them to grow to a good height. A cane and cable-tie job.

Spring Show Leek Project - Part 2

It was time to pot up the strongest of my plants and begin the process of my quest to be the Leek Champion of Hernhill! To that end, I've potted up 12 'Bleu de Solaise', 9 'Atlanta' and 9 more 'Musselburgh. I'd run out of 'Musselburgh' of my own , so I bought a module of 9 really strong plants from a local nursery for a couple of pounds. They'd been brought on in a polytunnel but with the modules at an angle to the floor which had caused the plants to lean considerably. See photo above - they're the ones in the background. The nursery owner assured me they would straighten up very quickly and despite my scepticism I bought them. That was yesterday, the photo below was taken early this morning, proving he was right. The potting mix was simply Humax MP + a bit of vermiculate and a sprinkling of Nutrimate.

I'll give these plants a week or so to get over the re-potting and then fit bits of pipe lagging to keep them growing straight and begin the lengthening process. The best will be surface grown in large pots, and the balance will, I suspect, replace my garlic in one of the raised beds, and also, probably, be surface grown.

Learning and Experimentation

2011-06-06T11:43:00.008+01:00

Basically, growing vegetables for the kitchen isn't difficult provided you follow the instructions on the seed packet and use a bit of common sense. True, things don't always work out as there are always unforeseen banana skins laid down by Mother Nature to trap the unwary, but by in large, the average grower should have reasonable success.

As I've learnt over the past couple of years, it's when one decides to move on from the basics it starts to get interesting. Fortunately, we have a whole community of bloggers who have taken the trouble to share both their ups and downs with us less experienced mortals. I am, of course, talking about those who grow to show whose sole aim is to grow their vegetables to the very highest standards and thus win on the show bench. Not only do we have their blogs to read, but also, many give freely of their hard earned knowledge on a one to one basis. For me, it's been Simon Smith, Dan Unsworth and Paul Bastow that I've learnt most from, but there are many others (Darren, for instance) where I've picked up snippets of information that have proved invaluable. Even though I have no intention of exhibiting other than at a local level, the methods used by those that grow to show have been invaluable in improving the quality of my efforts.

Every so often you'll find I'll post that I've started to trial an idea, but never hear another word about it again. This is because most of my 'trials' come to nothing and I forget to post accordingly. However, I think my latest may just happen, but whatever, I'll keep its progress updated one way of the other.

Spring Show Leek Project - Part 1

It's probably become fairly obvious to regular readers that growing onions, leeks, shallots and garlic are, along with chillies, my favourite crops to grow. Furthermore, my local village show has a class for 3 leeks in its Spring Show in April, and is dominated by the same people each year. Obviously, this means the entries (6 or 7 this year) are not only all overwintered, but seem to be grown conventionally. So, I was wondering whether it was possible to grow a leek known to be very hardy using a similar method to those who grow for the Autumn shows. To that end, I've got a late sown tray split 50/50 with 'Bleu de Solaise' and 'Atlanta. See below....

A large proportion of these plants will be grown conventionally in dibbed holes, but a few will be surface grown, firstly in pots, and then in one of my raised beds. I'm also doing a few 'Musselburgh' the same way.......

The idea behind doing the 'Musselburgh' this way is that they will mature much earlier and, hopefully I can learn from any mistakes I make with them. As you can see, to begin with, they have had short, 4" collars fitted designed to start the lengthening process. The plan is to pot them on one more time before planting them out in 6 weeks or so.

I'm planning to select the strongest of the 'Bleu de Solaise' and 'Atlanta' for potting within the next 2 or 3 weeks and thus start the trial in earnest. Watch this space!

It's surprising to find that my village show doesn't have a class for leeks in its Autumn show. I'll be entering in 'Any other vegetable' with my pot leeks, more than likely. Makes me wonder whether the shows are effectively 'controlled' by a few pot hunters who have engineered it so that they always win! We'll see.

A final thought.............if anyone has tried this idea before, or can give any tips, I'd be more than grateful to hear from them.

Taking a leek.

2011-06-05T17:21:00.001+01:00

As the leeks Paul Bastow gave me were now well settled in the pots he put them in when I visited his allotment, today was the day they were moved to their final home. However, firstly I needed to tidy the greenhouse and rearrange it for the Summer months.

Before...........

After.........

As supplied by Paul.............

I've decided to grow them in 30ltr shrub containers and had kept a couple back for that very purpose. The growing medium was the next consideration. As a great believer in keeping things as simple as possible, I settled for a mixture of Humax Multipurpose Compost, rotted cow manure and vermiculite, topped up with straight Humax MP. Hopefully, this will ensure the plants quickly put on lots of foliage growth which, of course translates to a good sturdy leek at the end of the day, without going to seed prematurely.

The next job was to remove the pipe lagging that Paul put on. As you can see the barrels have good length and are filling out nicely. The remains of dead leaves were removed and the plants generally tidied up.

The next job was to replace the pipe lagging with rolled damp proof course of the same length. This is simply tied to 2 split canes either side of the barrel to ensure the leek continues to grow straight.

The above shows what Paul calls a Heath Robinson affair to support the flags. Personally, I like to refer to it as an innovative and inspired solution created from bamboo canes, cut to the appropriate length, pipe lagging and cable ties.

So, there we are. Two 'Pendle Improved' plants happily moved to their new home.

Other than that, the only other job done, before it rained, was to tidy up my pot leeks by removing the very lowest flags as recommended by 'Stig' last week. All the plants are doing very well and certainly look good, despite the continuing high winds. Some are leaning a bit and have been straightened up, but there's no other apparent damage.

Exhibiting at the lowest level.......well, maybe!

2011-06-02T07:17:00.005+01:00

Yesterday was the day I harvested the first crop that has the potential to win on the show bench at the lowest level! A big thank you is due to Simon Smithyveg for starting the ball rolling for me.

Back in October, at the RHS Show at Westminster, a somewhat lumpy parcel was surreptitiously handed to me in a plain brown wrapper. Enclosed, I found a around a dozen superb 'Hative de Niort' shallot bulbs from a well proven strain. These were a few of Simon's spares which he generously let me have, without even having to sleep with him.......yet, although he has been texting the dog on a regular basis! Having farted about for a week or so trying to decide whether they were ready to harvest, I bit the bullet. The bulb above is the largest and measures 47mm. The overall range of the 23 bulbs harvested is a diameter of 42-47mm, with the majorty at 45mm.

They are now laid out on a very old potato riddle to dry for three weeks or so in a sheltered, rain proof spot, but with plenty of air circulation. Taking the lead from Simon, I've set the riddle at a slight angle with the bulbs lower than the foliage which, apparently, allows the sap to drain back into the bulb, thus increasing the size a bit.

In my naivety, I was under the impression that all entries at my local village were auctioned off at the end of the day. However, I've learnt that it's perfectly OK to retain them after the show. So, bearing in mind I've only got 23 bulbs, I'm going to see whether I can make up a half respectable entry with them. Possible? Maybe. Likely? Not, but worth a try.

Thanks, Simon, you're a gent.

I did do some other bits and pieces yesterday, but not much. The space where the shallots were is now the home to a row of beetroot 'Action F1', which I'm reliably informed are one of the best mini-beets and mature in 10-12 weeks. Ideal for late Summer salads.

A partial tidy up around the greenhouse, in readiness for a busy Sunday, rounded off a most satisfactory day.

Best laid plans!

2011-05-31T13:07:00.003+01:00

I had loads of plans for the Bank Holiday weekend, but seem to have contracted some sort of bug which has given me a raging sore throat and a large dose of lethargy. Paul Bastow and Smiffy would likely say it's a symptom of early senility as I've also been repeating questions I originally asked a couple of weeks back. This last factor is, of course, because the brains of us Southerners are further up the evolutionary chain than those north of Watford, and with the amount of simultaneous information we're able to process, the occasional power spike is inevitable.

The bits and pieces I did manage to achieve are as follows.............

I haven't blogged about my chilli exploits for a while probably because, having had a stonker of a year with them in 2010, I was quite sure this year would be an unmitigated disaster like 2009. However, the only issue I've had is with some Mr. Fothergill's 'Cayenne' seed which didn't germinate well and the subsequent plants just didn't grow. Chillies are really a crop that is worth starting from top notch seed from a specialist supplier as the difference in results can be quite staggering. I now use Nicky's Nursery exclusively for chillies and for some other bits and pieces.

This year I'm growing just 2 varieties, 'Firecracker', a very hot Indian variety from Assam with a great flavour, especially when green, and 'Demon Red', which is again a hot variety, but with very small fruits borne abundantly on window sill size plants which are very useful in the kitchen.

Chilli 'Firecracker'

The 'Firecracker', sown in January, are now in their final 7ltr pots.

Chilli 'Demon Red'

Yesterday, I re-potted the 'Demon Red' from 1ltr to their final 2ltr pots.

The 'Hative de Niort' shallots that came from Smithyveg are just about ready to lift, with the largest bulbs measuring 46cm. Even the smallest are around the 42cm mark. If it's a dry day, I'll harvest them tomorrow. It's strange how several of the top growers have moved over to using vernier calipers to ensure their shallots are harvested at their preferred size. Looking back, I bought my purely mechanical version on Ebay January quite independently as I couldn't be arsed to make up a gauge. For the sake of just a few quid it was well worth it.

These shallots reside in the planter I knocked up in the Winter and, as you can see above, share their space with 7 'Tumbling Tom' tomato plants which are also doing very well. At the back of the planter are a few dwarf sunflower plants which do well in containers. The last of my 'Musselburgh' leeks are in the white container on the right.

The onions I'm growing to try and get a big bulb for the pub's annual competition are coming on fine. They will never reach the size of Paul Bastow's or Dan Unsworth's because I'm not dedicated enough to invest in the facilities they have. Still, I'm hopeful I'll get a result between 4 and 5lbs this year.

Staying on the subject of onions for a moment, can anyone identify the problem above. This is the only 'Vento' to have a problem. Is it a physiological issue or a disease?

At last I've manage to get some beetroot away without the slugs having a feast. These are 'Pablo'.

My 'Sweet Candle' stump carrots have also suffered from slugs, which has led me to wonder whether I'll move this particular carrot box next year as the failed beetroot were in the same area of the plot, while later sowings that haven't been attacked are also close together. I seem to have one bit of the plot which has become Slug City for no apparent reason.

I have 2 lots of garlic on the go, one batch is in a container and close to harvest The second back, above, which I bought at the Westminster RHS show last year are still growing strongly albeit at a strange, post gale angle! On the right are my first batch of dwarf beans which are now starting to flower.

Sowing were the last 'Sweet Candle' carrot seeds in a large shrub container, another row of beetroot, more 'Speedy' dwarf french beans and another batch of cauliflower. I also planted out a final few 'Musselburgh' leeks in the garden, plus 4 into pots purely to see how they do when pampered and treated as if they were for a show.

I've planted my 4 remaining parsnip plants into a deep-ish container. Although, obviously, not ideal conditions, I did the saame last year and got 4 superb roots for the kitchen.

Pot leek - 'Yorkshire Giant'

Finally, the John Soulsby 'Yorkshire Giant' pot leeks are really starting to put on weight. Currently, the barrels are about the thickness of a shovel handle. As is to be expected, they're well ahead of the 'Mammoth' I grew from seed, but even those are doing admirably.

Mostly leeks.

2011-05-26T07:17:00.001+01:00

The small area outside my greenhouse has been dug over and brought down to a fine tilth and had both blood, fish and bone, plus chicken manure pellets added. It's had a few days to settle, during which time I've been thinking about what to plant in it. Given that, at this time of year, it only gets full sun until around 1pm, I came to the conclusion that I needed to put in something that didn't depend wholly on full sun, but could tolerate half the days being in shade. So, despite there being several possibilities, in the end it came down to my first planting out of Musselburgh leeks which have been planted using the conventional dibbed hole method. In other words, I've dibbed a total of 16 holes 7"- 8" deep and dropped a plant into each. They are spaced 9" apart in all directions which should allow for easy weeding of such a small area. The plants were then watered in by just trickling water from a long spouted can into each hole until it was full. This way, the roots are settled with a little earth round them, while the plant has ample space to develop a longish blanched barrel which should need very little, if any, above ground blanching. This is a sheltered bit of ground, so I'm hopeful that I'll get a good crop for the kitchen that doesn't suffer from wind damage.

My John Soulsby pot leeks are growing really well now that they are fully settled in their raised bed. To avoid too much damage to the flags, I've given them a little support using some interlocking metal plant supports that my late father-in-law never got round to using. I'm finding these an interesting crop to grow, although they do take up rather a lot of space. Despite that, they will certainly be a feature of my efforts in subsequent years.

A star is born!

2011-05-24T11:55:00.001+01:00

It rather seems that my Head Gardener/Director of Horticulture, Gwynnie is hogging most of the limelight on this blog and building up quite a following of her own. So, for all those who prefer following her, rather than my vegetable exploits, I thought it time to share a photo a professional photographer friend took in his studio recently.

If you live anywhere in the South East you could do worse than contact than contact Lee Robinson Photography for any pro work you might need.

So here she is given the old 'soot and whitewash' treatment..................

Darlings.........I love you all.

This, that and precious little of the other.

2011-05-23T07:42:00.000+01:00

Do you sometimes wake up feeling that you just can't be arsed to do anything? Well, that's exactly how I felt yesterday morning. Eventually, I managed to get off my fat backside and fart about in the garden for most of the day, although I didn't really achieve very much.

I managed to weed all the raised beds which were looking rather neglected after 2 weeks of little attention being given to them due to being away. My blanch leeks were fitted with 6" bits of pipe insulation an attempt to lengthen them and begin the blanching process.

My runner beans are a bloody disaster! I've lost 2 of the original 8 plants and the remainder don't look too healthy. I reckon the problem is down to the fact they were put into the new bit of the plot without any soil preparation and they just don't like the conditions. Although I've sown 6 more seeds in a module, I think I've just got to learn from the mistake I made by trying to get a crop going in less than ideal conditions. Having said all that, the cabbage and cauliflowers planted in the same bed are doing just fine.

The largest of my Hative de Niort shallots measure 40mm. When they get to 45mm I'll pull them in the hope that I've got some good bulbs for next year. With only 23 bulbs to be harvested, I'll be saving them all for stock rather than showing or eating them.

Other than the above, I just fiddled about doing odd jobs around the place and putting off the more serious things until Wednesday. I did manage to sow some more spinach and broccoli and prepare a new, very small area just outside my greenhouse in which I'll plant a few spare onion plants for this season.

We're back to the high wind conditions we had a few weeks back which isn't helping. The wind direction has changed from north east to south west which is wreaking havoc with most outdoor crops. Couple that with the continuing lack of rain and a successful season is very much in the balance.

Quaint 'Up North' hobbies.

2011-05-21T06:56:00.000+01:00

A few years back, while on a photography trip to Route 66 in Arizona, I met a really nice guy who had one of the strangest hobbies I've ever come across. His passion was barbed wire and he had a massive collection of bits of the stuff about which he could (and did) tell you some quite amazing and interesting (?) facts.

This week, I've done my twice yearly trip to a little known backwater called 'Up North'. Over the years, I've got to quite like this part of the Country, despite its Arctic-like weather, p*ssy beer and strange customs, the latter of which have been handed down through the ages since Bernard Manning was in liquid form. So, I wasn't too surprised to discover the ancient hobby of collecting mole hills. Yup, that's right, some folk actually search out and collect them, not with a shovel, but manually wearing Marigolds (pink, I believe).

I digress.

It's was good to have the time for a quick visit to meet Paul Bastow and his allotment near Huddersfield. Paul really has a great setup and has managed to cram onto a standard size allotment a couple of good sized polytunnels, potting shed, propagation shed and assorted raised beds filled with.........guess what. LOL!!!

Paul's plot is superbly positioned on the side of a fairly deep valley with some of those superb views that Yorkshire is famed for.

All the crops look superb having had the benefit of the rain we need so badly in the South. 100 bags of potatoes are enough to keep the whole street in chips for a year.

Giant onions are coming on nicely.

One of the homemade polytunnels doing it's job just as it says on the tin, with well advanced plantings of onions, blanch leeks and much more.

I only had an hour or so to chat to him and meet his wife, Linda, but I reckon I learnt one hell of lot in that short time. So thank you, Mr. Bastow, for your hospitality, not forgetting the pair of Pendle leek plants which have seem to have suffered no ill effect from 36 hours in the car and a 270 mile journey.

Top geezer!