Competition time

The Bank Holiday weekend of 23-26 August saw my first foray into horticulture competitions - and rather successful it was too! I have threatened to enter a show or two for a while now but things generally conspired against me. I could find no reasonable excuses this year so I took the plunge and entered the Sheffield Horticultural Show which forms part of the annual Sheffield Fayre.

I have attended many a show and viewed lots of produce on display. My feelings have generally been mixed towards the entries. Sometimes it's 'wow, I'd love to grow x like that'. Often it has been 'I could do better/ have better than that on my plot'. The old adage rings true - if you don't by a ticket, you can't win the raffle. You may have a bigger marrow than the prizewinning specimen, but if it's on your plot instead of on the judging table it's a meaningless statement.

So, show schedule in hand, I leafed through the classes and decided at very late notice what I could enter based on what I was growing on the plot. At this early stage I'll say that this approach paid off, but certainly more due to luck than judgement. I would advise anybody interested in showing their produce to get hold of the schedule very early and grow with that category in mind. At the 'interested amateur' level it is unnecessary to go to the same extraordinary lengths as some of the seasonal professionals but it certainly does help to know what you want to show and how it should be displayed if you want to stand half a chance of winning.

The number of entries had doubled this year. I'm not sure if this was indicative of more general interest in the show or because it had been such a better growing season compared to the last. What this meant was more competition and a generally good (not great) standard of entry. Entries were required in advance, with no entry on the day, so it was a case of paying your money (25p a go) and taking your chance.

Staging took place on Saturday afternoon so I spent Friday evening and early Saturday morning picking pretty much everything I could and then preparing them for show. I learned at this early stage that a large amount of produce is required to find the three or so specimens required in any class. There are far more rejects than contenders! Take potatoes as an example. Show growers have buckets of them in clear compost and still reject the majority. Try digging up a few rows of Charlottes from the open ground and finding three identical! Ditto the tomatoes. I had loads of ripe ones, but could I find six of equal size and ripeness worthy of my name on the show bench?

Anyhow, vegetable stress aside, I harvested enough reasonable quality fruit, veg and flowers to enter and score in the categories below. Beginners luck? Maybe. I'd like to think it was part beginners luck and part the fact that I know what I'm doing when it comes to growing. I produce crops to eat, not display, but I've always taken pride in the way I grow my plants and the aesthetics of my allotment. I know what my plants need to be productive and give me the highest yield possible. I understand soil preparation, plant propagation and growing on, watering and feeding regimes, pruning and thinning, etc. This good crop husbandry means I grow produce to good average size and quality, despite focussing more on my stomach, which stands up well to showing at an amateur level.

Did I enjoy the experience? Overwhelmingly yes! Winning a few categories certainly helped but it was more than that. It was fun and I got to meet a few people and learn a few tips and techniques to take away and try for next year. There were lots of whingers and sore losers, which actually surprised me, but most people took pride in the wider displays and the fact that people still wanted to show off what they had grown. I may have caught the bug. I will strive to do better next year and really put a youthful cat amongst the old boy pigeons! Now where can I source some giant onion seed..?

Classes entered and result:

• Cabbage (one) - third prize for my red cabbage
• Tomatoes (three red) - second prize
• Six runner beans (*novice category) - FIRST PRIZE
• Longest runner bean - FIRST PRIZE
• Celery - third prize
• Any other vegetable - FIRST PRIZE for my luminous green chilli pepper
• Four vegetables on a tray - FIRST PRIZE for my combination of aubergine, green pepper, yellow courgette and beefsteak tomato
• Three apples - second prize
• 12 blackberries - third prize
• Half bottle liqueur - FIRST PRIZE - judge obviously liked it and most of bottle gone!
• Vase annual flowers - FIRST PRIZE - for my white cosmos
• One large marrow - FIRST PRIZE
• Marrow <40cms -="" li="" prize="" third="">
• Three white potatoes - second prize
• One vegetable, one flower spike - no prize
• Three coloured potatoes - no prize
• Three beetroot - no prize
• Six runner beans (main category) - no prize

*open to anyone who had previously won a vegetable class

That's a pretty good effort leaving plenty of room for improvement. I'm sure I can compete in some of the categories I did not enter this year. I need to score in onions, leeks, cauliflowers, runner beans, cucumbers and tomatoes to have a chance of lifting the Memorial Cup for the most overall points scored. Roll on 2014!

August in review - the perfect summer?

The end of August brings to a close the meteorological summer. Of course we will continue to experience summer-like weather for many weeks to come, but 1st September heralds a new season - autumn. Looking back on the combined summer months of June, July and August it has been perfect for growing. Admittedly June was quite cold and grey for long periods, but this then changed to a prolonged period of hot, dry weather during most of July. Given recent years, many people thought we'd pay for this with a damp, cool August but nothing could be further from the truth. It certainly hasn't been as hot and sunny as July, and the days start to shorten noticeably from mid-month, but temperatures have remained reasonably high both day and night, sun has shone and sufficient rain has fallen to keep things moving nicely. Importantly, prolonged dry weather has kept blight at bay. Most plot holders have harvested a good crop of spuds and this is the first for many years where it has been possible to obtain a reasonable return from outdoor tomatoes.

I have managed regular, if fleeting, visits to the plot to pick produce and water crops, but I've not done any real weeding or plot husbandry for a while now. I'll try and make amends over coming weeks now that I'm harvesting and clearing crops. It's also work that won't be undone after a week or so's neglect because the weeds generally stop growing at this time of year. It means you can clear some ground without fear that they'll be back as soon as your back is turned...

So what has happened over the past six weeks or so?

The greenhouse has come on leaps and bounds with more tomatoes than I know what to do with. Watering has been a regular requirement during the warm weather - at least every two days - and I have been rewarded with plenty of ripe, flavoursome fruits. The cherry tomatoes started first (one Sungold in June but more to follow from early July) and it took a while for the larger toms to catch up. Since mid August I've harvested some stonking San Marzano plums and huge Beefsteaks.
The cucumber has been a bit more feast and famine and this is something I'll watch for next year. Once  established, the plant produce about 10 huge fruits within a short space of time. I picked them as required but then the plant stopped altogether. The leaves yellowed and it looked spent and hungry. Watering and feeding has given it a second wind but that meant a fallow period when I should have been cropping. Maybe next year I'll grow two plants, or possibly encourage a more regular supply by thinning fruits when too many form at once.

Peppers have started to produce now and I have a bountiful crop of aubergines. Ophelia F1 is definitely productive and the plants are huge and strong - one to grow again for sure although seed is expensive. I have also managed a reasonable supply of okra but I'm not sure I'll bother next year. It's one of those novelty crops I wanted to try because I could. In reality, you need a lot of plants to harvest enough for a decent feed at any one time because they produce the pods so sparingly. It's far easier (and cheaper) to nip to a local Asian supermarket and buy a bag full given the time and effort required to raise the plants from seed. Finally, I have at last succeeded with a melon worthy of the name! Last year's effort showed I could grow them to at least produce a fruit. This year I have one melon, still yet to ripen, that is the equal of ones you buy in the shops. Will I bother again next year? Possibly. Like the okra, it's a lot of hassle for very little return other than the kudos of saying you've done it. Wait long enough and you can buy perfectly tasty melons for a pound a throw - this one fruit has probably cost at least a fiver in seed, compost and feed! I may try again next year to see if I can obtain multiple fruits and thus help spread the cost.

In the open ground I have been picking French and runner beans at will. The runners were shy to crop, despite loads of flowers, as a 'robber bee' was present on site. I hadn't really been aware of these until I noticed the cheeky blighter piercing the flowers at the back to rob the nectar. It was stealing the nectar without performing the act of pollination, so despite the flowers the initial bean set was poor. This balance has been redressed now and I should be picking for weeks to come.

Courgettes have been pumped out at will but it's interesting to note the variation in productivity. I have one plant of yellow 'Taxi F1' which has produced more than the Kojak and San Pasquale combined. That is a lot of yellow courgettes and they're still coming!

The potato harvest has been mixed but no blight has been present and haulms have grown strongly. I was very disappointed with the yield from the Red Duke of York. Very tasty spuds but hardly worth the effort. I will seek out something more productive for my first earlies next year. In comparison, the Charlotte has produced a bumper crop from the same number of tubers. I returned to this variety after flirting with Juliette for a while. I am now firmly back in the Charlotte camp - tastier and more productive, although less uniform in size and shape I have found. I am part way through harvesting the Roosters. Yield appears good from what is a productive maincrop variety but they are badly damaged by keeled slugs. Not a blemish on the Charlotte next door but I would estimate 60% holed potatoes from the Roosters. Interesting to learn whether it's skin colour (do slugs prefer reds?), skin thickness, or simply taste.

The squash patch has done its job admirably. Once the plants became established they romped around the area and swamped any weeds. Between the various squashes and the cosmos flowers I have benefitted from 100% soil cover so that is one bed that will be easy to prepare for next year. The downside has been too much foliage at the expense of fruit. I'll reserve judgement until the final harvest but I think the amount of shade caused by too many plants has resulted in them not fruiting productively. Only once they ran towards the light did they start producing female flowers so I now have a late crop of butternuts and pumpkins. Given the prolonged warm weather it should have been a great year for them. Next year I'll try fewer plants and accept some extra weeding if it means more productivity.

One plant to buck this trend was the marrow. Putting it bluntly it has gone bonkers! Maybe better suited to early English summer conditions than its fair-weather cousins, it ran amuck and has produced almost a dozen large fruits (more on this later) and is still going strong.

Other crops of note are the football-esque red cabbages, which are now ready to harvest, some good looking celeriac and celery and future crop of calabrese. Poor returns this year from the broad beans, onions, shallots and garlic - maybe the prolonged cold spring and cool early summer did for them?

Fruit wise the strawberries stopped producing after mid summer and the raspberries never really got going. This year they were productive but fruit quality was very poor. There was a huge yield from the gooseberries and I received an unexpected harvest of red currants as the birds seemed to leave one bush alone, concealed amongst the weeds of my summer neglect. They have been converted into 10 jars of redcurrant jelly! There is a fantastic blackberry crop to be had as I write.

I picked and ate some lovely early Beauty of Bath apples in August and I have a bumper crop of later apples and pears to be harvested from mid September. I was lucky to catch a dozen lovely Denniston's Superb gages before the wasps got them but the pigeons bagged every single cherry.

So that's the summer in review. A bountiful time with a range of vegetables and fruit to create or accompany every meal if desired. Makes it all worthwhile!