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!

Mid July update

Popped to the plot first thing this morning to do some watering and weeding. It was much cooler and fresher than recent days although still perfectly pleasant. I'd not been able to water the greenhouse for a couple of days due to work and home commitments but some very kind allotment colleagues helped me out. This is one of the wonderful things about the allotment community in general - always willing to help. Their kindness will always be returned, as it has in the past, with offers to water when they are on holiday and to provide them with some form of edible present. It would generally be frowned upon to repay such kindness with a courgette at this stage in the season, but a cucumber or a punnet of strawberries is usually well received. It's this kind of camaraderie that builds an allotment community and keeps sites vibrant. I am very lucky.

I thought it might be interesting to provide a few photos - albeit of dubious quality as they are taken on my Blackberry - to demonstrate how things have progressed. It is exactly one month since I uploaded some photos taken on 20th June and it is clear how everything has responded to the warm conditions since then.

My how you've grown - red cabbages. Note typical F1 hybrid uniformity

Many cucumbers (Aurelia F1) - several harvested already

Truss of tomatoes in greenhouse - I think it's 'Sweet Olive' but I have lost the label!

Melon pollinated by hand earlier in the week



Aubergine 'Ophelia F1' in flower

Peppers in flower and San Marzano tomatoes in background

Peppers, tomatoes and aubergines in greenhouse - all have shot up in the past month

Raspberries - one for me, three for the pot, three for next week!

Courgettes and nasturtiums



The squash patch, bean wigwams and Cosmos 'Purity' in flower

I also came home laden with produce. More courgettes than we can reasonably eat, a few Red Duke of York spuds (disappointing yield from two plants), a handful of tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers and raspberries. The first runner beans have now set so they should be ready for picking within the next week or so. The plants are actually covered in blackfly and have been for a few weeks but I also noticed hundreds of ladybird larvae working their way through them so I am leaving well alone and nature will restore balance.

Tasks for the weekend include continued picking, a bit more weeding, clearing out around the fruit trees in preparation for their summer pruning and water for the greenhouse crops, celery and celeriac. I think I have a date with the plot on Sunday morning - will keep you updated how I get on.

High Summer

This has been the best spell of weather I can remember for many a year. Apart from a rather cool, grey and miserable Wednesday it has been pretty much wall to wall sunshine and warm temperatures both day and night for well over a week.

On the plot there are many plants benefitting from the sunshine and warmth, although it has to be said that some do not like the heat and prefer cooler, damper conditions. In general I go heavy on true 'summer' crops - courgettes, various squashes and pumpkins, beans, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and the like. They love this weather provided I can keep them watered when they really need it.

My philosophy on watering is simple - tough love! As I have mentioned before, our site does not benefit from a mains water supply. There is a water course (not worthy of naming it a stream) running down one side which provides dipping points for murky brown wet stuff. The bulk of our water comes from that we collect from sheds and other structures into a series of water butts and vessels. The key thing here is trying to keep the still water sweet when temperatures rise as it often starts to green up and smell stagnant. I use natural charcoal and straw bales from aquatic supply shops. Other people put a small capful of bleach in their water butt or buy a proprietary disinfectant sold for this purpose but I'm not sure about either of these...

Anyway, plants in the open ground go into well manured and improved soil appropriate for their needs. They get a good soak to start, followed by a good soak a week later and maybe one more if they show signs of stress. That is pretty much it from me and they get the rest from the ground and whatever falls from the sky. It generally works and avoids excessive lush growth at the expense of what I really want - crops. The only things I really continue to water are celery and celeriac and any recently planted fruit trees.

The greenhouse is another matter. The plants in here are entirely dependent on me for their needs. They are usually the more thirsty crops anyway, exacerbated by them growing in not much soil at all really - bottom 10 or 15L pots into growbags. In this hot weather the tomatoes get a drink every other day, the cucumber seems to need water like it's going out of fashion, whereas the peppers, aubergines and okra tend to need it less often. This puts pressure on visiting the plot regularly and I tend to do it very early or very late. This avoids the heat of the day and minimises loss through evaporation. It also means I can spend the daytime doing something more productive, like sitting in the shade drinking lemonade!

For some crops it is too hot/ dry at present. The lettuce and chard seem to wilt in the sun although they do perk up later in the day. The broad beans don't like the heat and I think the brassicas in general would prefer cooler and damper weather. My beetroot also seems less happy at present - same family as the colourful chard and the heat has the same effect. I think it might make the roots a bit tougher too - we'll see.

Fruit wise I've been picking at least a punnet of strawberries every visit with still more to come. The raspberries are ripening now with more and more ready to pick. They'll soon take over from the strawberries. Gooseberries are fattening and becoming more translucent as they sweeten and should be quite pleasant even raw. The cherries started to turn and got gobbled by pigeons and/ or blackbirds, ditto the redcurrants. I'm leaving the rhubarb to recuperate in time for a good crop next spring. I'm also anticipating a fine harvest of apples and pears with most trees loaded. I even have a few plums on the new-ish trees, which is a welcome bonus.

Finally, you may remember that I set myself the target of a ripe tomato by the end of June. I'm pleased to say that this milestone was achieved. Throughout the last week of June one Sungold started to turn and was picked, fully ripe, on the thirtieth and final day of the month. Here's the evidence.

Mission accomplished, although a somewhat hollow victory as it was only yesterday when I started picking further ripe tomatoes, a full 12 days later. I should now have a steady stream of ripe tomatoes and cucumbers for summer salads, which is just in time as they still cost a fortune in the shops even though they're bang in season. Not sure what happened to seasonal crops being cheap and plentiful, but that's a discussion for another day.

Enjoy the sunshine!

A few pictures

Nipped back to the plot for a quick hour of weeding yesterday whilst my wife and new baby were fast asleep. The main job was to uncover various crops that had been left to fend for themselves for a bit too long. In terms of 'weeds' I was actually clearing away a carpet of self-set English marigolds. I generally leave them to grow away peacefully around the edges of beds as I like the colour they bring to the plot. When they start to swamp crops and take over a whole bed is the time to step in. Given the soil conditions and lovely warm weather it was a most enjoyable task and I uncovered a fine developing crop of onions and shallots as a result!

I also took the opportunity to take a few pictures from around the plot.


Red cabbages within brassica cage and block of celery 'Loretta' outside.

Developing gooseberry crop - time to thin them out.



View of mini orchard and potager-style planting: a mix of edibles and flowers.

 

Potager close-up: chives in bloom, lettuce 'Little Gem', broad beans, rhubarb, cosmos and cowslips.

Squash patch with bean wigwams and courgettes. Cold frame will house melon in due course.

Ripening strawberry safely netted from squirrels and pigeons. Many more to come.

San Marzano tomatoes and sweet peppers.

A sea of tomatoes - yes, they are too closely planted...

Squashes planted

Took advantage of some relatively benign weather to visit the plot for an hour or two yesterday. I'm currently on paternity leave, which means some very intense periods of activity at home - usually involving nappies - followed by spells where my wife and baby are resting. After finishing all the chores at home the plot offered an opportunity to grab some fresh air to stave off mid-afternoon tiredness. So, pots washed, washing hung, hovering finished, baby and wife peacefully sleeping = quick trip to the allotment.

After some quite heavy recent rains and milder weather the soil was in perfect condition for my various squashes to finally go out. They were strong, robust plants but exhibiting the signs of having exhausted the energy reserves in their compost - slight yellowing of leaves namely - and needed to be planted asap.

I haven't employed a particularly sophisticated approach to squash planting this year, given the time restraints, it being more a case of 'bung them in and leave them to it'! My idea was to create a low maintenance squash/ pumpkin patch to cover ground, smother weeds and provide a harvest that can be stored for late autumn and early winter use - just round about the time baby might be sampling pureed food for the first time. This should minimise weeding requirements over the summer and the plants can be left to their own devices save for the odd glug of water in very dry spells.

The patch in question had received a thick cover of mushroom compost the previous autumn and was generally in very good condition. I dug the soil in the immediate area where the plants would be set (planting in pockets as opposed to full cultivation of the land), added some rough compost and chicken manure pellets and made an approximate circular bowl 60cms in diameter. The plants were set in the middle of this bowl with a handful of chicken manure pellets underneath them for good measure. Cane in the ground to mark the centre of the plant (for future watering requirements), a good drink followed by a mulch of rough compost.

In reality, the area is probably over-planted but I know from experience that vines can be wound round in circles and they'll happily scramble over each other. Just need some warm days and nights, a bit of steady rain to keep the soil moist, and I'll have a pumpkin patch that will be the envy of my fellow plot holders... Varieties include marrow Long Green Trailing, Atlantic Giant and Jack O' Lantern pumpkin, Butternut 'Hawk', mixed 'sunshine' squashes and 'Autumn Crown' - a cross between Butternut and Crown Prince squashes.

No other major activity to report other than a successional sowing of lettuce now the first batch is ready to harvest. I also sowed some mixed radishes and spring onions in drills between the celeriac, scattered some swede seed in the brassica cage and sowed some calabrese and mini caulis in modules for planting out in about a month.

I think I will soon start to reap the first meaningful harvest from the plot. Little gem lettuce, Anya potatoes in pots, strawberries and gooseberries are all now there for the taking. Let the good times roll!

May - monthly review

The allotment has really kicked on this month. The weather has been changeable, with some warm and sunny days followed by wet, windy and particularly cold spells. One thing that has been a constant is the ever increasing light - not always bright sunshine, but noticeably longer days spurring on growth.

At the plot the blossom came out in force during the month. There was a period, round about the second week of May, when pretty much every fruit tree was in flower! It was a lovely sight and one I've not witnessed before. There's normally a staggered effect of plums first, pears, cherries then apples. This year, May simply went 'boom' due to the delayed spring. I'm estimating a pretty good fruit crop this year. The blossom received enough dry and warm weather for the bees to do their thing and the wet and windy weather meant conditions were cool but, importantly, not frosty. No damage to blossom = good potential harvest.


Cherry - Stella

Pear (Doyenne du Comice) and Apple (Bramley)

Bramley Apple blossom close-up

Cluster of pear blossom - Doyenne du Comice

The fruit bushes have really progressed too. The various currants and gooseberries came into flower and now display plenty of immature fruit. The strigs of currants are there for all to see, including the fat wood pigeons, so I'll have to get busy with some netting before there's any sign of colour. I know from experience that birds will take very unripe berries showing the merest sign of colour. They would be unpalatable to us for weeks but that doesn't stop the greedy pigeons and blackbirds. The only way to ensure a harvest is to cover with well-secured netting. 

Redcurrant in flower

The gooseberries also become a target as they swell. I don't really net these as I have enough to go round. What I normally do is pick every other immature fruit to coincide with the elder flowering and make a batch of lovely jam. I expect this to be from mid June this year. The remaining fruit has more room to grow and ripen for use in fools and crumbles from July. If the pigeons take a few so be it - I'm the only one in our household who really likes gooseberries so I can spare a few!

The final fruit-related update is that the strawberries and raspberries are really moving.  I gave the strawberry bed a tidy up, dressed with chicken manure pellets and covered with a good mulch. As soon as we had some rain, followed by a bit of warmth, the plants really responded well. I expect a good crop - again to be netted from birds and squirrels. The raspberries are yet to flower but the buds are formed and it looks like a decent show. Hopefully a bit more sunshine and less rain than last year will make them tastier and less insipid.

This May has really brought home the benefit of my new greenhouse. Without it I'd be many weeks behind, or simply buying lots of plants to make up for those I'd have lost. The protection of glass means I have tomatoes in flower and various other tender crops growing away nicely. I have set myself the target of picking a ripe tomato by the end of June. There are plenty of flowers and the first truss on one of my Sungold plants has set fruit. The earliest I've ever picked tomatoes is about the third week of July so, in this very cold year to date, I'd be delighted to achieve this minor milestone.

Throughout the month I have pricked out and potted on a range of tender subjects. The melon and cucumbers have sulked a little but are strong and well. The courgettes have pushed on nicely and I planted three out yesterday as they looked ready to go and a decent weekend is forecast. The other cucurbits are a couple of weeks away from their final homes yet. There is plenty of time and they'll benefit from warmer soil and becoming stronger plants in the relative comfort of the cold frame. The okra and aubergines, firsts for me this year, seem fine and will be set in bottomless pots on growbags by mid month. I think the only exotics which are not best pleased are the peppers. They are ok, but haven't pushed on as much as I'd hoped given that they were sown back in early March. I think it's just been a bit too cool for them, even under glass, and the night time temperatures in particular need to lift a degree or two to make them truly happy.

In the open ground, there is still more bare earth than lush foliage. The spuds are all through now and the recent rain has really suited them. I have planted 16 red cabbages to mature in late summer. The germination of direct sown seeds has been patchy - I have one row of mixed beetroot and one very poor row of parsnips. Carrots all germinated but were hoovered up by slugs. Note to self - must work out a way of growing decent carrots next year. Leek seedlings have been sown and resemble blades of grass. They'll fatten up and replace the first early potatoes from July. The one thing I need to push on with is sowing the brassicas for autumn and winter. Plenty of time for calabrese broccoli but the purple sprouting form needs to get going soon. I also need to sow some sprouts asap and it's time for a row of two of swedes.

So, there you have it. A whole month condensed into a few paragraphs. I'm really pleased with progress during May. Admittedly it's been slim pickings in terms of harvest - the last leeks, rhubarb and some spring greens - but by the end of June there should be much more on offer and I can also look forward to a bumper summer harvest. Little gem lettuce is a week or two away, the baby gooseberries are ready for a dose of sugar, the first strawberries will kick in if we have some sunshine and that elusive June tomato could be mine for the eating...