Media scramble

Well I entered several classes at Harrogate  in the giant veg section. and was very pleased with the results, to my surprise I won the heaviest cabbage and came 3rd in the heavy parsnip class only beaten by 2 experienced growers who are both world record holders. Since the win I have been on Radio Leeds, In the Sun newspaper and due to have a feature in the Huddersfield Examiner some photos of me exploits can be found below.I am already planning next year to try and build on my sucess.

Giant veg

Its been a long time but now I feel I have the time and enthusiasm to start posting on here again.I have become more interested in growing giant veg as well as the normal stuff. currently I am looking forward to Harrogate and have just filled in the entry form which is mainly for the giant veg side of things I have a giant cabbage which looks promising as its bigger than the one I entered last year and came a close second to Ian Neale who holds several world records.

I also have a cucumber for the long class which is currently at 24'' and still growing.

Then there are Parsnips for the heaviest class.

And tomatoes for the Gigantimo championship which I have managed to get to 1lb 7oz


I also have runner beans at around 25'' for the longest class.

Last weekend was our local village show which has been going for over 100 years and was well supported this year. I myself entered. 43 exibits and won 19 firsts 12 seconds and 3 thirds which gave me 7 trophies some photos of my firsts are below.

 More to follow soon

Ressurection

I know it has been a while but I have decided to have a more serious go at showing again this year, so here goes with a progress report so far.

      ONIONS

I have the usual Onions from sets, I grow these every year for a specific class in our local show and I have won this trophy for 4 out of the last 5 years this years ones ar doing well considering the weather

 

SHOW ONIONS

 

I have 2 types of exhibition onion some sown by myself which are Dan Undsworth strain and some Kelsae plants which were bought in from Mr Fothergills. Both are a bit behind but starting to move a bit now so I should be ok as I am not looking for monsters.

 

 

 



 

DANS STRAIN

 

 

 

Mr Fothergills

 

POTATOES

 

I have 40 bags of  Potatoes in total which are 5 varieties

Blue Belle

Amour

Appatchie

Nadine

Cassablanca

They are all starting to show at the top of the bags which is good considering how cold it has been (we had frost here a couple of days ago )

 

 

 

Carrots

 

I have 100 stations of Sweet Candle stumps growing nicely.I sowed more but had some misses due to using some old seed.I have re sown these with Pablo beetroot wich is the same that I did last year and got some cracking specimens with 2 foot tap roots

My 5 year old grandson Harley sowed40 stations with new seed and his have come through with a 100% sucess rate

 

 

 

 

CELERY

 

My Celery is doing well although there is a long way to go as I suffer from heart rot nearer the show date

 

  

 

 

PEAS

 

I sowed 40 show perfection Peas this week and they are already poking through.

 

LEEKS

 

Again Leeks are a bit behind some others that I have seen but on a par with my usual so not too concerned I did have a problem with thrips but that is now under controll 

 

 

More to follow

 

 

 

 

Showtime and Giant Pumpkin attempt

It has been a long time since I posted anything on here,a lot has happened and growing has had to take a back seat. I have however managed to grow some lovely leeks and some nice carrots onions from setts and a few other bits for my local show. I grew a few bits last year and managed to get a 4th place in the national championships with Stump carrots my first national and respectable 4th out of 20+ entries I nearly didn't bother as the carrots were the only thing I had, but I am glad I did.I have also been having a bit of fun trying to grow a giant Pumpkin with Grandson Harley. It is currently about 150lb which we are pleased with for a first attempt some photos are below. I will try to post some show photos after the judging .

update long overdue

It has been a while since I lat posted, things have been a bit manic here with holidays and other commitments but here goes
Onions
I lost all my own onion plants and had to get some from Dan in February he was able to spare 12 which are now doing well in the tunnel. As I only have the 12 I have spaced them wider apart  in the hope of getting larger bulbs

Shallots were put out in January and stood under snow for several weeks but they seem to have picked up now

Vento onion plants from Medwyns due to loosing my own are also now starting to bulb up

Carrots have all been thinned and are also doing well, i have planted some beetroot in one of the carrot beds to see if I get longer straighter  tap roots 

Celery will be ready for planting out in the next couple of weeks, I intend to grow them on pots stood in water  this year to see if it makes any difference as when grown in beds I have suffered from heart rot.

I am also growing a giant marrow from seed obtained from a 120lb one 

it is also now planted out and starting to fly

Spuds have now all been earthed up and all bags are full of compost I am only growing three variety's

and only 8 bags of each which should be plenty for the three shows I intend to stage at.

 I will do my best to keep up to date from now on as I have a new phone which it is a lot easier to get the photos off and on to the pc.

Potting on and Pricking out

Today the apprentice and myself headed for the garden to undertake the task of  potting the leeks on and pricking out the onions, this was duly undertaken and I now have my quality onions 50 in total which I will grow on and pick the best 30 to plant in to the soon to be revamped bed.

On the leek front the 24 plants all have healthy well developed roots and are now in larger pots, I will be starting to lengthen them in a couple of weeks time.this will be when I return from a family holiday in Malta.

Annual Pilgrimage across the Pennines

It is the time of year to turn my thoughts to next season and in particular leeks and Onions. I spent half a day last week sorting out the lighting and heating in the growing shed, all has been working fine since then so i decided to collect my Pendle leeks from Dave Metcalfe in nelson.I was accompanied on the trip by Harley which meant a halfway stop at Mc Donald's for a happy meal. Daves leek plants are in good order and equally as good as previous years I collected 24 in total and will be growing the best 15 for next years shows the rest will go outside for kitchen use

the plants will now go in to the shed and receive 12 hours daylight using grow lights the timings will be 630 am to 630 pm. this will continue till 17th march when we will have 12 hours natural daylight.they will then be planted in to the bed in the tunnel with background heat till the risk of frost subsides.

I also sowed onion seeds a couple of weeks ago, my quality onions will be mt own saved seed from the 10.5 lb onions I grew in 2011 and managed to get seed from this year.I will also be sowing Toughball onion seed for the 250g class,I usually grow vento but as I was beaten at Harrogate by Toughball I am giving them a try this time, we will see how I get on fingers crossed `  

Also I am thinking of potting up my shallots in a couple of weeks.This is the first year that I have managed to save nearly all of them without them going rotten.