Monday 24 October 2011

This year's tickets

I have taken a piccie of the tickets and trophies I won this year as this was my first year of trying to grow veg for the showbench as opposed to just for eating. I did okay but hope to improve dramatically next year by being a bit better organised and putting into practice all the tips and hints that I have picked up from fellow growers and also from the NVS forum.



I am going to attend the NVS Scottish Branch Seminar in November where we will hear talks by Peter Glazebrook on growing both heavy and quality onions and by Jim Pearson on growing cauliflowers for showing.
For those who don't know, Peter Glazebrook recently broke the world record for the heaviest onion, growing a moster that weighed in at 18lbs, and Jim Pearson is well reknowned for winning lots of tickets with superb cauliflowers and I hope I will take some of their knowledge home with me and translate that into better quality specimens

Monday 3 October 2011

Tunnel / Marrow update

Got across to the polytunnel this evening after collecting Niamh from the childminder. We've had very strong winds all afternoon and given that my tunnel has had a big rip in it, albeit smothered in duck tape, I still get very nervous,having lost the first cover several years ago in a wild storm, and keep expecting to see a huge sheet of polythene floating across the skies as I approach the farm. However all was well so we picked some more red Cayenne chillies, some bell peppers, some more tomatoes, 5 cauliflowers and a savoy cabbage.

That brings chillies harvested so far, aftre two pickings to 280, as I can keep count as they get bagged into batches of 20 in preparation for my chilli sauce. Still lots to come though!
I also checked up on the progress of the two marrows - both now have a girth of exactly 1m and are 53 cm and 58cm in length respectively - for those in old money that is a girth of almost 41 inches and lengths of 22 and 24 inches.


Not huge but as long as they look big enough for people to play a guess the weight competition I'm not too bothered as they were pretty much neglected after failing to set any fruit for an eternity. I will probably try again next year but the plants will definitely be outside where they will have all the space they could need or want.