Success at the show with veg and flowers
The ground is too wet for digging, but I’ve been carrying on tidying up on the allotment and clearing finished crops and putting them on the compost. All the annuals I grow for cutting and showing have been cleared and, when we get some dry weather, I’ll weed the beds. We still have plenty of cabbages, sprouts, and turnips to harvest and a few beetroot.
All the dahlias have been stored for the winter. I cut the stems down to about 5cm (2in), clean off the excess soil and then knock a screwdriver down the hollow stem and out at the bottom, which helps to drain off trapped water. I tie on the label with waterproof string right round the tuber. They’re then stored upside down in deep boxes under the greenhouse staging. At home, the hanging baskets and tubs have been emptied – I want to keep some of the plants potted up for propagation in the spring. Some roses I ordered from R.V. Roger have been planted to replace some that were no longer growing properly. When planting roses in the existing rose beds, I dust the roots with Rootgrow. I’ve pruned the rest of my roses. I help to run the garden club at our local primary school, showing children how to grow vegetables. When I went a few weeks ago I was shown a carrot they’d got from one of the tubes. It was nearly 7.5cm (3in) in diameter at the top and weighed 0.7kg (1lb 11oz). One of the best I’ve ever seen!
I told you last time I was going to enter a show. There were a lot of entries, but I won most points in the vegetable classes. I won with potatoes, small onions, sprouts and marrows. I also got first and second with two vases of mixed garden flowers.