Changing plans for Chelsea
It’s been a busy few weeks making adjustments for the new September show date
When I had a phone call to say that Chelsea had been postponed and moved to the last week in September, I was gutted. This was the second time I’d grown my vegetables for this show only to have to pull and dump several of them. At least we were told on this occasion sooner rather than later, as was the unfortunate case last year.
I’ve removed all the onions, blanch leeks and pot leeks from the Auto Pot system. But I’ve kept seven ‘Tryfan’ blanch leeks, seven onions and four pot leeks in their pots and moved them together to the far end of the bench. The reason for this is that I want to monitor them to see how they perform and how long I can leave them growing. The probability is that the onions will almost certainly run to seed as they were sown on July 3 last year. The leeks probably will as well. It won’t be a bad thing as I can always make use of the seed heads of both the onions and the leeks.
The ‘Sabre’ parsnips, the new variety I showed at Chelsea 2019, were sown on November 12 and by the time I had the phone call, they were nearly 15cm (6in) tall. The long carrots were sown on November 23 and were about 10cm (4in) tall. The following day I pulled them all up, as there’s no point at all in keeping them as I need the drums for the September show.
As these were comparatively young seedlings, the nutrients within the filled bore holes were hardly taken up, so towards the end of February I sowed some more ‘Sabre’ parsnips in the same bore holes. I’ll sow the long carrots during the first week of April, again using the same bore holes. ■ Why not follow me on Twitter throughout the season as I grow vegetables for my show displays – @medwynsofangles.
Medwyn has been awarded 12 Chelsea golds and an MBE!