Page 42 - Simply Vegetables Autumn 2024

Scottish Branch
As I sit down to draft my Chairman’s report for the October edition of Simply Veg, the days are already shortening and we are once again in the middle of a miserable spell of weather. Summer just stubbornly refuses to appear. However, it doesn’t seem to be holding back what’s growing in my allotment though – particularly the weeds.
We have made so many friends in the Society in the 20 years plus since I joined but, as time passes, folks including us, grow older and we are finding we are now losing these friends again as they pass away. We attended the funeral recently of Arthur Provan FNVS, a real stalwart of the Society but particularly of Scottish Branch. We will miss him sorely.
At the beginning of June, we had our third visit to Scone Palace Garden Fair and once again this was for us a tremendous success. Although we did well financially, that is not the main objective of taking part in this event. We are more concerned with trying to provide a service to the public who enjoy growing (or trying to grow) vegetables and that part includes being able to sell them vegetable plants at affordable prices and also being able to spend time with them discussing any problems or successes they may have. The most common problem this year seems to have been the large numbers of slugs and snails foraging in folk’s vegetable beds.
50 years old and still going strong
In October 1970, I moved from Galashiels to Greenlaw with my
wife Margery and children Hazel, 3, Yvonne,2 and Douglas,1 year old. The reason for the move was that I was an agent with the Prudential Assurance Company, so moved with the job.
I attended a local community meeting and asked why they did not have a flower show in the village to be told that it used to have one, but it had folded in 1938 due to the 2nd World War having taken the men who had organised the show.
In 1971 I placed and advert in the local paper asking for anybody interested in resurrecting the flower show to come to a meeting in the Church Hall. This advert cost me 10 shillings by the way (50p in today’s money). We had a good response and the Greenlaw and District Amateur Horticultural Society was reborn. We formed a committee and made our constitution & rules. We then set about fundraising though coffee mornings, dances and plant sales and were fortunate to get some generous donations.
In September 1972 we held our first show in the School Hall, Greenlaw- and what a show ! quantity, but not quality (32 entries of globe beet, 28 entries of x3 onions sets, 26 entries of x6 onion sets), however as I was “the man from the Pru”, I had a list of exhibitors and when I visited collecting their premiums, I was able to offer advice on how to prepare veg for the show.
Our second show in 1973 was a huge improvement in quality and good entries in all classes, but there were still one or two entries who stuck to “biggest is best”.
So now in 2024, we have now celebrated our fiftieth show (after missing two years due to covid). We are lucky to have loyal exhibitors from the borders and Lothians supporting us.
P.S. I have never been reimbursed for my 50p from back in 1971, but I’m not complaining.
Ian Archibald FNVS
MEMBERS 30000 TO 39999
It is wonderful when people make repeat visits and let us know how the plants they have bought have performed and that is rewarding in itself.
It is wonderful when people make repeat visits and let us know how the plants they have bought have performed
grateful but nowhere near enough. There’s always next year!
The other really rewarding part about
the event for me is that
it showcases how our members and their families work so well together
for our common cause. Well done and thank you everybody.
July brought us the opportunity to hold our annual outing/garden
me was novel with narrow beds flanked by Box hedging designed I think to shelter the plants from the prevailing winds.
The absolute treat of the weekend was a visit to the growing set up of Niall Currie in his Rothesay Garden. Last year Niall won multiple red tickets at the Nationals and although he did a talk and slideshow at our annual seminar a few years back it was very special to be able to see how he grows his veg close up. A big thank you to Niall for allowing us to trample all over his garden and to be able to share the tremendous views he is able to enjoy while tending to his plants.
By the time you read this report our members will have been busy exhibiting at local and National Shows and at our own Branch Championships at Aberdeen on 31st August/1s September and we have our Annual Seminar to look forward to, once again at the Aytoun Hall in Auchterarder on 16th November. Maybe we will see you there?
Frank Taylor FNVS Chairman Scottish Branch
Again, on the positive
front, this year we were
given the opportunity to
give a demonstration in the
newly refurbished part of
the walled garden at Scone
Palace. We used that to
show the public how to
plant and look after some of
the vegetables being sold
on our sales table and that seemed to go down very well.
visit on the Isle of Bute. We were able to visit Ardencraig Gardens where there
were some fabulous bedding displays
as well as some impressive planting in their glasshouses. Our next stop was the gardens of Mount Stuart, the Ancestral home of the Marquesses of Bute and
this is set against a backdrop of the Firth
of Clyde. The house is huge and reflects the opulence of years long past and it is difficult to imagine that anyone could afford to build such a huge mansion nowadays. The vegetable planting in the gardens for
With the ying of course normally
comes the yang and this year we had to disappoint many of our customers because less than a fortnight before the event, we were informed by our usual supplier of leek transplants that they had had a crop failure and had none for us. We were looking for more than 6,000 leeks so I’m sure you can all imagine the panic that set in. We did manage to get a small supply from local plant nurseries for which we were very
42 Simply Vegetables