Page 65 - Simply Vegetables Autumn 2024

Welsh Branch
MEMBERS 40000 TO 49999
The end of July saw the return of horticultural classes at the Royal
Welsh Show. Our branch has staged a vegetable display for very many years and once again we planned to put up a display and man the stand for the week.
I know it’s a dangerous thing to start mentioning individual people because it’s easy to leave someone out by mistake, nevertheless I feel I must mention Cecil Townsend who stayed on site for four days with other committee members joining him on different days. I would also like to thank Alan Hopkins who grows so many superb different vegetables that made our display look top class. When you walked into that marquee you couldn’t fail to notice our exhibit. The competitive classes were down on what had been there in previous years, and it was chaotic on the Sunday at staging time. It was on a new site, new organisers, new staging times, but in the end we all mucked in and made it work.
In the vegetable section, Trevor Humphry was awarded the Silver Medal for his Hawksbury Wonder French beans. Pickling shallots and tomatoes also took my eye.
Our attention now turns to our Branch show at Oswestry on Saturday 31st August and Sunday 1st September. We have a presentation evening on Saturday evening at 7pm at Weston Pools Village, when all
exhibitors are very welcome to attend. On a personal note, the season started
very wet here in Wales as it did for the rest of the western side of the UK. I began to believe that I’d never get the ground ready for planting, let alone plant something out. I had broad bean plants ready and it was still raining, so in desperation I planted them in one of my polytunnel beds, thank goodness they were a dwarf type called Robin Hood (a lovely green seeded tender bean) because they grew a bit taller than the later batch that were later planted outside, the advantage was they never got chocolate spot and they pollinated higher up the plant and the yield was 50% up on the outdoor batch. Eventually on 23rd April the soil had dried out (just about) enough to put the rotavator over my veg patch.
I had dug it in a dry spell in December and I managed to get three trailer loads of rotted horse manure after digging. Before rotavating, I spread 4oz blood fish & bone and an ounce of Perlka per square yard. I planted my potatoes on 25th April, on my normal date, so it just shows we gardeners need to be patient.
Tomatoes and cucumbers have been slow here in my 700ft above sea level garden here in the Rhondda Valley, likewise runner beans, we’re digging potatoes, cabbages and cauliflowers and now we are beginning to pick peas.
I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at Oswestry on the 31st August.
Ivor Mace
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