Page 60 - Simply Veg 1 2024

Kent DA
What a busy year we had in Kent in 2023 with DA meetings, a garden visit, our plant sale, and many good shows around the county.
Since my last report, we’ve had three
DA meetings at Bridge. On a lovely August evening we had a visit to the kitchen garden at The Pig at Bridge where we enjoyed a guided tour with the Head Kitchen Gardener. The Pig is a hotel and restaurant, and I was expecting to see a small kitchen garden. What a surprise to find a very large garden packed with many different (and some unusual) kinds of vegetables, fruit, and herbs. As the garden is built on a flood plain, it is laid out mainly with raised beds and all was presented immaculately with not a weed in sight! We were back at the village hall in Bridge for talks on Tomato Fertigation in September and The National Fruit Collection in October. Brogdale Farm in Faversham is the home of the fruit collection. Set in 150 acres it has one of the largest collections of fruit trees in the world with public access. There are over 2100 different varieties of apples alone. Plus, pears, cherries, plums, quince, medlars, nuts and grapes. Our speaker is one of the tour guides and he gave a comprehensive insight into the important work carried out at Brogdale. After the talk we were able to partake in an apple tasting session!
Our Kent DA Show took place in September at Wingham Village Hall. Thank you to everyone, from the show organisers to the exhibitors, who worked so hard
to make the weekend the great success
it was. Special thanks go to our Show Secretary, Gordon Francis and Mick and Linda Beer for all they do in arranging the hall and providing the catering. We had some changes to the schedule this year with the number of specimens required
in some classes being reduced and the introduction of a class for a collection of ‘Five Kinds of Vegetables,’ one specimen
of each kind. This new class attracted a good number of entries and some keen competition. Well done to all the exhibitors who filled the benches with their lovely vegetables. Congratulations go to Roger Simmons who won the best in show with his parsnip entry and to Peter Ellis who
had most points and for winning our new trophy ‘ The Geoff Prior FNVS Perpetual Bowl’ for his dish of cherry tomatoes.
For all the Show results please see the accompanying table.
Kent DA Affiliated Society Shows
I thought that it would be good to mention a few of the shows that have been put on by some of our affiliated societies in 2023.
The Edenbridge and Oxted Agricultural Show took place over the August
Bank Holiday weekend. A new, smaller horticultural tent had been relocated within the showground. Numbers of entries
in the vegetable section were down on previous years which was disappointing. Nevertheless, there were some good quality exhibits with two NVS members doing very well. Chris Spree won the Championship Vegetable Collection, plus the onion and potato collection classes and Barry Newman won the Master Gardener Competition and The Edenbridge Trug.
Eastry Horticultural Society was founded in 1879 and must be one of the oldest clubs in the county. They are well known for putting on a very good show and their Autumn Show was no exception. The quality of the exhibits was very good. Mick Beer won the prize for best exhibit with a fine dish of sweetcorn and Trevor Burton won all the tomato classes.
Tonbridge Garden Club had their Autumn Show in late August and had been awarded a NVS Plaque for the medium
tomato class. There were eight entries, and the competition was very close. Congratulations go to the winner Stephen Buckley.
Newly affiliated to the NVS, The Kent Federation of Horticultural Societies was founded in 1938 and represents well
over 10,000 members from around 140 affiliated societies. The KFHS Autumn Show was held at the Ditton Community Centre in September where there were classes for flowers, fruit, vegetables, home economics and craft. The standard of
the show was very high in all sections. Stockbury Gardeners won the Inter-Society Challenge, Class 1 Members’ Choice, which is a display of four items taken from a list covering all the show sections. In
the vegetable classes, Chris Spree won both the Onion and Potato Championship classes. The Federation Tray, a collection of three kinds of vegetables, went to Roger Simmons. Peter Ellis won best in show, for his dish of small-fruited tomatoes, and he also won the RHS Banksian Medal. Full show results may be found on the KFHS website, www.kentfed.com.
A late Autumn Show in mid-October was put on by Upchurch Horticultural Society in a wonderful old French barn which was carefully dismantled, shipped over, renovated, and re-built in the village. Although entry numbers were a bit down compared with previous years, it was a good show in a lovely setting. Stewart Corke won best in show for his mini
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