Page 52 - Simply Vegetables Spring 2025

Annual Seminar – November 2024
A buzz of excitement and anticipation
flew round the Aytoun Hall at
Auchterarder as 90 of our members and
friends, old and new, started flooding
through the doors. Hmmm, what to do
first?
There were so many fabulous commercial
stands with people on hand to chat and
provide guidance, ideas and food for
thought and of course the Scottish Branch
Sales table (ran by Alistair Gray and Will
Loudon and Neil Muirhead), full of seeds,
seed potatoes, leek plants, you name it, we
had it , or to have a look through the wide
range of free Unwin’s seeds courtesy of
Marshalls ( from Scone Palace earlier in the
year, thankyou). Pre-orders of potato bags
were ready for pick up (which had been
organised by Fiona Shenfield) as were pre-
orders from Fountainhall Garden Supplies,
thanks to Jim Mercer. Upon paying their
entry at the door, each member was given
a goody bag by Ian MacPhee and Neil
Muirhead– which was full of fabulous gifts,
samples and information. The amazing
goody bags were thanks to the work of
Gavin Thomson of Premier Hydroponics,
Broxburn, his commercial suppliers and
the Scottish branch, of which Gavin is a
member. A shout out to thank CANNA
who had gone to the effort of producing
enamel mugs (great for the garden) with
the CANNA logo on one side and the NVS
logo on the other side, thank you. We had
a “veganic” fertiliser pack, and Ecothrive’s
“flourish” and “trace” fertilisers, Growth
Technology’s CLONEX Pro Start nutrients,
Terra Aquatica’s Fulvic Acid plant tonic, plus
a bottle of SB Plant invigorator and a spray
bottle courtesy of the branch ( ordered
from Premier Hydroponics), The goody bag
also included some fabulous magazines
“Garden Culture” magazines in addition
to their colourful display of magazines
available to take away on the day. This
Magazine is published in Quebec and is
dedicated to home growing and bringing
the latest knowledge and innovations to
gardeners worldwide. Other interesting
leaflets, pens, notebooks and gardening
gloves and lanyards were also in the mix of
giveaways, as were a big qty of Maxibright
“daylight” hessian bags – which were ideal
for carrying seed potatoes.
I mentioned Gavin Thomson earlier, a
man who’s not too keen on the limelight,
but is 200% keen on growing vegetables...
what Gavin doesn’t now about fertilisers,
climate control, environmental needs of
plants is not worth knowing. Between
Gavin’s infectious sharing of information,
either personally or via the commercial
visitors, this added to a fabulous day. New
to the Seminar this year was Shogun and
there was great interest in their fertiliser
products. Shogun generously provided
several raffle prizes, including two 5Ltr
containers of Shogun Sumo Active Boost
(valued at £150) which can be used as
a root or foliar feed which enhances the
plant’s ability to take up nutrients. as well
as over 20 packs of their multi packs
(each valued at £50), each pack contained
specially formulated nutrient blends,
supplements, and boosters. Mills Nutrients
were on hand with their products and also
generously supplied over 15 Mills Starter
packs containing a range of great products
from silica through to root enhancers and
base nutrients. (each pack valued £50). All
of the starter packs were placed in a free
raffle for all the attendees at the Seminar
(who had each been given a unique
number upon arrival). Once again AutoPots
very generously supported the Seminar
with great displays and three fabulous raffle
prizes of a x4pot 15Ltr system ( valued
£150) a Tray2Grow system (valued £75) and
a x2pot Easy2grow system (valued £75) ,
Maxibright lighting supported the Seminar
with an illuminating lighting display and two
great raffle prizes of a Daylight 660W LED
lighting system (value £600) and a Daylight
480W LED lighting system (value £500).
Simon Smith, one of our speakers for the
day was delighted to have won one of the
lighting systems and posted a photo on
our members site at the end of December
to show his Boulsworth Leeks (courtesy of
Neil Muirhead) which were growing away
happily under their new lighting system.
1st cuppa of the day over and our
Chair, Frank Taylor, welcomed everyone,
highlighted a few members who had
travelled a long way to attend including
our Vice Chair, Ray Higgins plus Midlands
Branch Members John and Julie Lowe,
before he handed over to Hoss Martin, who
is our new Master of Ceremonies.
Frank also took the opportunity to present
Alistar Gray with The Cockney Goblet - a
trophy awarded for the best exhibit at the
Scottish Branch Championships. This
trophy had been sent away to be re-plated
and is now looking worthy of being a “Best
in Show” trophy once more.
Our first key speaker was Paul Grimes.
A fantastic long root grower, Paul had
travelled up from Shropshire and shared
with us how he grows long carrots and
parsnips. Paul also brought a splendid
example long carrot with him which was
marvelled at by all.
Next up was Fiona Shenfield, who
presented slides from the Scottish Branch
Championships , followed by the National
Championships and the popular “Scots
Abroad” slides .
With the first two talks completed, we
stopped for lunch which gave everyone the
chance to chat, eat, wheel and deal and
work their way around the various trade
stands and the sales table. Thankyou to all
our committee members who also helped
out by making up all the filled rolls for the
day. (Jim Williams brought the popular
sausage rolls, but unfortunately Liz had left
Jim in charge of the oven this year , and
he’d managed to put the grill on in error
and burnt the tops of the 1st batch - oops
– more training at home required by Jan ha
ha).
Throughout the day, Fred Stewart and
Jean Thomson were on hand to manage
membership renewals, Bill Duff sold 200
club tickets and George Bartling led the
Goody bags Interest in the new SHOGUN Fertiliser Raffle table
52 Simply Vegetables