John the Baptist...

Earlier this year a chap i'd never met before came walking round the allotments looking, on the off chance, for someone who grew and had some spare xanth plants. Needless to say he found me after several people mentioning 'the young lad on plot 1' and i was more than happy to oblige. We got talking and he told me he had one and half plots several miles down the road. His name was John Knight now known as 'Knighty' or 'John the Baptist' and is a major in the salvation army and, funny as it seems, only lives in the next road from me! Naturally we have become very good friends and i have now given him the showing bug. Only yesterday i went up to his plot to see him and he had built a new xanth enclosure and dahlia frame, raised troughs for his onions and leeks and had a regimental line of half barrels lined up for his stump carrots.
I really wanted to encourage him so way back in April i sorted him out with some spare blanch leeks i had and told him which shows to put in for as a newbie. He has a a few successes and the bug has really bitten him now!

John hasn't got any form of lights or heating and these leeks were just grown outside under a make shift cover so he has done well. Each and every time he speaks to me he has built something else or has sent for another show veg catalogue! At just over 70 years old it just goes to show you can never be too old to join the showing game. If you know anyone who might have even the slightest flicker of interest in growing for show do all you can to encourage them. They'll get a lot of pleasure out of it but you'll get twice as much from getting them involved.