We've had some real rough winds this week which have ripped all the panels out of my polycarbonate greenhouse; torn polycarb sheeting off the top of my shecafe which had been wired on and nailed. Despite this, i know our northern friends are experiencing much more inclement conditions with snowfall and gales.
Had a break from it all this morning and took John the Baptist and John Boswell (known from now on as The Boswell) to  see a mate of mine and to see his setup at home and then down to his allotment some 400 yards away.
My mate is Mick Poultney. Some of you may know him from when he appeared on BBCs Great British village show where he entered with his pot leeks. Some of you avid exhibitors, such as Simon (smithyveg) should know Mick from the likes of Malvern and such shows and, of course, the DA of the NVS.
Mick starts his leeks and onions off in the loft (hidden away from the missus) under a lamp and with bottom heat. God knows what his missus would have thought if she'd have come back to find three strange blokes climbing the stairs of her semi detached! Boswell thought it was a sex party but we were all disappointed to discover there were no half dressed women waiting for us when we got to the top!

Mick had got a nice lot of both blanch and pot leeks growing. Some from our Northern growers and some from Jimmy Dirden from Wednesbury. Hi onions had just been pricked out and were from Peter Glazebrook seeds. After the disappointment of no fun and frivolity with the opposite sex we moved down to Micks allotment where he is Chairman. Going through the powers that be, he recently developed a piece of waste ground from the council and has created several allotments for the disabled. One plot is all kitted out with raised beds for those in wheelchairs and with a wheelchair-accessible polytunnel. The other plot is for the 'walking disabled' and they too have their own polytunnel. Mick informs me work is still very much in progress and with his team of volunteers fast diminishing; the work will be carrying on for quite a while. But here is a pic to show how much hard work has gone into the project so far;l

With John the Baptist being very much a newbie to the world of show produce he was very interested in Micks methods- he left no stone unturned. He now knows Micks methods better than Mick himself!:

Mick is also chairman of Colley Gate gardening club (formerly Cradley gardening club) and having moved show venue Mick has had to move their trading sheds down to he allotment site. So, being an opportunist i took the pleasure of purchasing a bag of Levingtons M3 and some Maxicrop for a very good price. John the Baptist had a good spend and i know he was buying things he'd never even heard of until today! However, a good day was had by all and it was nice to have a look at someone elses plot for a change!

Brum, Brum!

Took a day off from the plots today and caught a train withsome friends to Birmingham City Centre to go and have a look at the German Christmas market there. We have been the last three years now and it's beginning to become somewhat of a tradition for us! It was a cold day with us having our first real significant frost but the sun was out and it was dry which was the main thing. Being as cold as it was, the famous Bull situated outside the Bullring had even put on a nice wooly jumper.

In desperate need ofsomething warm to drink we headed for one of the German bars, knowing something alcoholic would be available. As a change from the usual Gluhwein i opted for a very homosexual-sounding 'Men's Dream'. New to me, this drink turned out to be krakoa rum and cream- what a bostin drink! As you can see from a very merry me:-

...And a very merry Dad and John...

Well, its back to work tommorrow with more xmas trees to deal with. Should have the full 900ish total in by now and i'm expecting it to be a busy weekend with trees and wreaths.
The lights were nice in Brum, very festive. I bought some funny marshmallow things that got scoffed as we walked round and a stupid bird whistle thing that didn't even whistle. However... i did manage to get a photo of this rather dapper young man:-

Quite a handsome chap isn't he? Don't know who he was though!

Leeks and worm poo!

I cant believe twelve months have passed and its time to start the leeks off again. For the second year running i have ordered my blanch leeks from David Metcalfe (Pendle Improved) and i have some that Paul NVS kindly sent me. They are all under my T5 8 tube flourescent growlight with bottom heat and air temperature of no less thn 10oC.

Naturally, they look a little limp at the mo as they've only just been potted up. I'm using evergreen potting pro mix at this stage before moving onto M3 during the subsequent pot changes. Something i always like to include in my leek and onion mixes is wormcasts which, last year, i bought from a garden centre in the sale at £3.49 a tub. Now, however, they are £13.00 full price! So this is my back-up plan:

This is my own compost out of my wormery. This is in the greenhouse drying off a bit as its quite wet and 'claggy'. When its dried sufficiently i shall run this through i sieve before adding it to the compost when potting on my leeks. Another addition is SEER rockdust; a product which i've had great success with over the years.
And now to plug the great institution that is the NVS...The National Vegetable Society. A society that has something to offer every vegetable grower amateur or professional. Showman or not. Its full of like-minded and very helpful growers from across the country. Two very kind members i've had dealings with this year are Helen and Paul. Helen has kindly sent me some of her pot leeks and Paul his blanch leeks. My thanks go out to them. Cheers Guys! There is a great website for the NVS which is also home to their online forum where members can chat about their various growing techniques etc. If you are not a member (and i strongly advise becoming one) then there public pages also have some cracking advice and tips.
So whether its to talk about leeks, lights, onions or worm poo have a look at the NVS website today and see what you're missing...

The Pheasant Plucker

 I'm not the pheasant plucker,
     I'm the pheasant plucker's son,
     And I'm only plucking pheasants
     Till the pheasant plucker's come

You try saying it even before you've had a few!
Yesterda a good mate of mine rings me up with a very appealing offer of an oven-ready pheasant shot the the previous day. Well, how could one refuse such an offer? As it happens the pheasant arrived plucked and cooked. My mate had kindly done everything leaving the bird ready to be devoured.
I appreciate some people may find this sort of thing distasteful or offensive so if you feel as such and are reading this...GET A LIFE! After all it's n ature and we are top of the food chain.
Nobody loves the countryside as much as i do and i feel no anxiety of a pheasant now and again.
And, after all, its all good cos the feathers go on the compost heap and all thats wastedare the bones.
Such circumstances reminded me of the above song...go on see if YOU can say it without straying.LOL!

Top tatties...

Following a request from a certain seed potato supplier (mentioning no names...) i thought i'd dedicate this post to the one and only JBA seed potato merchants. I've never gone anywhere else for my tatties purely because the quality has always been spot on from JBA. Here are some pics of my various sets of tatties from this years shows...

These were a small set of Sherine.

Blue belle has been very consistent this year and has earnt me a nice deck of shiny red cards. Anyone who hasn't grown it before, please do so as they take some beating.

I came second to myself with this set of 'Amour'. Again, a very reliable variety and i have it on good authority that this is the one that was winning at the nationals. They're not the best set shape wise but the condition was good.

And finally, this was a set of 'Sherine' that i incorporated into a collection that was awarded a red card. As you can ...hopefully...see the spuds had a beautiful natural bloom, looking as if they had been polished.
All these spuds have been grown in polypots using only peat and nothing else. Maybe a dollop of FYM in the trench that the polypots sit in and that's that! Despite alot of growers losing the majority of their crop to scab rendering it unshowable, i still managed to find at least two good sets of each variety.
So, hats off to JBA potatoes for their first-rate service and top quality spuds. In fact i have already ordered next years seed.
P.s Iain- you can give me that £5 when you see me or just knock a hefty chunk of next years order!Lol!

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.

It's been a while...sorry folks!

WOW! Its been about 8 months since my last post- i hope somebody missed me! I cant believe where the time has gone. As gardeners yourselves, you know as well as i do how busy it can get at times but this year everybody seems to have been asking me to help them out or to do this or to do that. Only this friday just gone i was planting 9000 daffodil bulbs with a local primary school in the local park. It seems i shall be getting involved with yet another school gardening club and my commitments as vice chairman and letting officer continue to eat away at any spare time i seem to acquire.
Anyway enough about that, first of all i want to send my best wishes to Smithyveg (Simon) after his recent scare. Here's hoping that little Oscar soon gets better mate!
Seen we last spoke, the show season has finished and what a year i've had. I entered 8 shows in total and came away with at least one trophy from each one. Also, i was awarded best in show at three of them. I've been in four newspapers with my winning leeks and chrysanthemums. Even Garden News phoned me last week to see if i was interested in having a xanth ad in next month- didn't bother far too expensive for me!

My collection at Belbroughton.

Collection at Chaddersley Corbett.

Vase of five 'Cornetto' at Stourport. Awarded most points in xanths in the whole show- well pleased.

Best in show with these three 'Gental Giant' dahlias.- that was a great surprise. These plants grew over 6ft tall! They were an absolute nightmare to cover as i hadn't intended them getting this tall!
Finally, i'll leave you with a picture of my 'Bluebelle' spuds. My tatties have done brilliantly this year and have stormed the shows. I grew bluebelle, sherine, amour and winston. 10 bags of each and had no problem in finding at least two sets of each variety...