Well, hasn’t it gone quickly, this Saturday will be 3 weeks until the show. At the moment I am busy making the show handbook and putting the final plans into place.
Firstly I would just like to set out a few instructions for the show.
- Please could you bring 2 sheets of cardboard, a hammer and some interesting flowers, petals, and leaves. All will become clear on the show day, and please, please remember to do this!!
- Check in your entries upon arrival otherwise your entries will not be counted. This all includes the mini competitions as well as the main one.
- Bring in a homemade recipe for the food show and you could always enter this into the food competition. This doesn’t need to be veggie based, it could be anything for example cakes.
- REMEMBER to bring your entries and have fun at the show.
Secondly just a reminder of the competitions.
There is the main competition, with the following categories…
- Tomatoes
- Vegetables
- Fruit
- Flowers and Herbs
Then there are the mini competitions, which are as following:
Potty Creations
This is a competition all about making the most interesting and striking planter. You can use the design rules or throw them out altogether and just have mix mash of colour. The only rule for this competition is that you must be able to bring it to the show.
The Best Garden
This is a simple competition in which you will only have to take a picture of your garden from April – August and mount them up in a colourful and eye catching way and bring them down to the show where they will be judged by each other.
The Grow your own Challenge
This is my favourite as the participants will have to grow the following 5 veggies (beetroot, carrots, lettuce, dwarf French beans and a tomato) and bring your produce to the show, and showcase them in an interesting way to will votes. This requires timing as you will have to grow them at the right time.
Finally I would just like to show you all my salad bed. It went a bit wrong early in the year, well June to be precise with all the salad bolting so I sowed it all up again but the flowers decided they were going to take over, especially the nasturtiums and poached eggs. You may have thought I will have cleared it all up but I decided to leave it and well the hoverflies absolutely adore it and with the sedum coming into flower the butterflies and bees are flocking to my garden and seem to all be congregating around my salad bed, so at the moment it’s the insect hub of the garden. That apart from my oak tree which also seems to be a big hit with the hoverflies too. Anyway below are the photos from the garden…
My sunflowers’ have started to come out but they are a bit strange as aren’t sunflowers’ supposed to face the sun, well one does and the other faces the complete opposite direction. It’s a bit strange but I would really recommend this sunflower. It’s a dwarf one called ‘choco sun’ but I would still put them in open ground as they will make strong sturdy multi headed plants.
This is one of my many calendula’s which are in full swing at the moment and are being adored by hoverflies as well as me!
This is a view across my salad bed, you can see what I mean with the sunflowers. You can see the nasturtiums taking over the sides of the beds and the calendulas to the left.
Anyway, keep a look out for more updates towards the show and have a good time this August in your gardens.
Anthony's Garden 