And the winner is … (allotment competitions)
We had twelve entrants for the sunflower competition, although when we visited some of the plots, no sunflowers were to be seen! All the entrants had to be children, which ruled out some overly competitive types (Himself for a start!) who were ineligible through age!Our tallest sunflower was grown by Hannah, and it was 9’ 9” tall – see how staunchly Imperial we still are? The sunflower with the biggest face was grown by Brendan, and it was a whopping 18” exactly across.
The onion competition had fewer entrants, which was a little disappointing, especially as the first prize was substantial (£50!) However, all the entries were very good in terms of weight, shape and condition, so we decided to give marks for three criteria: weight, size and appearance. Our winner was grown by an adult, who just pipped a twelve-year old onion-grower to the top spot by one point! We were encouraged that the second-place onion was not only grown by a younger horticulturalist, but was grown organically.
So that’s the good stuff. The bad stuff is that having spent a lot of Bank Holiday Monday on 201, I stopped and looked back just before we left and it was as if we hadn’t been there. The only change I could see was the raised bed that I cleared out of bolting pak choi and lettuce to sow some mooli (probably too late but fingers are crossed) and the weed heap being taller than when we arrived. We have a serious weed problem, believe me! But the parsnips are looking good …Labels: allotment-competitions, allotment-onions, allotment-parsnips, allotment-sunflowers, organic-allotment
Posted by The Allotment Blogger on Tuesday, September 1, 2009
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5 Comments:
At least you have parsnips..I didn't even get 1...sniff!!
The parsnip is a much overlooked vegetable. Behind roast pumpkin, roast parsnip is probably my favourite vege.
Um, no, broad beans are number 1, which makes roast pumpkin number 2, which would put roast parsnip 3.
But then there's sweet corn, beets, spinach, silver beet, brussel sprouts, bok choi ...
Arh, I like em all. But parsnips are right up there :)
Wow, £50?
I've got the same bad weed problem on my plot. The difference is that I didn't spend bank holiday weekend trying to do anything about it, but instead went out with the family. I'm going to have to put some serious work in.
Ah, we are in a carrot failure loop Tanya, so I sympathise.
Mark, for me it's sweetcorn, petits pois, broad beans.
Jo, you're wiser than I am - and the weeds still win!
I've been allotmenting (on two different plots) for a total of about four years, but weeds (lots of them) have been a major feature of my experience. Luckily I quite enjoy weeding - instant rewards for your efforts. But what happens if you just keep on weeding? Without non-organic intervention does the situation eventually improve? Or is it something you just have to come to terms with?
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