Every month in the run up to the Craft & Produce Show, the organisers will share hints and tips relating to one of the categories in the show. Check the Craft and Produce Show page for a complete list of hints and tips. This month Keith Dugmore offers advice about fruit and vegetables …

This year we have a few new classes in our Vegetable and Fruit section of the schedule and of course lots of old favourites to show on September 1st too.

This is the time of year though to start planning ahead either by purchasing your seeds or preparing the ground for growing…. Yes I know it’s only January but your Runner Bean trench needs preparing early!!!

Talking of Runner Beans, we are having a Longest Runner Bean class in the show this year and I was talking to one lady in the Village about this new class. She said she would be using Elephant dung on her beans. It made me think that her garden must be a sight bigger than mine if she keeps Elephants!

We also have a new class for the most interesting Gourd. These fruits are very easy to grow and are part of the Cucubitaceae family – marrows, squashes, and cucumbers to you and me. They are grown largely for ornamental reasons as they are not edible and come in lots of colourful shapes and sizes so we hope it makes an interesting class.

This year we are also separating the Apple class in two – eating apples and cooking apples, as our judge found it really difficult to decide the winner from the two different types of fruit at last year’s show.

So get started even if it’s just perusing the seed catalogues as you sit by the warm fireplace and start planning because spring is just around the corner!

Wishing you good gardening and good luck showing.

Keith Dugmore
Chairman of Whissendine Allotment Association