It has been just over a year ago that I was elected to become the Show Secretary of my local horticultural society. At the age of 22, I believe I may be one of the youngest Show Secretary’s ever! Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed my first year in the role.
The first job of the year is to compile the Show Schedule for the year ahead. The Show Schedule includes, among other things, social event dates, show dates and show details. New for this year was some sponsorship from a local garden centre. This boosted the society funds as well as covering the costs of printing the Show Schedule. I carefully went through page by page making the alterations necessary. At the same time I wanted to ensure that I did not change too much too quickly. I was pleased with the finished result given I had never done anything like it before.
As I discussed in my previous blog part of my new role involved running the annual seed potato growing competition. For 2017, I managed to secure sponsorship of the competition from Thompson & Morgan. With their help we had nearly three times the number of potato bags returned compared to the year before. I would consider the potato competition to be the highlight of my first year as Show Secretary.
Our first major show of the year is our Summer Show in June. This takes a good deal of organisation beforehand from the advertising, judge booking and setting up of the hall itself. The judge was impressed with the exhibits on show given we are a small village society. The show was also well received by the visiting public. The one mistake I made was booking a family holiday for the same week. After the show was all packed up I headed up to Norfolk to join the rest of family. I will be sure to check the diary next year!
The biggest event in the Show Secretary’s calendar is the Autumn Show in September. Having shown for a few years now this day is stressful enough as an exhibitor. This year I had the added pressure of also running the day as well. Being organised was the key to success of the day. To my amazement we had 242 entries. This is the most entries we have had in at least 10 years. In fact there was so much to judge the judging finished just as the doors opened to the public! The whole day made me proud to be a part of such a thriving horticultural society.
I have learned an awful lot from my first year on the job. I would also like to thank all of those who have helped and supported me throughout the year. One of the biggest challenges I have faced is not changing too much too soon. My main goal is to try and encourage more young people to get involved with growing and showing. Having thoroughly enjoyed my first year I look forward to learning from my mistakes and building on the successes in 2018.
My name is Thomas Carpenter and I live in Essex. At my home I have a vegetable patch and greenhouse where I grow a range of flowers and vegetables for both the show bench and for eating. I am the Show Secretary for my local horticultural society and have been a member there for the last eight years. Currently I am in training with the Essex Guild of Horticultural Judges and the National Vegetable Society. I have a real passion for growing and showing vegetables as well as encouraging children and young people to get involved with horticulture.
The humble parsnip, a mainstay of the Sunday Roast has been cultivated since the Ancient Greek and Roman times. Long before Sugar Canes were harvested this tapered cylindrical cream coloured vegetable acted as a sweetener for foods. Originating in Eurasia (Europe and Asia) and closely related to both carrots and Parsley this root can be eaten in both its cooked and raw forms.
Measuring Scales.
Peel and Dice as many parsnips as it takes to measure 500g. If you have an electric steamer cook them until they are soft enough to mash around ten to twelve minutes. If you intend to boil the parsnips do not use salt as this recipe does not require salt.
Use a scone/pastry cutter to cut the scones and place them on the baking tray. Re-roll the leftovers until you have used all the dough.
Slice and fill with pickle/chutney and cheese.
In “The Office” I managed to keep the Yellow Suffer Tomato going until the second week of December before it finally succumbed to blight. I didn’t manage to put the amaranths seedlings into individual pots as I found it too cold for me, and with the nerve damage in my fingers I kept dropping things with my woolly gloves on. I tried thin gloves but once the cold was in my fingers I couldn’t do anything anyway. So now I’m at the stage of just checking the pots every few days and just giving the plants a tiny drink of water if the compost is mostly dry. I can’t risk watering them after 3pm in case there is a frost, but as they are still growing I can’t let them get stressed or dehydrated either – it’s harder than keeping them alive in the summer!
My Snow Princess Calendulas are getting far too big for their 3 inch pots, I didn’t put them in the Ty Mawr borders as I wanted to keep these separate from the yellow/orange ones, mainly because I want to see how they perform outside and to collect some seeds heads once they are spent. There is a tiny turnip that seems to be semi dormant, and a few tiny lavenders just freshly hatched from their pods. The violas are flowering like mad making the greenhouse smell divine. The Larkspurs are about 4 inches and the remaining cornflowers are about 6 inches high. There is still no sign of the grasses, or Liatris, Foxgloves, Red Hot Pokers or olive trees, there is however lots of little Heleniums popping up in the seed trays. Sadly the hyacinths didn’t come back, but I can still feel the corms so I’ll leave them for a bit longer. In the border of course are the house plants as well as Aloe Vera’s and money tree.
Back in the summer I won blogger of the month with “The Sentimental Gardener” and used the prize money/gift voucher to bag myself an 
