Allotment Growing

Allotment & Vegetable Gardening

Articles About Growing & Showing Vegetables from Medwyn Williams MBE FNVS Chairman of the National Vegetable Society

These articles were originally published in 2005

Ten-times Chelsea gold medal winner Medwyn Williams is an expert vegetable grower with decades of experience. He has kindly allowed the National Vegetable Society to re-publish them.

The individual article links will open a new window with the article on the NVS web site.

• Vegetable Growing and Showing 1996
• Vegetable Growing and Showing 1997
• Vegetable Growing and Showing 1998
• Vegetable Growing and Showing 1999
• Vegetable Growing and Showing 2000
• Vegetable Growing and Showing 2001
• Vegetable Growing and Showing 2002
• Vegetable Growing and Showing 2003
• Vegetable Growing and Showing 2004
• Vegetable Growing and Showing 2005

Parsnip House Saga from 5th January

I know I can grow good parsnips, if I could only get them sown on time, last year was during early March which for me just isn"t early enough to have sufficient weight on them. This year I intend to have them sown around mid February which gives the plants an extra two to three weeks of growth which can put that extra bit of weight down the body towards the end of August, early September.

Growing Rhubarb from 8th January

Rhubarb is classified as a vegetable in all gardening books and show schedules, but always eaten as a fruit. Indeed a vast number of cultivars that we routinely classify as vegetables are in fact botanically classified as fruits. Any vegetable that develops from the flower is a fruit, a good example being peas and beans whilst all the peppers, chilis and Aubergines also fall into the Botanical classification of fruit yet are eaten and exhibited as vegetables.

Onions - Keeping the Stems Straight from 12th January

There's nothing worse after potting up your onion plants to see them all flopping about in their pots, very often leaning across each other. This is really as bad as it can get, because if the onions are going to be left to their own devices, they will soon be bent. This will inevitably happen low down on the stem of the plant, the very area which needs to be as upright as possible in order to ensure that later on, your onions will have good shape or, more importantly, good form.

Raised Beds - Organic Material and Cleaning the Tunnel Covers from 19th January

This winter, through a friend of mine, I was able to get two car trailer loads of some beautifully composted leaves and grass cuttings that must have been piled up in a huge heap for many years. As soon as I put the fork into it, the red worms were evident right through it and the whole heap had thoroughly broken down to a black manure like consistency. Each bed was given about two barrowfuls and thoroughly worked into the top and bottom spit. As the polythene over the tunnels is still in remarkably good shape I have decided once again to leave it for another season before replacing it. It will however be given a good washing down adding a strong solution of Armillatox to a bucket of water.

Mixes for Onions from 26th January

Last year I had a visit to Westlands factory over in Dungannon Ireland and I was really impressed with the standard of all the products. Their peat is Irish moss and the feel of the compost range is beautiful to handle. Whilst there I was shown the quality of the soil that they use to create their own Top Soil in a bag and it really felt good to the touch.

Greenhouses - A Necessity from 29th January

Some people consider purchasing a greenhouse to be a luxury that they can well do without. Personally I couldn't manage without one and if you are going to enjoy gardening to the full, then it almost becomes a necessity. Now is therefore as good a time as any to consider purchasing one as it will give you time to have it in order and ready for Spring.

Growing Potatoes for the Show Bench from 2nd February

If you haven"t got you seed potatoes ordered just yet, then you must get a move on as you have to get them really chitted in order to get the best possible start. The varieties to select are important if you are to stand a chance of winning at any of the shows. Naturally there are other excellent varieties around that may well beat some of the show varieties for flavour, but they certainly won’t beat them on the show bench.

Growing Your Own Vegetables and Herbs - Parsley, Lettuce and Onions from 12th February

Parsley - can often be haphazard in germinating and often takes well over three weeks to pop their heads through the soil. Due to the risk of poor germination I much prefer to sow my parsley in trays in the greenhouse rather than directly outside in the soil. Lettuce - we now have such a wide range of colours, textures and form that makes the humble lettuce much more appealing and even worth growing on the edge of a flower border. Onions - there’s no doubt that onions sets are certainly a boon to growers, none of the hassle of sowing seed, waiting for the germination and then titivating them through their seedling stage until you are able to plant them out.

Days Gone By from 16th February

What a difference there is now in the general technique of growing to what it was then. Also both the quality and size of nearly all the root vegetables as well as onions and leeks have undoubtedly improved dramatically. There was no talk about covers and polytunnels, and even if there was, I probably couldn"t have afforded them at the time whilst still bringing up a young family.

Artificial Lighting - Getting ready for Chelsea and the Summer Shows from 23rd February

If you are using artificial lights I would switch them off totally now and remove any panels or covering that you have if they are growing inside a growing cabinet like mine would be. This is of course the shortest month, within a week we shall be in March, so give the plants plenty of air, open the roof lights wide on nice sunny days. In other words, start to gently harden the plants off for planting out in their beds, under covers, around mid April.

Tomatoes - The Second Most Produced and Consumed Vegetable Nationwide from 26th February

There's no doubt that our breeders and growers produce some lovely tomatoes for our supermarkets, but they are as nothing compared with eating your own fruit, straight from the truss. Tomatoes are the second most produced and consumed vegetable nationwide and really fall into three categories or groups.

Sowing Your Tomato Seed for the Show Bench from 2nd March

As soon as you can after St Davids day, the 1st March, set aside a little time to sow your tomato seed for the show bench. You really need to get the seed in this early in order to be picking you best shaped fruit from the second truss upwards with the very best coming from the third and fourth trusses.

To Rotivate or Not to Rotivate? from 12th March

Whether or not to use a rotavator directly on previously un dug soil is always a contentious question and it really depends on the nature of your soil. Heavy clay soils will cause the most trouble if you use the rotavator straight on it, particularly if the soil is wet.

Keeping to Alloted Time Scale from 16th March

The tasks are invariably the same annually, but I have rarely achieved them all at my percieved time scale. In the main I'm referring to any changes in growing preparations such as new beds or clean sand etc, achieving your sowing dates and getting compost mixes prepared on time.

Emptying out and refilling of the Long Carrot Drums from 23rd March

A chore that must be carried out every year is the emptying out and refilling of my long carrot drums. A few years ago, in an attempt to save a little time carrying out this quite physical task, I opted to leave them as they were and the resulting carrots were definitely not up to expectations.

Get Yourself a Diary from 30th March

If you are really keen on showing your vegetables, or even on just how well your vegetables performed on any given season, then get yourself a diary. It could prove to be the difference between winning the red card and being an also ran. Never forget, dates are important, the weather is important and the special mixes you make are important, write them all down at the end of the day. Use your diary properly, don’t just make sweeping statements such as ‘sowed my carrots today’ Next year, when you look back you’ll see this and wonder, ‘did I sow my long carrots – or were they the short, what sort of mix was it – was the weather mild etc. No detail is too small to go in the diary.

Preparing the Short Carrots Bed and What to Replace Gringo With from 6th April

With the demise of Gringo, what carrot to grow for exhibiting when the beds are prepared is the question on Medwyn's mind.

Using your Cold Greenhouse or Polytunnel for Cucurbits from 9th April

The cucurbits family includes the various cucumbers that are available as well as courgettes and pumpkins and the non edible ornamental gourds. They are certainly tender plants that would definitely suffer if they were exposed to a degree of frost. However, if you have some horticultural fleece close to hand, you should be able to harvest some lovely ripe fruit from the end of June onwards.

Sowing Short Carrots - Corrie and Gringo from 13th April

When I was growing the short carrot variety Corrie, some years ago by now, I used to win with it at the highest level from a sowing made during the first week of May and staged from the end of August. When the variety Gringo came on the scene it was only natural for me to sow it at the same time as Corrie, but I was initially struggling to get a set. The carrots had not developed to their optimum and therefore I decided to sow them around mid April for the end of August shows and another sowing a fortnight later for the mid September ones.

2004's Late Planting of Onions from 20th April

Planting later naturally meant that the onions needed to be in larger pots which is a change from my usual pattern of planting out from a relatively small pot. The reason for the strong plants was certainly as a result of adding Nutrimate to the potting up mixture, the foliage was powerful and standing bolt upright.

Vegetables for Chelsea Flower Show - Celery from 27th April

Easter was early this year and it certainly brought with it some glorious weather which has, to some extent, stayed with us for most of the time. This means that my plants for the Chelsea Flower Show have certainly moved on by leaps and bounds. One plant that definitely does respond quickly to the warm sunny weather is celery, and as it’s a bog plant in it’s natural environment, plenty of water together with the warmth and adequate ventilation will see the plants gallop ahead.

Runner Beans - Pretty and tasty but not an easy crop from 7th May

They are probably the most popular of all the vegetable varieties and during the summer months their red or white flowers can be seen scrambling up bamboo wigwams, plastic mesh or even canes placed in a straight row. Don"t however think that they are an easy crop, they may well grow and produce flowers, but if the preparation has been less than thorough then the beans will be less than satisfactory as well.

Lack of Space in the Greenhouses from 9th May

The fact is that the pressure for space is unlikely to go away either until the season progresses and it's time to plant out some of the material. The fight for room, with the constant juggling of plants around can be a real headache.

Potatoes for Chelsea from 11th May

The potatoes for Chelsea are looking extremely good at the moment, the haulms have been tied three times to prevent them from falling over on to the concrete floor. Incidentally this will be my tenth and last Chelsea Show and I just hope that the raw material is there so that I a can create a display worthy of another RHS Gold medal which will be my tenth consecutively.

Millennium Class from 18th May

The class consists of the following - A collection of Five Kinds of Vegetables –Four of each kind. Potatoes: white or coloured; Carrots: stump rooted; Beetroot: Globe; Tomatoes; Onions, each onion must not exceed 250 grams. Displayed in an area 30cm frontage (12”). Plates provided, no other staging materials allowed.

Traditional Trench Celery versus Self Blanching Celery from 21st May

The difference basically between the two is that the trench variety needs to be earthed up in stages to blanch the stems where as the self blanching type needs to be planted in blocks or squares to blanch itself. The trench type certainly requires more commitment to thorough ground preparation but has, in my opinion, a far superior flavour.

Prioritising gardening needs in preparation for absence from 25th May

All this week will be spent at the Chelsea Flower Show, being absent from my garden therefore for the most part of two weeks means that I have to really prioritise what needs looking after.