Well done to everyone who entered the village show last month, the hall looked splendid. Hopefully, everyone (especially first-timers) enjoyed themselves and got a certificate or two to reward their efforts. We certainly met some people who were having a first go and had surprised themselves with how well they’d done.

Now it is back to general garden care. October marks the change from late summer to early autumn. While there may be glorious days, we will start to get much colder nights and could see the first frosts.

Until the frosts arrive, flowers like Dahlias, Echinacea, Rudbeckia and Gaillardia will all continue flowering. Keep dead-heading to prolong the welcome colour they provide. Similarly, roses might still be flowering, but reduce the height by about a third so that they won’t rock in the autumn winds and disturb the roots. If you have had any blackspot, make sure that you clear away all the foliage and dispose of it (not to compost) so that spores cannot over-winter.

A Cookham flower border in mid-October

Our Dahlias October 2019

Once we’ve had the first frost, then the foliage of Dahlias will die back almost immediately and you can then cut back the top growth and either lift or leave the tubers as you prefer.  Classically, Dahlia tubers were lifted and stored over the winter, but in our area they have a pretty good survival rate if left in the ground.  The tubers won’t tolerate prolonged wet and cold, so if your garden is likely to have these conditions, then best to lift.

Grass growth slows down as the temperature drops. Even if you don’t want to treat your lawns with a fertiliser/weed killer, it’s a good time to scarify and aerate. This will allow both air and light to reach the base of the plants.  For small areas a lawn rake and a bit of effort will give good results, but for larger lawns it is worth trying a machine.  Scarifiers can be hired for about £40 per day.

Finally, start looking forward to next year by planting spring flowering bulbs. The earlier you get them in the ground, the more their roots will develop this year, leading to better displays come the spring. Hold off planting tulips until November to reduce the risk of tulip fire.

Snowdrops in January – a sign that the next spring is on its way.

Now is the time to get your entries ready, so first and foremost don’t forget to actually enter. Entry Forms are in the Cookham Dean Fete programme.  This delivered to some parts of Cookham, but is also available online here. Entries need to be with Janet Shanks by 6pm Thursday 12th September at 144, Whyteladyes Lane Cookham Rise SL6 9LA with entry fees (50p per class).  Further information and hard copies of the Fete programme are available from Janet (01628 525576 or penfoldshanks@btinternet.com).

In the week or so before the deadline look at your produce to see which classes you can enter, taking careful note of the schedule and the numbers required for each class. A bit like politics, the first requirement of showing is the ability to count.  Three carrots means three, not “the two best ones I’ve got” or “four because I’ve got loads of lovely ones”. If you have got spares then take them with you for set up on the morning of Saturday 14th in case of damage in transit. Flowers in particular are fragile.

As well as counting your exhibits, don’t forget to read the rules (also in the Fete programme).  For example in the “Top Tray” collection class, the rules state that “The vegetables must be displayed within an area measuring 18″ by 24″ without bending any part of them“.  Other rules state that “Carrots and parsnips should have foliage trimmed back to 3“, “Peas and beans should be displayed with some stalk attached” and  “Tomatoes must be displayed with calyxes (the green flower bud case)“.

The show is judged by RHS rules, so the true nerd could get a copy of the Society’s Horticultural Show Handbook.

RHS Horticultural Show Handbook

This very helpful little book gives advice on preparing fruit, vegetables and flowers for show and also explains the judging criteria.  For example for dessert apples, the merits are described as “Optimum-sized shapely fruits with eyes and stalks intact and clear unblemished skins of the natural colour characteristics of the cultivar“.  Defects are described as “Fruits that are too small or too large, mis-shapen, over-ripe or soft or that have damaged eyes or lack stalks or are not well coloured, or have any blemish, including evidence of any physiological disorder such as bitter-pit or glassiness“.  Then the available points for an exhibit are set out as follows:

• Condition 6 Points
• Uniformity 6 Points
• Suitability of size 4
• Colour 4 Points
• Giving a total of 20 points.

There are similar scoring systems for all classes, so to get good scores you are looking for pest and disease free and matching sets. Better to have six identical runner beans than your biggest six, which happen to be different shapes and sizes.  The picture below shows the squashes from the 2017 Cookham show, first prize went to the ones at the back left, which are certainly not the largest, but are in good condition and are easily the best matched pair.

Squashes at the 2017 show

Clean, but don’t polish fruit and veg. If you are entering alliums, tie up the necks of onions and garlic with raffia, similarly with root vegetables leave three inches of the leaves and tie them up. For the giant classes weight is all that matters; so don’t bother prettifying these.

For most entries freshness matters, for example one of the runner beans will often be snapped by the judge to check freshness.  This means that if you can, it is a good idea to put aside some time on Friday 13th for harvesting and preparing. Wrap beans and carrots in damp tea towels and pop them in the fridge overnight to keep them crisp.

There is a two hour slot for staging exhibits between 9am and 11am on Saturday the 14th, when there will be people from the Cookham Horticultural Society around to help if you need it.  The hall will be cleared at 11 for judging, so it is probably best to arrive early if you can.

Most importantly, if you are having a bash at the show this year, have fun and good luck to all of you.

With only weeks to go until the Cookham Show, everything is now on the way. “All” that is left to do is to make sure that your flowers, fruit and vegetables are in the best possible shape for the 14th of September.

It is more important that exhibits are as healthy as possible than simply growing whoppers. It is therefore crucial to keep going with weeding, watering and feeding and checking for pests and diseases. Pest and disease free is a major consideration for judges.

Even if it seems dry, don’t water root crops as this may cause forking and splitting, instead you can rely on the tap roots of carrots and parsnips to keep driving down searching for water.  On the other hand, members of the cucurbit family (squashes etc.) and beans are extremely thirsty and may need additional watering to keep them healthy.

You can start harvesting some exhibits now. Hard skinned squashes such as butternut and Uchiki Kuri will be ripening in August, so start looking for matching pairs.

Is there a matching pair here?

You may well be lifting main crop potatoes. While cleaning them up ready for storage, look for matching sets of three that you can put aside for the show (about 200g is the perfect size).

It is surprising how hard it is to find three that match in a bucket of spuds

Onions, shallots and garlic should all be drying for storage (and showing) so your entry list is growing already. You may also be picking early maturing apples.

Onions from an RHS show

However, for many entries, freshness is vital so select root crops, beans, tomatoes and soft fruit in the days before the show. For sweet and chilli peppers ripeness is a factor, so leave them on the plants as long as possible to get full colour change.

All things being equal the prizes will go to the ripe ones

Next month – final preparations!