In the 1950s competition was fierce at the local village flower and garden produce shows.
Hello Ole Partners,
My gardening tips this month are focused on how to prune roses.
Bush roses. Remove diseased and very old growth with clean disinfected pruners and cut back to a healthy outward pointing bud. Be bold with remaining shoots and cut them back to an outward pointing bud too.
Lightly fork the soil around each bush and work in a small amount of high potash based fertilizer.
Climbing/rambler roses. Best way with these is to cut away from any supports and carefully fan the plant stems out on the ground. Select 3 or 4 of the strongest stems and tie back to the support, discard the rest. After three weeks remove any inward pointing buds from these stems to encourage air circulation and encourage stronger outward facing flowers.
Discarded stems can be cut in to 15” (38 cm) lengths to grow new plants from. Press the bases in hormone rooting powder. Dig a trench in the garden and place the stems in it so that they are 4” (10 cm) apart and have 4” (10 cm) showing above the ground. Pack the soil in tightly around them.
Watch these shoots carefully and cut off any flower buds to encourage root formation. Keep clear of greenfly. Next year you can dig them up and replant or give them away.
My favourite rose for scent is the traditional English variety Gertrude Jekyll. I love the scent of sweet peas too and this month I thought I would tell you a bit about my days growing flowers and vegetables to enter in competitions. In the 1950s local flower and produce shows were very popular. Spooner Row had an annual show in late July and I used to put my roses and sweet peas forward for judging along with vegetables from my garden. Many Wymondham people went to the same show so there was always a heavy entry. My biggest problem was getting all my entries there on my bicycle and, inevitably, some exhibits were damaged along the way. In 1955 I won four awards there: first and second for roses, second for onions, first for my sweet peas plus an Unwin's Smallholder’s Certificate of Merit for them too. I am very proud of that. Annette found it when she cleared my old home and you can see it below. The story of my wins also made it to the EDP.
I well remember my old friend Walter coming to see me one year, when I was not going to compete, to ask me to give him things to show as his. Cheating, really, I suppose. Well, I gave him a lettuce, cauliflower, cabbage and a few other things. He won five first prizes! Much to my annoyance he kept ALL the prize money for himself, didn’t give me so much as a penny. I thought to myself “I shan’t never give him anything again”. And I didn’t.
Another show I used to enter was at Winfarthing. Local farmer Sidney Cole employed a professionally qualified gardener and was quite sure at one particular show that he would beat me as a result of this clever intervention. I took first prize again. Goes to show that ‘proper’ gardeners don’t necessarily know as much as us amateurs.
Many families had a good sized garden and veg plot or access to an allotment. Growing their own veg was something men used to do when they came home from work. It was a cost-effective way of supplementing the food on the table and a way to relax too.
I’m right proud of the fact that when I bought my Bunwell house in 1958 for £1,500 I also managed to secure an extra 1.25 acres of land for just another £100! At the time people told me I was daft to pay that amount of money for it but, given current land prices, I doubt they would be laughing now – it proved to be a very good investment. I grew all sorts of vegetables over the years to eat myself and sell from my roadside stall and I grew chrysanthemums to sell to local florists and the public on that land. The chickens I kept in the orchard part of it paid their way with their eggs and the apples went to make cider as I’ve told you before. It more than paid back my initial expenditure.
Of course, you ate what was local and in season then, not much was available that was exotic or out of season. Food miles wasn’t a term I was familiar with neither. And home grown definitely tastes better than some of that watery rubbish you get shipped in from abroad. There’s a reason why British strawberries are tastier and best eaten in the summer!
These days, all them new homes are sold with postage stamp sized patches that I don’t know how house builders dare call a garden, but I suppose times and needs have changed. After all this time in lockdown though I expect many people have discovered how good it can be to get out in your own garden so perhaps we will see a resurgence in ‘grow your own’ as a result. I do hope so.
Until next time, moined ‘ow yer go.
Owen
First published in the Wymondham Magazine, March 2021
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