Well,after last year's mixed fortunes in my first exhibition growing attempt : fantastic Stump Rooted ones but very disappointing long ones,I am yet again going to have a go.

These were my winning specemins in the Stump Rooted class but the Long ones never did get anywhere due to me growing them in pipes rather than in sand like you're supposed to.

The Start.

Jan 13th

Well,It all starts here.

I thought I'd get a head start and sieve my compost in good time as it is a pretty tedious task.

This year I decided to make myself an industrial sized riddle.

I cut the bottom out of a Supermarket delivery crate and fixed a panel of 6mm galvanized mesh over the hole.

Compared to last year which took me almost a whole day using a tiny little sieve, combined with compost which seemed to be about 90% twigs,this year it was a breeze and it only took about an hour.

Like last year I just used bog standard multipurpose compost,this year however I used B&Q stuff which seems to be far superior and finer than last years stuff as I only sieved out about 20 litres of lumps.

It's also pretty high in peat content which won't please all the tree-huggers out there but it does make for better compost,as opposed to the recycled household waste based stuff which seems to have around 25% crisp packets,cat litter and broken glass in the mixture.

So that's about 150 litres of fine sieved compost done,which when mixed with all the sand and vermiculite will be around 200 litres of mix,which is more than enough for me.

Jan 27th.

Not much going on but I did manage to fill my sand boxes with washed concreting sand.

It took over a tonne to fill them and these are only big enough to grow around 18 in each.

But anyway this was a real pain in the arse of a job barrowing a tonne of sand across the wet muddy field,so I'm glad I've got it done.

So this is the place where it will all happen,or not.

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That's it for this week folks........ Don't forget to have a click or two below.

It's what keeps the site going.

Thanks a lot.

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