This year's Summer Show has been a tearaway success. There were about four times as many people exhibiting as last year, with more than 200 entries in vegetable, fruit, flower and cookery categories. With valuable prizes for entries and a pile of gardening-related raffle prizes, many allotmenteers and visitors alike went home winners.
Fruit, vegetables, cakes and preserves rapidly filled the hall and soon all the tables available were so jammed that no amount of re-arranging could make more space. Vegetable marrows and the 'Any Other Vegetable Not Separately Classed' category - where all the unusual to downright weird varieties jostle side by side - had to overflow, filling the whole seating  bench down one side of the room. Visitors were as tightly packed as the exhibits, with people queueing to get in at 1.30 and plenty of takers for tea and cake. Mr and Mrs King did a remarkable job with the excellent refreshments including lots of homemade cakes, as well as with organising the venue.
This year there were bumper prizes for the best exhibits. ‘Best in Show’ was awarded for a beautiful tray of vegetables from Kirsty Cato, who won a Wolf ‘Soil Miller’ with Multichange handle. ‘Best Fruit Exhibit’ won Heather and Tony Ahern a pair of Felco deluxe secateurs (RRP £72.99), while the Best Floral Exhibit was a beautiful flower arrangement by Carol Reed, winning her a pair of Wilkinson Sword Pruning Snips. Abbie Khandaroo won a cup and prize for the Best Children’s exhibit.
Carol Reed won these Wilkinson Sword snips for her floral exhibit
Abbie Khadaroo with her cup and rosette for Best Children's Exhibit, a tray of vegetables
Late summer is the time for home-grown beans, and the title of Best Beans was hard-fought between a table full of competitors, with the prize of a top quality Bulldog spade and fork going to a delighted Robert Kidd for his fabulous runners.
The prize of Town & Country gardening gloves and kneepads, plus Marshalls Seeds vouchers, for Best Potatoes was won by David Jeffrey. But the most unusual exhibit was a perfectly matched pair of Sharkfin Melons ( right) grown by Sam Justin, who won the prize for best in the ‘Any Other Vegetable’ class.
Left to right: Best Tomatoes, Geoff takes a look, the Best in Show, lovely veg exhibits.
A huge range of delicious jams, jellies, pickles, marmalades and chutneys were brought in, to sit beside some really lush cakes. At the Ashford ‘Bake-Off’ visitors were encouraged to taste the entries to make their own comparisons – something you never get when watching on television. To prove that looks don’t matter but taste does, the prize of a selection of items from the new Pyrex baking range went to Colin Gill’s unassuming-looking but flawlessly delicious carrot buns. ‘Best Pickle’ was won by Colin Waldron. Success was a surprise for Caroline Mortlock however. Generous Caroline and Stevie Boulter brought in a box full of jams, marmalades and chutneys to sell on the Society’s produce stall. It took a lot of persuasion to get them to enter a jar of marmalade and one of chutney, so they were especially delighted when Caroline's marmalade won a selection of Pyrex oven-proof glass bakeware for ‘Best Preserve’

David Jeffrey wins gardening gear from Town & Country plus vouchers from Unwins Seeds
Colin Gill wins bakeware from the new Pyrex non-stick range.

Right: Kirsty Cato wins a Wolf Soil Miller from the Wolf multichange range
Totally organic and harmless to wildlife (except slugs and snails)!
There were star prizes or cups and rosettes for the following categories: Best in Show, Best Potatoes, Best Beans, Best Tomatoes, Best Beetroot, Best Onions, Best Any Other Veg, Best Tray, Best Floral Exhibit, Best Preserve, Best Pickle, Best Cooking Exhibit, and Best Children's Exhibit. Those who got a red card (First Prize) for one of their exhibits (there were over 60 classes) but didn't win one of the larger prizes got a consolation drum of slug pellets (always useful). These weren't just any old slug pellets, though. Winners were able to choose between Scott's new formulation SLUG CLEAR ULTRA, specially designed to be extra-deadly to slugs yet much safer for wildlife, and the totally different and fully organic GROWING SUCCESS RAINPROOF SLUG PELLETS.
New SlugClear Ultra has the metaldehyde slugkiller concentrated in a thin surface layer. The rest of the pellet is a tasty (to slugs) but harmless (to wildlife) bait.
Judging was hard work against the clock, and the three judges were impressed with the range and quality of the exhibits. Mr Graham Selmes, an expert with a wealth of experience and winner of many silver cups over the years,  kindly came from Appledore to judge the fruit, flowers and vegetables with Dr Derek Mitchell from the Society. Jane Graham, a qualified WI judge, tackled the daunting task of deciding between so many superb culinary entries. In many cases the results were very close, with only half a mark each between first,second, and third.

Right - expert judge Jane Graham tackles dozens of preserves.
While a lot of people put a huge amount of effort into making the Show a success, we couldn't have had such a splendid day without the generous help of the many companies, both local and national, who provided prizes. Click here to go to the full list of prizes and prizes donors. All the companies who helped with the Show will feature on our 'Welcome' page until the organising of prizes for the 2015 show starts next spring.

In the afternoon, certificates were awarded for the winners of the Best Plot competition from each site. The vintage silver cup for Best Plot in the Borough went to Lisa Pope for her immaculate plot on Henwood. The prize of vouchers for Tucker's Seeds and a cup went to the winner of the Most Creative Plot Number competition.
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The raffle was a bonanza for those who bought tickets, with dozens of prizes ranging from a lawn spreader and sack of Autumn Lawn Feed from Scotts, to bottles of wine kindly donated by Tesco. Most of the prizes were gardening related and the Society is especially grateful to Yeoman tools, who donated a range of different specialist tools as prizes.

Hamstreet Garden Centre, who have been very supportive of the Allotment Society in the last year, donated some stunning prizes of Spode and Mason Cash mixing bowls, measuring jugs and oven-to-table ware from their range of high quality cookware. Thanks to manager and fellow allotmenteer Tim Law for all the encouragement and help with practical aspects.
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KENT WOOL GROWERS TOWN AND COUNTRY STORE

A special thanks must go to Kent Wool Growers for sponsoring the posters. Click on the link to see their range of outdoor clothing, tools and all sorts of necessary items for outdoor life which you'll never find at the Garden Centre.

Left: Felco pocket pruning saw, just one of a huge range of high-quality tools available at Kent Wool Growers.
Click here to go to the page for the Best Plot Competition
Click here to go to the page for the Most Creative Plot Numbers
Click here to go to more about how to show your fruit and vegetables

Thanks for all the photos go to Brian Spencer, Colin Gill and Julie O'Kane-Gill - we couldn't have dome it without you!
Next year's show will be even bigger and better. Meanwhile, nurture those pumpkins and squash because November the 1st is PUMPKIN SHOW DAY at the Trading Store. Open to all, not just allotmenteers!