Vegetable show’s SOS

Prize vegetable entries to one of the Midlands’ biggest horticultural shows have plummeted by more than a half due to the wet weather.

Worried organisers of the two-day Sandwell Show, one of the biggest free shows in Europe, have issued an SOS to allotment growers and keen gardeners to rally round and rescue the popular event.

They say entries to the August bank-holiday extravaganza, which attracts around 75,000 people each year, are down by 57 per cent on last year.

The total number of competitors for the 2006 show was 1,488 but so far this year only 192 entries have been received.

A late surge in entries is characteristic of the show but by this time last year some 445 people had already returned their entry forms.

Gardeners and members of the public enter a variety of classes, ranging from home-grown vegetables and plants to flower arranging, cooking, home-made beers and wines, painting, photography and other crafts.

Carol Calloway, one of the organisers of the council-run event, said: “Whether people are worried that their leeks aren’t big enough or their parsnips aren’t massive, I don’t know.

“Obviously a lot of people may think their vegetables aren’t good enough this year but we’re really struggling for entries so they could stand an even better chance than usual.”

The 2007 show offers a number of highlights, including BBC Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time being broadcast from the event for the first time.

Visitors to the Sandwell Horticultural and Midland Leek Show, part of the two-day Sandwell Show at Sandwell Valley on August 26 and 27, will have the chance to quiz the experts.