‘If you go in there expecting to win, it’s a waste of time’

Anyone who scans through the Virginia Show results each August will be familiar with the name Peter Pollock as he typically harvests a few rosettes in the fruit and veg categories.

The garden behind this success is a five minute spin from the hustle of Cavan Town, in the tranquil setting of Drumlion, Kilmore.

The meticulously kept front garden featuring established perennial borders, and a wonderful variety of mature trees is the handiwork of Peter’s wife Vera. The back garden is Peter’s domain where edible plants rule.

Next week he will be harvesting the best of his produce for his annual Show outing.

“Virginia Show is the only show I do. I’m not really into showing elsewhere,” Peter explains.

A lifelong gardener, Peter’s involvement as a competitor came through hosting a stand at Virginia Show to promote the work of his then employers Cavan Monaghan Leader.

“I was there all day and I thought, I must bring up some vegetables and put them in.

“I entered a couple of things and ended up getting a third prize and at that stage I was hooked,” he says laughing at the innocence of it all.

“Then the next year I brought a few more and I got a couple of seconds and you feel - I’ve got to get the red one,” he says of the coveted first place rosette. He achieved that feat times over the last 15 years or so for his cucumbers and beetroot. One particularly satisfying success was his winning onions.

“It’s getting harder and harder to get that now because they have a competition going where it is the national onion championship and they have guys coming from all over Ireland, so needless to say, I’m a way down the pecking order there.”

Peter credits his mother, Isabel Pollock for his love of growing as he helped her tend to the garden at their Swellan home.

“I learned it from my late mother who was a wonderful gardener - she taught me most of the things I know,” he recalls fondly. It was an interest that stood to him when fifty years ago he and Vera moved into this home on an acre site and reared their sons, Alan and David, who now have families of their own.

For many years Peter held the “stressful job” of production manager at the Cavan Crystal factory. The garden provided a sanctuary away from managerial demands.

“I used to find when I came home to the garden in the evening it was a great way of relaxing - getting your hands in the soil. It was a win-win situation: it was beneficial that way, plus it was beneficial for the dinner table.”

He grows organically where possible, and is an advocate for the superiority of home produce over shop-bought equivalents.

“There’s no question about it. You have the freshness straight away,” he asserts. “Tomatoes you buy in a shop are like blotting paper, whereas the ones you grow are completely different.

“In a lot of cases it all comes in together at the one time,” he says of his harvests, “and I end up giving a lot of it away to my neighbours and friends - but it’s nice to share.”

Our tour of Peter’s cleverly laid out the garden commences from his greenhouse. Neighbouring flat fields leave this section exposed to winds - which made light work of a previous greenhouse. Hedging and trees offer a buffer in winter now, yet they are far enough away to avoid blocking out the sunlight.

“I have tomatoes and cucumbers growing and I use it to dry my onions and garlic,” he says, with bundles of onions - Sturon, Stuttgart and Centurion - hanging from its metal frame.

“I think the one that keeps best is the Stuttgart,” he advises.

Outside we have a generous stretch of fruit bushes - raspberries, whitecurrants, redcurrants, blackcurrants and gooseberries. A couple of plum trees, laden with fruit that will ripen later this month, are dotted around the garden.

The fruit gives way to raised beds put in to compensate for his “very heavy soil”.

“The problem with the raised beds is that in a dry season they dry out very quickly. Last year in the month of June we had no rain at all, then at peak season I lost an awful lot of stuff. It just didn’t thrive.

“This year rain has been no problem,” he says with a hearty laugh.

His raised beds are home to French beans, climbing beans, peas, broad beans and five varieties of potatoes: Sharpe’s Express, British Queens, King Edward, Roosters and Golden Wonders. “The Queens are hard to beat,” is Peter’s verdict.

Next up it’s the colourful beds where chard, beetroot carrots and parsnips reside.

Peter flags a particular issue facing growers: “Whenever you put an entry into the show, you might think, this is all looking good and I’m ready, but when the show comes along it might have gone over, or it could be just not quite right.

“The veg is all about timing - you can get it right or you can get it wrong.

“If you go in there expecting to win it’s a waste of time. Really, it takes the good out of it.”

A grass path leads up past his garden shed to a raised section where a series of large compost heaps are secreted away behind hedging - one heap per year. He’s currently working his way through his 2021 vintage.

“People will tell you: ‘You need to turn compost all of the time in order to get it’. You don’t, time is a substitute for turning.”

Close to the compost heaps he has a fine potting area with bench in a sheltered corner enjoying great views of the farmland beyond.

“We’ve seen wonderful wildlife here. We have had foxes, the pine marten, we’ve had rabbits in the time, and would you believe we even had a little egret down there one time; pheasants, there’s buzzards around here, and in the winter time we feed the birds - we’ve even had a woodpecker at the bird nuts.”

The only bare bed is one from which he harvested his onions. You never know it may have yielded the nation’s best onions this year. Peter has the experience to travel to Virginia in hope rather than expectation.

“When you are leaving the house here, you are leaving with great exhibits, but when you get up to the Show you realise they’re not so great after all!

“Virginia Show’s a great show. I always admire greatly the community spirit and the work they put into it - they really have a great show and I always enjoy the day out, so it’s nice to support them.

“If better produce beat you, so be it, you’ll aspire to be better the following year, but it’s nice to support them.”

He advises that gardening should never be a chore.

“A lot of people would take on gardening because it’s there and they’re complaining about the time it takes to do it - well, don’t do it,” he says with a laugh. “Put in concrete or something.

“Gardening, unless you enjoy it, you really shouldn’t be doing it. Because it gives back, and the more you put in the more you take back out of it. And you appreciate the good years, and you also understand the bad years. It’s the joys of gardening.”