Wilko Asks: Are you the UK’s Best Amateur Gardener?

orange tulips

Hands up if you think your garden, allotment or little patch of green paradise is worthy of a winning prize!

Wilko recently contacted me to help spread the word about their Wilko Amateur Gardener of the Year competition. Lloyd Taylor, Head of Garden Category, is keen to help discover the talents of gardeners up and down the UK:

We know that UK residents are garden lovers and we want to celebrate those skilled amateur gardeners who might not otherwise be recognised for their talents,” he said. I’m really passionate about helping more and more people discovering the benefits of gardening, so I’m really enthused to see the variety of categories in Wilko’s competition this year – with recognition for allotments, wildlife gardens, upcycled gardens, and even young gardeners set to be rewarded for their efforts.

Six lucky entrants from across the UK will be picked as category winners, shortlisted by an experienced garden judging panel, including Dominic Cole, President of The Gardens Trust and award-winning garden designer, Andrew Fisher Tomlin, before being selected by a public vote on the Wilko social media channels.

The categories to enter are:

– Best Allotment
– Best Garden Design
– Best Hanging Basket/ Container
– Best Junior Gardener
– Best Wildlife Garden
– Best Upcycled Garden

The competition will remain open until 30 September 2017, with winners from each category receiving a trophy and a £100 Wilko gift card. The overall winner, picked from the six finalists, will be named Wilko Amateur Gardener Of The Year 2017 and will also receive an additional £250 Wilko gift card to boot!

If you think you have what it takes to be a winner, all you need to do is email an image of your garden to wilkogardener@wearebrazenpr.com and include your name, valid email address, contact telephone number, as well as stipulating the category that you’re entering.

Full competition details and terms and conditions can be found at: www.wilko.com/show-by-departmet/garden/icat/wilkogarden

Finalists will be informed by 30 October 2017 if they have been shortlisted for the categories.

If you’re thinking of entering – just do it! And good luck 🙂

Build a Better Vegetable Garden – Book Review

Build a Better Vegetable Garden - 30 DIY Projects to Improve Your Harvest

If there’s one thing I need right now (apart from about three weeks’ worth of solid sleep, of course), it’s inspiration. Dull, dank grey days and a sodden and sleepy vegetable garden have left me feeling somewhat indifferent about what’s going on outside at the moment.

So when publishers Frances Lincoln sent Joyce & Ben Russell’s Build a Better Vegetable Garden: 30 DIY Projects to Improve Your Harvest for review, I was keen to delve in and strike up some horticulturally-inspired fire in my postpartum belly.

So did it give me some ideas for projects ahead of the next growing season? Most certainly. But perhaps a lot of the projects will have to be added to Rich’s ever-growing list of things to do (finish the kitchen floor, finish the dining room, put up my polytunnel). So why Rich, and not me? Quite simply because right now, I don’t have the time to tend to a baby and learn some elementary skills. I just don’t. Rich, on the other hand, is ahead of the game and is pretty nifty wielding a hammer, chisel, drill and a whole host of power tools.

So I would say that if you’re a complete DIY novice with zero carpentry skills, are a little lean on the tools front, and like us lack a garage or workshop space, you may struggle a little with the projects laid out in this book. All of the projects featured involve working with timber and require a basic skill set for working with this material. For instance, I really love the bean support and apple/fruit storage trays, but it would take me a month of Sundays to make them, and even longer to make them well (I can’t even saw straight). But if Rich can find some time (and workspace) in the Spring, I’d love to hand over a couple of projects to help us improve our growing conditions and hopefully boost harvests next year.

Likewise, if you’re keen to learn some new skills or already have the knowledge to put together some relatively simple but effective pieces for the garden or allotment – think obelisk, raised veg beds, cloches and fruit cages, and more – then this book should definitely be on your Christmas list. Beautiful photography and clear instructions make each project a tempting prospect, and should inspire homegrowers to help make their little patches more attractive, productive and more secure.

You can purchase Build a Better Vegetable Garden: 30 DIY Projects to Improve Your Harvest through Amazon right here.

Buy Seasonal, Buy Local and Ditch the Plastic

Buy local and seasonal

Support your town markets and buy local

We don’t grow enough vegetables. Yet. I’m hoping that will change this year when we finally get the polytunnel installed. But for now, I’m having to rely on buying in a lot of our fruit and veg, trying to keep it as seasonal as possible.

I’ve become more and more aware of the plight of farmers and the cruel, money-grabbing ways of supermarkets in driving down their costs from their suppliers, and just the sheer amount of waste that goes on due to changing orders, the pursuit of perfect looking veg and more. Supermarkets are not our friends, not really. Having read Tescopoly (definitely a recommended read) and recently watched yet another documentary about the marketing games supermarkets are playing with us, I have become thoroughly disillusioned with how our food shopping is going in this country.

And the thing that has really got to me recently is the ridiculous amount of packaging that fruit and veg is supplied in. I mean, even if you buy it loose at the supermarket, you still HAVE to put most of your semi-fresh produce in a little plastic bag (which can be reused but ultimately ends up in landfill). I would refuse to put my baking potato, leeks, etc in a plastic bag at the supermarket, but when you’ve got a dozen onions, it’s hard to control them all rolling around in your shopping basket.

I would get to bin changing day and just look at the number of plastic non-recyclable packets in our bin and feel bad. Really bad. We’re avid recyclers and we don’t put much in our bins, but lately all that seemed to be in there was plastic bags from fruit and veg. They end up in landfill and somehow a ridiculous amount of plastic ends up in the rivers, oceans and in the bellies of birds and sealife.

So I decided enough is enough. I don’t want to be a part of that problem. No more excuses.

Growing my own veg is one solution to the problem, but it’s a slow burner and I am nowhere near a self-sufficient level of growing yet. So where I can’t fill the gaps myself, I’ve decided to ditch plastic, ditch supermarket plastic-wrapped veg and start doing my veg shopping at the local farmer’s market every Saturday.

I take my wicker basket to fill and carrying everything home in that, as even the farmers put everything in a big non-recyclable carrier bag for me unless I tell them not to. There I have a selection of some homegrown farmers’ veg (their broccoli, leeks and parsnips are clearly pulled straight from the ground and brought to market) and some things from much further afield (cheekily bought some bananas from goodness knows where), but ultimately it’s a fresh selection, no packaging for the most part) and if you eat seasonally, it’s much  more likely to be local. And tastes better, anyway. The leek soups and roasted parsnips I’ve been making lately have been so superior! And it’s all down to fresh, seasonal and local produce.

leeks and shallots

Leeks and shallots from my local farmer’s market

I wish I could find an organic veg stall, but for now, I’m just having to wash and peel everything as I would with supermarket fare. And I’m definitely saving money – I haven’t spent more than £8 for all my fruit and veg for the week for two of us, and it’s more than enough.
So my point is this – if you can, please consider ditching the plastic too and heading on down to your local market, and grow a bit more for yourself. You’ll reap the tasty rewards.