Veg Plotting

It's official! And yes, that IS a spider at the window - it caught a wasp just after I took this selfie I entered a new world at the weekend, courtesy of my friend Sally who invited me to judge the flower classes at Foxham Horse Show . After I said I'd love to, a little bit of jiggery-pokery ensued and I swiftly achieved promotion to fruit, veg AND flower classes. I was totally unaware this event existed until Sally volunteered as show secretary this year. Not only does it exist, it celebrated its 30th birthday on Saturday. The horse show is the main  raison d'etre with around 300 horses attending this year's competitions of all kinds. The produce classes were added a couple of years ago as a fun way of involving more people. Foxham is a small village around 5 miles north of Chippenham. It's a pleasant drive which follows Maud Heath's Causeway  for quite a way and goes through the hamlet of Kellaways. This is the source for the naming of the Kellaways F

The garden has landed! Thanks to World Vision for the photo, because mine were rubbish. Credit: Ellis O'Brien One of my highlights of the Chelsea Flower Show this year was World Vision's Fresh Garden. You may have missed it because it wasn't located with the others. The design needed a rather large tree for it to work, because its concept was an aid crate crashing into the show, packed full of plants ready to help grow a productive garden. A site amongst the trade stands provided the perfect spot. And that's not all, this concept will be revisited at Gardeners' World Live from tomorrow, with John Warland 's larger show garden denoting the planting of thousands of trees, and culminates in an even bigger finale by him at RHS Hampton Court. I think it's a fresh, bold move to develop the idea over three shows. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the 1984 Ethiopian famine, the worst in living memory. Thanks to World Vision and the generosity

After 11 years of sterling service my allotment shed's decided it's time to quit the plot. Looking at the picture you're probably thinking it doesn't look that different to usual and is fairly presentable. Compared to its relatively new neighbour on the left I think it's making a much better job of blending in with its surroundings and I love its rustic simplicity. However, the view from the side reveals there's a bit of a problem... ... it's probably been like that for a while, but the winter wet kept me from squelching my way down to the bottom of my plot and discovering what happened. If truth be told, I've been anticipating its demise ever since I took on my allotment in late 2003, though in the intervening years I've come to love its presence on my plot. After all, it was a key factor in my decision to keep this half of the allotment when I gave up having a whole one. Mr and Mrs Robin have decided to make my shed their home again

Congratulations to CJ who's the lucky winner of Charles Dowding's Veg Journal . I'm looking forward to seeing the results over at her fine blog :) If you'd like your own copy, don't forget there's a special offer available from the publisher at the discounted price of £12.00 including p&p* (RRP: £14.99). Telephone 01903 828503, or email them and quote the offer code APG69. OR, send a cheque made payable to: Littlehampton Book Services Mail Order Department, and send it to: Littlehampton Book Services, PO Box 4264, Worthing, West Sussex, BN13 3RB. Please quote the offer code APG69 and include your name and address details. * = UK ONLY - Please add £2.50 if ordering from overseas.

This is the latest offering from no-dig gardening guru Charles Dowding and is essentially an updated reprise of his earlier Veg Course in bite-size monthly chunks. Seeing part of Charles's philosophy is to do 'little and often', his Veg Journal sits well with this premise. After a very brief introduction, we're straight into January and setting up for the coming growing season. February sets out the argument for the no-dig approach and March deals with the types of beds, plus their pros and cons. April sees the creation of our no-dig beds. We're also into the growing season proper at this point, with the growing of each crop introduced at the appropriate sowing time. Woven into the mix are various general information articles on weeds, pest control, crop rotation etc. Each month is completed with a list of jobs, plus there are blank pages inserted at various points for the reader to keep their own notes and for the book to be in keeping with its title. As wit

This is a very fine book written by Mark, my fellow Chippenham blogging buddy . I'm proud to have a signed copy with the message "in friendship" written inside. If you like your reading thoughtful, funny, sad, memoir, raw, landscape, family, nature and a whole host of other things, then this is the book for you. This is writing which defies a single classification and stays with you for a long time afterwards. This week there are two ways in which you can enjoy Mark's book for free ... The first way Free download of Counting Steps - this week only !  ... for those of you who have a Kindle or the Kindle App and it's available for the next four days only on Amazon.  There are no catches - just a free download instead of the usual £4.49. There's even an extract to read online.  Giving away free copies might seem counter intuitive, but it's an established technique publishers use to rise up the rankings - and the impact on later sales is ev

Many thanks to everyone who took part in my socks giveaway. NAH has delved into my special terracotta pot to reveal the winners as follows: Heat Holders wellie socks Anna ( Green Tapestry ) Dobby Esther ( Esther's Boring Garden Blog ) @plantaliscious Workforce socks Colleen ( Rus in Urbis ) Flighty ( Flighty's plot) Katie Skeoch via Facebook @prwilson101 Congratulations! I'll be in touch shortly to make arrangements to send your prize to you :) Stay tuned for my next exciting giveaway...

The outdoor footwear of the season is boots or wellies, so today's giveaway complements them perfectly. I have 4 pairs each of Heat Holders wellie socks and Workforce Ultimate Comfort socks  available. The wellie socks are for women (boot size 4-8) and Workforce for men (boot size 9-11), but those of you with small or large feet may like to choose accordingly. I could have done with a pair of these to keep my toes all toasty up at the allotment today! All you need to do to enter is to leave a comment below saying which socks you'd prefer. Please make sure I can contact you, should you be a winner. You can also make extra entries if you tweet a link to this blog post (please mention @malvernmeet so I can pick up your entry), or write on my facebook wall . I'll draw the winners next Monday morning (November 4th), so good luck! Giveaway T&Cs Sorry, this prize draw is only available in the UK. Entries close at midnight GMT on Sunday, November 3rd. Up to thr

The RHS have launched a competition to find the best garden blog for 2013 :) Sounds interesting, tell me more All you need to do is select one blog post about gardening you've published between the launch date (Monday 8th July) and the competition's closing date (September 30th). There's no need to offer any more posts, or your entire blog as the judges will only consider the post you've entered. What are the judges looking for? Your post can be about any subject as long as it's about gardening in some way. It's the quality of the writing that matters, and it should be unique to your blog, not published elsewhere. Any images used in the post must also be yours. The selected post must be from your own personal blog, not part of a group blog which publishes from a number of authors. The judges will select a shortlist of 10 finalists, which will then be opened up for a public vote, just like the 'People's Choice' used at the RHS's gard

Here's something to cheer up the winter blues!  Today I'm teaming up with Gardens Galore to bring you the first super competition for this year.  The prize is a Draper fork, spade and mini trowel and fork kit valued at over £50 :)  The weather forecast may be dire, but before you know it, the evenings will be light again and we'll getting outside to prepare for the coming season. A new kit of tools could be the very thing to help you get cracking! If you can't make use of the prize, why not enter anyway? I'm sure there's a community project, school or something similar in your neighbourhood who'd welcome your donation. All you need to do is leave a comment below to enter. If you tweet a link to this post or RT my link, that'll double your chances of winning. The closing date is midnight, Sunday, 24th February . Comments and tweets will be allocated a number corresponding with the order of entry and then I'll use a random number generat

I've been having a bit of a sort through my seed tin and have plenty of in date packets of seeds which I know I won't be able to use this year. So, I'm having a giveaway here on Veg Plotting to find some good homes for them - always a popular move :) All you need to do is look at the lists below and tell me if any of them take your fancy. Please restrict your choices to a maximum of 5 packets, so plenty of readers have a chance of bagging something they'd like. Let me know in the Comments below what you have your eye on - this will give everyone an early warning of what's been grabbed already. Then, email me at vegplotting at gmail dot com with your name, address and choices. Note: when I have your email I'll allocate your seeds to you and not before. I've had seeds reserved via the Comments in previous years by people who've then not proved contactable and I'd like these packets to go to those who really want them. Sorry, this is only o

I'm not sure if the slogan's part of the pictures, but it fits somehow I love this! It's a shame I don't live in London because I'd be down there like a shot. If you've seen my photography blog Sign of the Times , you'll know already that I'm a huge fan of graffiti art :) I don't think I've seen much of it featuring flowers, so perhaps it's not surprising this is part of an exhibition designed to raise awareness of orchids as well as bringing some seasonal cheer. If you head down to  Great Eastern Street in Shoreditch on Friday (21st December 2012), they're giving away orchids too :) The exhibition continues until December 23rd and there's also the chance to win a luxury trip to Amsterdam (where NAH and I honeymooned, so that's a big thumbs up from me) which includes a visit to a Dutch orchid grower. Sounds fab. The artwork was created by the London based graffiti collective Graffiti Kings who were the official g

Apologies to those of you who've seen this on Facebook or Twitter already, but I have a few things to say which need to be said within Veg Plotting itself. Firstly, a huge thanks to all of you who've contributed to this blog in some way this year - as a guest poster, by leaving a comment or contributing to #saladchat or Salad Days . This award is because of you :) Secondly, a number of you took the trouble to get in touch by email after the awards last year re the judging. Like you, I was extremely disappointed not to have been shortlisted. However, it gave me a chance to look again at the way in which I'd submitted Veg Plotting 's nomination. Whilst what I'd said was OK, I hadn't really told the judges enough about why Veg Plotting was special (to me anyway!) and different to any other blog out there. I set out to change that this year. With a change of event organiser for 2012, the opportunity's been taken to do things slightly differently this

I've consulted my trusty terracotta pot, and the winner of my yummy Yeo Valley competition is one of my twitter entrants, @Miss_Beehivin aka Zoe Lynch :) Fate must have taken a hand because Zoe's latest post on her blog describes how to make damson gin : very fitting as the prize is helping to launch Yeo Valley's limited edition damson and plum yoghurt. Thanks to everyone who took part. This turned out to be my most popular competition yet and I'm so pleased the prospect of a plum or Discovery apple tree inspired so many of you to leave a comment about what your choice of tree would be. As well as looking at Zoe's recipe, you may also like mine for damson jam - it's my most popular blog post of all time :) Update: Zoe's already planning on what she'll do with her tree :)

Regular readers know I'm a big fan of fruit trees and orchards, so I have great pleasure in hosting a giveaway for you to win your very own fruit tree plus a bag of yummy Yeo Valley goodies :) Today Yeo Valley are launching one of their limited edition yoghurt flavours, Damson and Plum. Therefore, it's sensible that one of the trees on offer is a Victoria plum. If that doesn't float your boat, then a delicious Conference pear or a Discovery apple are the other options for you to choose from, subject to availability. The tree (a young whip), plus the bag of Yeo Valley goodies is worth a total of £48, so it's a nice prize to welcome in the summer. Even if you don't have room for the tree in your garden, do enter and consider donating the tree to your local community orchard/garden or school. You'll still have all those goodies to scoff! All you need to do is leave a comment below to enter. If you tweet a link to this post or RT my link, that'll double

I've delved into my favourite terracotta pot to see who's won the pairs of packets of salad seeds I have to give away, courtesy of Sarah Raven's Kitchen & Garden . And the winners are... Lu Margaret Ogden Wellywoman Emma Cooper Marigold It's a nice mix of giveaway post Commenters, Retweeters, Salad Days contributors and Saladchatterers :) Thanks very much to all of you who took part - it was a bumper crop! The winners have been informed - I'm away for a couple of days, so I'll send you your seeds when I return. Talking of Salad Days , our next get together is this Friday, 22nd June . Stand by with your blog posts!

As promised on Tuesday, I have an extra salad related offer courtesy of Sarah Raven's Kitchen and Garden  to tie in with The 52 Week Salad Challenge :) I have 5 packets each of her Summer Salad and Winter Salad leaf mixes to give away, so the winners will have plenty of leaves to pick in the coming months. The Summer Salad mix comprises: Wild Rocket Amsterdam Carrot Leaf Sorrel Mustard Lettuces - Red Cos, Little Gem and Green Batavian and the winter one: Mustards - Red Frills and Golden Streaks Mizuna Cress Salad Rocket Lettuces - Cocarde and Green Oak Leaf There are 500 seeds per packet. As a special thank you to all the Salad Challengers who've posted Salad Days blog posts already and to Salad Chatterers who've been active on Twitter, I've already included your names in the draw for a packet of each mix. If you would like your name to be entered (including Challengers and Chatterers), please leave a comment below. Anyone who RTs t

... and revealed the winners of my fab Easter giveaway : An Artist's Garden Gwenfar's Lottie Plantaliscious Congratulations to the winners :) I'll get your copies of The Garden to Kitchen Expert off to you as soon as I have your addresses...

The winners in my bird care competition are: Bilbo Waggins - first prize: deluxe bird table, bird feed and 2 nest boxes Juliet  and Paul & Melanie - runner's up prize: 2 nest boxes Congratulations! I'll be in touch with Argos  as soon as I have your address details to sort out getting your prizes to you :) My thanks to everyone who entered - there were loads of top tips on how to look after our feathered friends.

To celebrate Easter in a much healthier way than eating loads of chocolate* I have three copies of The Garden to Kitchen Expert book to giveaway :) We're about to enter that wonderful time of the year when our plots and gardens really start to produce big time and we look towards our cookbooks for inspiration for getting the most out of our crops, particularly those gluts. Whilst this book is a little more unusual to its companions in the Expert stable, the style and layout are in the same tradition and is designed to be a companion to the Vegetable & Herb, Fruit and Greenhouse Expert volumes. There's over 680 recipes to tempt you, arranged broadly into Vegetable and Fruit sections with a brief nod towards Herbs, Ornamentals and Weeds too. There's advice on storage, preserving and good basic recipes for jams, chutneys and other preserves. None of the recipes are complicated, so it's ideal for someone in the Can't Cook Won't Cook mould, espec