Grow your own 5-a-day – from just 10sq meters

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

The Royal Horticultural Society together with Burgon & Ball, renowned manufacturer of garden tools and equipment, have devised a plan to grow enough fruit & veg to meet the “5 a day” guidelines for two people, or 2 a day for a family of five...from just 10m² of raised bed planters.

By carefully selecting the most productive varieties and using the principles of the ingenious 'Deep Bed' method, plants can be spaced more closely so a planting area can achieve yields up to 400% greater than more traditional methods. Burgon & Ball's Home Allotment® Raised Willow Planters can replicate the deep bed conditions and have many other benefits of growing above ground – such as increasing the amount of light reaching the plants.

Using a series of Burgon & Ball Planters to accommodate almost 50 different varieties of the Nation's favorite fruit and vegetables, the 5-a-day Garden is both attractive and incredibly space-efficient.

To compliment this stunning garden an information packed wall chart is available to help families achieve their goals by becoming self sufficient in fruit and vegetables and living the 'Good Life'.

The 5-a-day Garden provides fresh and nutritious food, with no additives or preservatives, excess food miles or unnecessary packaging! It's simple, fun and immensely rewarding and very, very tasty.

The RHS has be nurturing a half scale version of this unique, edible and healthy '5-a-day garden' at the RHS Plant Center in Wisley and the full sized version can be seen in all it's glory at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2010.

Visitors to the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2010 and/or RHS Wisley can pick up a FREE '5-a-day Garden' planting guide, full of advice and instructions on how to schedule plan ting to maximize the potential of each planter.

Those that cannot make the show can download the planner from www.5adaygarden.com

© 2010

Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2010 – Visit Report

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

On Monday, July 5, 2010 (Press Day) I had the opportunity to visit, for the very first time, I would like to add, the Royal Horticultural Society's Hampton Court Palace Flower Show.

I really should have allowed myself two days for my attendance of this event as it is much larger than what I had anticipated. But this is something to bear in mind for next time.

Having never been to the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show before I cannot judge as to whether it is bigger or better in regards to previous years or worse, or the same. So, you will just have to bear with me on that one.

What caught my immediate attention upon arrival was the fact that many stall holders, amongst which are well-known companies in the field of garden tools – especially cutting tools – could not be bothered, so it would seem, for some were not even ready by 4:30pm, to be ready for visiting members of the media. This, in my opinion, is a very bad way to conduct one's public relations.

On the other hand, other companies, and Rollins-Bulldog, a great British tool maker, comes to mind here as one of them, were ready to talk and show what they have on offer.

The main target of my visit, so to speak, at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show was for me the “Home Grown” Marquee and display area outside the big tent.

The “Home Grown” displays range from large-scale farming, though rescaled to fit in, over orchards, market gardening, growing cut-flowers to, basically, backyard food production and allotments.

On the other side of this marquee was a growing area, divided into quadrants, showcasing the growing of herbs and other plants for pharmaceutical uses.

The “Home Grown” definitely is worth a visit.

Many of the show gardens also were of interest and especially here the “Combat Stress Garden”, the “Playful Garden” by Southend-on-Sea Borough Council, and the one that stood out for me, the “Bangladeshi Allotment” (B9) in another section.

Some companies are using the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2010 as a launchpad for new products, amongst which is the “Upside-Down Patio Garden” by Flambeu. Hopefully I shall be able to review this product soon.

Flambeu also now owns the company that makes the “Cable Buddy”, a great little device to keep those trailing leads of electric lawn mowers, hedge trimmers, and such out of the way.

Burgon & Ball were represented with their range of high quality garden tools promoting especially this year their “Harvest” range of products, from tools used for harvesting produce, including the Potato Harvesting Scoop that I shall be reviewing shortly, to bags, sacks, etc. for storing your produce, including canning jars and everything you will need for that.

Burgon & Ball, together with the Royal Horticultural Society, also bring the visitor to the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2010 the “5 A Day” Garden where they showcase that from just 10 square meter lots of food can be gotten. The show garden, and the website that goes with it, should be visited by everyone who is thinking about growing their own food but think they haven't got enough space to do so.

The Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2010 runs from July 6-11, 2010.

© 2010