Dull Garden Bloggers Unite

Back row (left to right) Lia - Midnight Brambling, Zoe - formerly Garden Hopping, Karen - Artists Garden, Gail - Clay & Limestone, Elizabeth - Welsh Hills Again, Easygardener - Greenforks, Michelle - Veg Plotting

Middle row (left to right) Claire - Plantpassion, YolandaElizabet - Bliss, Helen - The Patient Gardener, Ewa - Ewa in the Garden, Michelle - A Disorganised RHS Student

Front row (left to right) Frances - Faire Garden, Sally - The Constant Gardener, Victoria - Victoria's Backyard

For some bizarre reason people looked at me strangely when I said I was hosting a party for 20ish garden bloggers during the Malvern Spring Show. I never really understood why since to me having a group of friends around for the evening was never an issue. My complete faith in my garden blogging buddies was not misplaced - we had a fab evening, full of laughter, hugs, food and drink. For some reason there is a rumour out there in the blogasphere that garden bloggers are dull (as well as illiterate) - far from it and I think you can see that from the smiley faces above.

I am looking forward to the next time my garden bloggy friends decide to descend on me.

The Vague Plan Gets Firmed Up...

Now that nearly everyone has firmed up their commitments to when they're coming to the show, Helen and I have reviewed the previously vague plan and revised it accordingly. Here's the latest - this post will be updated in the event of any changes. Tomorrow, I'll provide a list of who's coming and when, so do also look out for that and check I've got your attendance details listed correctly...

Friday's social attendees please note: we've changed the arrangements slightly because you've made this such a popular event, having a takeaway isn't really viable. Instead we're having a DIY buffet and we're asking you to bring what you'd like to drink plus a ready-to-eat savoury contribution to the feast. Helen will be providing garlic bread, puds (be prepared for a vat of lemon mousse courtesy of Helen's mum)... and... [birthday] cake. There's plenty of supermarkets in Malvern (Helen will be providing details shortly), OR there'll be local food stalls in the show with plenty of tempting wares to provide you with your contribution.

I'll put a link to this post in the sidebar under Malvern Links so you can find it again more easily. NB the showground is open 9am-6pm. I suggest we meet up at 10am on each day. This will allow you time to get your bearings and come and find us. I'll have free wi-fi passes to hand out for anyone wanting to do a short blog directly from the show, plus a little something else for you all - more on that in a later post :) A few days before the show I'll email you all with a map of the showground, so you can see where we'll be.

Helen and I want us to have a good blend of meeting up and exploring the show each day as there's so much to see. Our meet area will always be there for you to come and go from as you please. Helen and/or I are planning to be there at 12.30 and 3pm each day (as well as 10am), so there will be a few times during the day when someone is guaranteed to be there.

Also Note - The Malvern Show people are inviting us to enter a Bloggers' Photography competition - details to follow in a later post...

A post on Hints and Tips for getting the best out of the show is planned for this Friday.

Meetup Programme

Thursday 6th May

• Daytime - at the show, where else? :) Highlights include the judges doing their stuff re the awarding of medals, there'll be the bestest selection of plants and the Chris Beardshaw Mentorship will be awarded to one lucky designer.
• Evening - pub meal at The Malvern Hills Hotel @ 7.30 for 8pm. The car park opposite the hotel is for British Camp, so there's an opportunity for a walk on the hills beforehand if you want to. Helen has booked a table in the restaurant area for the people I have tomorrow's list.

Friday 7th May

• Daytime - at the show. The live debut of Three Men Went to Mow beckons and this is the day of the Royal Visit. For those of you wanting to see the royal visage, have a word with Claire at the Anniversary Show Garden: she's bound to know the time she's not allowed to wander away!
• Evening - informal gathering at Helen's house @ 7pm. Details of how to get to Helen's house and parking will be given out at the show. See earlier for details of the buffet arrangements. If you can squeeze in a cushion into your luggage/car (allowing for the fact you'll be stuffing it with plants later) that'll be most helpful as it's looking like seating will be at a premium.
  

Saturday 8th May

• Daytime - at the show - similar programme to yesterday sans the Royal Visit OR...
• Johnstone Tours - for those people staying at Malvern for a few days, Helen has devised a fantastic day tour of the local area to include a Harry Potter film location, a typical market town, black & white architecture, plus visits to Hampton Court and Stockton Bury gardens. Helen already has a car full (Ewa, Frances, Gail and Yolanda), so we need to see if there are any further takers for this and what extra transportation is available. Let me know if you're interested ASAP. Start time and venue to be decided once we know who's likely to be coming. Details will be added to this post later.
• Evening - Helen's booked a table for 20 at Ask @ 8pm. The usual pizza and pasta fare, but pretty good nevertheless. We currently have four places spare, so if your name's not on tomorrow's list and you'd like to join us, do let me know. First come, first served.

Sunday 9th May

• This isn't an official bloggers' meet up day and I believe only Michelle W is planning to be there today as part of her attendance marathon. Helen might be going with her mum, but probably really deserves to have a flop day! NB the plant sell off starts at 4pm. You can usually reserve plants at some of the exhibitors' stands and show gardens from around 2pm onwards and collect your booty when the sell off commences (note to self: put this in the hints and tips too...)

Any questions? Then do get in touch...

Fellow garden bloggers, I have a confession to make…

...I have lapsed from the way and failed to keep up with our noble calling.

Once upon a time, I blogged regularly under the pseudonym of ‘R. Pete Free’ and the site visit counter told me I had a faithful readership. Sadly, fate intervened and I had to rebrand as ‘NewShoot’, a person who finds it difficult to keep up a flow of bloggy entertainment and instead spends her time lurking round other people’s pages, throwing in random comments here and there. However, the thought of missing out on a bloggers’ get-together has stimulated me to dig out a few early Malvern memories and get writing again, so I don’t have to spend the day with my nose pressed against the willow hurdles looking at you all relaxing in glory in the Garden Bloggers’ Lounge.

Six years ago I was running a fledgling garden design business. I had a few builds under my belt, nothing structural had fallen down, no planting scheme had died too obviously, but I wanted to learn more about this strange new world I was working in. I hoovered up every opportunity to see the work of other designers, to build up my knowledge of materials and suppliers…and, to be honest, I enjoyed a good day out looking at plants!

So when the opportunity came to tag along with the Friends of the Oxford Botanic Garden coach trip to the Malvern Show I jumped at the idea. I’d not been before as it wasn’t one of the ‘Big Shows’ at the time, but it was being promoted as the first Design Show of the year – it would hopefully would be a lot less crowded than the annual Chelsea battle AND you could buy the plants!

It took us around 2 hours on the coach to reach Malvern from Oxford…and then another hour sitting in the queue for the car park… I’ll be interested to find out whether this experience has improved over the years! This time I think I’ll be testing the shuttle bus service from Malvern station instead.

My impressions of Malvern Show as it was then – it was small but enjoyable. I was slightly disappointed that there weren’t more show gardens, but those that were there were fun. Some of the displays from the landscaping materials suppliers were just as good as the gardens – and I could pretend to be working by examining the quality of their pointing and collecting their shiny brochures.

I seem to remember good chips and cake (nobody needs a balanced diet on an outing to a flower show, carbs for energy is what’s needed!) and am racking my brains to remember whether there was a Celebrity Design Theatre Experience – I’m sure I saw a spontaneous performance from Joe Swift coming up with solutions for awkward gardens sometime around then…but was it Malvern?...those brain cells have long gone!

What I do remember were the floriferously gorgeous nursery stalls - trying to decide which of many desirable plants to buy, aiming to balance my greed against the knowledge that I’d have to carry the purchases for hours before being allowed back on the coach. A variegated daylily, Melianthus major and some offerings to satisfy my Digitalis fetish returned to Oxford that evening (funny how I can remember the plants but not the people?)

How has it grown over the intervening years? I’m excited to see that the website is advertising many more show gardens – 16 in all, as well as 8 from Chris Beardshaw’s mentoring competition and several from local schools. That should give loads of inspiration. There are supposed to be over 100 plant nurseries now, so my buying decisions will be even more difficult! Over those years I’ve also got to know, and work with, some of the nurseries and designers, so it will be a chance to catch up with friends instead of just looking on from the outside.

Now I’m teaching design and horticulture, so I’m looking forward to the chance to take photos of show gardens to inspire my students, to refresh my collection of supplier brochures with info on new products they are launching this year and, of course, to discover exciting new plant cultivars.

But best of all, looking forward to the bloggers’ convention and the chance to to meet many of my virtual friends in real life…and eat cake with them!

This post is a joint simulcast with New Shoot :)

There Will Be Cake!

Yay! We'll have a birthday girl amongst our midst at Malvern, so Helen has volunteered to mark the occasion properly with a cake. Things got a bit out of hand on Twitter the other day, so @gardenergirl1's expectations may be a little high as we eventually had three possibilities of rather nice men (James, Chris Beardshaw and Matthew Wilson) leaping out of various cakes to deliver her birthday greetings.

We've had an amazing response from you to say you're interested in coming to the show so I've offered Helen my own cakely contribution - probably different to that shown above, but I felt a post about cake was in desperate need of a picture of one ;)

I'll be updating the blog soon with the details of who's coming and when, plus availability for meals out. This is so:

a) You can see what's what

b) You can let me know anything that's incorrect or changed

c) Others will be tempted into coming along

Once published, I'll be updating that post regularly, so do keep your eye on it!