Help create a show garden

Usually the only chance we get to interact with show gardens and their makers is by admiring them at the shows. This year is different as we are all invited to make a knitted contribution to one of the most intriguing and heart warming displays set fair for this year's RHS Malvern Spring Festival.

There's going to be a knitted garden, created to raise awareness of and funds for the Sue Ryder Leckhampton Court Hospice in Gloucestershire. Clare Young - the garden's creator - took up knitting to manage her own grief after losing her husband Ken, who was cared for at the hospice. The items she created raised funds, and then after she and a group of friends yarnbombed a thank you to the hospice, she was invited to create a garden for Malvern.

Clare aims to raise £50,000 from her garden and to help her do so, she is asking for contributions of knitted and crocheted hearts. Take the link to find out more about her Work of Heart Garden, plus further links to the pattern.

I'll be making a heart or two and I look forward to seeing the completed piece at the show!

Pat Yourself on the Back!

By now those of you who've donated via the Just Giving link on this blog or the various charity auctions at Malvern Spring Show should have received your gift book or garden maintenance kit. Thanks to all of you who've donated to the NGS: we raised over £700 when Gift Aid is taken into account, which is fantastic. I mentioned this to Joe Swift when I saw him at Hampton Court Show back in July and he enthusiastically added his thanks to you all :)

This is the final post for Meet @ Malvern for this year. Not only did we meet in the spring, but I know all kinds of sponaneous get togethers have been going on throughout the summer. I hope this will continue - actually I know it will as 25 of us are due to visit Highgrove on Thursday. It's been organised by Helen via Twitter, so must count as the ultimate in Tweetups!

Don't forget there's also Malvern Autumn Show at the end of September. We won't be having a massive gathering like we did in the spring, but I know of a few people who are already planning to be there, so I suspect a more informal meeting will happen :)

Will we get together again next year? I don't know yet, though I suspect an informal gathering will happen at the very least. If Meet @ Malvern convenes in 2011, then how we go about arranging it will have to be very different whilst also taking your feedback into account. This blog will continue to be a useful resource for people planning to attend no matter what.

So all that remains is to wish you well for the rest of 2010 and to ask you to give yourselves a pat on the back for a job well done ;)

More Goodies!

I spent a fantastic afternoon at the offices of Gardens Illustrated last Friday where not only was I given a little something for you all to go in your goody bags (pens and bags courtesy of Gardenersclick), I was given all kinds of treasure plundered from the subscription offer archives. I couldn't carry away 50 books or garden tool maintenance outfits, so I'm adding this little lot to the Yellow Books I have already as giveaways for anyone who donates to our NGS fundraiser.

At the moment Frances, James, Frankie and Anna have first pick, in that order. If there aren't enough donations to cover the giveaways at the end of Malvern Spring Show, then I shall put the rest up on eBay and add the proceeds to our Just Giving button on the righthand sidebar.

So we have:

• A Sneeboer garden tool maintenance kit
• 2 copies of the Yellow Book (donated by Joe Swift)
• The Garden Visitor's Companion
• The Shade Garden by Beth Chatto
• How Does Your Garden Grow? by Chris Beardshaw
• 2 copies of The Kitchen Gardener by Alan Titchmarsh

Let's see if we can make our target!

I've not actively sought contents for the goody bags, but by the wonders of Twitter, the lovely Heather from Wiggly Wigglers got in touch and donated a 10% off voucher, plus a free book for you when you visit the Wiggly Wigglers stand in the Eco Home and Garden Area. The rest is courtesy of your fellow Malvern Meeters :)

News hot off the press! Encounters with Remarkable Biscuits are our official biscuit sponsor (yay!) , so expect a little something to nibble with their love at the show.

Spring Cleaning?

And now for a brief word from Anna...

Don't worry - despite the title of this post you're in the right place! Will you be having a spring clean before you come to Malvern - rationalising your stash of seeds, pruning your surplus gardening books (if you can have a surplus) or possibly even have the odd plant to spare? If you are and are prepared to donate these to a good cause, we thought it would be fun to raise some additional funds for the National Gardens Scheme, which is the charity that the Malvern Show is donating to this year.

Originally the plan was to a have a grand bring and buy at Malvern but this idea was shelved for various reasons. The idea of a virtual bring and buy was floated about but again it was difficult working out the logistics as folk will be at the show at different times and different days.

So we went back to the drawing board and wondered how about selling your surplus goods on eBay, at a car boot sale, at your garden club plant sale or through whichever method suits you. Once you have disposed of your goodies donations can be made by clicking on the JustGiving button which you can see on the right hand side of the blog.

If you do sell on eBay why not inform fellow Malvern bound bloggers by sending an email to Meet@Malvern letting us know when your listing will be up? Details can then be included on the blog (and tweeted) so that we can bid too.

Come on folk dig deep and let's see what we can do!

NB Any funds raised in this way and notified via the JustGiving button on this page will also be eligible for the Yellow Book/gardenersclick T-shirt draw announced previously - Ed

Donate to NGS and Win a Yellow Book!

It's Malvern Show's Silver Jubilee this year and as part of their celebrations they're supporting the marvellous National Gardens Scheme (NGS). There'll be fundraising events such as an auction during the show and I thought it would be great if we here at Meet @ Malvern also supported their efforts. Anna is working out how a plant/seed/book swap can be fitted into our get together and I've put up a Just Giving button up on the sidebar for anyone who'd like to donate to the cause. If you can't make Malvern this time, it would be a good way of wishing us well.

Joe Swift (whom many of you know already as one of the Three Men Went to Mow) is NGS President and has kindly sent us this message explaining what it's all about:

The National Garden scheme is simply the most wonderful charity for garden lovers. It's so simple - The NGS annual publication 'The Yellow book' contains around 3,600 gardens up and down the country which open when they are at their peak. The average price is £3 for a garden visit, which I think is extremely good value and most of them also put on fabulous teas with home made cake, adding possibly the most important element to the days experience! The NGS is the biggest single fundraiser for MacMillan and Marie Curie [2 of our major cancer support charities - Ed] and it just goes to shows what can be achieved when garden lovers pulls together.

As you all know blogging is an immediate and extensive form of communication so I want all you garden bloggers out there to do your bit and spread the word of the NGS. Try and get all your readers to visit at least one yellow book this year and hopefully we can raise more than the staggering £2.5 million which was raised last year.

Blogtastic.

Thanks so much

Joe Swift (NGS President)

NB Anne and Victoria who will be joining us at Meet @ Malvern are opening their gardens under the Scheme in July and August respectively. Two perfect excuses for us to take Joe up on his challenge of visiting at least one NGS garden this year. I'll put up details of those near Malvern open around the Spring Show weekend in a later post.

Joe has also kindly donated a couple of Yellow Books (as shown above) - I'll enter all of you making a donation into a prize draw to win a copy. Gardenersclick have also given us some T-shirts, which you could opt to have instead: an excellent alternative for those of you unable to make use of the book.

So don't delay - click on the button in the sidebar and make your donation!

[Seriously cropped - Ed] photo of Joe Swift courtesy of James Alexander Sinclair.