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.

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.