See you there?

This year the Malvern Spring Show is from the 9th to 12th of May.

I'm currently planning on being there on Thursday if you fancy joining me. Nothing fancy like 2010 this time mind, I'm just planning on having a jolly time and the chance for a chat ;)

Ann Somerset Miles is doing a sterling job blogging in the run up to the show, so that's a must-see destination for planning your visit this year :)

See you there?

News of This Year's Spring Show

The Malvern Spring Show is set for a bumper edition this year, with Carol Klein set to join James in the Plants and People Arena on Friday and Saturday. Joe Swift will be also there on Saturday as usual, despite the show garden build at Chelsea kicking off a few days before Malvern commences.

Allotments get a feature to themselves - hosted by Terry Walton and Reg Moules and there's over 100 exhibitors in the Floral Marquee with many more set to join them in the outdoor sales area.

On the show gardens side of things Chris Beardshaw has designed a feature to celebrate 30 years of Groundwork and is supporting the new Painting with Plants initiative. Another Chelsea show garden designer taking some time out for Malvern!

I'm hoping to be there on Thursday and possibly Friday or Saturday. It all depends on how family matters pan out over the next few weeks...

Painting With Plants

Bryan's Ground - during 2011's Malvern Spring Show

This year saw the end of the Chris Beardshaw Mentorship. However, that doesn't mean his involvement with the Malvern Spring Show will be ending. Yesterday a new show feature Painting With Plants was announced with Chris very much to the fore. As he's also returning to Chelsea with a show garden next year, for him May will certainly be busy!

10 borders will be displayed, each inspired by a painting, photograph or a landscape. I was certainly inspired by Bryan's Ground earlier this year, which very much has an artistic feel to it, so who knows perhaps it might also feature at the show next year? The border will be purely plants - no hardscaping -so it'll be interesting to see what each entrant comes up with.

This new initiative is designed to put the focus on community groups, schools and charities and the top three designs will each receive a prize of £1,000 for their nominated good cause. Have a look at the explanatory letter and entry form if you think this is for you.

Anyone for Asheville in 2012?

The next USA Garden Bloggers Fling is all set for 18-20th May in Asheville, North Carolina. Preparations are already well underway and details can be found on the dedicated Fling Blog.

Green Shoots for the Spring Show

You don't need to worry about getting there just yet, but already bloggers are making their plans to attend this year's show...

Malvern Spring Show may seem like it's far away, but already the PR team are hard at work to tell us about the 'green shoots' they have planned for this year. I'll be back shortly with a revamped Meet @ Malvern site to tell you more about what's happening here on the blogging front. In the meantime, sit back and have a look at Sharon Gilbert's recent press release...

For the first time ever, the Malvern Spring Gardening Show (12-15 May 2011) is dedicating its entire theatre programme to the subject of conserving the natural environment, and will be showing green-fingered visitors how small changes in the way they garden, can make a significant impact on local, and ultimately global, diversity.

The new ‘Garden in Harmony Theatre’ boasts two walk-through gardens designed by 2010 Chris Beardshaw Mentoring Scholarship winner, Paul Hervey-Brookes. The ‘In Flight Garden’ is a pocket space of valuable wildlife habitats and native species, and the ‘Companion Garden’ is an area of pest-repellent, companion planting.

Television gardener and designer, James Alexander-Sinclair is the host for an exciting four-day programme of talks and demonstrations from a star-studded line-up of respected gardeners, wildlife enthusiasts and industry experts, speaking about subjects ranging from log hotels, compost cafes, natural predators, habitat creation and rain gardens.

Matthew Wilson (Landscape Man, Channel 4) and herb expert Jekka McVicar are heading up the discussion panel on Thursday May 12, and talking about rain gardens and integrated pest management respectively.

On Friday May 13, ‘Biodiversity – What, Why and How?’ is the subject of a talk by award-winning garden designer and television presenter, Chris Beardshaw, and on the same day, Kim Hurst of The Cottage Herbery, will demonstrate organic and natural planting.

Joe Swift (BBC Gardeners’ World) takes to the stage on Saturday 14 to explain how even the smallest urban garden can work in harmony with the natural environment, without compromising on beauty and style, and Brigit Strawbridge and Tony Grey will be talking about wild bees, beekeeping and the importance of pollination and planting.

The RSPB will also be at the Show on Saturday with its Garden Bird Roadshow.

Mike Dilger (‘Wild Gardens’, ‘Springwatch’ and ‘The ONE Show’) makes his Malvern debut on Saturday and Sunday 14 and 15, with a look at garden wildlife and natural predators. He will also lead a new Showground nature trail for children and adults, which will take in foraging, pond dipping and habitats.

Said Sharon Gilbert, Press & PR Manager for the Showground: “The programme of global conservation agreed at the UN Convention on Biodiversity in Nagoya last year was a great breakthrough in the fight to protect our natural environment.

Gardening is one area where the general public can do its bit to preserve and create habitats, plant native species, compost waste, garden organically and dig ponds. It might be small scale, but it all contributes to the global effort, and events like ours must get behind the initiative, keep up the momentum and promote the message to as many people as possible.

We are very excited by the prospect of dedicating this year’s theatre programme to such an important subject, and hope that Britain’s gardeners will use some of the ideas they glean from the speakers to make a few small changes at home.”

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.

Especially for You...

...courtesy of Dave at Green Seeds aka Grow Your Own. Dave was coming to Malvern but has broken his thumb. His wife came round this evening to deliver these for our goody bags and to wish us well for the weekend.

Rubbish at garden design, weird pest eating your plants - help is at hand

If like me you are rubbish at garden design, as you can tell from my pathetic attempts above (I can't even work out how to draw on the photo properly) then help is at hand.

The nice people at the Three Counties Showground have persuaded some other nice people to provide a free advice clinic on Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the show. There will be plantsmen, professional landscapers and designers on hand to solve all your problems - well maybe not all your problems but some of them.

Amongst the other professional advisers will be the lovely Cleve West (pictured left) on Friday and Saturday and Reg Moule, who you will know if you live in Worcestershire, will also be providing advice on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

To book your FREE 30 min slot and to do away with all those sleepless nights click here and then click on the email link. You can book a slot on any of the three days from 10:30 to 3:30.

Looking forward to hearing how you get on.

Picture of Cleve West courtesy and copyright of James Alexander-Sinclair.

Ticket Deal Update - Important!

Over the weekend I wrote to everyone eligible for our ticket deal* about the arrangements for obtaining your ticket. The process is now much simpler than originally planned and you need to call the ticket office and quote the special promotion code when making your booking. Details of the number to ring and the promotion code are in the email.

If you haven't received this, have a look in your Spam Inbox as it might have gone into there - I wrote to you using the Malvernmeet email address. If you still don't have it, then please contact me and I will resend it to you.

I've sent your names along to the booking office so they know who should be giving them a call. Note that the closing date for bookings is 20th April. You should be able to include booking tickets for friends and family or for any additional days you need at the full price if you haven't done this already.

I will be getting tickets on behalf of Ewa, Frances, Gail and Yolanda :)

* = except Frugilegus whom I can only contact via her blog and tweets - here's hoping my message gets through in time...

Update 11am 12/4: Yay! Frugilegus has been in touch and Malvern have confirmed they're ready to go with taking your bookings :)

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.

Even More Visitors and Other News

Yesterday everyone was a-Twitter at the news that Princess Anne will be visiting the show on Friday 7th May. I hear that James is dusting off his poshest suit and frantically polishing up his shoes whilst Claire is practising her curtsy as the special 25th Anniversary show garden she's working on will be one of the highlights of the royal tour (AND it'll be the largest show garden ever seen in these fair isles to boot). As you can see the lovely Nina (Shows Development Officer) has already been out to choose her hat and the flowers for the presentation ;)

Such frantic preparations are of minor concern to us here at Meet @ Malvern HQ. The even juicier news is we have even more blogging chums joining us from over the water. I'm delighted Carrie and Andy will be joining us from Northern Ireland (so we only have Scotland to go in order to complete our set of pals from all GB countries) and Ewa will flying in from Poland and taking in the show during her well deserved break here in the UK. I'm sure they'll have the warmest of welcomes from everyone and do please visit their blogs and say hello if you need to get to know them a little beforehand.

Meet @ Malvern is also making the headlines in the gardening world. Yesterday, gardenersclick (an online 'gardening club' with around 10,000 members) sent out their monthly newsletter which includes a short piece about our get together. They've taken a stand at the show and will also be providing a gardeners' forum, where members will be on hand to answer questions. So do pop over and say hello, ask a question and even sign up if you're not a member already! They've also kindly agreed to donate enough bags for all Meet @ Malvern participants to kick-start your shopping activities. I found mine most useful last year and I'm hoping they'll also pop in an eco-friendly notebook and pen for everyone.

You may have spotted that we've been pretty excited here over Three Men Went to Mow (TMWTM) making an appearance at Malvern on the Friday and Saturday. They now have a sparkly new website which has all their TMWTM videos squeezed onto one comfy page plus news about their other scheduled appearances and any other mischief and mayhem they might be up to. Rumour has it they'll be trying out podcasting next :0

Finally the power of Twitter has alerted our activities to another participant for us all to go and say hello to. Pat Atkins is a local garden designer who's had show gardens at Malvern in previous years. This year she's set herself the challenge of not only limiting her budget to £1,000, but to also growing the plants needed. I'm hoping she'll write a special guest post for us here, but in the meantime you can catch up with how she's getting on in her show garden diary.

Picture courtesy and copyright of James Alexander-Sinclair.

Exciting news about tickets!

Well we have teased you long enough and now VP and I can reveal the great deal that the lovely people at the Three Counties Spring Show have offered us.

They have offered us a limited number of half-price tickets (for Friday or Saturday) for all those who write a full blog post about the Spring Show before the event or who write a guest post for the Meet@Malvern blog. The deadline for posting your offering is the 31st March 2010. So go on get writing, tell us about your previous experiences of the Spring Show and/or what you are looking forward to etc. If you would like to do a guest post for the Meet@Malvern site then email VP at the address on the sidebar. We are more than happy for you to do simultaneous postings with the post appearing on your own and Meet@Malvern blogs at the same time.

Don't forget the deadline - 31st March- and don't forget to send us the link to your post. When we receive your link VP will contact you to request the information we need for the Three Counties Showground so they can issue your half price tickets.

On top of this generous offer the Three Counties Showground are providing a special area for us to meet. This will be located near the refreshment area and near the Living Design Theatre so we will be close to the show gardens and the coffee - what more could we ask for! Bloggers will also be given free wireless access while at the showground just in case they can't resist blogging/tweeting about their day. Partners/Guests of bloggers will also be able to use this facility but we will need to know who you are planning to bring so please drop VP a line.

We have more interesting and exciting news to reveal but you will just have to wait and see what these are...we wouldn't want to over excite you too soon!

Helen (aka PatientGardener)

Showtime: A Sneak Preview

We've still to clarify a couple of details with the ticket deal, so until Helen is able to announce everything ASAP, I thought you'd like a sneak preview of the Anniversary show garden which Claire has been collaborating on with 2 other designers. The turf was broken a couple of days before our visit last Thursday and the first foundations laid. Claire will be guest posting later to tell us more about the garden and how a collaborative project works, but in the meantime you might like to have a look at this design drawing from the Malvern Show website.

It was quite strange to be at the showground and not surrounded by stalls and various marquees and tents and to realise just how vast the site actually is. This is the view to the Malvern hills from outside the main office on a cold, drizzly February day. There's still some snow left on them thar hills.

And this is the view from the show garden across to the entrance through which I usually come into the show. The green buildings to the centre right are some of the cattle sheds Edith mentioned in her guest post. Click to enlarge the picture if needed. It'll be sooooo different when you're there in May :)

Update 04/03: Claire has started her diary about the show garden's progress over at her blog :)

OMG - Meet @ Malvern Goes Global!

Firstly, we had the gardening contingents from Wales and The Netherlands agreeing to join us... :)

Then over the weekend excited negotiations of the kind only seen in the corridors of power such as the UN or at the signing of major international treaties resulted in...

THE YANKS ARE COMING!!!!

Yes, the first Transatlantic cultural exchange (sub classification: horticulture) will be taking place at the Malvern Spring Show. The fair southern State of Tennessee has agreed to the pilot project proposed by the Meet @ Malvern organising committee and have duly selected Frances and Gail to be their representatives. As you can see from the photograph, negotiations were of a rather sensitive nature and we have had to protect the identities of the envoys involved in the deep and far ranging discussions in case there are repercussions later.

Here's an excerpt from Frances' first e-mail following her appointment:

Gail and I are like schoolgirls, giddy and phoning and emailing each other every five minutes. We might have to bother you with questions about what to pack, footwear, raincoats, cash and/or credit cards, dress up clothes for dinners? We will try to keep it to a minimum of one email per day. :D

Here's to a truly successful global bloggers gathering :D

Picture courtesy and copyright of James Alexander Sinclair.

Meet @ Malvern Goes International

I'm delighted we'll be welcoming several friends from abroad to Meet @ Malvern.

Karen, Dobby, Elizabeth and Ryan will be mounting an expeditionary force from across the border in Wales ;)

Yolanda will be leaving her vast Bliss Team at home and joining us from The Netherlands. It also means I have to start tidying up right now as she's staying with me on the Wednesday night :0

I've linked to their top-notch blogs, so you have a chance to get to know them before May, if you don't already. I've also started an attendees blog list in the sidebar for the same reason. You'll find Dobby is a regular commenter on Karen's blog as well as being her good friend :)

Now, how about starting a cross-cultural exchange from the USA guys?

Hot News: Just the Ticket!

Stop right there if you're getting ready to buy your tickets for Malvern!

The show's organisers are going out of their way to ensure we have a very warm welcome in May, which includes a generous ticket deal. Helen and I are meeting with them on the 25th to iron out the fine details, so will be able to tell you everything very soon.

It'll mean more cash available to buy plants, so do hold off buying for now :)

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!

Warning: Accommodation's Filling Fast

Helen's had some early feedback from people coming to Meet @ Malvern about booking accommodation. Quite a lot of the hotels are booked already, probably with exhibitors etc. She's kindly provided some useful links to help you get started with searching for a place to stay. Anna's giving me some campsite information soon (her campervan's already booked in - yay!) if that's your preferred option.

Those of us wanting to stay a little longer or to stay with friends may have to sacrifice convenience for availability. There's lots of lovely market towns and villages very close to Malvern, so these are worth considering if you're having trouble in finding something close to the showground. Car parking there is plentiful and free if you don't go for the Gold parking option. I haven't found them too much of a walk into the show in previous years and you can drink in the gorgeous views of the hills whilst doing so.

Without further ado, here's the information from Helen:

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g186423-d192024-Reviews-Malvern_Hills_Hotel-Malvern_Worcestershire_England.html - don't know what it is like to stay at just eaten there but reviews seem ok. Top of Malvern Hills - some rooms may have good views

http://www.trehernehouse.co.uk/tariffs.php - seems a bit pricey to me but great location for access to the show and going out in evening and me!

http://www.malvern-hills.co.uk/gg/ - this is also ideal for the showground, town and me

http://www.copperbeechhouse.co.uk/bandbmalvern.html - good location and ideal for Great Malvern station

http://www.prioryholme.co.uk/ - good location and also ideal for Great Malvern station

Unfortunately, I cant recommend any of these since I haven't stayed in them and don't know anyone who has. Happy to go and have a look see and see what they look like inside on the pretext of booking a large party!!!!

And here's links to the local tourist information and B&B consortium courtesy of the show website:

Malvern Tourist Information Centre:

Tel: 01684 892289
Fax: 01684 892872
Website: Malvern TIC
E-mail: malvern.tic@malvernhills.gov.uk

The Malvern Bed and Breakfast Consortium:

Website: http://www.malvernbandbconsortium.co.uk/

Update 3rd Feb: For those of you considering the camping option, Anna's guest posting today with details of the best sites she's stayed at, plus good website links for you to find out much more.

Can We Tempt You?

James has not only kindly mentioned Meet @ Malvern in his latest post, he's also divulged some news of what's happening this year:

The exact plan is still under review but hopefully quite a few of you will get there: I am there, as usual on every day but the exciting news (if you are easily influenced) is that Joe Swift and Cleve West are also there on Friday and Saturday so we will be doing the first ever Three Men Went To Mow - Live. [this news alone will be sufficient to get many of us quivering with anticipation - Ed]

Again we are unsure what we will do but it should be jolly. On Sunday, Joe and I will be Cleveless. For those of keener on gazing upon the perfectly formed torso of Chris Beardshaw* he will be in attendance on the Thursday. Also available will be the effervescent Katie Johnson** to keep us in order and the ever knowledgeable Reg Moule** to answer those horticultural questions that leave us stumped.

There will be Acrobats as well [the show has a circus theme this year].

* = This will be for the judging of the Chris Beardshaw design mentorship bursary - more on this in a later post

** = these will be familiar faces to previous attendees who've gone to events in the Design Theatre. They're the people who hand the microphones round for audience questions and join in with all the banter

I'll keep you updated on what's happening as soon as I have any more news :)

Tempted? Then do come and join us!