Practice Sessions

Fearful we might have lost the knack of having a good time at Malvern, we've had a couple of practice sessions this week to ensure our meeting muscles are kept in good trim. First up was the RHS London Design Show. Arabella, Lazy Trollop and Victoria have already covered what happened in great detail: I'll only add why were the major design elements of the show shoved to the back of the Lindley Hall?

Not only were there a couple of middling roof garden designs; there was a good programme of talks (luckily GirlAboutGarden was there to thoroughly cover the one given by Diarmuid Gavin), advice from top designers including megaguru John Brookes; plus displays from the Society of Garden Design and a sneak preview of some of the major show gardens at Chelsea this year.

As you can see I also ensured my buying muscles were in good form too. I lost my heart to this Hellebore 'Winter Moonbeam', not only for its very large and prolific upward facing flowers, but also for its marbled foliage. I bought 2, which are due to go into a couple of very large pots either side of the steps leading down to the shed :)

Yesterday Helen and I braved the gloomy drizzly weather to meet at the home of John Sales (former Gardens Advisor to the National Trust) for our first taste of a Women's Farm and Garden Association event. 16 of us came together to admire John's collection of 250 cultivars in his Cotswold garden. I was particularly keen to go as I avidly followed his paper trail in the National Trust archives for a couple of years when I volunteered at their HQ.

The paper impression I'd formed was a man of succinct and straightforward, no nonsense advice. However, this didn't reveal the twinkly sense of humour and hospitality we were treated to. His position as NT advisor and later consultancy work meant he's been able to indulge a passion for collecting snowdrops. Not only that he freely lets them hybridise to see if anything interesting results. If they do, they're also planted out and named after his grandchildren or given names such as 'January Sales' (because of its early flowering habit) or 'Compu Ted' (after a relative who's rather keen on computing).

Much of the collection is contained in an ancient ditch bordering the garden and here the snowdrops were on display to their best advantage: massed plantings reaching above eye level. For me it was good to see the differences between a G. plicatus cultivar (very broad leaves, usually grey-green in colour), G. elwesii (very large flowers), G. woronowii (very broad, bright green leaves) and my more familiar G. nivalis ones. We were surprised at how tall some of the latter ones were: this is because snowdrops tend to get taller with age.

The rarer snowdrops were to be found in the main garden, some in a 'bed of treasures'. Here it was easy to pick out the individual characters of some of the more precious cultivars and to compare the striking yellow ones which (shhhhh!) to my eye looked a bit sickly compared to their green counterparts. I was also able to see what my freebie G. 'Augustus' - garnered on Tuesday with my Hellebore purchase - will look like when they eventually flower. This is a plicatus cultivar which is fairly short and bulks up well. I'm glad I saw in situ it because I've now had a rethink on where I'm going to put it in the garden.

Helen and I giggled over whether our posts will look similar as we were taking pictures of the same views of the garden, so I'll leave it up to her to give you the main tour. It's safe to say that our long chat in the pub afterwards, plus the one everyone had in London on Tuesday, show we're beautifully in trim for our get together in Malvern in May :)

Our get togethers this week mean I've also had the chance to update the Attendees Page. Do I have the correct information for you?

What's New and Let's Meet!

It's Showtime at Malvern- will you be there?

It's a year since the Meet @ Malvern blog was launched, so I've tweaked the layout in celebration to launch our 2011 get together. I'm looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible this year :D

Helen and I have various work, family and exam commitments over the next few months and so we won't be able to do very much in the way of organising this year. This also reflects what a number of you said in last year's feedback too, and our informal get together at the Autumn Show last September proved an organisation-lite gathering can still work successfully.

However, I'm also aware there are a number of people who are interested in coming who didn't join us last year at either show, so I'd welcome your views on how we can best ensure we all can find each other easily for a natter with the minimum of organisation.

I've used the Blogger Page function to bring together most of the useful information you'll need to make your own arrangements to attend this year. Let me know if there's anything you'd like to add to the information, particularly the Accommodation, Getting There and Hints and Tips pages.

You'll also see there's an Attendee page: this is very much in the early stages of development, do let me know if and when you're attending so I can keep this page up to date. If last year is anything to go by, this won't really reflect what's happening until late April! And do pass the word round to your fellow bloggers and tweeters who may be interested in coming. This post is the invitation for everyone, so it's up to us all to ensure no-one's left out.

The exception to the useful stuff at the top of the page (isn't there always one!) is the all important contact details for obtaining your tickets. This is in the sidebar under Tickets Please! heading. If you click on the picture, it'll take you to the official Malvern Show booking page. NB The countdown clock has been reinstated too - though you'll have to look a bit harder to find it this time!

I won't be posting as much on here this year as I believe what's already here is enough to give anyone a flavour of what the show is like either by going through the blog in sequence or using the Labels in the sidebar (towards the bottom) to home in on what looks interesting. There'll be the occasional update of news as and when I get it. If anyone would like to write a guest post to help lighten the load, then do get in touch :)

As the posts will be less frequent, you may wish to sign up for Updates or Follow this blog to make sure you don't miss out on anything. You'll find the appropriate buttons in the sidebar. I'll also be updating via Twitter, but experience showed last year that this is a bit hit and miss in keeping you updated.

NB as for last year accommodation is already filling fast, so this is something for you to consider NOW if you're wanting to stay over during the show.

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.”

Merry Christmas!

To everyone who met at Malvern this year:

May your fire be toasty

And your chestnuts roasty

May your snowman be Frosty

And your gifts not get losty

May you be hale and hearty

And those sprouts not too f@rty

And to see you in 2011

Would be absolute heaven

...proving I'm still the Queen of Bad Poetry ;)

Here's to a wonderful Christmas and a prosperous New Year to you and yours :)

Postcard from Malvern Autumn Show

So I lied when I said the previous post was the last one of 2010 didn't I? I'm sure you don't mind another one though to bring together our gathering at the Malvern Autumn Show yesterday. It was an informal affair, mainly garnered from people tweeting they were going. So many, that I couldn't bear to miss out on all the fun. The weather was kinder than in May - clear blue skies, sunshine, but with distictly autumnal undertones. The show's improved since my last September visit 2 years ago as there was much more horticultural content this time round. Helen's already given some of the highlights in her report and I'll be making mine tomorrow.

Here's the rollcall of who went - links to their reports to follow as and when appropriate.

• Deb - Beholder's Eye (who has tweeted pictures here and here)
• James - Blogging from Blackpitts Garden (sitting in the audience for once! Read his perambulations on the subject of Malvern here)
• Ann - Grandma's Garden (a show preview plus introducing the new Red Love apple - spotted, but didn't get there in time to say hello which was a pity)
• Nick - Habitat Aid (who reveals he'll be exhibiting next year)
• Sharon - The Inelegant Gardener (her confession re not liking show chrysanthemums rather gave the game away - it's shame we missed you too. And here's another post)
• Mark - Otter Farm (here's his post from the showman's viewpoint)
• Helen - Patient Gardener (her general report is here and another is planned I believe)
• Simon - Serendipity
• Nigel - Silvertreedaze (oh no! another one who slipped my net, but thankfully not Sharon's)
• Claire - The Ecospot
• Me - Veg Plotting (where I found A Taste of the Unexpected)
• Michelle - Veg to Veg

If you attended over the weekend and I haven't mentioned you, or if better still you blogged about it, do let me know and I'll add you to the list.

The picture is of some rather nice pears from the perry pear exhibit in the Good Life Pavilion.

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 ;)

Your Comments Please

By now you should have had an email from me asking for your thoughts on the organisation of Meet @ Malvern. If not, then please leave a comment here or email me so I can arrange to send it out to you.

Rather than having lots of questions about every aspect of our get together, I've tried to keep things simple by just asking what went well, what didn't go so well and what was missing. Helen and I also have our own thoughts and ideas on what we might have done differently, but we're keen to find out what you think too. Thanks to those of you who emailed me before I sent out the questionnaire, I'll be adding your comments to the mix. However, you may have something else to add...

Once we've received your comments, Helen and I will be getting together to discuss whether there'll be another Meet @ Malvern. We haven't decided yet, but we've already realised that arrangements will need to be simplified and/or shared out somehow in future. You can also help by letting me know if you thought anything was surplus to requirements or how things might be done differently. I've also asked you if you'd come to Malvern another time: the answer to that vital question could also affect whether we meet again!