Page 41 - Simply Vegetables Autumn 2021

Team Bean - Nigel and Kelvin
The build begins – Ros, Paul, Terry and Jon
The stand
position anything, but once placed by Terry, we were permitted to back fill and titivate.
We left that evening weary but happy, the allotment and NVS stand were ready to receive visitors.
The Fair opened the next day and ran from Friday to Sunday. It was
a lovely event and had the feel of a mini–Hampton Court Flower Festival. Due to Covid restrictions, the show had to be reined in, with less retail stands and restricted visitor numbers but that gave a very spacious and relaxed feel that visitors seemed to enjoy. There were beautiful display gardens and retail plant stands, with Hillier’s at the helm, an Artisan Food Market, live music and of course the BBC Gardeners’ World theatre with David Hurrion as main presenter and appearances by Arit Anderson and Adam Frost.
The allotment sell-off
The weather was perfect, the
sun continued to shine, and the overwhelming feeling was that visitors were thrilled to be out and about after the restrictions of lockdown.
Over the course of the three days, the allotment was much admired. The whole NVS team was able to chat with visitors and give advice. There was a lot of “My veg doesn’t look like this”
and we were able to reassure them it had been grown by Chelsea Flower Show professionals, so not to feel bad.
Our plant sale was a huge success. Friday was the day for avid gardeners all wanting to fill their veg plots and we provided them with bargains. We managed to gather enough plants for Saturday and had a few left for Sunday. There seemed to be very different
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