Page 61 - ALG Issue 3 2018

The RHS Spring Show, Cardiff – April 2018
The RHS Spring Flower Show is one of
the prestigious shows that the Royal Horticulture Society hosts and for the last several years has been held in the beautiful settings of Bute Park, Cardiff.
Thinking back some ten months ago, I thought what a great window of opportunity to promote The National Allotments Society, along with encouraging visitors to the show to grow their own vegetables.
I remember putting my proposal to Di Appleyard, our Mentor Co-ordinator, who supported the idea. With approval the work started back in the deepest months of winter. The aim was to create a vegetable garden with a variety of easy to grow veggies – not so easy when you are starting off seeds in December.
The vegetable plants would need to be of a reasonable size but not over mature
for what they would be in April, when the show would take place. I looked to the
most popular kinds of vegetables; the most popular of these included onions, shallots, garlic, radish and cabbage to name but a few. A total of 12 varieties were grown. In the pictures you can see the plants growing, and in their final positions on show day.
The very cold winter and the short days didn’t help; however, by early spring I was pleased with the crops and was happy that the visitors to the show would be impressed also. It’s not many spring shows where you can see vegetables on display.
A few days before the show I loaded my car up to drive up the M4 from Swansea to Cardiff to Judith Hill, our Regional Allotments Representative in Cardiff. Judith took delivery of the plants and transported them to the show the following day.
Our mini Allotment was made up of 4 sq. meter raised beds (see pictures). We filled them with recycled compost and began to plant up. Our team was myself, Judith and Di.
Di Appleyard made some very interesting features to encourage wild beneficial insects to our allotments and gardens. They were displayed as part of the exhibit and you can see them attached to the frame in the centre of the exhibit in the picture.
We thought that, to go along with the vegetables, some flowers would look nice; many of us grow flowers on allotments. Well, I didn’t grow the flowers, but they were very kindly supplied by the Council’s Parks Nursery at Bute Park (many thanks to Chay Saunders, the Nursery foreman, for them).
Peter Ryan
RHS Cardiff Show
This year I had the pleasure of working with the Wales Regional team to create a mini- allotment plot and stand at RHS Cardiff; we also partnered with Cardiff Allotment Holders Association to put on the display.
It was a wonderful team effort with everyone doing their bit that, despite the mud and the rain, culminated in a very successful show. We had lots of enquiries from people wanting an allotment or considering devolved management, and we were able to
advise or signpost them to the right place.
The mini-allotment raised beds attracted a lot of attention from
people who had not realised that you could grow vegetables in such a small place; and everyone wanted to know where to buy the hinged boards!
Di Appleyard, Marketing and PR Coordinator
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