LovetheGarden love your spuds!

LovetheGarden, your online gardening experts, are delighted to announce the second of their popular vegetable garden competitions, after a fantastic response to our launch a few months ago.

In February, they ran an online competition to find your best cabbage recipes to celebrate this often ignored and much maligned vegetable. The prize was a £200 meal for two at a restaurant of the winner’s choice, anywhere in the UK. The response was amazing, with some innovative and delicious recipes for everything from a modern twist on cabbage soup through to our winning entry, melt in the mouth cabbage and mushroom pasties. The winning entry was by Karolina, posted on the Senses in the Kitchen blog. The recipe is now a firm favourite with the staff at LovetheGarden, and you can find details of how to make Karolina’s pasties at www.sensesinthekitchen-Karolina.blogspot.com.

Competition time
This month’s competition features a vegetable we all take for granted – the potato. This stable of the western diet is bashed, mashed, chipped and roasted almost every day in kitchens across the UK, so we’re sure you’ve got some secret family recipes for potato dishes that you want to share with the world. To pay homage to this family favourite, they’re offering another prize of a meal for two worth £200 to the winning entry of this month’s competition.

Growing potatoes is easy and, as the price of spuds spirals up in the shops, growing vegetables like potatoes for yourself makes good economic sense. Picked fresh from the garden, these delicious vegetables also pack a punch in vitamin C and other essential nutrients. Rather than just deep frying them, roasting them in the oven or mashing them with butter, they want to know what you do with your potatoes to give them that extra something special.

Rewarding culinary creativity
“The potato is so familiar to everyone that we tend to take it for granted,” says George Hope from the LovetheGarden team. “So we want to celebrate the spud in all its forms, from sweet baby new potatoes right up to main crop Maris Pipers. If you’ve got a recipe for potatoes, we want to see it, and we’ll reward your creativity and culinary expertise with a celebratory meal for two in your favourite restaurant. Of course, potatoes will be on the menu!” he adds.

The closing date for entries is August 16th 2011, so if you’ve got a special potato recipe, whether it’s an old family favourite or a brand new culinary creation, post it up on your blog and let LovetheGarden know. Every few months there’s a new featured vegetable and a chance to win that £200 meal for two, so get blogging!

For more details and terms and conditions of entry, visit the vegetable garden competition page at LovetheGarden.com

London College of Garden Design celebrates Garden Design Diploma success with new online gallery

The London College of Garden Design celebrated student success this week when the Garden Design Diploma class of 2011 graduated. At the same time the College has launched a new interactive gallery on its website which their graduates will be able to use over the coming year to promote their services.

Founded by three of the UK’s top gardening professionals, the College prides itself on having some of the freshest and the best design teaching available.

The Director of Garden Design Studies Andrew Wilson said “This year’s student’s have completed a wide range of projects that test the breadth and scale of skills needed for a successful garden design career. The final project is a major garden or landscape design that the student chooses themselves and are often live projects that launch their career. The new graduate gallery is an ideal way to showcase their hard work.”

This year 4 distinctions were awarded with Ruth Ayoubi receiving the College prize for an outstanding final project and Fiona Silk being awarded the prize from this year’s guest examiner Cleve West who came fresh from his Best Show Garden success at the Chelsea Flower Show.

Cleve addressed the class of 2011 reminding them not to forget the skill of hand drawing alongside the computer skills that they have gained and are now the industry norm.

This is the last year that the Diploma will be taught from Regents Park as from September 2011 the London College of Garden Design one-year Garden Design Diploma classes will take place in the Orangery conference facilities at the world famous Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Founding Director Andrew Fisher Tomlin pointed out: “Our success is down to a unique combination of talents and teaching that students are finding to be a compelling reason to study with us. Our move to Kew Gardens will underscore that success and we look forward to an inspiring first year in our new location.”

FACTFILE:
The London College of Garden Design aims to offer the best professional garden design courses available in the UK. Launched in 2008 by three of the UK’s leading garden professionals, from September 2011 the London College of Garden Design one-year Garden Design Diploma classes will take place in the Orangery conference facilities at the world famous Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

In keeping with their vision to offer the best garden design training available, their new teaching facilities are world class and provide a quiet haven for study in the middle of one of the world's leading botanic gardens.

Courses

The Diploma course programme runs with two days contact time per week plus personal study time over a period of 34 weeks, divided into three academic terms. Through lectures, studio work and practical on-site training students are taken through foundation skills to professional design communication skills. As well as design and plant skills students will be equipped with business and construction skills to support their business aspirations. All teaching staff will be practitioners in their particular field enabling students to learn from their experience as well as their teaching.

Short courses for both the recently qualified garden designer and continuing professional development for established designers, are also offered by the College. An individually tailored tutoring service is also available.

www.lcgd.org.uk

Fiskars at Glee 2011

Fiskars will be showcasing the star of the first TV ad campaign for a garden hand tools company - the Fiskars Weed Puller. With double expected sales, Fiskars is keen to work with retailers as it plans two further TV campaigns for 2012.

Continuing its ‘Garden Tools: Reinvented’ theme, Fiskars is previewing a host of new products including QuikDrill™, a manual drill reinvented for a host of garden tasks. It’s a long handled tool with three choices of blade, so holes can be drilled standing up without putting pressure on the back. It’s perfect for bulb planting, creating holes for large plants and even drilling holes for fence posts. A versatile tool that combines clever thinking, ergonomics and great design.

The recent cold winters have left some consumers unprepared for snow. Bringing its wealth of knowledge of the white stuff to the UK, retailers can see top quality snow tools designed to last a lifetime.

Fiskars Aluminium Snow Spade is the perfect companion to dig the car out after a night of heavy snow fall, or kept in the boot of the car for people who like to venture out in the snow. This multi-use spade weighs less than 500 grams and floats on water. The durable aluminium scoop guarantees high tensile strength, while the hexagonal shape of the shaft ensures a good grip even when used in snow or water.

To clear larger surfaces like pavements or driveways, Fiskars’ lightweight Snow Sledge simply makes life a little easier. The sharp profile cuts into the snow, while the broad handle with a calculated angle for comfort ensures easy manoeuvring without causing extra muscle strain. The wide scoop of 720mm enables most paths to be cleared in one go, which allows for extra time to give the kids a spin on the sledge for fun.

Also on show will be extensions to the QuikFit™ multi-headed range. These include a fruit picker with a V-shaped construction, so the fruit is cut away from the stem to delicately fall into the bag. Additional shafts and other heads bring the range up to a selection of over 50 heads – the most comprehensive on the market.

A spokesperson said: “We look forward to welcoming you to Fiskars Stand 5A10/B11 during GLEE 2011.”

A Fifth of Britons Now ‘Growing Their Own’ To Save Money

New research from the UK’s top discount website has revealed that many Britons are turning to ‘growing their own’ in order to save money; with one in five Brits admitting to now growing their own food produce.

It seems that many Britons are now turning to ‘the good life’ in order to save money, with 22% now admitting to ‘growing their own’ in order to keep the grocery bills down, according to new research.

The study, conducted by www.MyVoucherCodes.co.uk, polled, 1,221 Britons aged 18 and over as part of research into the grocery shopping habits of people around the UK; with focus on how people were adapting their shopping habits in order to save money.

According to the results, 22% of those taking part claimed to be ‘growing their own food produce’; with the vast majority, 79%, explaining that they had done so in order to ‘save money on grocery bills’.

What’s more, just over two thirds, 67%, of those who admitted to ‘growing their own’ food said that they had started doing so within the past 12 months.

When asked to specify where exactly they had begun ‘growing their own’ food produce, over half, 53%, claimed to be doing so in their own garden; whilst a quarter, 25%, had access to a plot or allotment. In contrast, 17% admitted that they had access to someone else’s land, where they were growing their own food produce.

The fifth of respondents taking part in the study who admitted that they were ‘growing their own’ food produce were asked to specify what exactly they focussed on growing. Respondents were able to choose multiple answers, according to what they were growing, and the top five results were as follows:

1) Herbs- 31%

2) Potatoes- 28%

3) Strawberries- 26%

4) Carrots- 21%
5) Tomatoes 19%

Total respondents to the study were asked if they felt their grocery bills had risen within the past year; to which the majority, 61%, of respondents answered ‘yes’. Furthermore, a quarter, 24%, of the Britons taking part in the study admitted that they had switched their supermarket within the past year in an attempt to save money on grocery bills.

Mark Pearson, chairman of MyVoucherCodes.co.uk, commented on the findings: “It’s interesting to see what measures Britons have taken to in an attempt to save money on groceries, particularly those who have switched supermarkets or taken to growing their own fruit and veg. Growing your own can be a great way to save money on grocery bills, and providing you have the room to do so, can be a fun way to get more involved with the food produce you eat.”

He went on to say: “We’d recommend that anyone looking to start growing their own fruit or veg gets some proper advice before tackling it, in order to minimise the chances of a gardening disaster. Money spent on tools and seeds can be wasted if plants aren’t properly taken care of, so make sure your money saver doesn’t become a money waster!”

www.MyVoucherCodes.co.uk 

FACTFILE:

Mark Pearson, chairman of MyVoucherCodes is a regular media contributor regarding online shopping and the credit crunch. At 30, his personal worth is over £60 million. Mark was previously a trainee chef working for Gordon Ramsay at Claridges, London.

Mark appeared as a ‘Secret Millionaire’ in the series on Channel 4, in which he donated £115,000 of his own money to worthy causes.

MyVoucherCodes has had sales exceeding £600 m in the last year

Consumer savings on online shopping via MyVoucherCodes.co.uk up from £52m in 2009 to £65m in 2010.

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