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

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.

Blue is the colour. The meconopsis trial at RHS Garden Harlow Carr shows its colours

Harlow Carr is one of several sites across the country that has been chosen to grow 23 cultivars of meconopsis – more commonly known as the blue poppy because of its beautiful, vibrant hue. The trial will run over a three year period, with the first trial assessment on 17th May, when the trials committee was assessing each cultivar. The first meconopsis to flower was Meconopsis grandis ex psw on 22nd April 2011.

All of the plants are derived from the Himalayan form of meconopsis poppy and the cultivars have been developed over a period of time. The plants require a slightly acidic based growing medium that is well drained and a sheltered site out of the wind, in a cool part of the garden that receives filtered and not strong, direct sunlight.

Most of the cultivars are in full bloom at Harlow Carr and with a life expected to extend for another couple of weeks, now is the perfect time for visitors to enjoy the sight of these rare beauties.