Grow your own veg

NS&I is supporting the RHS Grow Your Own Veg 2008 campaign. This campaign encourages people to grow their own vegetables and get the best out of their outdoor space – no matter how big or small.

Grow Your Own Veg promotes healthy eating as well as helping people to grow, and eat, their own produce. www.rhs.org.uk/vegetables is designed to give you all the information you will need. You’ll find out how to prepare your vegetable patch, as well as being able to view a detailed gardeners’ calendar, useful techniques and tips, and some great recipes.

NS&I are out and about this summer, so come and see us at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show and the RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park.

Growing gardens today – and the winner is…

Three innovative and modern designs were selected as the winners of the first stage of the NS&I Growing gardens today competition. The three designers, Andy Tudbury from Nottingham, Claire Potter from East Sussex and Peter Stevens from Leicestershire, built their gardens in pride of place in the ‘Grow Your Own’ area at this year’s BBC Gardeners’ World Live (11-15 June 2008), at the NEC Birmingham. Visitors to the show voted for their favourite design and there was also an opportunity to vote online.

In a close competition, Claire Potter from East Sussex was awarded the trophy by Carol Klein on the Grow Your Own stage at the event, for her Garden of three R’s that displayed the possibilities that come from thinking imaginatively, having fun and incorporating the three R ’s – reduce, reuse, recycle.

Claire’s striking garden incorporated over three dozen different varieties of vegetables that were easy to grow in a small space.  She proved it is so easy to reduce your spending by growing and eating direct from the garden, not only is it fresher and tastier, but visually appealing.

Claire Potter was presented her award by BBC Gardeners’ World presenter Carol Klein

You can still read the winners' blogs to see how their preparations went.

To find out more about the RHS Grow Your Own Veg campaign, visit www.rhs.org.uk/vegetables.