a living wage, million new jobs and protect our NHS, Michelle Obama, Simon Cowell, Jamie Oliver pasta volcano
Jamie Oliver says ‘stop being a vegan and start enjoying what you eat.’ His Jamie-branded penne Sainsbury pasta costs £1.64 for 500g. Sainsbury basic penne costs about 40p. So he’s not just exploiting animals then, in my opinion. See this in the papers soon if the consumer editors are reading.
1. Bloggers are to meet at RHS Malvern Show press office tell me. Who are these people? What are they going to say? Expect a torrent of back-slapping boringness. Get a real job. Needless to say, I was not invited. Have these people no idea about anything?
The story is: Fifty of the world’s most dull garden bloggers are going to Malvern (6-9 May) to write thousands of words. A conversation between regular bloggers, Michelle Chapman (aka VP of Veg Plotting) and Helen Johnstone (Patient Gardener), following a visit to the 2009 show, led to a January launch of an idea which has captured the imagination of the semi-literate all over Britain, and as far afield as Ireland, Poland, America and The Netherlands. See www.malvernmeet.blogspot.com
2. I was interested to see Ryan’s Dobbies garden centre blog from RHS Cardiff Flower Show. He said the choice of the winning show garden was a close run thing. It wasn’t, I heard from someone important. Expect more of the same type of thing from Malvern bloggers. Met Gaynor Witchard there who won the best show garden prize and is this week’s unprompted MA blog fan.
3. Lookalikes. Gabbled round RHS Cardiff after Stephen Bennett bought me a coffee. Does Stephen Bennett look like Simon Cowell? Saw no other garden writers there. Maybe they were auditioning for Britain’s Got Talent. Though Jean Vernon did write a piece on new plants at the show for RHS.
4. More look-alikes. Dan Pearson Nick Drake 
Peter Seabrook
Steve Davis
Both from Essex
5. My nearest garden celeb is Andrew Fisher Tomlin, who lives five streets down. Who is yours? The Chelsea garden judge moving office to Chobham, the hotspot for garden designers at the mo. AFT was on his way to do an Evening Standard Homes & Property open evening. Another low-key star spot this week was Gary Waldhorn on Fulham Palace Road. And Tottenham Hotspur FC’s Ossie Ardiles at Europlants open day.
6. Toby Buckland has appropriated Dan Pearson’s gilet on Gardener’s World. TB has ditched his anorak. TB dodged an interview with me about his new BBC book recently (who wouldn’t). Seems the RHS, which has to pay for itself, is ok about being answerable to the media but the BBC, which you and I pay for, is not.
7. Acting RHS DG Gordon Seabright says new the RHS director general will be announced post-Chelsea. Stephen Bennett says it will be at the show. Can you think of a caption for this pic-maybe something to do with ‘RHS bigwigs meet new DG?’
8. I wrote the definitive piece on allotment waiting lists last week. It has become an allotment tale of woe. Sent it out. No-one interested, except The Sun ran a NIB. Think this proves allotment boom is over.
9. The RHS beat green terrorists and volcanoes and weather to get record numbers for Cardiff. The Green Party and cyclists blocked the entrance stopping the likes of Derek Jarman form getting in with his van. The police stood back, batons raised but the serene RHS said you can fire up the brazier for 30 mins then naff off. The protesters did.
I’ve come out in favour of the Greens because they want a ‘living wage’, ‘a million new jobs’ and to ‘protect our NHS’. It’s these points of difference that sets them apart form mainstream political parties.
10. RHS Hyde Hall is hosting a new flower show this August at the same time as Shrewsbury Flower Show. The RHS once held shows, like Cardiff, helped by councils at Bournemouth and Torquay. Perhaps the time has passed for these when they have lovely gardens to have events at.
11. Get this below from Franchi Seeds. A very similar press release won the Garden Media Guild news award 2009 for a cut and paste job in Garden News of the PR concerned. I know I have mentioned this before, and I like the two judges (Cox and Gourlay) involved, but what were they thinking? Press releases are not the best news stories of the year. So my guide to garden news writing-cut and paste this and send the printed version to GMG. You win £250. Money for old rope. It would be fine if the author talked to Michelle Obama about gardening or visted the White House allotment. I can think of someone who asked Sarah Brown about gardening in her 10 Downing St garden last year, so it’s not impossible.
The PR“With the current no flight ban still in place, the Royal Navy being mobilised to pick up stranded travellers and the uncertainty as to when things will return to normal, we would strongly urge people to start planting vegetables NOW either for the first time or to increase the amount they have planted reminiscent of Digging for Victory during WWII.
Whilst this may seem alarmist to some, the volcano has highlighted a vunerability and fresh food supplies have been grounded overseas for almost a week already and this will lead to shortages in our shops.
It seems obvious to us that food security is paramount here and whilst we are not discouraging trade of course, we should have a back up for both fresh food and also many seed varieties which come from outside Europe.
Franchi seeds of Italy 1783 are not affected because we are seed producers and a truck with seeds arrives to us normally within 3 days. Our varieties are regional Italian varieties, many of which are alpine and therefore hardier than some British or overseas imports in a UK climate.
We have added to our website on our ‘Easy to Grow’ page packages for £10 which customers without experience can purchase and these packets are written in plain English with no jargon on them. We need to start planting in more green spaces and we site our G20 letter stating this last year asking governments to put aside more space, public spaces, office spaces etc for growing veg and to make it public policy and we attach a copy of the award winning article from Carol Warters as an overview of our campaign which has much more relevance today.
We look forward to hearing back from you and are committed to producing our seeds locally, without the need to fly them around, so we can ensure food supplies to the home grower through responsibly sourced seed.
For more information contact Paolo on 0208 427 5020 or by email to grow@italianingredients.com
Paolo Arrigo
Compare these two below…
To: hortweek@haymarket.com
Cc: grow@italianingredients.com; ital.seeds@virgin.net
Subject: get the world growing again- Seeds of Italy G20 summit
‘Get the world growing again’
Seeds of Italy recognise the importance of the G20 summit and have sent vegetable seeds to every head of state
attending this important global event.
we have also sent letter to each head of government of the most powerful men and women in the world which includes Presidents, Prime ministers and a king asking them to encourage schools, factories, offices, homes, hospitals and public offices to ‘grow their own’ in a small plot, pots and containers or baskets, on rooftops, balconies and open spaces and to plant fruit trees.
Children that grow vegetables, eat vegetables, and should grow their own at school so as to experience nature first hand, to keep them healthy with regular exercise, to save food miles (we produce the majority of our own seed rather than buying it in), to appreciate food, to take ownership and responsibility of the worlds resources.
Seeds still germinate during a crisis and we all need to eat, but an increase in domestic vegetable production and a shift change in government policy is needed to safeguard the future of our children. No part of growing vegetables is bad – the produce is good for you, the plants are good for the environment and compost down.
To all the leaders on the planet earth we say ‘what you sow, you reap’
Paolo Arrigo / Andrew Collingsgrow@italianingredients.com07980580329
Franchi Seeds of Italy 1783
