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Paul’s top tips below on keeping chickens… Good housing I don’t care if it’s plastic or wood, so long as there is plenty of air space for the hens to breathe fresh air, and that the air can circulate without it being too windy. Hens recycling each other’s air can get diseased more easily than if they have a good volume each. Proper food Hens eat layers pellets – not kitchen scraps. It is amazing how people think they live off kitchen scraps or ‘a nice salad’ or bread or just grass. Let them fill themselves with pellets before anything else. That goes for grain too! They only have grain as a treat – or as a late evening  ‘belly… Read More

Delighted by the phenomenal success of The Edible Garden Show 2011, exhibitors have been flocking to book their slot for next year’s grow-your-own spectacular. Show organisers report a surge in bookings for the 2012 extravaganza with 55 per cent of exhibitors from the launch event already staking their claim on floor space for the next show which promises to be even bigger and better. Organisers plan to extend the exhibition area by utilising a second hall at Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire, along with a larger marquee for the smallholders section.  They are also talking with various companies about sponsorship opportunities for 2012. Britain’s leading supplier of seeds to commercial and retail growers Kings Seeds has already booked its place at the… Read More

Think baby or young veg and you’re already on the way to a successful stir-fry. Many of the ingredients can be sown and grown directly in the soil outside, but a polytunnel will increase the range of crops and speed up the whole process. This added protection will also extend the growing season well into the autumn and beyond. Carrot varieties Crispy carrots are must in any stir-fry. There are many different types but the best for sowing in Autumn to harvest in November are the short rooted varieties. ‘Amsterdam Forcing’ is an old variety but one that has stood the test of time and many a plot. It produces succulent finger-length roots with hardly any core – perfect for… Read More

Gardening and food lovers turned out in their thousands at the weekend for the UK’s first ever national event for grow your own fruit and vegetables, The Edible Garden Show. Crowds were queuing to get in before the doors opened on Saturday and Sunday following the launch day described as an “amazing success” by Jim Paice MP, Minister of State for Agriculture and Food. Celebrity gardeners and chefs added their praise for the show that has taken the gardening world by storm. TV gardening expert Diarmuid Gavin said he had a “fabulous day” and added: “The show was thronged with visitors and it was brilliant browsing around the stands at everything the budding fruit and vegetable gardener could possibly require.”… Read More

Jim Paice MP, Minister of State for Agriculture and Food, has described the opening day of The Edible Garden Show as an amazing success. Mr Paice, who officially opened the UK’s first-ever national grow-your-own event today with celebrity gardener Diarmuid Gavin, toured the exhibition hall to meet exhibitors and afterwards declared: “I think it’s amazing.  It’s the first time that this show has been held. It’s the first day. I was here at the very beginning and there were queues of cars coming into the place which is heaving with people.  It has obviously struck a chord.” The Minister said he was highly impressed by the wide range of educational grow-your-own projects targeted at children and how people didn’t necessarily… Read More

Jim Paice MP, Minister of State for Agriculture and Food, is to officially open The Edible Garden Show tomorrow at Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire. Mr Paice, Conservative MP for South East Cambridgeshire, is a specialist in farm management whose ministerial brief covers farming, food, animal health and livestock. He will be joined at the opening by popular TV celebrity gardener Diarmuid Gavin. The Minister is due to tour the first-ever national gardening event dedicated to meeting the phenomenal public demand for home grown produce and healthy eating. It promises to be a fantastic occasion with a wide range of experts and exhibitors giving invaluable advice on allotments, beekeeping, cooking, poultry, pig rearing, bread-making and lots more. Countless numbers of people are… Read More

There are lots of great reasons for keeping hens in the garden – not the least that they are interesting and amusing. Great animals to have around and just perfect for a family. Children in particular, love them around and they get the opportunity to look after livestock – something quite different to a pet. The hen and what she needs Hens are wonderful, curious, exciting, lovable, tough, intelligent, resourceful, productive, thrifty, communal, clean animals that are relatively easy to care for, generally disease free and so long as you take care with them will provide both food, interest and amusement for many years. To say the hen is a machine that converts all kinds of food, from the pellets… Read More

Diarmuid Gavin, the Mirror’s new gardening correspondent and TV presenter, will be at The Edible Garden Show 2011 on the opening day of the show on Friday 18th March. The popular 46-year-old garden designer fronted a number of BBC programmes including “I Want a Garden,” “Planet Patio” and Home Front with Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen. His inspirational designs have won him accolades at the Chelsea Flower Show and he is the author of a number of bestselling gardening books including Diarmuid Gavin’s Big Ideas and Outer Spaces. The celebrity gardener who launched his new Daily Mirror column on Saturday March 5 will join the Mirror team on the opening day of the show on Friday 18th March. March 7, 2011 Media Contact:… Read More

BBC Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time is holding a recording alongside The Edible Garden Show – a new national event dedicated to ‘Grow Your Own’ fruit and vegetables. Gardeners’ Question Time will be recorded at 2pm on Friday March 18th.  In the programme, members of the audience have the chance to pose their gardening queries to a panel of renowned gardening experts.  Appearing on the panel are GQT regulars and champions of the ‘grow your own’ movement: Anne Swithinbank, Pippa Greenwood and Bob Flowerdew. The host will be Eric Robson. Bob Flowerdew is one of UK’s leading organic experts who successfully grows his own grapes, pineapples and guavas in his Norfolk home. Pippa Greenwood, celebrity gardener and best-selling author will… Read More

Yorkshire inventor Robin Rose has created a range of ingenious products to make growing crops easier for the elderly, disabled and children – his latest is to be unveiled at The Edible Garden Show next month in a joint-venture with Hull-based social enterprise, Probe. Robin’s innovative micro-salad growing kit ‘Sproutapouch’ has captured the imagination of keen gardeners of all ages leading to global sales rocketing to over 100,000 in ten months. The unusual pouch, in which seeds germinate and are ready to eat in just six days, is being snapped up by schools across the UK and Europe and orders are now rolling in from the US and Japan. That’s not all. Robin’s unique Sticklebag – a designer growing bag… Read More