Incredible Edible Bristol are heading to the RHS Malvern Spring Festival to showcase their very own edible bed at one of the shows exciting new features this year, the Grow Zone.
The Grow Zone is a horticultural experience taking inspiration from an interactive country garden and wildflower borders by RHS Gold Medal winner, Jon Wheatley. The Edible Beds area has been curated by RHS medal winner and RHS Malvern Spring Festival Ambassador, Hannah Genders. They are a collection of raised beds, planted with edible plants around a central seating space and seek to demonstrate the ease of growing your own.
Each bed tells a story of the different organisations creating them including, Incredible Edible Bristol’s ‘Urban Food Trail’, which aims to inspire people to take similar projects back to their area and show how a city centre space can look with a little creative thought around the planting. Headed up by professional horticulturist, Sara Venn, Incredible Edible Bristol, has built and planted over thirty edible gardens in parks, street corners and station platforms across Bristol.
Said Sara: “Incredible Edible Bristol is thrilled to bring a representation of our Urban Food Trail along to RHS Malvern Spring Festival. Focusing on our work as a movement of kindness, we will feature plants that we use all across the city to make lost and unloved spaces beautiful and productive once again. We’ll be supported by lots of our Incredible Edible Bristol community gardeners, who all voluntarily work with us to improve the city through good horticulture.”
The Grow Zone promises to attract the crowds with a host of other exciting features including a Grow Tipi, where leading figures in the gardening world such as Carol Klein, Jekka McVicar and Incredible Edible Bristol’s Sara Venn, will be on hand for a Q&A session including.
Head of RHS Malvern Spring Festival, Jane Furze said: “We’re really excited to be launching the Grow Zone this year. It is THE place to go if you want to pick up some terrific gardening tips but also to enjoy what promises to be a great family day out. With features like the Edible Beds, the Grow Zone is a fantastic opportunity for adults and children alike to learn how easy and satisfying it can be to grow food. All levels of expertise are welcome, come along and see for yourself.”
Over at the Ceramic Flower Meadow lies the winner of RHS’s Britain in Bloom Award – an eye-catching garden of 1,200 handmade ceramic flowers created by Creative Arts in conjunction with Creative Black Country. Here you’ll have the opportunity to purchase a piece of the meadow, see bees at work in the Bee Marquee and sample honey whilst you try and spot the Queen.
The much-loved Grow To Show Competition is back, this time bringing in the expertise of Paul Hervey-Brookes, an award-winning designer, welcoming new comers and enthusiasts to showcase homegrown specimens in the Paul Hervey-Brookes Growing Challenge. No experience is needed, just a bunch of enthusiasm and imagination.
RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2017 will take place from Thursday 11 May until Sunday 14 May. Adult tickets start from £18 in advance while children (under 16) are free of charge. For more information and to book tickets, please call 01684 584924 or visit www.rhsmalvern.co.uk