We’re keen to share your food growing enthusiasm across our mentored networks, websites, and Garden Organic’s membership magazine, ‘The Organic Way’.

In fact, lots of growers are looking for the ingenious watering tips that you’ve passed on – or learnt from your lovely mentored households and community gardens.

Please get in touch today to share your ideas

Email project manager Philip Turvil using the contact form here, including:

• 10-30 words per tip (from windowsills to ambitious spaces; water saving, crop-specific)
• Your full name
• Your programme area, ie Warwickshire
• If you have a small photo of you to accompany your tip (only if you fancy!)
• If you rather not have your name or photo published (only if you fancy!)

Oh, and any suggestions for future ‘tip-topics’ are very welcome…

Please send your tips by the 27th February 2012

Seed sowing tips from Master Gardeners

Tips already shared

Thanks to a huge response in autumn 2011, seed-sowing tips from Master Gardeners will soon feature in the spring edition of the ‘The Organic Way’, the national membership magazine of the UK’s leading organic growing charity, Garden Organic.

The tips from 15 volunteers have already featured in the March edition of the national ‘Grow Your Own’ magazine, pages 66 and 67.

Look out for a growing blogs too coming soon…

10am to 5.00pm

Join us at the Garden Organic AGM (10.30), followed by ‘Growing from the Roots’ (11.30) a conference on how Garden Organic, our members and supporters can play a role in creating local, sustainable communities. Featuring a gardeners’ question time session with Alys Fowler and James Wong.

Sunday 13th May Members’ experience day at Ryton Gardens in Warwickshire

10am to 4pm

Enjoy an exclusive, member only experience with the Garden Organic experts. Spend the day in the beautiful surroundings of Ryton Gardens and enjoy exclusive garden tours, master classes and workshops.

Visit Garden Organic’s event page for booking details

See what else is on at Ryton Gardens

We’re inviting volunteers from across the country to share top-tips for supporting communities to grow their own food and make lovely compost.

More details coming soon…

Read about the National Masters Conference 2011

When? Saturday 30th June 2012.

Where? The beautiful Ryton Gardens in Warwickshire, home to the UK’s leading organic growing charity, Garden Organic.

What? Leading UK speakers, unique workshops, expert guides, and much more with over 200 volunteers expected…

This is your conference. Please get in touch today to share your ideas…

Who? Master Gardeners, Master Composters, Compost Gurus, Gardening Champions, and any other volunteer involved in promoting gardening or composting.

How? Warwickshire Master Gardeners – your co-ordinator Kate Newman will email your booking form and help arrange transport. Attendance is free. Click here to contact Kate.

Come for the cake!

See photos from our National Masters conference 2011

Find out who won the Master Gardener Awards…

See latest news from Ryton Gardens

From every group of Master Gardeners, several volunteers want to help pupils, parents, teachers, and the wider community grow their own food in school and at home.

This is great! So we’ve invited experts from the Food For Life Partnership to host a special course at Ryton Gardens in Warwickshire – the home of Garden Organic.

Places are limited!

Please register your interest today with project manager, Philip Turvil, using the contact form here.

Course open to Master Gardeners in Warwickshire, London, Norfolk and Lincolnshire. Click here for details about volunteering.

Cut off date for registration: 8 May 2012.

Travel expenses paid.

The lovely Master Composters are also invited! Their local co-ordinators will be in touch in selected areas.

Course outline

1. Essentials for working with schools : actively working with teachers and young people – and doing presentations.
2. Crops that do and don’t work in school
3. How to sustain and grow school food gardening

Please click here to read about our previous school courses in June and October 2011.

Click here for school growing advice from national charity, Garden Organic

Link image to read about our 2011 schools training

This is thanks to the ongoing support from the Big Lottery Fund’s Local Food scheme, together with Sheepdrove Trust and our local partners. The current programme will now run from September 2009 to February 2013.

The programme team at Garden Organic, the UK’s leading organic growing charity, are delighted to announce the following ways to get involved.

Find out what’s happening near you

• Inspiring local events
• Free food growing advice
• Become a Master Gardener
• Get in touch with co-ordinator Kate Newman

What this extension means

• Extended period for one-to-one support for all active volunteers – with an extra half day per week for all our local co-ordinators.
• 80 new Master Gardeners in Warwickshire, Norfolk and London.
• Ambitious training and event programme for Master Gardeners – and their mentored households.
• Extended primary research by our team and Coventry University to evaluate the social, environment and health impacts of Master Gardeners supporting communities to grow their food.
• Developing ways and means for sustaining and expanding networks of Master Gardeners where there’s the need.

Visit Garden Organic’s Master Composter networks near you

Find out more about Garden Organic

Are you keen to help other get growing and share your own food growing experiences? Please get in touch for more information and an application pack.

What do we want to eat? No point in getting brussels sprouts if no one in the family likes them.  But maybe you saw a tv chef use radicchio or cavolo nero, for instance.

Can I get it at the supermarket? Then maybe go for a different variety  – yellow courgette ‘One Ball’, for example. Or something completely different, like exotic achocha (though tender, really easy to grow mini spiky cucumber type thing with a bit of a taste of green pepper)

How long from sowing to harvest? Broccoli, takes up 9 months in the plot so choose another green leafy veg with a quicker turn over. Will you need to clear your windowsill in February to get started with that particular tomato?

Is it visually lovely too? Purple-podded peas, runner bean ‘St George‘, acorn squash, ‘Bull’s Blood’ beetroot with purple, edible leaves…

Can I share? Get together with colleagues, neighbours, family, gardening club or allotment fellows to swap varieties.

We recommend Chase Organic Gardening catalogue, with lots of reliable and interesting varieties (organic, of course) and joining the Heritage Seed Library. you have to become a member but then seeds, which have been saved by experienced members, are free.

Also, click here for a link to Garden Organic’s What to do now page

And here for a link to making a window sill reflector so you can start seedlings off inside and encourage them to grow straight and strong.  You’ll also find a link to a sowing and harvesting calendar on this feature page.

Have fun!

Fiona Law – South London Co-ordinator