Pippa Greenwood embarks on UK ‘Grow Your Own’ tour with Stewart
One of Britain’s most popular gardening broadcasters will be hitting the road later this spring to promote the values of growing your own.
Grow your own specialist and broadcaster, Pippa Greenwood, has teamed up with Stewart to embark on an ambitious tour to eight locations around the country encouraging gardeners to make the most of home produce.
With money getting tighter, an increasing number of people are saving cash and staying healthy by using their gardens, greenhouses and even their windowsills to cultivate food.
There has been a massive rise in the popularity of grow your own horticulture lately, with the National Trust reporting the huge potential in the UK with around 600 acres of unused windowsills which could be used to grow fruit and vegetables under glass by those who do not have space for a greenhouse.
But help is now at hand from Pippa Greenwood who will be demonstrating on the tour how easy it is to grow your own. She will explain and demonstrate growing seeds and propagation. She will also show how to pot a plant easily using different sized pots as well as giving a master class on making small and versatile growing beds from large pots, troughs and hanging baskets.
The tour will begin on March 1st at Stewarts in Christchurch, Dorset and then to mark gardening’s own version of Comic Relief, Garden Re-Leaf Day on March 13th, Pippa will be bound for Cadbury Garden & Leisure Centre in Congresbury, North Somerset.
Garden Re-Leaf Day is part of a nationwide programme of fund-raising events aimed at gardeners of all levels of expertise. All proceeds will be donated to Greenfingers, the garden industry charity which creates gardens at children’s hospices.
Pippa will visit Scotsdale Nursery & Garden Centre in Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire on March 24th, Barton Grange Garden Centre in Brock Preston, Lancashire on March 28th, as well as Gordale Nurseries in Burton, South Wirral, Cheshire on March 29th.
She will then head to Webbs near Droitwich, Worcestershire on April 5th, followed by attending the Exeter Food Festival, Northernhay Gardens, Exeter on April 13th and the tour will be rounded off by a visit to the Garden Pride Garden Centre in Ditchling, West Sussex on May 13th.
The tour comes on the back of a recent three-year partnership deal signed last year between Stewart and Pippa Greenwood who will be working together to help consumers improve their understanding of growing fruit and vegetables at home and support retailers in this increasingly popular market sector.
The BBC Gardeners’ Question Time panellist and BBC Gardeners’ World columnist said she was very excited to be working with Stewart, taking part in a very hands-on tour where there will be eight comprehensive information sheets available to visitors explaining everything from propagation to when to use a cloche. These, along with a ‘grow your own calendar’, will be available in garden centres and DIY stores across the country, located next to Stewart products labelled with Pippa’s ‘grow your own’ branding.
“I’m looking forward to chatting about grow your own with people, and using some of Stewart’s wonderful products. Stewart’s product range demonstrates a real and long-term commitment to the grow your own movement – something that everyone knows I am passionate about.
“I believe that, together, we can help gardeners everywhere get the most from their grow your own efforts.”
Pippa will have her own blog on the Stewart website at: www.stewart-garden.com/pippa and she will be selling a wide range of Stewart products with the ‘grow your own’ branding on her own website at www.pippagreenwood.com
For more information contact:
Sara Tye at redheadPR on 07786 176 617 or email: sara@redheadpr.co.uk.
Emma De Maio at redheadPR on 07921 160 134 or email: emma@redheadpr.co.uk.
Tour details:
March 1st: Stewarts, Lyndhurst Road, Christchurch, Dorset BH23 4SA. Tel 01425 272244. www.stewarts.co.uk/
March 13th: Cadbury Garden & Leisure Centre, Smallway, Congresbury, North Somerset BS49 5AA. Tel: 01934 875700. www.g-l.co.uk/static/cadbury.html
March 24th: Scotsdale Nursery & Garden Centre, Cambridge Road, Great Shelford, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire CB22 5JT. Tel 01223 842777. www.scotsdalegardencentre.co.uk/
March 28th: Barton Grange Garden Centre, Garstang Road, Brock Preston, Lancashire PR3 0BT. Tel 01995 642900. www.bartongrange.co.uk/
March 29th: Gordale Nurseries Ltd, Chester High Road, Burton, South Wirral, Cheshire CH64 8TF. Tel 0151 336 2116. www.gordale.co.uk/
April 5th: Webbs, Wychbold, Droitwich, Worcestershire WR9 0DG. Tel 01527 860000. www.info.webbsdirect.co.uk
April 13th: Exeter Food Festival, Northernhay Gardens, Exeter, EX4 3QE www.exeterfoodfestival.co.uk
May 13th: Garden Pride Garden Centre, Common Lane, Ditchling, West Sussex, BN6 8TP. Tel 01273 846844. www.garden-pride.com/index.php
Pippa Greenwood’s Biography
Pippa Greenwood trained as a botanist at Durham University (BSc hons) and then gained an MSc in Crop Protection at Reading University. In 2007, Pippa was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Science (DSc) by the University of Durham for her work in gardening and its science.
In 1985 she joined the staff of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Garden at Wisley in Surrey, where she ran the Plant Pathology Department, answering several thousand queries from gardeners every year.
In 1988, Pippa began working for the BBC, joining Alan Titchmarsh for the gardening slot on BBC 1’s ‘Daytime Live’.
From 1989 until 2002, she was a regular presenter on BBC 2’s Gardeners’ World, presenting many items on garden pests and diseases, science and gardening, as well as creating and running her organic kitchen garden from her own Hampshire garden.
She is also a regular panellist on BBC Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time, travelling the length and breadth of the country to present the programme throughout the year. In 2000, 2001 and 2002 Pippa presented her own series, ‘Growing Science’ on Radio 4. For several years Pippa hosted BBC Radio Solent’s ‘Topsoil with Pippa Greenwood’, a three-hour gardening and music show.
She has guested on a number of television and radio programmes including: Tomorrow’s World, You and Yours, Woman’s Hour, BBC Breakfast, This Morning, GMTV, Breakaway, Grass Roots and Call my Bluff. She was a judge for the BBC Gardener of The Year competition in 2001.
Pippa was the gardening consultant for the ITV murder mystery series Rosemary and Thyme starring Pam Ferris and Felicity Kendal, advising on the gardening sub-plot and other plant related matters, and the gardening personalities of the two actresses!
Pippa has several regular writing commitments including BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine, and a monthly page in ‘NFU Countryside Magazine’.
For 18 years Pippa was the gardening columnist for The Mirror newspaper. Pippa writes a blog for BBC Gardeners’ World Website and has her own website, www.pippagreenwood.com Here she writes a gardening blog including ‘Grow Your Own with Pippa Greenwood’, a garden advice service called ‘Ask Pippa’, and she offers topical garden comment.
Pippa has written many books including the bestsellers, New Gardener (in excess of one and a quarter million copies sold), Gardening Hints and Tips, Garden Pests and Diseases, Garden Problem Solver, Flower Gardener, Pippa’s Organic Kitchen Garden, A Garden for All Seasons, Pippa Greenwood’s Gardening Year. She co-authored The Gardeners’ Question Time book. Her latest book is ‘1001 Ways to be a Better Gardener’ (Mitchell Beazley).
Pippa lectures, hosts gardening tours and gives gardening-related demonstrations across the UK and abroad.
Pippa lives in Hampshire where she gardens on a windswept hillside with a strongly alkaline, heavy-clay soil.
www.pippagreenwood.com offers a range of gardening related products.
ends
Stewart - backgrounder
Formed in 1945, Stewart is the UK market leader in the manufacture and supply of technical plastic moulded products for the gardening, home and professional catering sectors. The company offers a large range of products in its portfolio ranging from garden planters and propagators, to food containers and specialist storage products. The company employs 75 people in Croydon and enjoyed a turnover in 2010 of £13 million.
In June 2011 ECI, the mid-market private equity specialist, invested £12 million in the company in a BIMBO (buy-in / management buyout) deal that valued the business at £17 million. A new management structure saw Richard Butler join as Group CEO. Butler has significant knowledge of the advanced technical plastics sector, having worked for leading manufacturers in the aerospace and automotive sector. Lee Mowle, the previous owner and CEO, became Managing Director of the gardening and catering divisions, retaining a substantial shareholding in the company.
In the months following the BIMBO, Stewart made a series of changes to its brand and corporate identity and established discrete divisions for the core sectors it serves.
Stewart Garden produces grow your own products, watering, pots, propagators and garden accessories. These are available in over 1000 outlets across the UK and Eire including major DIY outlets such as Homebase and Wilkinsons and garden centres across the UK such as Dobbies and Klondyke/Strikes, The Garden Centre Group and some 600 plus independent garden centres. Having achieved a dominant position in the domestic market by offering durable, lifestyle-driven value for money products. The company continues to invest heavily in new product development.
Stewart Garden plays a full and active role in the gardening and leisure industry through its membership of:
- GIMA – the Garden Industry Manufacturers Association
- Gardenex – the Federation of Garden and Leisure Manufacturers Limited, and
- HTA – the Horticultural Trades Association
Stewart won the House Beautiful Best Product Garden Category in 2005 and the Klondyke Dry Goods Supplier Award in 2010. The company was a GIMA Awards - POS Finalist in 2009, and Best of British Finalist in 2011. Its Heat and Grow Thermostatic Propagator was top in the Which? Gardening Best Buy test on windowsill propagators 2011.
Stewart Home provides food storage and homewares products. These comprise of the Refine, Essentials and Seal Fresh food and drink storage collections, offering hygienic storage in a wide range of colours and shapes.
Stewart Catering supplies the Gastronorm and Seal Fresh food storage ranges to the catering industry and specialist cook shops via wholesale and cash and carry outlets.
Other divisions recently established under the Stewart umbrella are:
Stewart Aerospace
Stewart Automotive
Stewart Medical
Each division of Stewart is BS ISO 9001-2000 accredited and operates from the company’s manufacturing, warehousing and distribution centre in Croydon, Surrey.
For more information visit www.stewartlimited.co.uk
For editorial enquiries, pictures, interviews and samples, contact Sara Tye on 07786 176 617 or Emma De Maio on 07921 160 134 or email sara@redheadpr.co.uk or emma@redheadpr.co.uk.
