RHS Malvern has a new gardening contest. Jamie Butterworth talks houseplants, greening cities and how Monty Don got him into growing. And there’s a prize giveaway.
Ironically, when I get to chat to RHS Ambassador Jamie Butterworth about his Green Living Spaces initiative at the RHS Malvern Spring Festival, he’s striding through central London and despondent about what he can see.
“It’s hustle and it’s bustle and it’s very grey. There’s zero plants here at all. It’s incredibly grey, it’s incredibly dull, it’s incredibly boring,” he says emphatically.
“I’m just looking at all these balconies and thinking these could be so much nicer if they had a little bit of green space on them.”
It’s a message he’s hoping to get across at RHS Malvern next month with a new contest designed to show how you can grow no matter how small the space available and that you don’t need to be retired to have the time for gardening.
Planting for patios, balconies and houseplants for indoors will all be showcased alongside the traditional show gardens.
“It’s trying to show people that you don’t necessarily need to have one to 20 acres of garden to be able to produce an amazing green space. You can do it if you’ve only got a patio, or a balcony or a windowsill,” explains Jamie, a former finalist in the BBC’s Young Gardener of the Year.
There are designs for two balconies and two patios at the show, all just 5m by 3m, and the ideas are very varied.
‘The Urban Escape’ by Sebastian Conrad is a patio inspired by art in a colour scheme that contrasts coral and orange with white and green. Elaine Portch’s ‘Outside Number 39’ balcony uses a lot of recycled elements, making it perfect for someone on a limited budget.
Andy Bending has chosen to showcase how to grow veg in ‘The Salad Deck’, a small patio with containers and a living wall of salad leaves, while ‘Grow, Dine and Relax’ by Anne Keenan is a balcony dining space with a wine cooler rill and canopy made from deckchair fabric.
“There’s so many fantastic ideas and each of them are completely unique to showcase just what you can do.”
The four designs will be set around a mock-up of a house complete with a wild flower roof. Jamie is designing the ‘front garden’ and interior, which will show how to use houseplants; there will also be a live feed from it to the festival’s theatre.
The house and interior are not going to be judged but will be there to inspire along with the judged balconies and patios.
“The idea is not to steal any of the limelight from the designers. It’s just to tie it together, to give it all context and help bring out their show gardens.”
Jamie’s hoping to demonstrate how even with just a windowsill or a few shelves, it’s possible to grow plants.
“The idea is you can walk around this installation and pick up a few ideas from each of the gardens,” he explains.
“When you give it a go and realise it’s not as difficult as it seems, then you get hooked, which is fantastic as we all need to be growing more plants.”
It’s this sort of inspiration that got him into gardening aged nine when he watched Monty Don sowing seeds on Gardeners’ World and then asked his mum for some seeds to try.
“I remember to this very day the excitement. It was like real life magic watching them germinate and flower.”
He eventually outgrew his parents suburban garden in Wakefield and gradually took over his grandparents’ larger plot.
“By the time I left when I was 16, I’d converted the whole thing into my allotment, which is still there today, and converted them into keen gardeners in the process. It was complete role reversal.”
He trained at Askham Bryan College and Wisley and today, alongside his role with the RHS, works as a horticultural consultant for London Stone.
As for his own garden, the 23-year-old lives in a one-bed flat so knows all about limited space: “I call myself a lazy gardener because I only grow plants I know will survive when I’m off travelling. If I can do it, loads of other people my age can.
“I’m more excited about this project than any other project I’ve done before because it’s so different and so new to an RHS show. I think there’s going to be a real buzz around it.”
Win tickets to the RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2018
The RHS Malvern Spring Festival is the perfect way to start the growing season with show gardens, talks from gardening experts and a floral marquee packed with displays by leading nurseries. There will also be advice on how to cook what you grow with talks and demonstrations.
I’ve got a pair of festival tickets to give away and a pitcher plant (nepenthes) to be collected from Hampshire Carnivorous Plants at the show. Tickets are valid from Thursday to Sunday.
Details of how to enter the giveaway are here.
The RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2018 runs from May 10-13 at the Three Counties Showground, Malvern. For more details and tickets, visit the website.
This contest is now closed.