Growing for real...
Well Gardeners' World Live took up all of last week as we filmed the programme and then I stayed on until Saturday night talking on the 'Grow It' stage and on the celebrity theatre. The highlight for me was to have my replica allotment painted by Chris Cyprus, a man who is a cross between T S Lowry and Noel Gallagher and specialises is painting allotments in acrylics! The replica allotment itself was really well done (although smaller and far prettier than the real thing), and became a real talking point at the show. One woman actually asked me if I came up to the NEC every weekend with my family to look after it as she thought it was the real thing. Some people eh!
Chris usually spends a month or so on each painting, but he had only three days to do this one. I loved his final creation, but although I wanted to buy it, we auctioned it off in the Saturday and raised £1,100 for Children in Need so many thanks to Chris, fantastic. It was an exhausting week for all of us, but it's also great to meet so many viewers of the programme. Loads of young families came up to me and told me they loved the allotment so much they had taken on one themselves. It has certainly captured many children's imaginations and got them growing, which can only be a good thing. When I actually got to mine yesterday I was pleasantly surprised. The weeds were controllable and the mixture of sun and rain meant everything had grown well. I lifted my first new potatoes, 'Swifts' of course and boiled some up right there on the spot. Boy did they taste good. We had some last night at home and now all that initial hard work seems worth while. Till next time, Joe.
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