NS&I selects and nurtures gardening talent for the second year

Released on: March 19, 2009, 6:43 am
Author: National Savings and Investments
Industry: Financial

For the second year, judges of the NS&I Growing Gardens Today competition have selected three unique and visionary garden designs to be displayed at BBC Gardeners' World Live 2009. The winning designs all feature the growing of fruit and vegetables, modernity and
sustainability as key themes. These are requirements of the competition that link in with NS&I's ongoing sponsorship of the Royal Horticultural Society's (RHS) Grow Your Own campaign.

The three winners, based in Devon and Bath, will all receive a £5,000 grant to build a 25m sq garden and showcase in the Grow Your Own area of the show.

Tim Mack, Head of Marketing and Communications at NS&I commented, "NS&I is proud to run the NS&I Growing Gardens Today competition for a second year. We are delighted that growing your own is getting more and more popular and this competition can help to encourage that. The winning designs demonstrate how you can be both sustainable and creative in a small space. We were once again impressed by the standard of entries to our competition and look forward to seeing the winning designs on show in the Grow Your Own area at this year's event."

Three winners - three very different visions:

Sally Wilding-Webb from Devon is looking forward to bringing her garden design to life. She said, "I'm delighted to have been selected as a winner for the NS&I Growing Gardens Today competition. I'm looking forward to the thrill and excitement of constructing a garden at a high profile gardening show. In my design, 'Everything in the garden', I aim to show that growing fruit and vegetables can be productive, beautiful and above all enjoyable"

Sheila Jean Dearing, found her 'Forest to Fork' inspiration came from the principles of forest gardening; creating a balanced ecosystem. She commented, "For me this is the epitome of the Growing Gardens Today theme - creating a haven for growing your own produce, as well as being sustainable and environmentally friendly."

The third winning design called 'Urban Veg' was created by Christopher Parry and Rene Humphrey and encompasses all of the Growing Gardens Today components. The designers said "'Urban Veg' is a contemporary space made for today's city lifestyle - a combination of two types of gardens into one. The space is good for both living and entertaining but also shows how easy it is to grow vegetables, fruits and herbs for homemade salads and other yummy dishes."

The three designs will be featured in the Grow Your Own area, sponsored by NS&I, at this year's BBC Gardeners' World Live (10-14 June 2009), held at the NEC Birmingham.

Visitors to the show will have the opportunity to choose their favourite of the winning designs in a public vote. Each of the three winners will also provide NS&I with a weekly 'blog' in the build-up to the show.

Notes to Editors

About NS&I
NS&I is one of the UK's largest financial providers with 27 million customers and over £94 billion invested. It is best known for Premium Bonds, but also offers inflation-beating savings account, guaranteed equity bonds, savings bonds, easy access accounts and children's bonus bonds in its range. All products offer 100% security, because NS&I is backed by HM Treasury.

NS&I media team
Interviews with the three winners can be arranged through the NS&I media team. Scanned copies of their selected designs are also available.

ISDN for interviews: 020 7602 4522

NS&I media only contact:
Iman Asante
National Savings and Investments
375 Kensington High Street
London
W14 8SD
020 7348 9301
www.nsandi.com