The 2015 Edible Garden Show opens at Alexandra Palace on Friday 20 March - the day of a solar eclipse, which is due to plunge much of the UK into eerie darkness. Opening day speaker Charles Dowding, an expert veg grower, says it the perfect time to put down your trowel and prick up your ears.
Charles, who will be giving a talk in the Experts Theatre on starting a vegetable garden (a subject covered in detail in his excellent new book), said: “Eclipses are reckoned to be unfavourable for sowing or planting, so it’s an ideal time to come to the show. It’s an unusual weekend with the solar eclipse on Friday then two planetary eclipses on Saturday of Uranus and Mars.”
Charles is known for a biodynamic approach to gardening, a practice he sums up as “harnessing unseen energies for greater plant health and quality”. He added: “The biodynamic approach is about working with subtle energies to improve health and nutritional quality of plants. It began in the 1920s with the teachings of Rudolf Steiner. Biodynamic gardeners and farmers use special preparations on soil, plants and in the compost heap. Another aspect is sowing and planting by the moon, although this is not unique to biodynamics, and has been practised for much longer.”
Charles’s own interest on the effect of the lunar cycle on growing patterns goes back more than 30 years and early tablets from ancient Babylon testified to the belief in the infertility of the land around the time of an eclipse.
As Britain’s love of growing its own flourishes, so does the show dedicated to inspiring gardeners and would-be gardeners. Charles’s new book(‘ How to Create a New Vegetable Garden’) fits in perfectly with The Edible Garden Show, which is dedicated to inspiring novice and experienced gardeners. During his talk Charles will explain how to turn unpromising ground into a productive space, simpler weed control and also mention some ‘new’ vegetables, like oca, yacon and stevia.
This year’s show from 20-22 March has more than triple the number of attraction areas and a huge variety of experts sharing their passion for grow your own.
It runs alongside a new lifestyle event, Good Life Live, which will showcase a vast range of outdoor living experiences from adventure activities and country pursuits to home comforts and livestock.
Pippa Greenwood, James Wong and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall are among the star attractions, while, for toddlers, the highlight will undoubtedly be the high-energy appearance of the green-fingered Mr Blooms of CBeebies fame on the Saturday.
