Peter Seabrook

Your with Peter Seabrook, AG’s classic gardening expert Gardening Week

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Chelsea Flower Show Product of the Year winner Ally Mitchell with the flowerpots he makes from discarded ropes and nets from the fishing industry

Cosy Nests made from Dartmoor wool

Peter ’s top tips

Last year’s Chelsea product

1winner, Vegepod, has upgraded its Vegebag so it has a longer life and is a useful way to protect patio crops from pest attack.

Repurpose to help the planet

There is a positive effort to reuse material, says Peter

HE judging of Chelsea Flower horror, at our throw-away society. Show Product of the Year 2021 Product of the Year judging is always went ahead as usual last month, difficult because of the wide range of

Twith the winner announced on entries. This year we had everything the virtual Chelsea output, but people from Twool’s Naked Twine (35 metres will have to wait until the September for £3) to the Gaze Burvill woodland Chelsea show to see all ten low oval table at £5,250, finalists’ products on display. beautifully designed and The judges were Deborah hand crafted from UK Meaden from the Dragons’ sweet chestnut . Den TV programme, It was interesting to and Chris Harrop, group hear that Blue Diamond director of sustainability Garden Centres are and supply chain ethics at substituting UK-produced hard-landscape materials Dartmouth wool twine in company Marshalls plc. place of imported jute, but it Both are committed was the box of Twool’s Cosy environmentalists and well equipped to Nests for Birds and Hedgehogs that judge this year’s theme ‘Sustainable caught my eye. It’s an astute by-product Garden Product of the Year’ . use of the wool-spun garden tie.

I joined them in the judging and, as a This year’s winner is Ocean Plastic child of the 1940s, was brought up in an Pots’ offering of flowerpots and saucers age of make do and mend. I still find it made from reclaimed and recycled difficult to walk past a skip and look, in polypropylene discarded by the fishing industry. Former deep-sea diver Ally Mitchell made an uplifting case. Having seen first-hand the accumulation of“Flowerpots made from recycled plastics in the seas, he set about improving the situation. Where his pots are used to grow houseplants on the polypropylene” windowsill, they become a daily reminder of our need to recycle and make moves to live more sustainably. When opening bags of

2compost, always cut carefully and cleanly along the top, so the bag can be reused. Alternatively, cut down three sides to get a useful rectangle of thick polythene.

Unwanted turf should be3 stacked upside down to rot down, and after sieving makes a useful container compost diluent.

Florists use an increasing

4amount of decorative raffia on flower presentations. When retained, soaked and split, it makes an excellent plant-tying material.