Mae’r gwanwyn wedi cyrraedd yng Ngŵyl Tyddyn a Gardd Frenhinol Cymru
Rhapsody in blue. Flowers and plants galore and lots of beautiful arrangements
like this one by a Yorkshire Exhibitor will be on view at the RWAS Smallholder and Garden Festival in May.
With spring in the air and the long summer months ahead gardeners will find much to inspire them at this year’s Smallholder and Garden Festival on the showground at Llanelwedd, Builth Wells, on May 16 and 17.
More than 30 stands have been booked into the Festival’s Floral Hall and anyone with a passion for plants will be able to take a closer look at some of the most popular varieties from which to select when planning and landscaping their gardens. The displays, ranging from cottage garden perennials to orchids, climbers, miniatures, ornamental and foliage plants, grasses, bamboo, cactus, bonsai and many others, together represent a mine of information and also provide the opportunity to buy some of the best varieties to enhance and develop gardens at home.
Gardeners who aim to beat the credit crunch by growing their own fruit, vegetables, and herbs, will also be catered for and there will even be a bog garden displaying a selection of carnivorous plants – those fascinating varieties that consume insects – brought here from countries around the world.
Neath and Port Talbot College will once again be staging a display at the Festival. This time the college’s garden, called Spring Tides, will contain plants which are suitable for seaside locations. The Cottage Garden Society, a national organisation with local groups which encourage the use of native cottage garden plants, will also be represented at the Festival.
The essential role of bees in the garden will be emphasised at the Brecon & Radnor and Welsh Bee Keepers Association stand. The bee population is estimated to have declined by 15% in the past two years posing a serious threat to the future well-being of our gardens and Britain’s 20,000 amateur beekeepers have been asked to register their bees on a national data base in an attempt to halt the dramatic fall in the honey bee population. Visit this stand to learn more.
The now well-established schedule of talks in the Speakers Corner at the Festival will include Terry Walton who is featured as the allotment doctor on Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine programme. Visitors looking for answers to their questions and tips and advice on gardening can also take their problems to the Gardening Road Show team of experts who will be busy again at the Festival exchanging questions and free prizes with their audience.
Gardening and horticulture form only part of the Festival which is now attracting thousands of visitors every year. For smallholders and country-lovers it is one of the most important events of the year with an extensive show of livestock including cattle, sheep, pigs and goats, woodland craft and farriery demonstrations, vintage machinery displays, a Green Horizons exhibition about the environment, open premier dog show with over 1000 entries, a dance festival, a property road show, Farmers Markets, auctions of vintage machinery and memorabilia and poultry and farm equipment, together with a full weekend programme of entertainment.
Festival Director, Dr Fred Slater, said: “I am really excited about how much we have to offer at this year’s event. At a time when we are all counting the pennies, this is undoubtedly a true value for money weekend guaranteed to lift you out of the current economic gloom and show you the best the countryside has to offer.”
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