News

Wednesday 30 November 2011
Hello to our 29,300 pledgers!

When we launched this campaign we had a target of getting 30,000 people pledging to grow veg. We didn't know if this was a realistic or ambitious target, but with 29,317 pledgers at last count we're feeling that we've almost hit the nail on the head and as such are pretty proud of ourselves!

It's been great fun meeting so many pledgers at events, hearing about the schools that have signed up, seeing how many people have pledged online, and of course getting the support of some scarily famous people like Jamie Oliver! We couldn't have done it without the support of you the growers, our corporate supporters, our funders, or our enthusiastic volunteers so thank you!

It's almost winter and our fantastic campaign is now drawing to a close BUT our website will still be here in 2012 and we're counting on you to get your friends and neighbours, family and colleagues growing next year. If you haven't made the pledge but are growing veg this winter then make sure you visit the Take Part page to sign up. We want to see the potometer reach the giddy heights of 30,000 and we're so close now we can taste it!

Wednesday 24 August 2011
Confessed ‘Botany Geek’ makes pledge!

We were delighted when BBC TV presenter James Wong dropped by at our One Pot Pledge stand at Ryton Gardens’ Chilli Day recently.

James who was at our HQ in Warwickshire to open our brand new Exotic Garden, loved the idea of the One Pot Pledge but confessed that he would be making the ‘multi-pot pledge’ rather than just the one pot! You can see pictures of the event here.

 

Only 2,000 pledges until target!

Following on from a summer of events including Glastonbury, the Big Feastival and Start Growing at Clarence House, we are pleased to announce that we have had 28,000 pledges! This means that the UK has 28,000 more veg growers thanks to the efforts of the One Pot Pledge!

However there’s still work to be done. Our aim is to reach 30,000 people in total – so please tell friends, family, colleagues and neighbours about the campaign and get them to pledge here.

Tuesday 14 June 2011
One Pot Pledge does Glasto!

Growing veg and live music might not usually go hand in hand, unless you’re at the Glastonbury Festival that is!

That’s why Garden Organic is proud to be joining up with Greenpeace in the Greenpeace Field alongside The Fairtrade Foundation, Soil Association and Rocket Gardens to hand out sound advice on all sorts of food related issues in the Farmers’ Market – a Glastonbury first!

We’ll be talking veg and running the One Pot Pledge, and thanks to our sponsors, Kitchen Garden Magazine, we’ll be giving away magazines and free pepper and chilli seeds to enthusiastic pledgers.

And once you’ve made the pledge why not stroll the farmer's market where you can pick your own and graze as you go. Local produce will include organic breads, cakes, pies, cheeses and pasties, and a range of fruit and salads all washed down with tasty juices.

Even if you made the One Pot Pledge last year do come along and see us – we’d love to hear how your veg growing is going and get you started all over again!

Thursday 26 May 2011
Only 5,000 pledges left until target

It's been a busy 12 months and we've been working hard to get as many of you growing as we can. The great news is that our digging, sowing, chatting, potting and pledging has paid off and we are now only 5,000 people short of our 30,000 target.

Do you know someone that could benefit from their own One Pot Pledge? If so tell them about us and get them to make the pledge. Friends, colleagues, family, neighbours – they can all take part. It's fun, cheap and tasty at the end!

Green fingered foodie

We were delighted when Michelin starred chef Tom Aitkens dropped by and made the One Pot Pledge with us at the Real Food Festival. Tom says that sustainability, flavour, freshness and quality are what he looks for when sourcing his ingredients, and quite shrewdly Tom went for a very versatile organic chard plant for his pledge!

Get Growing Garden Trail
Saturday 11 June, across Bristol

The One Pot Pledge is proud to be supporting the Get Growing Garden Trail as part of Bristol's biggest celebration of urban growing on Saturday 11 June, 10am – 5pm.

Bristol's secret vegetable growers will open their garden gates and community plots for a special open day of tours, advice and family fun.

On the day you can find out how to start growing your own veg, how to get involved with a local growing group, or just get on your bike and see how many you can visit. Activities across the city include chilli tasting, farm tours, grow your own workshops, One Pot Pledge activities and seed-planting for the children. You can find out more here: www.bristollocalfood.co.uk

The Big Feastival
1 – 3 July, Clapham Common

Join Garden Organic at Jamie O's first Big Feastival on 1- 3 July to find out how to grow your own great food. Visitors should head to the Kitchen Garden area to meet our Master Gardeners who will be out and about getting revellers pledging and vegging! Free chard and delicious rocket up for grabs. More information here: www.jamieoliver.com/thebigfeastival/whats-on/the-kitchen-garden/

Friday 15 March
Tomato time!

We listened to what you told us last year and we've gone and created a tomato growing card for our One Pot Pledgers.

So many pledgers wanted to have a go at growing tomatoes, even though they can be a bit tricky, so we've put together some top advice on how to get the most from growing a tomato in a pot.

Small fruiting, bush varieties of tomatoes do particularly well in pots, meaning you can harvest a great deal of tiny toms for adding to salads, topping pizzas and popping in your mouth like sweets!

Go to the Get Growing pages for full instructions.

If you don't fancy growing from seed then why not try a ready grown variety from our Heritage Seed Library. You can buy yours from Delfland Nurseries here

Wednesday 30 March
Welcome to our new pledgers!

It's been all go at One Pot Pledge HQ - we've been out recruiting pledgers at the Edible Garden Show and at our Ryton Gardens event, Get Set Grow. Garden Organic's Master Gardeners have been enthusiastically signing people up and we can now proudly announce another 1,000 pledgers....with one or two very early starters too!

Don't forget to water those seedlings, protect them from the cold, and give them plenty of daylight!

Students pledge to save money

Students at the University of Hull featured a One Pot Pledge activity at their Free Your Money Day earlier this month.

The day, organised as part of a Money Doctors Partnership between the Student Union Advice Centre and the University Student Loans and Hardship team, was a great success with over 260 students attending.

The organisers gave students the chance to take away pots and seeds and starter kits, using the downloadable materials from the One Pot Pledge website. The activity proved a real hit, with students interested in having a go at growing some food, and saving a bit of cash on the side!

Wednesday 16 March
Edible Garden Show guests to make One Pot Pledge

Allotment goers, veg growers, part-time plotters and fruit fanatics will all reap the benefits of Garden Organic's horticulture expertise when it takes to the floor at the Edible Garden Show this weekend.

The charity's leading horticulturists, Philip Turvil, Bob Sherman and Pauline Pears will all be appearing on the experts stage to give organic master classes on subjects covering the organic veg plot, growing fruit the organic way, and organic pest control for the veg garden. They will also be leading 'Have a go' sessions sponsored by Delfland Nurseries and Haemmerlin at the Potting Shed stage and getting people to make the One Pot Pledge!

If you're a pledger and plan on going to the show then do pop along and say hello – we'd love to hear how your growing is going!

Thursday 24 February
Get Set to Grow!

A great 'grow your own' event home-grown by Garden Organic - the perfect event to get the growing season off to the right start! Head along to Ryton Gardens in Warwickshire on Sunday March 27 2011, get geared up by grabbing a free seed tray, seed compost and then sow your own veggies. You will also be able to talk compost and veg gardening, hear talks about growing veg, tour the gardens for some top tips and the One Pot Pledge team will also be on hand to help budding growers!

Tuesday 8 February
Welcome to our new Potato Day pledgers!

Garden Organic’s fantastic Master Gardener team were pleased as punch to meet lots of enthusiastic people at Potato Day that wanted to make the One Pot Pledge to grow potatoes for the first time.

Welcome to over 300 of you that made the pledge on the day! We hope that the free Thompson and Morgan grow bag, organic Desiree potato tuber, our advice sheets and some top tips from our Master Gardeners gave you the confidence to get started at home. Hopefully you’re all following their first bit of advice, which is to ‘chit’ your potatoes!

Look at the picture on the right for a perfect example of potato chitting!

Calling all pledgers – it’s time to spud up!

It might still be cold outside but never fear, the taste of new growth is in the air – and by taste we mean potatoes!

We’ve stocked up on loads of different varieties at the Ryton Gardens’ Potato Day –but if you weren’t able to make the event it’s not too late! Keep an eye out for local Potato Day events near you – a list of some of them can be found here. Alternatively pay your garden centre a visit as this is the time of year that the shelves are stacked with seed potatoes. All you need to do is choose whether you want earlies (early to harvest, new and salad potatoes) or main crop (later to harvest, boiling, baking, roasting potatoes) and you’re half way there!

And once you’ve laid hands on your spuds – everything you need to know about how to grow a healthy, hearty crop is here.

Monday 16 August 2010
Bright chards, oriental greens and fiery salads for autumn days

The One Pot Pledge has teamed up with our friends at Seed Pantry to bring new growers a bright, exotic and tasty treat for autumn.

The One Pot Pledge Autumn Salads Pack is perfect for sowing between now and October and will give growers perfect pot grown produce for the autumn and winter months.

Including Pak Choi, Chard and spicy salad mixes, the One Pot Pledge Autumn Salads pack is ideal for pledgers wanting to keep their fingers green throughout the winter.

As and added bonus, Seed Pantry are offering a 5% discount off the retail price of £9.95, with a further 5% donation made to Garden Organic with every sale. All you need to do is enter OnePotPledge as the promotional code when you buy – simple!

Buy yours here and green and tasty veg will be yours! Don’t forget the code:

http://www.seedpantry.co.uk/selected/autumn-salads.html

Wednesday 11 August
One Pot Pledge gets Royal airing

Visitors to the Prince of Wales’ Garden Party to Make a Difference this September will be encouraged to make the One Pot Pledge by reusing their drinks cups to grow something edible.

The event, designed to get people to start making changes towards a more sustainable lifestyle, will see the One Pot Pledge team located at mobile potting stations across the palace gardens.

Offering first time growers the chance to take home a seedling of Bright Lights Chard or Wild Rocket, kindly donated by Delfland Nurseries, the aim of the activity is to get more people growing and eating their own.

To join the party and to get an exclusive look at otherwise unseen palace gardens visit www.startgardenparty.co.uk to buy tickets. See you there!

Wednesday 11 August
14,000 pledgers and growing!

Here at One Pot Pledge towers, we are thrilled that our efforts over the spring and summer have paid off and that 14,000 more people are now giving it a grow!

You might think that the growing season is now over but think again! Exciting new ideas for autumn/winter ‘one pot veg’ will be winging it’s way to the One Pot Pledge website soon, as well as an exclusive One Pot Pledge product from our friends at the Seed Pantry – so keep your eyes peeled.

Tuesday 22 June
The One Pot Pledge is going to Glastonbury

This week the One Pot Pledge team are off to the Glastonbury Festival. We’ll be in the Greenpeace field signing up as many people as possible to make the One Pot Pledge; helping them make that first step towards a more sustainable future. And anyone who brings their used cup (coffee/tea/cider/beer etc) to our stand can recycle it by potting up basil, bean or courgette seed and start their first foray into growing at Glastonbury. At the end of the festival, on the Sunday afternoon the One Pot Pledge team will be working with Rocket Gardens to dismantle, give away and eat the living “Greenpeace” roof, made out of the 24,000 lettuce plug plants!

So if you’re going to Glastonbury, do make sure you come along and say hello to Garden Organic’s One Pot Pledge team in the Greenpeace field.

Tuesday 22 June
1,000 new growers for Britain

Our ‘Potometer’ is rapidly rising thanks to a spell at BBC Gardeners’ World Live where over 1,000 keen gardeners who haven’t yet experienced the highs of growing their own food, signed the One Pot Pledge to grow something edible and organic for the first time.

During the event our One Pot Pledge champion and Gardeners’ World presenter, Alys Fowler paid us a visit. Alys loved our giant pot filled with veggies and made her very own One Pot Pledge to grow Chinese Artichokes  - and to actually eat them!

The pledge total for the campaign now stands at just over 10,000.

Wednesday 26 May 2010
Chelsea Flower Show visitors show support of One Pot Pledge®

Gardening Gurus and gardening novices alike have shown their support for growing their own organic food at Garden Organic’s silver medal winning Chelsea Flower Show exhibit.

Celebrities from every background from Jamie Oliver to Jerry Hall, Bill Oddie to Sir Derek Jacobi signed up to make the pledge to grow veg and the BBC’s very own Gardening Guru Carol Klein also told us how she ‘loves’ the campaign!

Regular Chelsea visitors also showed their support with some 200 people making the One Pot Pledge® in the Great Pavilion on Tuesday alone.

Garden Organic’s One Pot Pledge® exhibit is all about inspiring people to grow something edible for the first time. The exhibit at Chelsea is bursting with ideas of how to grow veg in all sorts of unusual containers, with ideas for colour combinations, planting schemes and demonstrations of just how successfully crops can grow in pots.

To find out more see our Flickr gallery, become a Fan on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

 

Thursday 20 May
Giant pot planted at Chelsea!

Garden Organic and the One Pot Pledge will hit the dizzying horticultural heights of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show next week and during our stay we hope to get hundreds of pledgers and Gardening Gurus to help us get even more people growing their own organic food!

Located in the continuous learning zone, our stand, which was designed by organic grower and Chelsea gold medallist Jekka Mcvicar, is based entirely on the idea of growing crops in pots.

At the heart of the stand is a giant pot filled with veggies, which is then flanked by some gorgeous stone planters from Haddonstone, as well as some other nifty growing innovations from The Ladder Allotment company, Greenhouse Sensation, Haxnicks and Thompson and Morgan.

Bursting with edible plants and flowers, vegetables and even some varieties from our Heritage Seed Library collection, the stand is designed to inspire all visitors, from non-gardeners to the more green-fingered, to have a go at growing something edible this year.

If you’re attending the show (25 – 29 May 2010) and want to drop by to make the pledge or sign up as a Gardening Guru then you will find Garden Organic’s One Pot Pledge team at The Grand Pavilion in the Continuous Learning Zone.

 

Friday 23 April
Pupils go potty for pledge

Children at St John’s Primary School, at Wimbourne in Devon, had a lovely day learning all about nature thanks to One Pot Pledger Anna Guyer hosting a One Pot Pledge school seed sowing day.

Over 160 pupils took part in learning the basics of gardening by selecting pots, filling them with compost and sowing and watering seeds. All of the pupils are now committed Pledgers. Well done!

If you are interested in setting up your own One Pot Pledge school event click over on to the Schools tab at the top of the page for ideas and info or the Get Growing tab for event resources.

 

Friday 26 March
Spud News!

Our good friends at Thompson and Morgan have kindly donated us 100 Potato growing starter kits. These little beauties contain everything you could ever need (minus the compost!) to get a perfect batch of roasties or mash straight from your garden. Sign up and make the One Pot Pledge® for your chance to win!

 

Friday 26 March
Congratulations to our first 50 pledgers

Greenhouse Sensation Windowgrows will be winging their way to you very soon! If you missed out don't worry, click here for more Greenhouse Sensation offers.

 

Monday 22 March 2010
TV Gardener, Alys Fowler, joins the One Pot Pledge® campaign

Garden Organic is proud to announce that Gardening Guru and all round great gal – Alys Fowler – has joined the One Pot Pledge® as our campaign champion. Alys said, “Eating food that you’ve grown yourself is one of life’s great pleasures and one that everyone should have the chance to enjoy.  With the One Pot Pledge® campaign we want to inspire and support people to try something new and experience the joy of growing their own food from seed to harvest.” Well said Alys!

 

Monday 22 March 2010
Greenhouse Sensation to give away 50 Windowgrows to first 50 pledgers

As an added incentive to get pledging, our friends at Greenhouse Sensation are giving away 50 Windowgrows and a selection of One Pot Pledge® seeds to our first 50 pledgers.

Window grows are perfect for small spaces, or houses with no garden at all, And don’t worry if you’re not one of our first 50 pledgers. Everyone that makes the pledge in March will also be eligible for £11.00 off a Windowgrow when booking at www.greenhousesensation.co.uk. Make sure you quote OPP1

Windowgrow standard price: £26.90
Windowgrow March pledgers price: £15.90

Grow kit product	Size	Which Plants	Standard Price	Pledger Price	Dates expires	Offer Code
Windowgrow (planter wth seed raising lid and reservoir)	Planter L75cm x W19cm x H13cm Lid Height 13cm	Coriander Basil Rocket Summer salad	£26.90	Save £11 £15.90	Ends 31st March	OPP1

There are also tons of other discounts on offer to pledgers so check out Greenhouse Sensation’s partner page to see what else they’ve generously offered.

Monday 22 March 2010
Coming Soon: Offers from Suttons, Vital Earth and Stewart Plastics