Horticultural masterclass from Ruthin's king of vegetables

Jun 3 2009 by Andrew Davies, Denbigh Visitor

WALES’ own king of vegetables is to give a grow your own masterclass to budding horticulturalists in Ruthin.

Ten-times Chelsea Flower Show gold medallist Medwyn Williams has been called in by the Ruthin Show Society to help boost entries for this year’s event.

He will be offering words of wisdom to local veg growers at the Naylor Leyland Institute on Thursday, June 11, at 7pm with a free lecture.

Medwyn, the only person to win ten consecutive gold medals at Chelsea, will be revealing some of the secrets of successful veg growing to encourage more people to enter this year’s Ruthin Flower Show.

He said: “Local shows are the lifeblood of veg growing and it’s how I started showing vegetables many years ago.

“It is so important that people get the basics right when they start growing veg but you do often need a helping hand because if people try and do it off their own bat they can have failures and get discouraged.

“The single most important thing I would stress is the importance of the soil – you don’t get owt out of nowt – but if you do get a good start then growing veg is very worthwhile and you can’t beat the taste.”

This year’s Ruthin Flower Show is backed by local rural development agency Cadwyn Clwyd, funded by the European Union and Welsh Assembly Government.

Agri-food project officer for Denbighshire Delyth Jones said: “We want to encourage as many people as possible to get involved with the flower show.

“It is a special event and we hope this initiative will encourage more people than ever to enter.

“Getting Medwyn involved is marvellous because he is a real ambassador for vegetables and the joys of growing your own here in North Wales.”

Ruthin Flower Show, one of Wales’ oldest and most distinguished, dates back to 1887, and this year takes place on Saturday, August 8, at Ruthin Farmers’ Auction.

Show secretary Angela Dykins said: “We want to boost awareness of growing fruit and vegetables and to inspire people to try the competitions.

“They are not just for experts but for everyone and as growing your own has never been more popular we want to tap into that.”

For more information on Ruthin Flower Show, including details of all the classes and how to enter, log on to ruthinshow.org

andy.davies