Country Focus

A Growing Industry!

The brand new Horticulture Village at the Royal Welsh Agricultural Show this year celebrated all aspects of horticulture in Wales from community to commercial growing. Caroline Evans explores the new Village and hears find out what we need to do to produce more fruit, veg, plants and flowers, and deliver greater health and environmental outcomes for the nation, through horticulture.

Duration:: 30m
Broadcast on:: 28 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

This is the BBC. This podcast is supported by advertising outside the UK. Selling a little? Or a lot? Shopify helps you do your thing, however you chit-ching. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. From the launch your online shop stage to the first real-life store stage, all the way to the did we just hit a million orders stage, Shopify is there to help you grow. Shopify helps you turn browsers into buyers, with the internet's best converting checkout. 36% better on average compared to other leading commerce platforms, because businesses that grow grow with Shopify. Get a $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com/work. Shopify.com/work. Ryan Reynolds here for, I guess, my hundredth mint commercial. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no. Honestly, when I started this, I thought I'd only have to do like four of these. I mean, it's unlimited to premium wireless for $15 and what power there's still people paying two or three times that much. I'm sorry, I shouldn't be victim blaming here. Give it a try at midmobile.com/switch, whatever you're ready. $45 up from payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. Speed slower above 40 gigabytes of CD-Tails. Hello and welcome to Country Focus. I'm Caroline Evans. From community to commercial growing, competitive showing and displays, after a year's absence, the new horticultural village of the Royal Welsh agricultural show is back, bigger and better. So here's horticulture in Wales growing and flourishing. Well, it's certainly flourishing here in the Isted Vlodai, where judging has just finished and here are two judges who are busily pouring over some paperwork here. Hello, good morning, who are you? Hello, my name's Christine Picton and I'm a national judge and I'm from Norfolk. Hello, it's Jackie Chanock here, again a national judge and I'm from Shrewsbury. We finished judging the actual floral art classes, but we're in the process of judging the young farmers' exhibits, which has been quite exceptional this year. I have to say, I'm really pleased with the results. And then we have the task of doing comment cards for everybody. So we're hoping for just a cup of coffee first before we actually go on to do what it must be, 70 odd comments cards. But we like everybody to have some sort of comment to know how to move forward. Looking around me, I mean, I know very little about flowers, but it looks staggering, the level of arrangements here. It's absolutely staggering. I mean, this is effectively a national competition for Wales, so it's the best of the best. The level of the competition is absolutely incredible, and even the young farmers, I was absolutely amazed, blown away. Yes, and we're just saying how diverse it is because our judging has been quite diverse today, which doesn't always happen. You know, there's lots of traditional things, contemporary things, all garden things. So, yeah, you've got a lovely variety here, and lots and lots of really beautiful exhibits. What are we looking for? We've got some very tall arrangements just in front of us, and some little sort of plots further back, I noticed. Well, these are quite large-scale exhibits, and as a gangster, the designs that you were explaining look like gardens. They're called parvés, which is almost a picture created with plant material, and so we're looking for lots of textures and contrast of shapes and forms, as well as colours. So, there's quite a lot of detail we're looking for, precise work, whereas the bigger designs we're looking for, obviously, a good interpretation of the class title. But then we're also looking for lots of movement, and well-used, what we call principles and elements within those designs, to create something quite stunning. There's a lot of work goes on before we get this far, but we've enjoyed it. The standard is wonderful, and it's lovely to see so many beautiful designs. I'd better let you get back to your deliberations. It's just gin and tonic at the end of the day. APPLAUSE Fifteen years ago... Well, the ethos of the Horticultural Village here at the Rowell Show in Flinnell with is to inspire, educate and collaborate, a space to inspire and showcase excellence. Now, with me is Sarah Gould. Sarah, you wear many hats. What's your role here? So, I'm Project Manager for Horticulture for Lantra, and we deliver the Farming Connect Horticulture Contract for World's Government, and also the Horticulture Cluster Cluster for World's Government Food Division. So, you're very much behind the scenes here, pulling it all together, yeah? Yes, the Rowell World Society have led on it with Adam as their Horticulture Director, but we've been very much in a supportive role, just really keen to demonstrate what Horticulture has to offer. And you must be pleased, because it's looking great. We stood on this lovely green grass with statues down the middle, surrounded by these various pavilions, some mixture of old and new, isn't it? Yes, we're absolutely delighted, and already it's been a very busy space. Last year, there was a little bit of a pause on Horticulture in terms of not having the large marquee that we've had historically for years. This year, in the Horticulture Village, we have the Growers Market, which is full of all the different growers represented. The variety of Horticultural Cross Wales, we've got the Dusky Boar, the Education Pavilion, and then we've got the amateur tents. We've got all the top-class full oral arts competitions, and the Fruit and Virgin Children's competitions. So, it's a busy space, and then opposite us, we've got the 10 micro gardens, which again represent very different areas of the Horticultural Industry, I would say. I guess this reflects a changing time in Wales, doesn't it? It definitely does. We've just heard from Amber Wheeler about the growth and the increase of the number of Horticultural businesses, but there's a real energy in this space. We've been working with all the other organisations and the stakeholders since 2016-17, and everybody's heading in the same direction. So, it's a real, real collaborative space with an awful lot of energy and enthusiasm. Yeah, because at one time, you'd think sort of Rawwales, you'd think Floral or Mental, but this is not just that now. It seems to be broadening the horizon. Yeah, with Horticulture, with our projects, we work right across the board. So, we've, you know, the edible sector, where we're doing a lot of work with public procurement, with food-sense whales, and looking at Welsh veg in schools. But then, represented in that tent today, we've got the Vineyard Association, we've got West Wales Willows, we've got top-class RHS growers. But we've got other growers, like the pumpkin growers, the soft fruit, you know, the tourist attractions that you've got in Wales that are developing out of Horticulture. And they're not forgetting things like Christmas trees, so it's very, very, very, it really is. And I guess there's a strength in bringing all of these people together, really, for the first time in this way. Yeah, definitely. And this is just the start of it for us. We're already talking about what next, you know, what can we do in between this show and the next show, and what we'll be doing bigger and better for next year. So, we aimed that this was going to be the biggest talking point of the show. That's our challenge for this week. Bringing the best of Wales Horticulture under one roof is such a great idea. And I'd like to officially open now the Royal Welsh Show, Horticulture Village, 2024. We've just had the official opening, and it's getting rather busy now here down in the Horticultural Village. But long before this place was even imagined, Dr Amber Wheeler is a woman who's been talking about trying to increase fruit and veg production in Wales. Amber, tell me about what you've been doing over the years. And so I started doing a PhD many, many years ago, 15 years ago, and how we increase production and consumption at the same time of fruit and veg, because we eat very little fruit and veg, not enough. And we grow very little. So how can we go about changing that? And, yeah, things are starting to change now. How much do we eat and how much do we grow in Wales currently? We're eating around two and a half, three portions of fruit and veg per day, and the recommendation is five. Actually, the newest public health advice that came out in 2016 is seven. So we eat a lot less than we should. In terms of growing, we grow fruit and veg according to 2020 stats on 0.1% of land. That's one field in a thousand. So we grow very, very little veg, but things are changing. We announced at the Royal Welsh this week that the number of growers in Wales has gone up 146% in the last four years. So that's from around 200 growers in 2020 to this year, 2024, about 500 growers. You must find that very encouraging. Why is that happening at this point? There are many, many stakeholders who are working together in Wales to make a huge difference. It's being led by a government who has a vision for horticulture. When we started talking to government like 10, 15 years ago, horticulture was like, "Oh, I'm not sure about this." But they really have taken the bull by the horns or the carrot by the stick, and they've been really supporting horticulture. They funded Tovey Camry, which supported horticulture in general, ornamental and edible. They went on to fund farming connect horticulture, etc. They got small grants. And then you've got all these wonderful people who are doing fantastic work to drive the horticulture industry, businesses, growers, everybody's working together. Something's going right in Wales. I work across the UK on increasing fruit and veg production and consumption. And something special is happening here in Wales that's not happening in other nations. Is this work filtering through to the farmers, or is there a divide now between the people who are growers and then still the traditional farmers, the beef and sheep and dairy? So, interestingly, I work on a project called Welsh Virgin Schools, and we have, in that project, both market gardeners and farmers who are diversifying into horticulture. Now, average farm income on average for agriculture is £163 per hectare. It's really low on average. But for horticulture, you can get between £15,000 and £80,000 per hectare. There's a huge opportunity there. And what you find is that money that comes in goes towards jobs, 80% of the money that's generated from horticulture goes to jobs. So, you're looking at an increase in potential job opportunities. So, with Welsh Virgin Schools, we're finding market gardeners and farmers who are coming in with diversifying on their farms from, they've got their dairy and livestock, and they can grow some horticulture too and increase their income and have more jobs on their farms. Are there people to do the jobs though, because we hear about labour shortages in other parts of the country? Yeah, there's many young people wanting to come into horticulture. It's tough, but there are lots and lots of young people. The Landworkers Alliance, for instance, is a networking membership organisation, and they have hundreds and hundreds of new entrants coming through their doors who are crying out for this. And we can see by the change from that 200 growers in 2020 to 500 growers now, there are people interested in coming in. But we need thousands, right? We need thousands to make a real difference, and at the Royal Welsh here you can see the beginnings of what it could be. I mean, it's fantastic and wonderful, but we need more. The farmers will always say we grow grass so well in Wales. Can we grow fruit and veg across Wales? It is the land right for that. So, 7% of land in Wales is Class to Grade 1 to 3, and that would be great for growing veg. We only need 2% of land in Wales to grow five a day for the entire population. We have enough land, we have enough good land. It can be alongside dairy and meat production. The both can go hand-in-hand, and that wonderful mixed farming is something which is incredibly historical to Wales. It's not something new, it's something that we're reinvigorating from the past. If you read Cardwin Graves' books on the history of agriculture in Wales, you know, mixed farming is something we do in Wales. Let's reclaim that. Well, this must gladden your heart then to see this today at all of these people here. It's so exciting, and to see Adam on an earth, a million tears with this wonderful area that he's helped push forward. Oh, it's so, so exciting. So, what's next for you now today? Well, I'm here promoting Welsh veg in schools. We have eight growers supplying into six local authorities, and in five years we want 100 growers supplying in many local authorities and going, so really increasing production and getting procurement to help growers as well. You have procurement and short supply chains. There's a lot to this, isn't it? It's not just a question of actually growing the produce. You absolutely need to do the two at the same time. You need to increase the market and increase the growers at the same time. You can't do them in isolation. They have to be hand-in-hand. And is that coming together now in Wales? Yeah, very much. We have systemic approaches. We are working together. I mean, the success of some of the projects that are going on is incredible. For instance Welsh veg in schools. We've gone from one grower three years ago to eight this year, and will be at 105 years, I'm sure. So, if anyone's got any tips for Lisa on improving germination, it's challenging times. I think, yeah, we've decided to do this session because there's been quite a lot of recognition that over the past year or really in the past two years, it's been pretty challenging for growers. In the growers market, they're holding Q&A sessions, and we've just been hearing how difficult a season it's been for some people. But in front of me right now is a beautiful selection of produce, and I'm with Mary Pope. Mary, who are you, exactly? We are Alfie Dan's Market Garden, and we grow next to the fellenback Griffin near Bracken. So, has it been a difficult season because it doesn't look like it from what I'm seeing here? It can be deceiving. We're just starting to get more produce in now. We do use some local growers and other producers as well, who might not be having so many difficulties with what they have. Some of it isn't ours, and some of it is, like the rhubarb, borbenes, lettuce, cucumbers, the berries, everything's so behind, and it's affected by the weather. What do you do as a business? Do you have a market stall, or how does it work? We have a stall at the Bracken Farmers Market Monthly, and we have one of the Whiteside in Belf, and we also have an honesty stall at the Griffin on a weekend. And are you thinking of expanding, or how will your business work, because people are talking about horticulture such a lot now, but I guess there's a point to which you can't grow beyond? I'm so glad that they're talking about horticulture now, especially for all of the smaller producers who are only doing it on maybe half an acre to maybe three acres. We started with an acre, and now we're up to three acres, and it allows us to be able to produce a lot on a bigger scale, not necessarily field scale. We do everything by hand, and we're able to provide veg for Welsh veg in schools. We are in the process of being organic certified, so we're in conversion, but it's just basically building what we've got. Do you have to employ people to pick as you grow, and it is that a problem? Not at the moment, it's just me doing it full time with my partner, he comes and helps me, and then we are looking for volunteers who love to weed. And what's the ambition, Mary? Just to be able to provide local, fresh produce to the local community, first and foremost, and to people who are not necessarily able to have fresh produce available, we want it to be seasonal as well. So, you know, not having tomatoes in the winter, but having it when they're ready and in our climate, basically. And how long have you been doing this? This is our third season, probably our second proper season, and this year has been the hardest because of the weather. A lot of our plants weren't able to go until May, which means we're probably six to eight weeks behind, which makes it really tough. So where did this passion come from? My grandad, that's where we got Alfie Dan from, he was called Alfred, and they used to have a proper allotment on the rods scale, so he had three allotments. And we used to go and pinch people's peas and things when we were little and tomatoes, and that's where I've got it from. But I've never had the opportunity to be able to do it myself until probably, well, three years ago, and my daughter was old enough, she's sixteen now, so I've always wanted to do it because it's amazing. So now, what we're going to do on this is we're going to pick out shapes and we're going to cut out the shapes on the paper, and this is going to give us the frame for our pictures that we're going to make out of the nature. We make a shape, and then we put flowers on it. I've chosen some pink, some purple, some yellow, and I'm a bit of white. Then we have this thing where we have to throw it, then it makes a cool pattern. All the growers who I've talked to, it seems, got the bug when they were very young, so I've come into the Garthalet, or Education Pavilion, where they're encouraging children to get involved. My name's Sam Holt, I'm from Eggseed, and I get hired in from the show to come in and work with families to give them a lasting memory of the show, sort of engaging with practical crafts or skills. So over the years, we've come in and we've done things like pyrography, wood burning, driftwood crafts. This year, we're doing things around, sort of leaving them up with nature, so binding in with sort of the flower theme in here. We're doing flower pressing, which is normally flower bashing, but we've decided this year, keep it quiet, keep it calm. So basically, they're doing flower rolling, and they're going away with a little memento of the show. It's certainly proving popular, I can see that, and you're not charging for this, are you? This bit is free. Yeah, I think it's really important that the show try and find ways to engage with the families as they come around, because they know the show in itself, especially if they're here for four days, can be quite costly, so we've got a little outside space here at the tent as well. They brought blackboards in, and that's another little way for that the kids engaging with the space and getting them down on the grass and spending time. It's just a way of giving them a chance to slow down, enjoy where they are, and take more of the show in, rather than it being just purely stressed about, "I need to go and see, I need to go and see." Because normally, if those beautiful daddias are outside, people will say, "Don't touch, don't touch here, we've got bits which are not quite perfect anymore, or have been left over from show pieces, and now they get hands on, they can really put them apart and have fun with them in a safe space." And here is Adam Jones, Adam, very busy man today, because we've got all of this, is your baby, we're in the gallery now, this was very precious to you, wasn't it, this board? Absolutely, so the gallery is where we're staging all the horticultural exhibitions and also the competitive classes for children's classes, it's about enticing a new generation of growers in, and I remember as a young boy going through and seeing all the entries and all the rosettes and just seeing the colours and being inspired and thinking, "Wow, I wonder if I have something on the bench one day, I still haven't plucked up the courage to do it yet, because the standards is really high." And I'm thinking, "My sweet peas and my runnabies want to get a look in," but actually, it's been full in here, it's been so busy, and we've had so many people interested in what's happening and saying, "I wonder if I'll enter next year, so I'm hoping this will give us a springboard between three centuries, two full, three full, why not, aim high?" And that's a really important question, really, how do you get to enter to be part of this? So the entry process, the digital process, quite simple, it's an online process where you have a list of classes and then you determine whether you want to enter in a classroom, there's a detail description of that class, and you've got to submit an entry, then surround a few weeks before the show itself, and then you come the day before the show is on and judging begins with your entry and your exhibits and where people working here, late, last evening, setting out their vegetables and their flowers. And, as you can see, it's a sight for sore eyes with the fushers, the dahlias, the carnations, the roses, flowers, of course, that we're aware of, and we are accustomed to growing in our gardens, but staged in such a creative way that you wouldn't dream of doing at all, but why not give it a go? See if you can compete, and they're open classes, of course, so you don't need to be well versed in the intricate rules of showing flowers. Well, who knows, you might pluck up the courage to bring yours here. I might have to invent a class for something I think I'm good at, you know, maybe a radish, but no, it's easy to appreciate the effort that's going on when you see the spectacles before your eyes laid out, isn't it? It just gets people talking, doesn't it? The leaks of them would make David's blush, wouldn't they? Another key feature this year are the micro gardens, which are running the length of the horticultural village. Stephanie Haffety is an author and gardener from Lampeter, and you've created one of these gardens. What's the idea behind having all of these, Stephanie? The idea is to show how much you can grow in a very small space, and also to show different ways of growing different techniques and different ideas so that people can come to the horticulture village and take inspiration and take that home with them, so there's everything from vegetables to floral displays to compost heaps further up. Thanks for children. It's a real joy actually seeing all the different ideas that have been put in what is really a very small bed. Yeah, it is a small bed, and they're all different, as you say. Let's have a look at yours. Mine is based on my work growing food, and it is representing a no dig allotment, and includes things such as an environment for insects, because working with biodiversity is a really important part of gardening, pool of water for insects to drink from, composting, different kinds of mulches, including sheep fleece. Most of the plants were grown by me from seed and are Welsh heritage, or from Welsh seed companies. They perennials aren't, but the annuals are. And why is that so important to you? I think it's exciting to know actually how much you can get to grow in your garden from around where you live. It's good to support the smaller companies, because they're keeping the money as well in our economy within Wales, and these varieties will be well suited to growing here. So we've got these peas, they're a rare Welsh heritage pea, so after the show they're coming home with me, they're in a pot, and they're going to grow on, and then I'll save the seed, so I'm building up a stock, and two different kinds of Welsh heritage, runner bean. And you're also here to offer advice to other people. You've got a stand just inside the guard of the lair, haven't you? Yes, I'm giving hints and tips on growing your own food, and pot to plate kind of things, so not only growing, but also ideas for what you can do with it. That's important, isn't it? The whole idea of this, I guess, is to encourage non-gardeners, non-growers, into find out about it and have a go, possibly. Exactly that, yeah, and I think this year has been particularly difficult for everybody, whether you're gardening or not. It's rained and rained, and it's been cold, and if you're fairly new to gardening, I think a lot of people are feeling really demoralised, and so it's great to be able to chat with them and say, actually, no, it's nothing you've done. It is just the conditions we've had this year, and here's some ideas of what you can sow now to fill your plot up again, or ways of helping your plants, so that they thrive over the next few months. It's certainly looking great up here, isn't it? It's absolutely fantastic, it's really lively, it's been lovely watching it open out from a lot of shuttered marquees to something that's just filled with smiling faces. I've come full circle now, back to the Istèthe flawed eye, and I can't pass by without having a word with a senior steward, Rosemary Harris. Rosemary, you've been doing this a number of years, how long have you been at this? Well, just over 40 years, but I have to say that I started when I was very young. I started actually when I was a competing young farmer in my 20s. I love it, I think we make an enormous contribution to the show. We're very aware that it is an agricultural show, but there's this wonderful, horticultural aspect, and people love it. We're in a new location this year, and we've had lots of people down here to see us. Yes, indeed, it's an established part of the show, as you say, but in a new setting this year? Yes, in a new setting, with some new items, but we've still got the core floral arts and veg and cut flowers, but we've got children's competitions. The colleges are here, we're doing talks of all sorts about using peat-free materials and all sorts of things, really, and we will develop on it. As the years go by, we'll pick up whatever's, you know, a trend. We're very pleased with it. When we opened the doors this morning, people just poured in. It was joy to see, because it's been a lot of work. Evidently, it's going to sound that the number of entries is up as well. In this tent, particularly, we're in the floral art tent, we're up about 40% on last time. We've got to accept that we've had COVID along the way, but yes, up enormously. We've got a smaller marquee, and I put in an order for a bigger one for next year. Well, I think you possibly need it. I mean, I don't envy you, I have to say, because looking around, these arrangements are spectacular, but it must be such a responsibility to get them all in place. Everybody happy? We have a seasoned group of competitors, many of them Chelsea winners, and the standard here would be as high if not higher than Chelsea. So they all know the form. They come with lots of arrangements, some of them with as much as 10 entries each. But of course, we have to be here, we have to put in the infrastructure, and we have to make sure that the competitors are looked after, because without them, there's no show is there. You know, they're very important to us. But we encourage new people to come as well. We've got people here from Staffordshire and from Northamptonshire, which is lovely. See people coming that distance to our show. It's good when we try and introduce new themes. We've got a novice class this year, which has been quite well supported. We have demonstrations. There's always something going on. We've just done a workshop, actually, making buttonholes, showing people how to make buttonholes for weddings, that sort of thing. And there's been a lot of interest. Well, I happen to know that we're stood by the side of what is your favourite section. Well, not long after this show, we will probably get together and we'll draw up a new schedule for next year. And of course, we have to come up with an overall theme and then classes within that theme. And it's World of Flowers, but the one class that we did was the Jewel Garden. And we pinched an idea from Monty Donne, from Gardeners World, because I know he's got a Jewel Garden, which I love. And it's exactly what we were hoping to get. Lots of really vibrant colours. And you can see, it's been a good class. We've got the overall champion, Delith Price, from Comandonshire. But we've also got the person who won the best use of garden material, Daphne Ferno, from the Gower. So we've got them both in one class. So I'm thrilled of it for this class. I'm pleased with all the classes. But there've been a lot of people showing an interest with the colour. Well Rosemary, thank you very much for joining me today and I hope you have a good show. Thank you very much. And that's it for this week from the Horticultural Village here at the Royal Welsh Show in Teneau with. From me, Caroline Evans and the Country Focus team, thanks for listening and stay safe. Selling a little? Or a lot? Shopify helps you do your thing, however you cha-ching. 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