UK:HydroGarden donates VydroFarm to ‘Love Your Garden’ TV show
Now in its fifth series and currently the most successful prime time TV gardening show with over 3 million viewers, ‘Love Your Garden’ helps eight deserving families each season, by creating their dream outdoor space.
Dad of three, Chris, 31, was a Trooper in the Household Cavalry Regiment and is the youngest military recipient of the rare George Cross. He was awarded the medal, which has equal status to the Victoria Cross, in 2003 when he was just 19, for his bravery during a ‘Blue on Blue’ incident in Iraq, when he rescued colleagues from a burning tank while being shot at.
After leaving the army, he and his wife Liz bought a garden centre despite him not knowing anything about gardening! To thank him for his heroic actions and assist the couple in their new venture, Alan’s brief was to create a garden full of new ideas and technology to help inspire them and develop their understanding of plant care.
Coventry-based hydroponics manufacturers and wholesalers, HydroGarden, donated a three tier VydroFarm system to go inside a specially-constructed solar dome. It’s the first time that one of Alan’s garden makeovers for ‘Love Your Garden’ has included a hydroponic system.
During the show Alan Titchmarsh explained how using the VydroFarm hydroponics system can be used to grow produce quickly with great results in places where traditional growing methods can’t be used. He said:
“A lot of people don’t have a garden, they don’t have soil, they live at the top of a tower-block and carting compost up is a real pain so, you can actually grow all kinds of plants, particularly vegetables in water and this is a hydroponics unit. The tank down there, is pumping water and nutrients through this system the whole time.
“Because the plants are getting their nutrients direct rather than from the soil, they expend less energy. In a matter of six weeks, you’re producing pak choi like this. The growth rate growing in this substrate here, is far faster than these vegetables growing in soil or compost and the flavour is every bit as good as you get from plants grown in compost or soil.
“Chris has had mixed results trying to grow plants in his garden and I’m hoping this might give him the impetus to try something different and have a bit more success.”
The donation was organised by Stephen Fry, commercial sales manager for HydroGarden, who said: “VydroFarm is the perfect combination of horticulture and technology and we were delighted to be approached to donate the system to the Finney family. Although VydroFarm’s main focus is to offer commercial growers a large scale solution for growing crops in adverse climates or where space is limited such as urban areas, it was really exciting to see it being used in such an exciting garden transformation.
“We’re sure that the Finney family will find it a great addition to their garden’s growing potential and a great way to experiment and learn about how to get the best possible results. Their new VydroFarm is a smaller version of the same system that recently featured in the Royal Horticultural Society’s ‘Rocket Science’ section at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, created by Ginger Horticulture. The exhibit received a letter of commendation for being of gold award winning standard but was exempt from receiving an accolade owing to the RHS’s involvement.”
The show was first broadcast on Tuesday 7th July on ITV at 8pm but can still be viewed on ITV Player until 6th August.
For more information:
HydroGarden Wholesale Supplies Ltd.
2 Progress Way
Binley
Coventry
CV3 2NT
United Kingdom
Stephen Fry
T: 02476 608 097
www.hydrogarden.com