Mark Ridsdill Smith, otherwise known as “The Vertical Veg Man“ discovered by accident in 2009 that it is possible to grow a lot of food on a balcony. He also discovered that while he loves living in a city, he loves it even more when he can grow in it too: he and his family eat better food, chat to more neighbours, recycle their waste food in a wormery, watch the bees and ladybirds, and enjoy sowing seeds and picking the harvests on their doorstep.
Mark has harnessed his passion for urban growing to run or advise on projects across the UK designed to get people in what might be thought of as unpromising places to grow their own food. He has had remarkable results.
In recent years Melcourt have supported some of Mark’s projects with supplies of SylvaGrow® compost and it’s probably true to say that we have become as big a fan of his as he has of our peat-free composts. So it’s in a spirit of wanting to spread the word about the kind of projects he runs rather than blowing our own trumpet that we suggest you follow this link to a recent blog. We do get a mention, but the main thing Mark talks about is extending the life of growing medium in containers which, whilst being highly laudable, is not exactly great for our sales! More power to Mark’s elbow though: if you can help his work in any way, please do.