A Year Full of Pots: Win Sarah Raven's New Book!

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Today I'm going old school blogger and giving away 2 copies of Sarah Raven's new book A Year Full of Pots. All you have to do is comment for a chance to win.

THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED - But I still highly recommend this book.

I started following gardener Sarah Raven on YouTube a couple of years ago. She lives in a rambling old house on a rambling old property in Sussex, England called Perch Hill.

The property is filled with beautiful, beautiful gardens smashed full of flowers and vegetables. It's an orderly mix of chaos with everything being beautiful and inspiring, but in that charming, relaxed British way.

So when the publisher offered to send me a copy of Sarah's latest book a few weeks ago I replied with an enthusiastic Yes - but could I also give some copies away? And could you also arrange for Sarah and I to become friends who visit each other's houses?

The publisher said absolutely, so here we are. Except about the house part.

Me with my own copy of Sarah's book and two to give away to you.

My first impression of the book was, holy crap, there are a lot of words. So many words.

Sure you can flip through it and see a ton of pretty picture examples, but there's also a ton of useful, practical information to back up all that beauty.

I would venture to say that anything you wanted or needed to know about planting in pots is in this book.

I'm a gardener as you know, but each area of gardening is a bit different and pots are one of those different things for me. Other than a couple here and there to grow my sweet potatoes, I just don't have a lot of experience with planting in them.

You can see a couple of my lackluster examples below.

You'll notice the huge split in the pot which is shoved against the post to keep it from completely falling apart. (*Sun Coral Candy coleus, Juliet tomato*)

I could use some help with my pots. I LOVE big huge pots filled with stuff but I've never made the effort to do some nice ones. Thanks to Sarah Raven I'll be adding pots this year to my ever evolving 6 year old English Cottage garden.

Would you like to save this stuff?

We'll email you this post, so you can refer to it later.

I'd also love to try a couple in my allotment garden with something more interesting than my normal clumps of sweet potatoes.

This photo has nothing to do with pots, but I never miss a chance to promote the idea of a Rutabaga Pride Day. Let's say September 30th?

My Potting Plan

Get Pots

Seems like a good starting place right???

I love old clay pots for planting. They have patina and character, plus if you only use clay pots, everything will always look good in a grouping because the pots will all match. (not that they have to, but with different plants in them I'll prefer having the pot material be consistent)

I'll scour local Facebook Marketplace sales and Buy Nothing Facebook sites looking for them.

Pick Spots for Pots

This is important because once huge pots are filled with soil they're going to be hard to move.

Pick my Plants

I want to specifically do a mix from the book that includes a huge pot with "Apricotta" cosmos, "Kelsey Annie Joy" dahlia & Amaranth.
Instructions for making Sweet Pea supports out of willow or other bendy branches are in the book so growing sweet peas in pots is now also on my list.
Breaking away from Sarah Raven's theme of flowers in pots, I'll be doing vegetables (tomato in centre, Mascotte green beans and basil using any techniques I might pick up in the book.

I'll also do a couple of full pots massed with beets and carrots just to see what happens and stick them in the backyard somewhere.

What I'd *really* love to do is go to Sarah's Perch Hill to take a

So who's ready to win a copy of Sarah Raven's book A Year Full of Pots? Just leave a comment below saying you'd like to win and if you're feeling chatty explain why you'd like to win.

The two winners will be chosen randomly on April 26th. so don't feel pressured into a lengthy "why you'd like to win". I'm just curious.

Winners will be announced next week at this time.

The contest is now closed