18 April 2023
The chef Chris 'Flamebaster' Roberts, the poet and writer Caryl Bryn, and the football pundit Owain Tudur Jones are the three new celebrities who are ready to take on the vegetable growing challenge set by the gardening series Garddio a Mwy on S4C.
Following the success of the challenge on Garddio a Mwy's social media platforms last year when Elin Fflur, Mari Lovgreen and Kiri Pritchard McLean had a go at growing potatoes, tomatoes, and salad leaves, the three new celebrities are ready to get stuck in.
This time, Chris, Caryl and Owain will have the opportunity to grow their own vegetables with a little help from the Garddio a Mwy team. You can follow their progress on Garddio a Mwy social media accounts.
On the menu this year are potatoes, strawberries, tomatoes, and salad leaves. Are the three celebrities up for the challenge? This is what they had to say before getting their hands dirty...
"The supermarket shelves are empty so I thought I may as well start growing my own food!" said the chef from Caernarfon, Chris Roberts.
"I've grown herbs and things like that before but not much - I've never had a plot big enough to grow anything else.
"I'm looking forward to getting the children involved, planting something and then having the reward of eating the vegetables afterwards. Eating something you've grown yourself is very special. When I was a child my mum grew her own vegetables - they tasted a hundred times better than anything you can buy in the shops.
"I've always tried to support local shops, especially during the pandemic. During the first lockdown people used the local shops but they have now forgotten about them and gone back to the supermarkets. They need to reconnect again.
"The challenge is a great idea, and I hope it will inspire other people like me who are not hands-on with gardening but like to eat good food and get the children involved. The fact that we're also recording the process is really cool - we'll film about seven or eight videos for people to see how things are coming on. I'm looking forward to that. I just hope I don't kill the plants!"
Red onions are some of Caryl Bryn's favourite vegetables but the writer, who lives in Llanberis, is also a novice gardener.
"I hope I will be able to grow the kind of things I can use often and what I enjoy eating. Red onions would be great. I'm very partial to a cheese and red onion sandwich.
"I think it's so cool that people can go to their back garden to get ingredients. I'm one of those people who pops to the shop almost every day so I would love to be able to go to my back garden in my slippers and pull up an onion.
"I remember trying to grow flowers when I was a child but it was just a case of scattering a few seeds in the back garden and hoping for the best. I haven't ventured growing anything since then.
"The opportunity to do this is really important to me because I thought I needed a greenhouse and so many other things to be able to grow veg - if I manage to do this, anyone can. I'm looking forward to trying to beat OTJ [Owain Tudur Jones] too!"
Growing vegetables is a completely new experience for Owain Tudur Jones as well.
"I've never grown anything before - this is completely new to me. I like the idea of gardening, but it's never been a priority. There's plenty of space in the garden, and I enjoy having a bit of time to myself, mowing the grass, but I've never set out to actually grow anything.
"It's an exciting challenge and I should have done it before. It's probably something we should all be doing.
"From what I can tell it's not the most complicated thing and you don't need a huge garden. It's just a matter of taking those first steps, that's what's important and if this inspires me, well, all the better.
"Elin Fflur and Mari Lovgreen did the challenge last year. It couldn't be any worse - as long as my tomatoes look better than theirs I'll be happy!"
Adam Jones, or Adam yn yr Ardd as he is known, has joined as a presenter of this year's Garddio a Mwy series. He's hoping the challenge will inspire the viewers to grow their own as well.
"The Garddio a Mwy challenge is back again this year, and we hope you'll join us to grow your own produce for the first time. Keep an eye on the Garddio a Mwy social media accounts for more information soon!"
