A competition to win a book all about how to start your own cut flower patch – I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty good to me! Well that’s what I have for all you lucky readers today.

I was delighted to be contacted about a new book that’s just been published called The Cut Flower Patch: Grow Your Own Flowers All Year Round by Louise Curley, and to then receive a copy in the post to review. Rather than keeping this beautiful book all to myself, I’ve decided to run a competition for one of you to win it.

You’ll also find an offer code at the bottom of the blog post if you wish to buy yourself or someone else a copy – now that I’m giving away my copy I’ll be off to put in an order! A big thanks to publishers Frances Lincoln for sending me a copy to review and giveaway.

The Cut Flower Patch: Grow Your Own Flowers All Year Round 

What I first noticed about this book as a I started to read it, was how accessible it was – I might be a huge fan of cut flowers and growing my own veggies, but I’m by no means an expert, so it’s great to find a book that explains it all in a way that made me feel confident I could have a go myself. And if I did get stuck, I could just dip into the book for advice.

The book is broken down into various sections from planning and making your cutting patch, through to cutting and arranging your homegrown flowers. For all you brides-to-be out there planning on growing flowers for your own wedding, you’ll be delighted to hear there’s a section on growing flowers for a wedding, including essential top tips.

Rather than purely being a book about how to grow flowers, Louise has also included sections on cutting and arranging with your homegrown flowers, which is full of tips on how to prepare your blooms, through to selecting and caring for your vases.

It is also full of photographs of beautiful arrangements, bound to inspire the natural bride. In fact, it’s worth mentioning that the entire book is chock full of stunning photography.

What’s great about Louise’s book is she also advises you on the best types of flowers to grow and why. For me this one of the most helpful sections of the book, because if you’re anything like me, you see a seed catalogue full of pretty flowers and you go mad buying about 100 different varieties and never getting round to growing half of them, nor having much success with them.

For each cut flower she showcases, she includes some key details, my favourite of which is “Why grow it?” It’s wonderful to get Louise’s thoughts on why you should grow a particular flower, from Zinnia’s “Cheerful colours into autumn” to Blue lace flowers “Delicate flowers loved by hoverflies”.

As well as being a practical guide to getting started with your own cut flower patch, the book also explores the additional benefits such as supporting your back garden ecosystem and how to choose flowers that consider the local insects and other wildlife.

She also expertly touches on the negative environmental impact of imported cut flowers, and how starting your own cut flower garden, however big or small, can make a positive difference.

There is so much more in this book that I haven’t even been able to touch on in, from planting calendars and how to responsibly forage for additional materials to complement your cut flowers (think lichen covered branches, blackberries and grasses).

So the only way to get all the details is to win a copy of The Cut Flower Patch: Grow Your Own Flowers All Year Round – and you can only do that if you enter the competition below.

Here at The Natural Wedding Company we are huge supporters of seasonal British grown wedding flowers, and have a whole section on the directory dedicated to helping you find the perfect flower farmers or florist for your wedding day.

Win a copy of The Cut Flower Patch by Louise Curley

*I’ve had to revise this as it seems people were confused about how to enter. Please read carefully.*

To enter the competition simply follow the instructions below:

1. On the Rafflecopter widget below, log in with your email or Facebook.

2. You will be asked to enter the competition by leaving a comment on this blog post. You must leave a comment here AND click the big green ‘I commented’ tick. Please ensure that the email address and name you leave when commenting on the blog post, match that which you used for logging into Rafflecopter.

3. As an additional entry, you can also tweet about the competition – please don’t change the tweet or I won’t be able to check you’ve tweeted.

Best of luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The competition will run until midnight Friday 21st March 2014. The winner will be contacted by email.

Please note: we can only post the book to UK addresses – if you’re not in the UK and would like to get a copy of the book, you can still use the book offer below.

Special Book Offer

Don’t forget, if you don’t win the competition then you can still take advantage of this offer from publishers Frances Lincoln of a discounted price for the book of £16.00 including P&P* (RRP: £16.00). To order your book email mailorders@lbsltd.co.uk or telephone 01903 828 503 and quote the offer code APG101.

Alternatively, send a cheque maybe payable to: LBS Mail Order Department, Littlehampton Book Services, PO Box 4264, Worthing, West Sussex, BN13 3RB. Please quote the offer code APG101 and include your name and address details.

*UK only – please add £2.50 if ordering from overseas.

Images: All except the main image from The Natural Wedding Company