Allotment Home >> The National Vegetable Society

The National Vegetable Society

The National Vegetable Society or NVS is a charity dedicated to advancing the culture, study and improvement of vegetables offering help and advice to novice and expert show grower alike.

I've been a member for a few years and have had the honour of being made a fellow of the society.

If truth be known, the society generally is far more interested in growing vegetables for show than growing vegetables to eat but it still offers a wealth of information

It's strange really, some of the nicest people you'll ever meet are show growers along with some of the most obnoxious. I suppose a bit like an allotment site, a mixture.

The society has a number of district associations which are local groups. Usually their meetings and talks are open to non members and if there is one near to you, well worth going along.

I used to attend the Crewe association meetings and we had some really interesing talks like this one from Medwyn Williams, MBE, FNVS who was the chairman at the time. He's now President of the society.

Medwyn Williams at Crewe

The chairman of the Crewe societ was John Carver who used to have open evenings in his garden. A really genuine and open fellow he would help anyone with a growing problem. You can see in the photo below the lengths he went to in order to get that elusive first prize at the show with his leeks.

Leeks in Polytunnel