Throughout September I am going to be opening up the blog to guest posters – anyone who can string a sentence together on a relevant topic is invited to submit a post for me to put up. At the end of the month I have a prize to give away to the most popular post, with the popularity being decided on a composite total of Facebook Likes, Tweets, Google+ (TSH is going to add the button shortly) votes and blog comments.

Guest posts are topped and tailed differently and reference their author (see Alison Tindale’s backyard larder post for an idea of how that’s done) – this isn’t about me taking credit for someone else’s work. I am not going to edit your posts (which wouldn’t be fair), so I suggest you get your spelling and grammar in order before you send them :)

The prize is a gift voucher from Rocket Gardens for a Large Herb Garden (spring delivery) that will contain 16 herb plants, mostly perennials. They only deliver within the UK, so if you want to participate from overseas then I can add in an international prize of a signed copy of The Alternative Kitchen Garden: An A to Z.

There are four rules:


  1. Blog posts have to be 1000 words or less. They can include photos if you own the rights to them and send them in a suitable format.

  2. Your topic has to be within the gardening/ environment/ sustainable living genre, but feel free to write about things I don’t normally cover, because that’s part of the point.

  3. Do not be rude. No swearing, no libel, no inflammatory comments. This is a friendly place, don’t upset people. It will be me that has to deal with the fallout.

  4. Carrying on from 3), I reserve the right to refuse to publish your submission. Hopefully if that happens we can work on an acceptable version together, but at the end of the day if we can’t then you don’t get to play.

As the voting system relies entirely on social media you can promote your own pieces to your heart’s content – which does leave the competition open to a bit of abuse, but I also reserve the right to disqualify entries that resort to unfair tactics like tweet robots. Fortunately you can’t vote down other entries – a negative comment will count towards the final total in just the same way as a positive comment.

Whether you submit your piece at the beginning of September or towards the end is up to you – you may feel there’s an advantage in it being online longer, or that a sprint finish would suit you better. Your choice – I will be posting each entry in the order they are received, one a day unless I am absolutely inundated!

We have a little while before September, so if you want to comment or suggest an improvement to the rules, then you have time to do so. If you want to discuss your guest post in advance then send me an email.