On The Scott Mills Breakfast Show this morning, Jo Whiley joined Scott to launch Radio 2’s Puploader as she revealed how the listeners and their four-legged friends can get involved with The RHS and Radio 2 Dog Garden, which was announced last October and will be unveiled at the world famous RHS Chelsea Flower Show in May.
With the UK renowned as a nation of dog lovers and garden enthusiasts, the RHS and Radio 2 have joined forces with Monty Don who is designing his very first garden for The RHS Chelsea Flower Show. He has created it especially with man’s best friend in mind, to lift people’s spirits and celebrate our deep love of dogs and the gardens we share with them.
A keen gardener, Jo joined Scott and together they announced the specially created Puploader, where Radio 2 listeners can upload a photo of their special doggy friend! A selection of these images will then be displayed in a special part of the Radio 2 Dog Garden. To share your dog pic with Radio 2’s Puploader, go to www.bbc.co.uk/r2puploader and follow the instructions.
In her evening show (Monday to Thursday, 7-9pm) Jo has also been encouraging listeners to suggest songs for a special doggy playlist which will play in a beautiful dog-themed house within The RHS and Radio 2 Dog Garden.
Jo Whiley says: “For the RHS and Radio 2 Dog Garden at Chelsea Flower Show, we will have a very special dog house for all your very special dogs. People will be able to walk around and look at the garden and see these beloved dogs, and we absolutely want the Radio 2 listeners’ pups to be represented. So we’d love you to go to Puploader to send in a photograph of you and your dog so everybody can see them!”
The RHS and Radio 2 Dog Garden hopes to inspire the millions of dog lovers in the UK to create their own green havens for them and their pets. Monty wants the garden to be both an exemplar of all the things that dogs love – regardless of horticultural fashion – and also a beautiful space that any dog owner would love. At the centre of the garden will be a neatly mown lawn which, whilst tended, is essential for canine sprawling, sleeping, rolling, flopping, itching and chasing balls, whilst a large tree will cast shade on the grass to stretch out under on a warm afternoon. The lawn will drift into longer grass planted with ornamental spring flowering bulbs to create more of a tameflower meadow than a wildflower meadow and brick paths will run straight creating vistas, with one providing the route through the garden for visitors and another at right angles to this leading to the summerhouse.
The RHS and Radio 2 Dog Garden will live on after Chelsea Flower Show at Battersea Dogs & Cats Home for all the rescue dogs and the people who work and volunteer there to enjoy for generations to come. As Patron, Her Majesty The Queen’s adopted Jack Russell Terriers, Beth and Bluebell, will feature on the path in the garden.
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