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Gardeners' World magazine is urging gardeners throughout the country to put down their spades and pick up a pen in the search for the country's greatest poem inspired by a garden. The competition, launched by the market-leading gardening title, has been set up to commemorate National Poetry Day, tomorrow Thursday 7 October. Gardeners have until 28 February 2011 to come up with their verse on the theme of 'gardens'. The winner will be announced in the June 2011 edition of Gardeners' World magazine.

The competition will be judged by a panel including award-winning poet Roger McGough, Sarah Langan, who is a poetry and readings producer for Radio 4, alongside Alan Titchmarsh and the Gardeners' World magazine editorial team. October’s issue of Gardeners' World, on sale now, contains full details of the competition and has some tips for any would be Wordsworths.

According to Alan Titchmarsh: "In the same way that the great outdoors has inspired some of the very best music ever composed, so gardens have played their part in inspiring poets. It’s the emotion engendered by plants and gardens, rather than the simply paean of praise to their beauty, that I find affecting."

Alan Titchmarsh has written his own garden-inspired poem, So Far, especially for the competition. It appears in the October issue of Gardeners' World magazine.

NOTED TO EDITORS
About Gardeners' World Magazine
Gardeners' World magazine is the market-leading gardening title, providing readers with key practical advice and tips on gardening. It has 260,133 monthly readers according to the last ABC figures.

Toby Hicks