Firm looks for new gardening ambassador

Ronseal is on the lookout for the next male and female face of gardening, after it revealed the pastime is becoming more fashionable and less associated with older people.

The woodcare manufacturer – famous for the slogan “it does exactly what it says on the tin” – has set a deadline of August 9th for people to submit garden designs or write a short piece on why they should be the next Charlie Dimmock or Alan Titchmarsh.

Winners of the Garden Guru competition will receive a year’s supply of Ronseal products, a £1,000 cash prize and the chance to be the firm’s gardening ambassador in 2012.

“A climate of spending cuts and its new-found fashionable image appears to be prompting an increasing number of young people to get out into the garden,” commented Ronseal’s marketing manager Kate Hodge.

The growing popularity of gardening was recently highlighted in a HSBC study, which showed that Britons spend up to £7.7 billion on keeping their outside areas neat and tidy each year