Nursery owner Karen New and her family tuned into Gardeners' World on TV recently and were able to bask in the glory of a gold medal. They didn't receive the medal themselves but they did play a vital role in helping to secure it for top garden designer Mark Ashmead, the star of this summer's Hampton Court Flower Show.

Mark, whose parents lives in Church Lench, is a family friend and when they received a desperate call asking if they could provide flowers for his innovative design they pulled out all the stops.

"I think Mark had been promised plants from someone else but had been let down. Fortunately, our flowers were spot on at just the right time, so I told them to come and help themselves to whatever they needed. It was lovely to see our delphiniums on the television. Mark's garden looked smashing."

The nursery is well-known for its perennials and hanging baskets, but at this time of year it's the News' salad produce which is keeping them particularly busy.

Karen runs the business with husband Nigel and her mother Kath but it was started more than 40 years ago by her late father, Cliff Blake and over the years has undergone many changes.

"Market gardening was a very different business in those days," says Karen.

"There were greengrocers, for one thing. You won't see many of those now - the supermarkets have shut them all down. My dad used to grow lettuces, cucumbers, celery, tomatoes and aubergines which would go to the Birmingham wholesale market."

It was the demise of the independent greengrocer, combined with the import of foreign produce, that Karen believes signalled the beginning of the downward spiral for many market gardeners.

"We were cutting 500 dozen lettuces a day, six days a week. But things were changing and we had to adapt so we stopped doing lettuces. Our business started small, became quite big and is now small again."

With the loss of so much trade, the family decided to open their own nursery to the public, growing bedding plants. They now open between March and mid-July and again in September for winter pansies.

But it was the advent of the farmers' markets that has helped keep their business afloat.

"We now only grow for the farmers' markets. We find they work well for us, we enjoy the atmosphere and the support producers give to each other - and the customers are fabulous," said Karen.

Although prices for fresh vegetables have remained static, eating habits have changed dramatically over the years.

"The reality is that food has never been cheaper. We haven't seen prices rise in 20 years. There's certainly no excuse for people not to eat a healthy diet today," said Karen.

"But people want food they can cook quickly, such as stir fries. This time of year they also want things to go on a barbecue as well as a hanging basket or pot filled with flowers ready to bloom. It's the way we are now."

Though the News have been growing aubergines for 20 years, Karen says some customers are still baffled by them.

"The farmers' markets are not just about selling good quality produce. We educate our customers at the same time. Customers often need advice so we have plenty of recipes to hand and cooking tips to offer and often they pass on their own family recipes to us.

"Recently some Chinese tourists bought some tomatoes from our stall. They wanted to eat them there and asked us if they needed to wash them first. We were able to tell them they could eat them right away and they thought this was wonderful.

"We don't use chemicals or insecticides - instead we use biological control. Basically, we buy in bugs and the good bugs eat the bad bugs. We are not organic though, as we sterilise our soil, but you can eat our produce straight from our stall.

"People are also amazed to see we sell plum tomatoes. They think plum tomatoes can only be grown in Italy. It's mad."

Growing tomatoes is something of a specialised job, as Karen explains.

"The most important part is the watering. You have to keep a vigilant eye on this. Overwater and the skins split, underwater and the skins go tough.

"There's a lot more to it than people think. We grow all of our tomatoes in soil, whereas most supermarket tomatoes are grown in a water solution and taste of just that, water. All the plants need to be twisted twice a week to ensure they grow upright. The side shoots must also be removed. Food production is intensive.

"It takes six months to grow a crop, which means we're planting in December to January. If a heater packs up in the middle of the night we could lose the whole crop so we have an alarm. Maintenance is Nigel's department, so if it goes off I send him out to deal with it - especially if it's three in the morning!

"It is a hard slog and my teenage sons have already said they won't be following in the business and I can't blame them. But we live in a beautiful part of the world. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else, so that's the price you pay."