Anyone who thinks gardening is strictly for people of a certain age, think again. A growing stream of young talent is now making its way into major shows and hitting the headlines in horticultural competitions.

Ones to watch at this year's RHS Chelsea Flower Show include Sam Ovens, 27, who is designing his first Chelsea show garden for Cloudy Bay; and Hugo Bugg, 29, already a Chelsea Gold Medal winner, designing his second Chelsea show garden for the Royal Bank of Canada.

Both studied garden design at Falmouth University and both are previous winners of the RHS' prestigious Young Garden Designer of the Year competition, which continues to provide a platform for young horticultural talent at the RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park in Cheshire, which this year runs from July 20-24.

Ovens grew up on a working farm in Cornwall, which spawned his interest in nature, while Bugg - the youngest ever winner of gold for a large show garden at Chelsea (in 2014) - grew up helping his father in the big family garden in Devon.

"In the summer holidays I worked for a local landscape firm, so I was out there doing both hard landscaping and planting every holiday. I learned loads. I worked really hard and learned a lot from contractors and I really learned my plants as well."

But you don't have to be at a prestigious garden show to find amazing young talent. Take 29-year-old Matthew Pottage, the youngest ever RHS curator who, since December, has been in charge of the society's flagship garden at Wisley, Surrey. He landed the job less than 12 years after arriving at Wisley as a trainee and now oversees 75 gardening staff.

So, what advice would they give young people looking for a career in horticulture?

"The RHS garden competitions and shows are a great way to start out and to gain initial publicity," says Ovens. "My advice to young gardeners would be to set themselves apart, find a niche and focus on what really makes them different."

Bugg adds: "Just keep as many doors open as possible. When I graduated, a lot of people felt you could just go straight out and be a self-employed garden designer, but that's very difficult because you haven't got a portfolio of live projects.

"I was open to everything. I was doing graphic design, worked for different people and some of those projects not related to gardens turned into garden design projects the following year. Work hard, but don't close any doors."

Bugg says he'd recommend university to anyone wanting a career in garden design.

"Personally, I feel it's important to study garden design at a professional level because you can take on bigger jobs and can understand the process better."

Pottage says: "The Grow Careers website is a really good place to start (www.growcareers.info). I started off working in a garden centre alongside my college training and it was definitely a good way to start.

"One of our most important missions at the RHS is to change the image of horticulture as a low-paid, unskilled career choice - it's really one of the most inspirational, life-enriching and rewarding careers you can choose. We want to attract more great people into the profession, through our campaign for school gardening, by appointing young gardeners and with the help of well-known ambassadors like Alan Titchmarsh. There are also so many gardening careers you can choose - you could be a botanist, an arboriculturist, a landscape designer or a garden manager - the options are endless."

BEST OF THE BUNCH - Primula denticulata

The drumstick primula is among my favourite spring flowers with its lollipop clusters of purple flowers, which look great planted in a showy group at the front of borders or under tall deciduous shrubs. This herbaceous perennial grows to around 30cm tall, producing pale or deep purple flowers in dense rounded heads on erect stems above large, spoon-shaped leaves. Originating from the meadows and light woodlands of the Himalayas, it's really easy to grow in sun or partial shade in soil that's neutral or acid and doesn't dry out totally in summer. It will also self-seed freely so you can quickly increase your stock.

GOOD ENOUGH TO EAT - Beetroot

This delicious vegetable can be finely sliced or grated and used raw in salads and dips, as well as roasted or used in soups, adding both colour and flavour to an array of dishes. Young beetroot leaves can also be used raw in salads, while older leaves can be cooked as spinach. Sow a short row outside now in a seed drill 1.5cm deep, placing a seed every 2.5cm along, cover with soil and water, and repeat at two-week intervals for a continous crop of baby beets. Space rows 15cm apart and if the soil is dry, dribble water into it allowing it to soak in. Don't let roots become too big or they'll taste woody. Beetroot needs to be grown in soil that has had plenty of organic matter added to it and before sowing the seeds, work in a general fertiliser such as pelleted chicken manure. Once the plants are established, don't water them unless the soil becomes really dry or you'll end up with loads of leaves rather than roots. To harvest baby beets, pull up the roots before they reach golf-ball size. Good varieties include 'Pablo' and 'Boltardy'.

WHAT TO DO THIS WEEK

:: Make sure strawberries under cloches or in the greenhouse are given adequate ventilation to keep them cool and allow pollinating insects to get to the flowers

:: Divide dahlia tubers, ensuring each tuber has a piece of old stem and a shoot or bud attached

:: To maintain a good shape for fan-trained cherries, remove shoots growing towards or away from the wall or fence by rubbing them off with your thumb

:: Search flower buds and shoot tips regularly for signs of greenfly and rub them off with your fingers or spray off with a sharp jet of water

:: Plant hanging baskets if you have a porch or greenhouse to bring them into at night to protect them from frost

:: Mulch permanent containers with a 3-5cm layer of cocoa shells or gravel to cut down moisture loss

:: Feed shrubs, trees and fruit bushes as necessary

:: Hard-prune shrubs including buddleia, that produce their best show on vigorous new wood

:: Protect brassicas such as cabbages and cauliflowers with brassica collars against cabbage root fly

:: Begin to harden off young annuals and biennials raised from early sowings in a cold frame or sheltered spot outdoors, placing the trays on the ground for a few hours each day, bringing them back indoors at night