Features

Expert tips from Betterlife to keep you gardening gracefully, no matter what age! “Us Brits love our gardens, and never more so than after retirement, with a whopping 70% of 64 - 74-year olds regularly enjoying gardening.[1]However, after our 75th birthday, many of us have to reduce the time we spend on our passion as it becomes more challenging and our bodies become less mobile.1”, says Sam, Independent Living Expert at Betterlife.  Gardening has some of the greatest physical and mental health benefits, Sam continued: “Green spaces are reported to help reduce the risk of developing…

There’s no doubt that winter can be a tough season for landscape gardeners. During the colder months, clients are more interested in staying inside than getting out and making the most of their outside space, which can lead to a drop in new business leads. To make things worse, gardening in winter is a much bigger job, with bad weather, freezing temperatures, and shorter days making even basic tasks much more challenging. So, should professionals down tools until spring, or is there a way to make it work? With good planning, a few smart business strategies, and the right equipment, you can…

SBM Life Science Ltd are delighted to announce a new agreement with Barenbrug UK to market their Green Velvet grass seed brand. The SBM sales team will now be selling and supporting the Green Velvet brand alongside its existing portfolio of brands, which include Baby Bio, Phostrogen, Toprose, Provanto, Job Done, Solabiol and Maxicrop. The Green Velvet brand offers customers a high quality professional standard grass seed, as used in many leading sports arena’s around the UK.   The seed mixtures within the Green Velvet portfolio come directly from the grass bred and developed by the…

With just weeks to go until the second annual Glee at Spring Fair event (3rd – 7th February, NEC Birmingham) the show’s exhibitors reveal what garden and gift buyers can expect to see from this thriving section of the exhibition.   Woodlodge, the UK’s leading supplier of garden planters and containers, will be using the show as a second opportunity to showcase its expanded Rustic Garden and Feather ranges of pots and planters.  Drawing influence from current trends, including the ‘Modern Farmhouse’ trend – considered by Houzz as the biggest interior trend of the last few years – Woodlodge’s…

Restaurants around the UK must begin to understand that veganism isn’t a trend, but a lifestyle choice that is here to stay. The Vegan Society found that there are around 600,000 vegans in the country, accounting for 1.16% of the entire population, and this is only set to grow rapidly in the coming years. Restaurants must prepare themselves for the influx of customers and adopt new catering methods to ensure every diet is treated equally — but how? With Christmas fast approaching, this could be the perfect opportunity to open your doors with a new menu that is designed with vegans in mind.…

The next big thing in online marketing is content marketing. Sharing knowledge and information helps to get more followers on social media, gain better Google rankings and ultimately attracts new customers to garden centres. Garden Connect is providing online marketing services to over 300 garden centres in the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland and the UK and shares the top 5 trends for 2019.  1)      Sharing is caring It may sound like a contradiction: sharing more information helps to attract more customers. If customers can find answers to all their problems, why would they visit a garden…

Following its unveiling at GLEE, the new 2019 NOMA Garden Lighting range is now available to order from LeisureGrow Products. Along with great quality product, the range also comes with new freestanding merchandising stands to allow products to be displayed inside or outside of their packaging. The team has also developed bolder, simpler messaging to make it easier for consumers to shop and to understand the technology that makes NOMA Garden Lighting products a cut above the rest. New For 2019 New Collections from NOMA Garden Lighting for 2019 include: an expanded Functional Lighting range…

With summer a distant memory and the winter frost arriving, it’s time to prepare the garden for the changing elements. But new research reveals that as the colder month’s set in, Brits are forgetting to pack up their garden furniture and fittings, and families are consequently facing an average bill of £100 to replace their damaged outdoor equipment.* So for peace of mind, Keter offers a range of outdoor storage to keep garden tools, equipment, furniture and games in tip-top condition until the warmer weather returns. Keep up to 1200L of contents dry with the UK’s No.1 selling garden…

THE TREND for a mobile garden is set to continue says Wyevale Nurseries (October, 2018) as figures reveal home ownership among 25-34-year-olds is decreasing with more young people renting instead.   The English Housing Survey Headline Report 2016-17 found that 46% of 25-34-year-olds now live in private rentals, compared with 27% in 2006-07. Andy Johnson, Managing Director at Wyevale Nurseries, which is a family owned wholesale grower based in Hereford, said: “With an increasing number of house renters, the pick it up and take it with me garden is a trend set to continue. “There is always…

The garden centre group, Haskins, is celebrating after a successful launch of its Christmas department across all four of its centres. Customers can browse a variety of gifts, with plenty suitable for green-fingered adults, as well as plenty to choose from for beginner gardeners. There’s also a wide range of decorations available. Real pot-grown trees will be available at Haskins from Monday October 29 and real cut trees will be available from Monday November 19. For customers that prefer artificial trees, these are also available. Haskins anticipates welcoming over a million visitors to…

Garden Trade Specialist editor Victoria Galligan spoke to Jim McNulty, Development Director at Restructa Ltd, whose brands include GlasGlo – a recycling firm whose aggregates are made from glass TV screens… Where did the idea come from to use TV screens as aggregate? Since the company was formed back in 2006 we’ve always strived to have solutions and recycling applications for our Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) glass. We have always manually stripped down our CRT televisions into different component parts and back around 2008 we invested heavily in processing equipment to clean our glass to a…

For hundreds of growers across the country, Christmas is more than just a day in the calendar – it’s a year-round job which culminates in December and begins again in January.  Harry Brightwell of the British Christmas Tree Growers Association (BCTGA) and Mark Spurway of Feddal talk to editor Victoria Galligan about life as a Christmas tree grower… The BCTGA was formed in 1980 to improve the quality of Christmas trees sold in the UK, encouraging the sale of good-quality, live Christmas trees and offering a bar against which all 7million tree sold by its members per year should measure up to…

Following the success of last year’s show, Fordingbridge, the leading specialist design and build contractors of inspiring canopy, walkway and building solutions, will be returning to Glee (10th – 12th September, NEC Birmingham) to demonstrate the benefits of its robust and hardwearing designs to suit a wide range of garden retail environments. With over 50 years’ experience of building aesthetically pleasing and durable structures for garden centres across the country, Fordingbridge’s sales team will be on hand at the show to give expert advice on bespoke building solutions that will…

Introduced ahead of the 2018 show, Glee’s new guided Discovery Tours will provide a fresh insight into the show’s extensive catalogue of content, features, educational seminars and inspirational retail displays. With spaces filling up fast for the daily tours, interested parties are urged to sign up now to avoid missing out.   Offering a unique and bespoke visitor experience, the walking tours will take in the unmissable feature areas of the show including the New Product Showcase, Green Heart and the newly enhanced and dedicated pet sector - Pets at Glee. Each ‘stop’ on the tour will…

Garden centre group Haskins has launched its very own Bulb Market, which takes place from Monday August 20 to Monday November 19 across all four of its centres. More than 250 bulb varieties will be available at Haskins’ Bulb Market, as well as a showcase of rare and unusual bulbs. The festival will also have a special focus on British-grown bulbs, with 24 varieties on sale that are UK-grown. Lisa Looker, brand director at Haskins Garden Centres, commented: “We’re delighted to announce the return of our popular Bulb Market, with a special focus on embracing and supporting UK bulb growers. “…

Terrace & Garden, a supplier of stylish, high-quality, affordable pottery and gifts for the home and garden since 1989, announces the launch of a new addition to its established and very popular collection of pots and planters made under license for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.   Terrace & Garden’s newest collection of frost -proof, antique-finish terracotta planters can be seen for the first time on stand E72 in Hall 8 at GLEE in Birmingham’s NEC, from 10-12 September, and stand 3P12 at Autumn Fair, the season’s  premier wholesale gift and home trade event, from 2-5 September,…