We’ve crowned our summer 2025 Mids, Wales & West winners Staff at member garden centres across our Midlands, Wales & West region are celebrating after scooping awards during a presentation yesterday afternoon and evening at Pugh’s Wenvoe (Thursday, July 24, 2025). Garden Centre of the Year winners were Planters Garden Centre, Tamworth in the Destination…
June’s BoT figures show good year-to-date sales Our June 2025 Barometer of Trade (BoT) out today (July 23) shows good year-to-date sales despite the hot weather’s effect on gardening activity during the month. Five of the 13 categories listed performed well when compared to 2024 with member garden centres citing catering, up at +4.17%, as…
Our East region winners revealed Garden centre staff throughout our East region are celebrating today after picking up awards at a presentation at British Garden Centres, Northampton yesterday afternoon and evening (Thursday, July 17, 2025). The Garden Centre of the Year winners were Perrywood Tiptree in the Destination Garden Centre (DGC) category, Poplars in the Garden…
Our North region summer 2025 award winners Our North region members met yesterday afternoon and evening at Moss & Moor at Ilkley in Yorkshire for their Area Award presentations (Wednesday, July 16, 2025). Destination Garden Centre of the Year, (DGC) was presented to Barton Grange, the Garden Centre (GC) award went to Fron Goch Garden…
10 top tips for a low maintenance garden Love your outdoor space, but looking to keep tasks to a minimum? Here are our 10 top tips for a low maintenance garden: Make sure garden surfaces are easily maintained and weed-free. Minimise flower beds Grow plants in containers and group them together for easy watering. Make…
A few minutes to spare… If you’ve got a few minutes to spare today and the chance to have a potter in the garden, there are some simple tasks you might want to think about doing: If you’ve got a veggies plot or raised bed then it’s time to plan ahead and sow some late…
Jobs to do in the garden in July July is the best time to get some planting done in preparation for the autumn and winter. Sow & grow Autumn flowering bulbs such including daffodils can be planted this month. You can also plant out brassicas such as Brussels sprouts, winter cabbages and sprouting broccoli. It’s…
The life and times of chillies There are lots of different types of chillies and they come in all shapes, sizes and colours. There are tiny, pointed, extremely hot varieties, bird’s eye ones and, also, the larger, milder fleshy pepper types. Kitchen windowsill So, if you would like to grow your own, then think about…
Our 2025 South East region summer award winners Garden centre teams from across our South East region are celebrating today after scooping awards during a presentation evening yesterday at Coolings Nurseries in Kent (Tuesday, July 8, 2025). Garden Centre of the Year in the Destination Garden Centre (DGC) category was Ruxley Manor, the Garden Centre (GC)…
We’ve revealed our 2026 conference main theme & booking goes live! We’ve unveiled the main topic for our 2026 annual conference alongside the launch this week of our special early bird bookings for the event too (July 2025). Our conference at Carden Park Chester from January 25-28, 2026, will explore the theme of ‘Growing a…