THE LAST WORD
Spring might finally have burst from the depth of the soil but the gardening year begins for those in the gardening media industry in February, when we meet at The Garden Press Event in London to explore the new ranges of seeds, plants, tools, garden accessories, and sustainable solutions coming to market. It’s a great chance to get up close and personal with growers and manufacturers to get a preview of the way gardening trends are being pushed.
Peat-free substrates dominated a lot of stalls this year again as the industry constantly adapts to make products better fit for purpose in the race to eradicate the use of peat in compost, whilst the talk on plastic-free gardening has almost been quieted to a whisper as companies have already taken on the challenge to produce composts and plant feeds in sustainable or recyclable plastics. It’s less of a conversation and more of an assumption now as that is where market forces are driving.
March was crazy busy closer to home with three big Scottish gardening and horticultural organisations hosting big events.
The Trellis Conference held in Perth was an outstanding day of inspiring examples and meaningful dialogue on the benefits of therapeutic horticulture, as well as the role of social prescribing and regulation of the therapeutic horticulture industry.
Seeing qualified practitioners, charitable organisations, and interested parties come to genuinely work together to use gardening for good and to foster connection and share good practice to help and support grass roots practitioners in their work was an absolute pleasure.
The following week saw The Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society AGM and Awards Ceremony where we got to acknowledge and reward both professional and amateur gardeners for the work that they are doing as individuals and as groups to promote, support, or pioneer horticulture and good gardening practice across Scotland, and I hope you read more about the worthy winners earlier in this issue.
There was also the small matter of being elected as Caley Vice-President!
The following day saw me hot-footing it from Edinburgh to the stunning Cambo Gardens on the east coast, where Discover Scottish Gardens held their first Gardens Tourism Conference, an event which saw strong commitment from garden owners to keep garden tourism both nationally and internationally high on the VisitScotland agenda. Data shared at the event supported the number one driver for global tourism travel as natural beauty, and we most certainly have that covered in Scotland with our wild and designed landscapes.
This weekend you’ll find me at The Caley Spring Bulb Show either as an attendee, or a participant if I can find any daffodils to exhibit after this unseasonably warm spell (not that I’m complaining about that)!
And then we are into full garden show season, from Chelsea to Scone, and Turriff to Ingliston - we really are spoiled for choice this year!
If you see me at a gardening event, please do come up and say hello, it is so nice to meet readers of Scotland Grows magazine, and listeners of the Scotland Grows Show podcast, and I’m always interested in what you are buying or looking for at garden shows.
In between all that, we’ve got a podcast anniversary to celebrate, another series to get out with some more fabulous guests, and the next issue of Scotland Grows magazine lined up for 6th June. If I’m not busy with all that, you’ll find me knee-deep in flowers and mud in the garden - and I cannot wait!
You can follow our Editor’s garden and gardening on her Instagram feed to keep up with what she loves in the garden.