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Gardening books your customers will love

gardening books - Decorating With Plants

Whether beginners or professionals, customers often turn to gardening books for horticultural advice and inspiration. Make sure you stock a good variety of gardening books for different needs and market the relevant products alongside them to maximise sales. Here's our pick of the latest gardening books on the market…  

 

The Inspired Houseplant, by Jean Stearns (Sasquatch, RRP £22.99) 

Jen Stearns is the owner of Urban Sprouts, a speciality house plant store. Jen has a background in urban agriculture and small business operations and has spent the last four years helping…

The importance of gardens for those with dementia

Gardens are a stimulating, peaceful outdoor environment for those with dementia

When residents at Green Park Care Home in Warrington visited Bents Garden Centre recently, they thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to smell the roses and take in the brilliantly coloured lupins.

The trip was organised at the request of one of the care home’s residents, Dorothy, who recalled visiting there previously and not being able to go as regularly as she once had since moving to the home. This shows how important getting out and about is for someone living with dementia.

Many of us take our ability to get outside for granted, to enjoy fresh air, sunlight, rain, and…

5 ways to financially improve your landscaping business

5 ways to financially improve your landscaping business - a woman on phone in plant nursery

It’s easy to get overwhelmed when you’re running your own landscaping business. There’s a lot to keep track of, from billing clients to actually showing up on site to get the work done. You likely started your landscaping business because you enjoyed the latter of those two things. Your passion lies in making beautiful landscapes, not behind-the-scenes paperwork.

While in the past you may have had to do everything with pen and paper once returning to the office, this isn’t the case any longer. Owning a lawn care business has gotten a lot easier. There are now apps and other tools…

Wyevale Nurseries reveals its top five plants for 2020

One of the top five plants from Wyevale Nurseries

The retail Sales Manager at one of the UK’s leading nurseries has picked his top five plants for garden centres for 2020.
 
Colin Stanley from Wyevale Nurseries selected the plants from the company’s 90th Anniversary Celebratory Promotional catalogue.
 
Colin explained: “I have selected my top five plants, which I think really show how we are at the forefront of new and innovative varieties and that display the diversity of our extensive range. They are Dryopteris ‘Jurassic Gold’, the Potentilla Double Punch Collection, Hydrangea ‘Runaway Bride Snow White’,…

Designing the Perfect Cottage Garden

Designing the Perfect Cottage Garden

Bursting with colour, gradients of heights and whimsicality, it’s no wonder the cottage garden is growing in popularity. From the overgrown enchanted fairy-tale cottage in the woods to the coastal picket fenced Devon Holiday Cottages from Lyme Bay Holidays, there is certainly no shortage of inspiration to get that perfect look.

Creating an outdoor space which looks rural and unruly however, is not simply just letting your garden grow out of control, but rather carefully selecting the perfect plants and nurturing them to add that edge of personality to your home. Here we explore how…

Allergy-free garden hacks your customers will love

Antirrhinum majus or Snapdragon flowers are perfect for an allergy-free garden

As the days get warmer, customers are spending hours and hours out in the garden – which means investing in new outdoor living equipment. Relaxing outside on the grass with a cold bottle of beer, maybe with a BBQ sizzling away — a blissful afternoon by anyone’s standards! But if your customers suffer from allergies, particularly pollen allergies like hay fever, then the idea of relaxing out in the garden over summer in an allergy-free garden could seem like an unachievable dream. In dry or windy conditions, pollen spores spread quickly and aggravate hay fever symptoms. What seems like a…

Fertiliser vs compost: what’s the difference?

compost - an older man and younger child planting in the garden

Your customers all want to provide the optimum environment for their plants to grow. However, with so many tips and tricks out there, it’s difficult to know what advice they should follow. If they’re just starting out in a garden, they may be wondering what the difference between compost and fertiliser is — what are the benefits of each? Should they use them both?

In this article, compost and topsoil specialist Compost Direct explains more about the two essential items.

What is the difference between fertiliser and compost?

On the most basic level, fertilisers feed plants…

All urban launches a safe and sustainable way to BBQ

Christie barbecues electric public barbecue installed for Melbourne City Council 2019

All Urban is celebrating the launch of their exclusive UK partnership with Australian manufacturer Christie barbecues, the only dedicated public barbecue manufacturer in the world. As the global leader in the design and engineering of barbecues for communal use, their products are an excellent fit for All Urban, who specialise in supplying the UK landscape industry with innovative, world-class sustainable products which help create inviting and safer public spaces. 

Most cultures love a good barbecue and the British are no exception, with it being a rapidly growing trend. Three out…

Five handy tips for sprucing up your garden this spring

five handy tips for your spring garden

SPELLBROOK, England (April 2019) – With spring well and truly underway, view our five handy tips.Iit’s finally time to give our gardens a makeover ready for the impending warmth. The cold winter temperatures may have left your garden in a sorry state, but the experts in the landscaping industry at Hayter have a five handy tips make sure your garden is looking its best this spring.

Spring clean

Over the winter your lawn will have collected all matter of branches, sticks, leaves and debris and now is the perfect time to have them removed. Clearing your lawn now will give way…

Get your garden ready for spring with outdoor lighting

Outdoor lighting

There’s nothing like some outdoor lighting to add a little “je ne sais quoi” to your garden. It’s the perfect way to create atmosphere, highlight your favourite parts of the garden and provide illumination for warmer evenings spent outside. With the arrival of spring, it’s the perfect time to look at your garden and think where and how some lights could make it come to life.>

There are various different types of outdoor lighting available - in this post we’ll go through them and look at the different types and how you can use them.

Spike lights

Spike lights - as…

Keep those tails wagging with PitPat!

Dog active wearing PitPat

If you’re looking into ways to keep your dog active, then read the review below on the wonderful PitPat. 

I’ve been lucky enough to get my hands on a product that I never even knew existed until now. The Pitpat is a health monitor for your pup, which tracks how much exercise they’re getting each day, giving owners and their dogs a chance to win prizes with the points they collect. It’s a great way to keep your dog active and a perfect excuse to get out into the big wide world. If you're struggling to find that perfect thing to keep you and your dog entertained, then this is the…

Food and water are lifesavers for hedgehogs after hibernation

A hedgehog eating Hedgehog Food

Members of the public are urged to put Hedgehog Food and water out now as hedgehogs will be dehydrated and hungry following their hibernation and their natural food sources will be in short supply. 

However, it’s really important to feed the right food such as Brambles Crunchy Hedgehog Food or Brambles Meaty Hedgehog Food.

Sales Manager David Tracey comments:

“Members of the public are increasingly trying to help wildlife but are often confused as what to feed wild animals such as hedgehogs. Being on the endangered list, hedgehogs need all the help they can get but…

DALES SET FOR BEAUTIFUL BLUEBELL DISPLAY

Bluebell display

Guests at Settle's Falcon Manor Hotel this spring should check out some of the finest bluebell displays in the area.

According to Jane Gara, general manager of Falcon Manor, the breathtaking carpets of blue at nearby Oxenber and Cleatop woods are a "Must See" in May.

Said Jane: "Cleatop Wood, near Settle, offers a lovely circular walk of around four miles from the door of Falcon Manor. A stroll along a green lane and across farmland brings guests to the woodland, a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest."

It is 10 minutes in the car to the village of …

10 Unusual Household Items to Help Your Plants Grow

Help plants grow

Eggshells, matches, and human hair are amongst some of the most surprising household items green-fingered Brits can use to help their plants grow. 

The outdoor experts at GardenBuildingsDirect.co.uk have researched into the unlikely products and items that British gardeners could use as natural fertilisers this summer. 

From common food products such as bananas and eggshells to the more unusual fireplace ashes and potato water, these are items that can be found in the average UK household. 

A spokesperson for GardenBuildingsDirect.co.uk said: “You might not think…

Six tips to prepare your garden for spring

spring garden

With spring just around the corner, it’s the perfect time to dust off the gardening gloves and get back in our green spaces. But with over half (52%) of Brits completely neglecting their garden over the winter, getting your garden ready for spring may require a bit more TLC.

As a third (35%) of Brits spend the most time in their garden in spring, experts from outdoor building manufacturer, Tiger Sheds, offer six tips to help your garden bounce back in the warmer months.

1. Look after your tools

After spending a few months tucked away in the shed, it’s likely your…

Choose landscaping: skills gap means experts are in demand

landscaping competition winners - BBC Gardeners' World Live

Phil Tremayne, general manager of the Association of Professional Landscapers (APL),  tells Garden Trade Specialist about the skills shortage in the industry…

The skills shortage in landscaping has been an ongoing problem for many years. There has been a great difficulty in getting young people engaged in this sector, with many wishing to follow the pathway of computer and media-based careers. This issue has now started to reach a critical point.

Many existing landscapers full of passion and experience no longer have the knees and backs to continue and some of the great…