Nottingham garden teams are set to shine at BBC Gardeners’ World Live
Talented teams from Nottinghamshire will share their stunning Border designs with more than 90,000 visitors at BBC Gardeners’ World Live at the NEC Birmingham this month (18-21 June). These local, green-fingered folk have a passion for plants and are packing their designs with take-home ideas and inspiration for real gardens.
Beautiful Borders
This year’s BBC Gardeners’ World Live Beautiful Borders are packed with inspiration for small garden spaces. With this year's theme, ‘Once Upon a Time’, these petite, plant-filled plots have stories to tell. From Nottingham, Alex Purdon’s Border, The Growing Creativity Garden, is a family garden with playful paths and a central bench for telling stories and bringing family members together. Also from Nottingham, Steve Walton from Stapleford has created Returning to My Roots which marks 25 years working in horticulture and is inspired by early memories gardening with his Grandad.
Professor Alice Roberts’ Garden of Evolution
This year’s headline Show Garden is The Garden of Evolution, a collaboration between biological anthropologist, writer and broadcaster, Professor Alice Roberts, academics from the University of Birmingham, and award-winning garden designer, Professor David Stevens, from Rugeley in Staffordshire. This evocative landscape will take visitors on a journey of discovery from the very beginnings of plant and animal life on earth to the present day.
The Garden of Evolution features a model of BIFoR FACE, the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research Free-Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment programme, one of the world’s largest climate change experiments exploring how forests respond to environmental change. Alice Roberts is Professor of Public Engagement in Science at the University of Birmingham and will be discussing The Garden of Evolution in daily sessions at the BBC Gardeners’ World Live Theatre. Experts from the garden’s plant suppliers, Hillier, will be sharing advice on some of the plants featured.
Make a Metre Matter
BBC Newsround presenter De-Graft Mensah is co-creating the BBC Gardeners’ World Make a Metre Matter Border this year with garden designer, Lucy Chamberlain. This imaginative little garden will show that even in small spaces, it’s perfectly possible to grow food and flowers, attract wildlife, and garden sustainably. Now in its second year, BBC Gardeners’ World Make a Metre Matter encourages gardeners to transform just one square metre of outside space to support the health of the planet. De-Graft will be discussing Make a Metre Matter and his passion for allotment growing at the BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Subscriber Club Lounge and at Garden Organic’s new Grow Your Own Stage.
Lucy Ashworth, Event Director at Immediate Live, organisers of BBC Gardeners’ World Live, said: “The show gardens always create a buzz amongst our visitors who enjoy spotting interesting new ideas, plants and features. A lot of planning, hard work and a deep love for plants goes into these gardens, and we’re thrilled to have so many fantastic designers and landscaping teams joining us again this year.”
Heaps of highlights
BBC Gardeners’ World Live is a haven for experienced and first-time gardeners alike, with a host of horticultural highlights. At the Floral Marquee, sponsored by L&G, visitors can enjoy spectacular displays by leading specialist nurseries, the International Orchid Show, and exciting new plants at the Hot Off the Potting Bench gallery. For plant knowledge or help, drop by the Plant Experts’ advice desk or catch a session at the Let’s Talk Plants Stage, sponsored by Hillier. Top gardening names will be signing books at the event’s new bookshop, Wool Pots’ will be hosting their eco-friendly Pot Swap, and there’s a Plant Creche. Shop for plants in the Floral Marquee, at the outdoor Plant Village and the Green Rooms Houseplant Studio.
Catch favourite gardening TV presenters and personalities at the BBC Gardeners’ World Live Theatre, sponsored by British Garden Centres, where Monty Don, Adam Frost, Frances Tophill, Nicki Chapman and BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine’s Kevin Smith will be chatting all things summer gardening. Jonny Hincks (Garden with Jonny) and Michael Perry (Mr Plant Geek) will be joining the fun too.
Adam Frost’s Tasting Table returns with garden-inspired cooking demonstrations, tastings and entertaining conversations with guests including Si King, James Martin and Lisa Faulkner from sister event, Good Food Show Summer. BBQ fans will love the new outdoor cooking experience from the award-winning Smoke & Fire Festival, featuring a BBQ School, cooking demonstrations, an artisan market and the Eat.Heat.Retreat Garden. At the new QVC Outdoor Living Stage, expert guests will be sharing garden, food, design and style inspiration. Add talks and tours, extensive shopping, the Health for Life School Wheelbarrow Competition, new floral workshops, the BBC Introducing … at BBC Gardeners’ World Live showcase for local music talent, bandstand buskers, and children’s gardening activities, and it’s a great day out.
BBC Gardeners’ World Live tickets are on sale now at www.bbcgardenersworldlive.com and include entry to Good Food Show Summer, featuring celebrity chefs, demonstrations, theatres and workshops, with delicious food and drink to browse and buy.
ENDS