The Glog

We’ve been away for a few months busy with the show, but now that all-important Christmas season is drawing near I thought I’d pose an interesting question… how early should retailers push Christmas stock and does this really benefit businesses, particularly in the current climate?
It seems to get earlier and earlier every year. Don’t get me [...]

As part of its Orange Thumb scheme, tool manufacturer Fiskars has been working with pupils from Longley School Kirklees to create an orchard on a disused allotment in Huddersfield. This video shows the team at work clearing away the brambels and debris.

Click here to read about Fiskars’ involvment in this month’s Love Parks Week [...]

You’ll never guess what my 24-year-old housemate and I did yesterday; we only went and harvested a few successfully home-grown potatoes. In spite of our debilitating age, we’ve also managed to grow some salad, some herbs, garlic and onions.
However, according to the Evening Standard, we can’t even identify a hoe.
Now, calm down. Don’t [...]

Growing lovely fruits in the garden is all very well, until it gets to harvest time and you realise that you’re going to have to make serve up *insert crop here* for desert every day for a month to get your money’s worth before they go off.
Well, flicking through a press preview copy of [...]

According to recent research, 85 per cent of buying decisions are made by women and lifestyle retailers’ major target market is 35-year-old women.
But, at a recent retail conference, I had an audience that was made up of 75 per cent male retail business owners with the majority of them in their 50s.The challenge for these [...]

I went away for a just few days (it was only a 40 minute flight but it felt like I was in the farthest corner of the globe) and missed the biggest news of the year: National Shed Week.
Well, the winners have been announced and this year the award went to Steven Harwood, who [...]

Plant for Life’s new campaign Colour Me Colour My Garden is inspired and it really got me thinking about store displays. How often have you seen boutiques use flowers to set off the colours in their key collections? How many florists use fashion to dictate their buying and merchandising?
It seems natural that garden centres [...]

I was having a bit of a picnic there the other day (not to be too London-centric, but it’s been dead sunny down here) and munching away on cherries, ignorant of the fact that cherries are in grave danger. Did you know that 95 per cent of the cherries in Britain have been imported? Did [...]

A terrifying story broke in local and trade press this morning about a day-time raid at Stephen H Smith’s Garden and Leisure in Bolton. According to reports, thousands in cash and vouchers was taken when a man broke into an upstairs office wielding a nine-inch butcher’s knife at nine in the morning.
According to the [...]

The Horticultural Trades Association and Waterwise has created the below draft code of practice on water restrictions. The association will be emphasising the need for a code of practice in response to the Government’s draft flood and water management bill.
Restrictions on the Non-essential Uses of Water in Gardens
A code of practice
(Draft – July 2008)
Background
Drought [...]