Blue Daisy Blog

What do you think?

I took part in an online discussion recently about different trends in the garden design world and one that was mentioned was the Grow Your Own (GYO) trend.  Personally, I believe that more and more people are turning to growing something edible in their garden.  Whether it is due to the economic climate, the feeling of nurturing and growing, encouraging the children or simply that it helps to keep the carbon footprint down - people are still doing it.

One or two people in this discussion thought that the bubble had certainly burst and indeed one nursery owner said that their sales of fruit and vegetable plants to garden centres had drastically dropped this year in comparison with last year. I have to admit that I was amazed by that comment whether based on fact or gut instinct; to me it just doesn’t ring true.  Take this year’s Chelsea Flower Show for example; there were lots of gardens either with an edible theme like Bunny Guinness who designed the M&G Investment garden, it was a modern take on the traditional kitchen garden using raised beds which were crammed full of produce.  The B&Q garden being the tallest show garden at Chelsea showed us how we can make small spaces attractive with flowers and still have room for edible crops even on balconies.  Both the Hampton Court Palace Show and Tatton Park have had show gardens with an edible theme too.

This weekend saw the very first Edible Garden Show which was held at Stoneleigh, Nr Coventry and the weather certainly held for it.  I wasn't sure what to expect with it being a brand new event, sometimes they can be slow to start and feel a little empty, this was not the case!  We went on Sunday and arrived about midday and as we walked what did feel like quite a way to the event we were amazed at the amount of cars that were there.  As soon as we showed our tickets and went in I was really pleased to see a hustle and bustle of people chattering, trying to get to the next stall or just simply asking questions!