I received press tickets to this event
A few days ago we went along to BBC Gardeners’ World Live and, as always, we had brilliant day.
It’s become something of an annual date for my mum and I. My mum is my gardening guru, everything that I know I have learned from her. And it still surprises me just how much I do know, I seem to just soak up more and more information and tips all the time. So yes, it’s a special day for us every year, one that we both look forward to and this year didn’t let us down.
If you’ve never been, it’s held at the NEC, Birmingham, and also includes the BBC Good Food Show. Yes, you get two shows for one so you can go and see a whole range of cookery experts and stalls and then move on to the gardening sections. There are a range of theatres and talks running throughout every day, with household names including Monty Don, Carol Klein, Julia Bradbury, Nadiya Hussain, Raymond Blanc and Prue Leith on the day that we attended – speakers do vary over the four days of the show.
We took in the BBC Good Food Show halls first, sampling some delicious cheeses as we did so and picking up some brownies for the Husband. These halls are packed with yummy treats to tempt you, along with cookery stands and the theatres. It’s hard to leave here without picking up something, in fact I don’t think that I have ever managed it!
We meandered down through the BBC Gardeners’ World Live halls and spotted Monty Don giving one of his talks there. We were then off outside to take in the show gardens and enjoy the delights of the Floral Marquee (it smells so good as soon as you walk in!). We tend to finish up our visit at the Plant Village, where there are a variety of nurseries and garden centres selling plants and the offers are always really good.
I came away with five plants, which is very restrained for me. Of course, I didn’t actually need any plants, but then I reason that plants are similar to books in that respect in that it’s always the right thing to buy more, don’t you think? Anyway, I bought two more heucheras, another hydrangea, a tiarella and a smoke bush. I hadn’t seen the last two before and I just fell in love with them when I did and had to get them. In truth, I have more hydrangeas than I actually realised when I came back and planted the new one and I think I now have a heuchera dotted every few feet through my garden! I did manage to resist buying a new rose, which is quite something for me.
Laden down with plants (of course my mum bought several too) we finally headed home, tired and very content. Thanks for another great show, BBC Gardeners’ World Live, you never disappoint.
Disclosure: I received press tickets to this event
I usually win tickets to these shows…but as i didnt think the shows were very good in the last few years,i didnt enter any competitions for tickets. The main reason being that a lot of big companies dont go to it any more.. For example Carte D`or icecream havent been for 5 years…The shows were quite good..i didnt notice any tv stars..i went on friday… But one big dig i would have is the index board by the entrances showing a floor plan and a list of stall numbers…Which was pointless..as without the matching company names, you had no idea where specific stalls were.In previous shows ,you had boards with alphabetical list of company names and the matching stall numbers on same board..so you had no idea which company matched which stall number .. There was a show guide but that didnt really give the info you needed
I found the show guide handy to finding my way around and the stalls that I wanted to visit, definitely needed as otherwise you wouldn’t know what was where! Ah, you missed Monty! I saw him, though I was then outside for much of the time.
on a slightly different subject..one year that i went ..the list of companies was on a sign about 10feet up the wall.. So i went to a show official ,saying could i report a theft…someone has nicked the ladder that i need to read the sign
Brilliant!!
there was a post it note message board under the sign and lots of the messages said…we cant read the sign
Even better!