2012 gets off to a positive start

The new gardening year has got off to a flying start with plenty of activity on garden centres.  Sales are getting a useful increase compared to 2010 and 2011 if the reports reaching me are a representative cross section.

B & Q are preparing for a real go this spring with £12 million being invested in rebranding their garden ranges and refitting 100 stores.  Twenty five stores a week over the next month will get the treatment.

Out goes high rack storage for composts; in comes The Garden Shop for all powered and hand garden tools; in comes automatic watering on new hardy container plant display units; garden sheds will be on display and in stock for immediate take-away or delivery.

Verve is their new own brand for gardening, Mac for a complete range of powered garden machinery and Blooma for furniture and garden ornamentation.  It will not be all own brand: Bosch will be offered alongside Mac, Verve Composts alongside Levington and Miracle-Gro.  Goodbye it sounds to Arthur Bowers and Westland.

One effect of the Alan Titchmarsh voice and face throughout their stores I had not appreciated is the lift in morale it has given to staff.  Workers have gained greater confidence in their company and its garden products when serving alongside the life size cardboard cut-outs by all accounts.

Steve Guy told  me  “it is an exciting time at B & Q, customers are going to see a dramatic change”.

There will be some dramatic changes too at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Hyde Hall Gardens. Ground works are already under way for two new courtyard gardens at the new entrance building.  There is a new lake, new snakes-head fritillary meadow and planned fifty acre rolling stretch of wild flower meadow, not to mention an allotment site, model allotments and new fruit and vegetable garden.  The seventeen full time staff will have their work cut over the next year or two.