This weekend I was at the Good Food Show and Gardeners’ World Live at the NEC in Birmingham. Last November I was at the Autumn Good Food Show, so I had some idea of what to expect. Or so I thought.
It was so much bigger than I expected. Not only had it taken over several halls, but outside was teeming with people and stalls and flowers too, and it all looked a lot like the Malvern Show. In short, it was going to be a great day.
Do love a good floral marquee
And it was pretty incredible. Food samples, interesting plants and lots of lovely people happy to talk to us about the best way to keep our herbs alive. There was a lot of great stuff at the show, so I’m going to list my favourite bits, otherwise I’ll ramble on about everything. And I do love a list.
Tracklements
The packagaing for Tracklements is what drew me over – there’s something about it that caught my eye. I think it’s the modern take on a traditional looking label. When I realised it was mostly chutneys, my heart sank a little, because I’d bounded over quite excited but I don’t really like chutney.
Proper eye-catching packaging
Reader, I bought some. I tried their beetroot and horseradish relish and it was incredible. I walked away still thinking about it and had to come back later because I was still thinking about it. Would highly reccommend.
2. The MS Society ‘A Journey to Hope’ Garden
Gardener’s World Live even had show gardens. The MS Society’s Garden was gorgeous and accessible, something that a lot of beautiful gardens don’t seem to consider.
Being such a popular garden, it was difficult to get a photo without people in it
Aiming to raise awareness for the 100,000 people who live with MS in the UK and the work of their support groups, the garden was a big hit. And in the leaflets telling you about the garden, there were gardening tips for people with MS, to help those with MS work out a way they can still enjoy their garden.
3. Ecotalk
Powered by green energy, Ecotalk is a mobile phone company, who use their profits to buy up land in order to give it back to nature. I got talking to them because they had houses for solitary bees on their stall, and bees are their main focus right now. And saving the bees is a big deal.
4. The APL Avenue Artemis Landscapes ‘Living in Sync’ garden
This was my favourite part of Gardeners’ World Live. Designed to be wildlife friendly in conjunction with Wonderful Wildlife, this garden was a front garden with as many wildlife friendly elements as possible. Bug towers, bird and bat boxes and plenty of bee friendly flowers.
It was gorgeous and is my new garden goal.
5. Bat Conservation Trust
Our garden’s pretty bee and butterfly friendly now, which is a big mission accomplished. Pretty much at all time there’s at least 2 bees buzzing around. So next step is to encourage more wildlife. And who better than bats?
The most common bats in the UK are the pipistrelle and aren’t very big, which means you can easily make a bat box for them to roost in. The Bat Conservation trust had some very lovely people on their stand, who were more than happy to talk to us and ply us with information about how to help bats. I think our next job is finding somewhere to put a bat box.
I went to the Good Food Show and Gardener’s World Live as a member of the press with a press pass (which, ngl, was very exciting). All opinions are my own.
Bats, Bees and Chutney This weekend I was at the Good Food Show and Gardeners' World Live at the NEC in Birmingham.
