SylvaGrow® Tub and Basket launches at GLEE and, for next spring, garden centres can sell RHS Endorsed Melcourt products in a re-usable Melcourt Bag for Life

Like all of the products in the award-winning Melcourt SylvaGrow® range, new SylvaGrow Tub and Basket is a peat-free blend of fine bark and wood fibre. To meet the particular demands of plants grown in tubs and baskets, it contains a water-retaining aid to give the compost greater resilience against drying out as well as rich, balanced nutrients sufficient for the first 4 - 6 weeks of growth. The product is available in 50L packs and 15L carry bags. The new product is based on one widely used throughout the UK by professional growers and is suitable for a wide range of uses around the garden. As well as being peat-free it contains no green waste.

The Melcourt Bag for Life offers retailers and gardeners the chance to reduce their use of single-use plastic by making available some core Melcourt products in a maxi-bale which is then dispensed into re-usable bags which can be refilled time and time again. With just two refills of the Melcourt Bag less single use plastic will be in circulation. Of course, there is no reason why the Bags for Life should not in fact last several seasons.

Products available for this kind of sale are:

Melcourt SylvaGrow® Multipurpose
Melcourt SylvaGrow® with added John Innes
Melcourt SylvaGrow® Organic
Melcourt SylvaGrow® Tub & Basket
Melcourt SylvaGrow® Ericaceous
Melcourt Composted Fine BarkTM soil conditioner
Melcourt Spruce OrnamentalTM bark mulch
Melcourt Ornamental Bark MulchTM
Melcourt Pine Mini ChipsTM

Each maxi-bale contains 2500 litres of product, is spun wrapped, labelled and comes complete on a recycled and recyclable ‘one way trip pallet’. With every maxi-bale, garden centres also buy a supply of Melcourt Bags for Life which are in turn sold to end-user customers, to fill repeatedly with their chosen product. Uniquely, all products and the Melcourt Bag for Life concept are endorsed by the Royal Horticultural Society and the Bag for Life carries that endorsement.

“Since its launch only 5 years ago, sales of SylavGrow® have grown at a phenomenal rate. In fact, we’re about to install a second new bagging line in the space of 18 months to cope with demand,” says Andy Chalmers, Melcourt Managing Director. “The new Tub and Basket formulation will complement the existing range perfectly, and our new Bag for Life concept is one we know will meet a need felt by many gardeners to reduce single-use plastic in their gardens. This all comes on the eve of the first of the key dates set by Government, for peat use in retail products to be reduced to zero. We know that the future of British gardening is peat-free and we feel that Melcourt continues to lead the way.”