Thirteen locations, 6 months, 5 gardens, 2 x 46’ articulated lorries… courtesy of Westland Horticulture… the Love the Plot You’ve Got roadshow has come to an end with a spectacular finale at CarFest North last weekend.

The roadshow by the Gardening Industry Marketing Board (GIMB) found itself in the unfamiliar territory of CarFest North, Oulton Park in Cheshire, a family motoring festival founded by TV and radio presenter Chris Evans.

Surrounded by ‘non-gardeners’ the roadshow proved to be a runaway success with the 38,000 visitors, with many admitting they had a garden but had no ideas or inspiration of what to do with it.  Much advice was given out on how to improve your outdoor space, gardening techniques, planning, planting, compartmentalising gardens, products, entertaining and where to buy.

The roadshow has travelled the length and breadth of the country making pit stops in cities such as London, Glasgow, Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff as well as making appearances at BBC Gardeners’ World Live, Solex, Stratford Home and Garden Show and being hosted at garden centres such as Whitehall, Scotsdales, Webbs and Van Hage.

Each site has been diverse but the subject of gardening and improving outside spaces is an easy subject for people to engage in.

The inspiring Love the Plot You’ve Got Roadshow gardens have been made up of a ‘before’ garden, which represents the hundreds of thousands of neglected, tired, unloved back gardens across the country, together with three ‘transformations’ and a balcony garden feature:

•        The Entertaining Garden shows with just a little imagination, consumers can have their own special oasis of calm to socialise with friends or simply “Chill” after a busy day.

•        The Container or Portable Garden shows just how even those who live in small gardens can create a lovely outdoor living space that’s easy to achieve and manage. Even those who live in rented accommodation can have a wonderful outdoor space that when they move, they can take their garden with them!

•        The Edible Garden combines vegetables and edible flowers into a great looking plot that provides tasty, nutritious things to eat, that’s lovely to look at, even when space is limited

•        The Balcony Garden shows how even tiny spaces can be converted into colourful little havens to relax and even entertain in.

The Roadshows are part of the innovative 3 year Love the Plot You’ve Got Campaign which has been created following detailed research into consumer perceptions about their desires for their outdoor living spaces, especially among the key 30-45 year old age group.

HTA Chief Executive Carol Paris and BBC Blue Peter Gardener Chris Collins also made a presentation to members of The Garden Media Guild in July emphsising the positive benefits to our industry that the campaign is starting to create.  Chris Collins was a member of the GIMB team at CarFest over the weekend answering hundreds of gardening questions from children and parents.

Campaign Manager David Arnold said:  “We set out to take the Love the Plot You’ve Got campaign to consumers across the UK and that’s exactly what we’ve done. We’ve spoken with thousands of folk who, in the majority of cases, told us they want to improve their outdoor living spaces but didn’t know where to start. We’ve talked with them about how to make that start, inspired them through the Roadshow gardens and directed them to our website and the sites of all our brilliant supporters in the Trade.

“We’ve learned a lot since the first Roadshow back in March. For example, we’ve discovered that there is a whole raft of folk out there who are downsizing and looking for inspiration and ideas for smaller space gardening, a consumer sector we had not fully appreciated needed help and advice. We’ve worked long days, we’ve got very dirty and very wet and even sunburned in Glasgow, and we’ve met lots of great people.

“Armed with our successes this year and all this learning, we are already planning for 2016 to make the Love The Plot You’ve Got campaign even more inspirational – watch this space!”

For more information visit www.loveyourplot.com

Manufacturers and suppliers from across the industry have gathered together to support the campaign, for a list of our partners visit www.loveyourplot.com/partners.

For a list of retailers participating in the campaign, visit www.loveyourplot.com/find-a-retailer

To find out more contact Campaign Manager David Arnold. Tel: 07876643638. Email: daaltd@virginmedia.com