In This Issue
Government publishes plan to ban peat sales by 2024
Industry prepares for a peat-less future
Lull in sales before mid-Summer
Clear ‘N’ Collect is a great British success story
Traeger continues to revolutionise the BBQ industry
Blue Diamond top £200m turnover and commit to Chelsea garden
Two London locations announced for little dobbies
Logwood Mill becomes fourth centre for Creative Gardens
Glee organisers promote Safe & Secure standards in two new videos
Greenfingers Charity unveils new garden design by RHS Chelsea Gold Medal Winner, Ann-Marie Powell
Cool summer plant sales
Hillier unveils designs for Gardeners’ World Spring Fair
Fargro Ltd set to bloom in 2021 under new management
Defra-funded Plant Passport e-learning launches
The ultimate recycling - Squire’s turn plastic bags into cash
Evergreen Garden Care launches mental health awareness initiatives across all channels
Haskins Roundstone wins Garden Centre of the Year award
St Peters creates ‘an adventure into nature and wildlife’
How Primeur’s Tierra Verde planters are driving profitability
Southern Trident announces charity partnership with Child Rights and You (CRY UK)
Namgrass reveals eco-friendly artificial grass
DJ Turfcare confirmed for Glee 2021
Unprecedented Demand - Record Easter garden centre sales lead to stock shortages - Read GTN's April issue on-line now
Dobbies hosts bee-rilliant virtual event with Neal’s Yard Remedies to celebrate World Bee Day
National Children’s Gardening Week partners with Peppa Pig & Regatta Great Outdoors for Save the Children
Get your own copy of GTN Xtra
Pots of Sustainability in RHS Chelsea Sustainable Gardening Product of the Year
Double the fun at Grimsby Garden Centre
Solar lights up sales
Johnsons adds to seed range for the 2022 season
How to reduce plastic waste in the garden
Another amazing growing media performance
Sanctuaries Garden, Terrace & Balcony. Trends and new products for the outdoor season from spoga + gafa
The AIPH International Grower of the Year Awards 2022 opens for entries
Prompt needed to push Wild Bird Care sales
BHETA to hold second Q&A on international freight
RECOUP launch new hybrid conference for 2021
HTA responds to the Queen's speech
The best of last week's
25% more gardening sets new April record
Monkton Elm Pet Centre stops the sale of rabbits
Phenomenal year of sales for Natural Grower
Ergrownomics - The future of raised planters and beds
Garden Re-Leaf Day 2021 raises over £75,000
Barton Grange Christmas 2020 - Exclusive GTN Xtra Photo Tour
Squires Badshot Lea - Christmas 2020
Perrywood at Christmas 2020 - with correct photo gallery now...
Bestsellers Top 50 charts every week
Buy your subscription to the GTN Bestsellers printed weekly newsletter
All the latest news from the world of pet products
Supreme Petfoods provides 30 hours of free CPD, now accredited by SQP regulator Vetpol
UK to lead way on animal welfare with new Action Plan
Brambles appoints new Digital Marketing Manager
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Sanctuaries Garden, Terrace & Balcony. Trends and new products for the outdoor season from spoga + gafa

As the largest garden lifestyle trade fair in the world, spoga+gafa occupies itself with the new products of the green industry year after year. The focus here is on fresh ideas and pioneering garden lifestyle solutions. Where for over sixty years the DIY stores, garden centres, barbecue retailers and furniture markets from all over the world have been buying their seasonal products, there is - due to the pandemic - a yawning emptiness in the fourteen halls that are normally filled to the brim with gardens.Themes like garden work, closeness to nature or sustainability particularly gain significance in times like these. More than ever, the outdoors serves as a place of refuge. And instead of annual holidays, people are investing in beautifying their gardens, terraces and balconies. The worldwide pandemic is causing the garden industry to boom. And so trends and innovations are finding their way into people's own outdoor spaces in these times too. The offer ranges from comfortable outdoor furniture, to smart garden appliances, through to fully-equipped outdoor kitchens – a glance at the current garden lifestyle trends and themes.

Open-air living-room: The garden as a cosy place of retreat

Garden work has turned to the future: After sowing seeds, growth and blossoms follow. This confidence can help styling one's life especially today. As a place of creation and regeneration, the garden is therefore playing an ever-increasingly important role – whether for the gardeners and plants, togetherness or for recreation and taking a break from the home office and home schooling. The pandemic has accelerated a trend that was already on the advance beforehand, namely turning the outdoor area into a "green living-room". The borders between indoors and out are merging and the furniture items for both areas hardly differ from each other. Sweeping and unusually low sofas, armchairs and daybeds are taking the terrace by storm. Freely combinable lounge furniture offers plenty of space outdoors for getting together and can be expanded in a modular way. Extendable tables, benches and chairs with a higher sitting position enable relaxed dining in the open air. And the home office can also be relocated outdoors today thanks to comfortable and weatherproof home furniture.

"Green living": Nature as a source of inspiration

The desire for a healthy, close-to-nature lifestyle has not just grown since the Corona outbreak. Plants promote health and create an environment for well-being. Gardening and growing one's own herbs and vegetables are in vogue. Raised flowerbeds, mini greenhouses and plant shelves are becoming increasingly popular in both the outdoor and indoor gardening sector. Naturalness is also the motto of many items of garden furniture and accessories for the current season. As authentic materials, natural wood, rattan or linen convey a closeness to nature as well as muted and natural shades. This spans through to the processing. For example, for teak furniture almost the entire tree trunk is used to lend chairs or tables a natural look. Plastic plant pots made in a rugged natural stone design or fibreglass rain tanks and sunshade stands in wooden optic also convey a natural touch.

Go Green: The garden is becoming more sustainable

Today, many people use "green" products to express a more conscious lifestyle. The sustainable garden is thus a key theme of spoga+gafa. Because more and more companies from the industry are placing importance on sustainability for their new products. For example, the manufacturers of outdoor furniture or plant pots are increasingly producing new models from recycled materials. Old wood from huts or boats and recycled plastic from oceans and households are being used as well as textile and organic residual materials. The collections are called "Green Basics", "Greenline" or "Go Green" and as such their names already make reference to their "green" production based on these material-saving concepts. More and more recycled products are themselves also 100 percent recyclable to ensure a closed material cycle. The demand is growing because in the course of the climate discussion a more conscious way of living has developed into an ongoing trend.

Less is more: New lightness in design

The times are heavy enough, so it is nice to be able to take things a little more lightly in the garden. A lot of outdoor furniture is becoming streamlined, airy and more filigree. Less opulence, instead the design is determined by its no-frill appearance - not as reduced austerity, but indeed as nonchalant elegance. Bright blue, red and orange, but also many fresh, pastel shades underline the light outdoor design language. Rocking chairs, padded hammocks and hanging chairs or Hollywood swings are bringing both momentum and deceleration to the terrace and balcony. Round, lounge elements that create curvy seating landscapes are also getting things moving. Multifunctional items of furniture, the backs, arms and sitting areas of which can be easily adjusted or repositioned, are similarly flexible. They combine materials like aluminium, teak, ceramic and waterproof outdoor fabrics with ease. New sunshades in a wide selection of colours and materials also invite the consumers to mix and match.

Smart gardening: digital features make gardening easier

The current digitalisation thrust due to the Corona pandemic is boosting the online trade of the green industry. Digital solutions have been an important driving force for garden appliances for some time. In the meantime, robotic lawn mowers and automatic irrigation systems make up part of the standard equipment of many hobby gardeners. High-quality models are enhanced today with smart features that save even more time and energy. For example, the self-cleaning process of the appliances can be programmed via an app. Furthermore, mowing and irrigating lawns is optimised by sensors that measure the temperature and moisture of the ground. A networked control ensures an efficient water and electricity consumption. On the topic of electricity: Many garden appliances are equipped with high-performance battery packs and can be recharged via solar modules. This hinders both piles of cables as well as new battery packs for dimmable LEDs on sunshades.

Casual dining: Outdoor kitchens are being enhanced

In times when travel is restricted, cooking in the open air conveys a feeling of freedom and vacation. Moreover, mealtimes are moments of getting-together. Casual dining is the keyword here today, when it comes down to designing the outdoor cooking and eating space as cosily as possible. Weatherproof outdoor kitchens are the solution here, which depending on the space available and the respective demands, can be individually customised. New elements are added every year so that they are on a par with the equipment found in the fitted kitchens indoors. This also applies for the furnishing of the open-air dining room. New extendable tables in particularly stable quality can be adjusted to suit the number of guests and combined with side tables or serving trolleys. The manufacturers are encountering the increased level of urbanisation with narrow tables and loungers for smaller surfaces on the roof terrace or balcony.

Consistent comeback: Design classics and retro look

Things that are good stay and come round again. This can be seen among others in the diverse remakes of design classics for the garden. The comeback of furniture and accessories of past epochs is thus also ongoing in the current season. Whereby the customary appearance of the re-editions is combined with the comfort and quality of today's materials. Weatherproof lengths of material or light frames turn the newly produced classics into flexible furniture for indoors and out. The present-day look of many new models is reminiscent of former times. Armchairs and sofas with handwoven rope, organically shaped tables and chairs or sunbeds in bright colours make the designs of the 50s to the 70s spring to mind. At the time, the arched shapes and bright colours symbolised a new era and hope – a design approach that couldn't be more contemporary.


The next spoga+gafa will take place again - in a new freshness and with even more garden - from 19 to 21 June 2022 at the Cologne fairgrounds.

Koelnmesse – Global Competence in Furniture, Interiors and Design: Koelnmesse is the world’s top trade fair organiser for the areas of furnishing, living and lifestyle. At the trade fair hub of Cologne, the leading international fair imm cologne as well as the trade fair formats of LivingKitchen, ORGATEC, spoga+gafa, interzum and Kind + Jugend rank among the internationally renowned and established industry meeting places. These fairs comprehensively represent the upholstered and case furniture segment, the kitchen industry, the office furniture sector and outdoor living as well as the innovations of the furniture supply industry. Over the last few years, Koelnmesse has specifically added international fairs in the most important fast-expanding markets to its portfolio. These include idd Shanghai, interzum bogotá in Bogotá, interzum guangzhou in Guangzhou and Pueri Expo in Sao Paulo. With ambista, the online portal for the interiors business, Koelnmesse offers direct access to products, contacts, expertise and events relevant to the industry all year round.

Further information is available at: www.global-competence.net/interiors/
Further information about ambista: www.ambista.com/

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