Sleeker and lower furniture lines, urban gardening, re-use of plastic, masses of garden decoration lines and loads of BBQ's were the headlines at spoga+gafa in Koln.

Among the regular gardening products the GTN Xtra team found a clock that chimes with farmyard sounds on the hour at Eschart Designs, (Fallen Fruits in the UK) and a BBQ designed to be carried on a bicycle!

And in the Efsa concept store they were promoting "Beer from heaven"  - a brew made from harvested rainwater in the Netherlands!

GTN Xtra's photo tour of the show is below.  

More than 40,000 trade visitors from 124 countries attended the three-day event in Cologne , the organisers reported.

There were 2,281 exhibitors from 67 countries exhibiting trends and highlights for the coming garden season on 230,000 square metres. The central theme this year was City Gardening - gardening without a garden.

“spoga+gafa has hit the nerve of the industry with City Gardening which spanned all the sectorts of the show," said Catja Caspary, vice president, trade fair management. "In 2020, the industry can look forward to our new key theme –Sustainable gardens.”

John W. Herbert, European DIY-Retail Association (EDRA) / general secretary, confirmed that the top decision-makers and key distributors across the industry were extremely satisfied with the outcome of spoga+gafa.  “ We have received a thoroughly positive feedback from our more than 200 international top buyers. Especially the presence of strong brands like Fiskars, but also the ambience of spoga+gafa overall was assessed very positively. The trade fair was even more attractive this year. The quality and the design of the products presented was very high-quality. Industry trends such as City Gardening, for example, were realised in an innovative and creative manner.”

spoga+gafa 2020 will take place from 6 to 8 September.