Blog
Birthday Blues!
Posted by Gilly on Wednesday 3rd February 2010
It was my birthday last week (don’t ask how old) and I am never that keen on having a birthday at the end of January. It has been a long month, cold and dreary, bills to pay and spring gardening in the sunshine seems a long way off!!
However I am lucky to have lovely family and friends who are very generous and amongst my gorgeous pressies was a beautiful bunch of anenomes – my favourites. Using a purple easivase they made a stunning display cheering me up and brightening the stone wall in my lounge.
If you are thinking of buying flowers for Valentines or Mothers’ Day why not consider giving a pack of Easivases available in four colourways, pink, green, blue and purple and costing just £6.50 for a pack of three. They will brighten up any corner in the traditional or contemporary home and can be washed out, dried and stored away until needed again. I just hope I don’t have to wait another year for flowers!
Are you one of the 41% that grows your own? If not why not?!
Posted by Gilly on Thursday 14th January 2010
Why not start the New Year as you mean to go on and join the 41% of family stage consumers that are already growing their own produce or planning to in 2010. New Year is all about fresh starts so why not make this one of yours and ensure your vegetables are a lot fresher and taste nicer too!
The Horticultural Trades Association has published a recent Garden Industry Monitor Consumer Insight investigating the trends in the gardening world. It would seem that the population are not only growing more but spending a lot more time in their home and garden, though we doubt many of you have been recently pottering around the beds and borders in this snowy weather!
To support this growing trend we want the percentage of people growing their own produce to rise to over 50%! Every little bit counts so in amongst our Grow Your Own Range you will find The Girl’s Guide To Growing - perfect for the beginner lady gardener who wants to get started! We know we’ve raved about this book in our previous blog so we won’t repeat ourselves but...it is now available at a Seasonal Offer Price! You can order the book online for £10.95 (was £12.95) for a limited time only so be quick. You may not be able to get outside right now but you can enjoy reading all these hints and tips by the fire with a hot cuppa until the ice melts and you can once again get gardening!
Blooming Beautiful Bionic Blooms Gloves!
Posted by Gilly on Thursday 10th December 2009
Our popular Bionic Elite Gardening Gloves have now been replaced by a more fashionable alternative- which is already proving to be an ultra popular Christmas present!
Let us introduce you to the fabulous Bionic Blooms Gardening Gloves with the same properties as the Elite range but a lot more style. These gloves are the only gardening glove designed by an Orthopedic Hand Surgeon and aside from keeping your hands warm through the winter, they have many benefits.
Bionic Blooms Gardening Gloves:
- Less hand fatigue- Anatomical pads on the leather palm reduce hand fatigue, blisters and calluses.
- Increased gripping power- Bionic Technology increases grip strength and enhances the performance of the hand.
- Wrist support- Spandex closure supports the wrist and prevents dirt from entering the glove.
- Full spandex back allows for optimum fit.
These blooms gloves make a great present for the keen, active gardener. And you don’t have to compromise on style. They are available in bright pink, purple, blue and lime green so you can team your gloves with your tools, favourite colour or gardening outfits! In addition they are really easy to wash in the washing machine. In fact washing these gloves enhances the durability and maintains the suppleness of the leather.
At only £23.95, the gloves make a fantastic Christmas present for the lady gardener who has just about everything! Plus there are plenty of coordinating products at Garden Divas in case you want to put together your very own gardening themed Christmas hamper or gift box.
Take advantage of this special offer - buy the Camouflage Shop Boxes online!
Go undercover with “Camouflage” This Christmas!
Posted by Gilly on Friday 4th December 2009
With Christmas fast approaching, there are plenty of us who would like to go in to hiding when faced with battling the Christmas shopping. Although we are sorry to say that’s not really possible, Garden Divas has an innovative way of camouflaging all those Christmas presents in the Camouflage Shop Boxes! Perfect for storing all the festive gifts, Xmas wrap, tags and sellotape or to use in the supermarket trolley when stocking up for your Christmas dinner, these English Rose Camouflage Shop Boxes are so useful for many occasions! What’s more they are now on special offer- 1 for £8.00, 2 FOR £15.00 OR 3 FOR £20.00!
So it won’t cost you a fortune to keep organised. Alternatively you may like to purchase these Camouflage Shop Boxes for your loved ones this year (that’s another person or two to tick off the list!). Here are just a few suggestions on how you can make use of these fabulous fun boxes:
Keep in the car boot for supermarket shopping- they fit neatly into a trolley!- Perfect to pick up your plants from the market on a Saturday morning.
- Easily kept in the car to store your muddy shoes and boots after walking the dog.
- Great for carrying the family’s Christmas presents!
- Folds flat for easy storage, lightweight and durable
- Fully lined with two aluminium handles- easy to carry
- What will you use yours for?
Take advantage of this special offer - buy the Camouflage Shop Boxes online!
Get Gorgeous Girlies Growing!
Posted by Gilly on Thursday 5th November 2009
Want to start growing your own produce but haven’t a clue where to start? The Girl’s Guide To Growing Your Own is the perfect introduction to gardening for the modern busy woman!
This book is a fun, light hearted read for the for the novice or total beginner girlie gardener full of fabulous illustrations and useful hints and tips to cheat your way to a great growing garden! Making the book totally relevant to the modern day there are great recipes- including how to make your own Mojitos!!!
The Girl’s Guide To Growing Your Own is written by Alex Mitchell who has written in her gardening column for The Sunday Telegraph for three years. Snap it up now for anyone who is new to gardening and maybe needs a push in the right direction! Plus if they don’t want to get their nails dirty it’s not a problem- team with the Floreo 370 Garden Gloves to ensure that manicure keeps in perfect condition.
What’s in Your Sandwich? (Stuff it with Some Seedbed Salad!)
Posted by Gilly on Thursday 29th October 2009
On Wednesday 28th October, we watched the “What’s in My Sandwich?” BBC documentary hosted by Jimmy Doherty, unravelling the secrets behind the mass production of supermarket sandwiches!
Whilst we were slightly worried that only 60% of processed cheese is actually cheese we were really impressed by the technology that goes into producing a bag of salad! Seeing the complex process that goes into making a ready-made salad, really made us appreciate the food we take for granted and it’s this process that ensures the 1.5million salad bags going to supermarkets each week are bug free!
And whilst we all know how easy it is to pop to the supermarket to pick up a salad, with our Seedbed Roll it’s easy to grow your own English Summer Salad, producing up to the equivalent of 50 supermarket bags of lettuce! The Seedbed Roll is an all-in-one grow mat, seed and polytunnel developed for commercial growers and now available for the home garden. Contains Lettuce, Red Batavia, Green Batavia, Tango Lettuce and Cos lettuce. Plus no pests, no chemicals, no weeding and it is quick to grow!
With some home grown fresh salad, Mature Cheddar, pickle and a warm loaf you can make your very own tasty (and cheap) cheese ploughman’s lunch. We are certainly going to be ditching our Supermarket sandwiches from now on for a much fresher flavour!
Congratulations Kew Gardens- Bang on Target with the Pink Banana!
Posted by Gilly on Friday 16th October 2009
This week, Kew Gardens hit their target of collecting and preserving 24,200 species of seeds from 10% of the World’s plant species. Kew Gardens met this target 14months ahead of schedule and well within their set budget! The last seeds to be collected were that of the endangered pink banana (Musa itinerans) and they will now join the other seeds collected after 17 years of hard work! Garden Divas would like to say huge congratulations to Kew Gardens for this fantastic achievement in global conservation. We wish them the very best of luck in meeting their 2020 target of collating 25% of world plant species! What a task!!!! The seed bank is not based at Kew Gardens due to a fear of flooding but if you fancy a day out to the Royal Botanical Gardens please visit the website.
At Garden Divas we may not have anything as exotic as pink bananas (by the way did you know they are frequently eaten by Asian elephants) but we do have a few seeds you can grow yourselves! Choose from one of three American Modern Seed Kits- Fragrant Flower, Garden Market and Culinary Herb.
Or if you’re after the perfect English Salad, take advantage of our new Seedbed Roll, an all in one grow mat, seed and polytunnel developed in England for commercial growers and now available in the kitchen garden.
Alternatively you can also plant any seeds of your choice in our brilliant new Sticklebag- a lightweight decorative planter just awaiting your plants!
Fashion Hits the Garden Path!
Posted by Gilly on Wednesday 30th September 2009
Fashion has now official moved from the catwalk onto the garden path!!! Hot on the heels of London Fashion Week we are thrilled to introduce a fashionable new collection to the Garden Divas range of gorgeous gardening goodies.
Wild and Wolf have combined with one of the most influential textile designers in England, Celia Birtwell, to create a new line in the ever popular Pretty Useful Tools range. Celia Birtwell is famed for her gorgeous hand drawn prints, including her inky florals in cream and vibrant Aztec prints. In fact she has even worked on a collection with High Street favourite Topshop. For this new collection of garden accessories she has sourced some of her favourite prints from her own sketch books and archives. All of this work resulted in the launch of the Pretty Woman tools range in collaboration with Wild and Wolf.
Here at Garden Divas we are thrilled to now stock the beautiful products including a new watering can, apron, kneeler and garden tool set. The tools are beautifully packaged in blue and white striped boxes and we predict these Pretty Useful Tools will be as popular as ever for Christmas Garden Gifts!
Try a Taste of Microleaves!
Posted by Gilly on Tuesday 1st September 2009
Today (1st September) may well mark the end of summer but it does not mean there’s any less work to do in the home or garden. As we ladies continue to multitask, we at Garden Divas fully understand the difficulties in dedicating time to keeping healthy, eating properly and growing your own produce! Therefore we’ve just taken delivery of a fabulous new product to try and make life a little easier, meaning you can grow your own super foods with very little effort!
These Microleaves are tiny tonics packed full of nutrients and flavour, are really healthy, and help to make you feel great. They are a new super food to be eaten like cress, using only the first most tender leaves and stems. The great news is these sets come with everything you need including fool proof seed mats in containers perfect for the kitchen window ledge! There is a choice of two selections: - Green containing Celery, Mizuna and Tatsoi or Red-containing Amaranth, Red Basil and Broccoli! Such a simple way of growing your own tasty leaves, and great to be part of the growing new trend of super foods!
Grow your Own...Potatoes!
Posted by Gilly on Tuesday 18th August 2009
As you all know at Garden Divas we always try our best to fully test out our products (what a chore to have such luxurious gardening equipment- it’s a tough job but someone’s got to do it!). So we started a little experiment involving one single lonely potato (variety Picasso) and the Burgon and Ball Potato Planter.
Yes you guessed it- back in April we planted this one potato into the planter using homemade compost and watered it over the last four months to see how well it would grow. This Sunday we decided to see exactly how many potatoes we produced and were thrilled with the results- take a look at the picture below!
Sitting in our very own Bradley’s rose trug, are approximately 10lb of potatoes produced in the single planter. This goes to show that you really can grow your own produce and save some pennies, even if you have very limited garden space.
Of course a large part of the Garden Divas garden is dedicated to vegetable growing so here is a quick snap of all the other home grown veggies we are enjoying at the moment. Happy gardening (and eating)!
Passion for Purple!
Posted by Gilly on Thursday 6th August 2009
One of our favourite colours at Garden Divas is purple and we thought we’d take this opportunity to tell you about the beautiful lavender fields situated near to our head quarters! Hitchin Lavender is situated in the idyllic village of Ickleford, and fields have been farmed there for over 100 years. In fact my daughter stables her horse in the village and loves to hack on the bridleways nearby. The smell is beautiful and the colour is electric! Hitchin Lavender was also recently featured in the Daily Mail so we hope you have read all about them there- if not you can keep up to date with their blog. While you’re there why not visit the new Garden Divas blog and join in with gardening news/ debates and advice- we love to hear from you!.
Of course we love to bring the vibrancy of nature into our products and these fields were the inspiration for our lavender products. In fact we are lucky enough to have our own Lavender Bags specially made in Garden Divas fabric, filled with local Hitchin lavender. Put one under your pillow to aid restful sleep. You could also add a touch of lavender into your home with our Dyson Design Lavender Tea Towel, the Dyson Design Lavender Apron and Lavender Inspired Notelets.
Garden Divas on Display
Posted by Gilly on Tuesday 28th July 2009
As expert shoppers ourselves, we know that everyone loves to shop differently! Of course the full Garden Divas range is available to buy online but if you would like to see the products in person here are a few options for you...
We are thrilled to have a selection of our items for sale, often at greatly reduced prices, at St Ippolyts Village Stores, Waterdell Lane, St Ippolyts, Nr Hitchin, SG4 7RB. Our selection of products there is changed regularly so be sure to frequently drop by to pick up the best gardening bargains! The shop is open daily, just check on their website to see the opening times in detail. Alongside Garden Divas products, you can pick up handmade sandwich rolls and cakes, fresh fruit and vegetables and a local beer from Buntingford Brewery.
Of course if you’d like to view the full range of Garden Divas products you are more than welcome to come and visit us, though please do book an appointment in advance. Just call Gilly on 0845 348 5067/ 07810 816914 or contact us via our website.
Divas Visit Gardeners World Live
Posted by Gilly on Tuesday 16th June 2009
A couple of us headed off to Gardeners World Live at Birmingham NEC this Saturday to enjoy the show with the rest of you lovely Garden Divas! It was a great opportunity for keen gardeners to pick up some new products with a vast array of equipment and items available (although perhaps not as attractive as the items on our own website!!) Plus talented gardeners had recreated part of the new Greenacre garden as featured on the BBC programme. Here are a few snaps for those of you who missed out (look at the beautiful weather- lucky us!).
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We were chuffed to also meet up with The Compost Heap guys, one of our suppliers who design and make the well loved tea towels, aprons and stationery.
They were having a very successful weekend at the event, getting lots of laughs and gaining new admirers!
However not all of us coped so well with the tiring day... as we popped in to pick up a drink we came outside to find one member of our team lying asleep in the sunshine outside the Cafe! We think he needs a bit more practice keeping up with the shopping habits of us Divas!
“Home Allotments” Are a Quick Alternative to a 40 Year Waiting
List!
Posted by Gilly on Wednesday 10th June 2009
Latest research shows that the allotments in areas of London are now demanding a 40 year waiting list to get a patch of land. What’s more throughout the country for every allotment there are 30 people waiting to get hold of one. Investigations have shown that a university student in Camden, London, who registers for a plot on completing their degree should expect it around retirement age!!!!!
This might seem laughable but we are thrilled gardening is so popular! If you are lucky to enough to have your own allotment, why not be the envy of your fellow gardeners and treat yourself to a few of our tools. Gardeners estimate you save approximately £950 a year through growing your own so spoil yourself a little! Plus it’s important to ensure all your produce is labelled correctly so why not use a pack of the following...
 Burgon and Ball Wooden Labels |
 Lolly Plant Labels |
 Wooden Plant Labels |
However if you aren’t lucky enough to have your own plot... do not fear, we have the perfect alternative! Whether you live in a flat, or have a patio, you can still participate in this growing trend... with the Home Allotment range from Burgon and Ball- choose from the Potato Planter, Salad Planter or Vegetable Planter.
To read the related news article in full please click here.
Colour Brightens Us All At Chelsea Flower Show
Posted by Gilly on Tuesday 26th May 2009
During this economic slump, it’s too easy to feel glum but we hope that last week and the recent lovely weather has brightened up your mood! Last Thursday we took a well deserved day off to visit the colourful Chelsea Flower Show. As impressive as always, there was certainly one garden that stood out from the crowd - James May’s Paradise in Plasticine . We loved it as did many others and it caused great amusement (and concern) amongst the crowd as the bust of William Harbutt needed running repairs in the glorious sunshine!
One purpose of the garden was to encourage children to get outside and get gardening and as you know we are a huge supporter of this concept. In fact James even managed to get help from children to make the daffodils whilst pensioners worked on the poppies! If your child has taken an interest, check out our range of tools and accessories to get them fully kitted out! (Photos taken from www.guardian.co.uk)
Garden Divas is in “Style”
Posted by Gilly on Friday 15th May 2009
Just a quick (but exciting) blog this week! We are thrilled that Garden Divas has been launched into the media this month in the most stylish way! Catch us in British Vogue, and see how we have been recommended to make your “Jardin Chic”. And should you be visiting the beautiful Cambridge City centre, be sure to pick up your free copy of “Style” Magazine where you can read all about us in their article on gardening glamour.
To celebrate our success we have launched our own press page so do keep an eye on this in the future to see where you can catch us in the media!
Hertfordshire Garden Show
Posted by Gilly on Friday 7th May 2009
Many
thanks to all of you who visited us at Hertfordshire Garden Show held at
Knebworth House over the weekend. As always we were thrilled to meet you
and it was great to find out what you thought of our new products. We hope
you are all enjoy completing our Famous Gardeners Quiz- remember to post
it back to us by end of the month and then we will reveal the name of the
winner online.
Do come along to our next event (Rose Weekend and Summer Garden Show at Hatfield House, 20 and 21st June) for some more exclusive offers and a selection of new Rose themed products. Below are some of the best sellers from the Herts Garden Show- we hope you are all enjoying using them.
 Camouflage Shop Box |
 Children's Watering Can |
 Ana Wellies |
 Atlas Nitrile Touch Garden Gloves |
Are Gardener’s World Digging Themselves a Hole? (And jumping in
it!)
Posted by Gilly on Friday 24th April 2009
With
Gardener’s World returning to our TV, it seems the programme is still
surrounded by controversy!
In 2008 Gardener’s World found itself at the centre of controversy with viewers questioning the choice of the new presenter Toby Buckland instead of the well known temporary presenter, Carol Klein. Gardener’s World was now at the heart of a row about sexism and ageism, being inundated with viewers messages of complaint about the choice, and support for Carol Klein. For further information, the following Daily Mail article has an interesting interview with Carol.
Now Gardener’s World has returned to our screens with the Spring series, the media has been quick to criticise the programme, the relevance of its content and the compatibility of the presenters. Articles in the Telegraph, and the gardening blog of the Guardian, both show a variety of comments about the programme!
Perhaps the programme needs a little more time to sow its seeds but we
are still really pleased to see the gardening programme back on the BBC.
Here at Garden Divas we are also great fans of the website www.gardenersworld.com and we frequently advertise in the magazine which has great hints and tips
for all types of gardeners. We enjoyed reading the “Flowers or Veg” article
and cannot help but think that Carol, who was championing the beauty, scent
and colour of flowers would love our Bradley’s
Flower Scissors presented in their own leather pouch.
Easter Wash Out Waters Garden Divas’ Willow Planter!
Posted by Gilly on Monday 20th April 2009
Well the Easter break is over and what a wash out it was here!!! Despite
the rain, potatoes were planted along with onion sets, carrots, and lettuce
in the Garden Divas garden. (I am experimenting by planting just one seed
potato into the attractive willow planter using
just compost from the compost bin to see how many new potatoes it will crop – will
let you know in due course).
The cucumbers (Marketmore) and tomatoes (Gardener’s Delight and
Berry F1 ) are all growing strongly in the greenhouse; the courgettes are
up as are the tagetes which will help ward off fly infestation on the roses
in the summer, and I have also set some chilli seeds free with Gardener’s
World magazine, so thank you to them for those!!! The small Haws
watering can has
proved to be perfect for watering delicate seedlings and, as with all Haws
watering cans, looks set to last and last.
The first shoots of asparagus from the garden were enjoyed on Easter Sunday
together with a rather large amount of chocolate so it is a good thing
that there will be lots to do in the garden to work off all those calories!!!
I have to confess though that I managed to bend my favourite Burgon
and Ball hand trowel (unheard of in over 30 years of gardening) which
just goes to prove that you should always use the right tool for the
job and that snowdrop bulbs firmly embedded deep within a bank need something
a little more than a trowel to shift them!!! Oh well I will just have
to choose another - now which colour shall I have?
Garden Divas is Bang on Trend!!
Posted by Gilly on Friday 10th April 2009
Last spring we were hooked on the catwalk and the floral fashions we described in our June Blog entry. Nearly a year lately we’re thrilled to see this trend hit the high street. Many of you may have caught a glimpse of the fashion feature on Tuesday’s This Morning, highlighting the best pieces around.
Here are a few of our favourites, guaranteed to help you step into Spring in style...
In fact we may invest in some of these pieces for our next Garden Divas photo shoot!
We can’t help but think how fabulous this skirt will look with our range of Camouflage Company English Rose Products- so stylish with the cool bag out on a Summer’s picnic.
And do you think Karen Millen has taken inspiration from Wild and Wolf’s V&A tools for this gorgeous dress?
Fashion photos taken from www.asos.com.
Keep “NYUDIES” in Style with Atlas Nitrile Gloves!
Posted by Gilly on Wednesday 1st April 2009
They
say you learn something new every day and I think this may be true! This
week I’ve learnt a new word “NYUDIES” that apparently
refers to the group of new yuppie diggers, all laying claim to an allotment
and growing their own organic veggies.
Whilst some seem to be upsetting the old score of allotment holders, Garden Divas is only too pleased to hear of anyone getting down to gardening.
To protect hands not used to
the rigours of digging and planting, the Atlas
Nitrile Touch Gloves are
a must, and if you’re needing a little guidance as to what to sow
and grow why not read First Time Gardener by celebrity gardener Kim Wilde
for some sound advice.
Plus if you are really getting into the swing of it all, try our useful Gardener’s Organiser, where you can make endless notes of everything you have achieved this year.
Join Obama and Grow Some Vegetables with our Home Allotment Planters!
Posted by Gilly on Wednesday 1st April 2009
With President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle visiting England for
the first time this week it was great to read that the First Lady has reportedly
set aside 1,100 sq ft of the White House lawn to dig up and grow vegetables – 55
varieties in fact!!
Not many of us have access to this much land, nor the time (and help I suspect) however, but Garden Divas is really keen that all of us should have the ability to grow a few edible items and the Home Allotment Potato Planter and Salad Planter are now in stock and are just perfect where space is limited.
With Easter fast approaching, it’s the perfect
time for planting so why not make use of our special offer of an introductory
10% off these two items. Plant them up, keep them watered and then sit back
and look forward to better days, a fresh steak from the barbeque with your
own home grown new potatoes and salad – perfect!
Garden Divas Supports Fair Trade
Posted by Gilly on Tuesday 24th March 2009
Always
keen to promote ethical business, we are thrilled to now stock some Fair
Trade products at Garden Divas. The suppliers of our new soaps and candles “focus
on trading with marginalized villagers, helping them develop skills, and
sustainable livelihoods”. This work creates
opportunity for individuals to build on their skills and expand their artistic
vision, whilst building long term relationships. These beautiful products
are ideal to help all Divas relax and unwind after a long day in the garden.
Take a bath and wash off the soil with these soap stones, whilst creating a calming atmosphere by lighting some cup cake rose candles.
Of course when you are not putting these products to good use, they would
look striking in your home. All of our Fair Trade products are under £10.00
so this is a great opportunity to get a gorgeous individual gift and support
ethical business.
Children’s Garden Tool Set for “Little Green Fingers”
Posted by Gilly on Friday 6th March 2009
The sun is trying hard to make an appearance and we’re eager to get back in the garden. This year, why not take the opportunity to get your children into gardening as well. Children love to help their Mums and would enjoy pottering around outside with their very own garden tools!
It seems we are not the only one’s realising the benefits of getting youngsters into the garden. N Power is running a fabulous competition for schools, with the support of ex Blue Peter presenter, Zoe Salmon. The aim of the competition is to get 4-7 year olds into the garden and learn about the potential of renewable energy. For further information please look at the competition website, or have a read of this article.
We
believe in starting young so if you know a green fingered little one from
the age of 3, we have just launched some fantastic new children’s
products.
Our favourites are the bright and beautiful set of safe garden tools, only £9.95 for a set of four.
To help water your plant pots, girls and boys are sure to love their very
own watering can,
available in pink or blue.
Plus this set of handy pots will make sure they are entertained whilst you get on with your own planting, also in a set of four.
