So on the site, what will be there? What can they expect to see?

Yeah, so there will be lots and lots of plants, specialist nurseries.

So if you really have a hankering for exotics, for tropicals, for hydrangeas, for roses, for carnivorous plants, for houseplants, whatever you really want to get involved in heavily, there'll be a nursery there supplying those plants.

Which is wonderful.

You've got the wonderful inspiring bedding schemes that the Audley End garden team have put together.

They look stunning.

You've also got the kitchen garden tours.

It never stops the gardening year, does it?

... you can do a lot with that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Exactly.

So, you know, loads of people rent, um, or just have a sort of like the temporary mindset of maybe their career progresses, they're not gonna be there too long.

So we were like, "Okay, let's, let's, you know, embrace that." Especially with the Make a Meter Matter campaign, where you're thinking about such a small space, it just seemed to make sense.

So we've got a, um, a three meters of our border, which we devoted to three different types of city dweller.

Amazing

love it so much?

Because it calms me.

Oh, sorry.

It calms me down so much.

Life is so chaotic, you know, and we all have the pressures of life.

And I've found that for me, gardening, I can't now be without it.

I love doing it as a profession.

I'll just squeeze them, nice.

Quite literally the same barbecue I've got at home.

Well, I tell you what, word to the wise, uh, we both, we discussed this before we started recording, the egg shaped barbecues, the ceramic ones, and they are quite pricey, but Lidl [laughs] do one for 80 pounds.

Um, so, uh, Richard and I both saw that opportunity, and you've got one at home.

I've got one at the show garden.

I might well take it home 'cause they're stunning.

Um, but this is someone who, again, very small space, but they want to entertain.

They want to have parties.

Yeah.

Um, but tell me about the concept for how you have used your space.

Yes, of course.

So this, as you say, is a campaign that's been running for a few years now and, um, I was asked to produce a site that has a, a grow-your-own theme to it because that is my love.

I love growing fruit and veg and herbs.

So we have there a horseshoe shape of nine square meters and, um, what we're trying to showcase at the NEC show, m- very- being very mindful that it's a more of a city-based show than, say, Beaulieu or, or the End, are ideas that people can literally take away with them and that...

W- With the feedback of the garden that I've been standing there and listening to, that, that has worked.

It's been so lovely that people have got the idea.

... which, which creates a, a, a clumsy way of putting it, but a reality for them, doesn't it? It comes out of the ground, you can cook it and eat it.

But as you mentioned, to try and pack it into that meter square, what sort of things are you growing, are you looking at inspiring us with?

Yeah, I had a bit of a brainstorm back in the, the depths of winter and came up with some themes.

And at the Beaulieu gardens at the spring fair, we had an area of herbs.

We took up three square meters with herbs, but we divided them into three zones, so each of those was a square meter.

So we had culinary herbs.

Th- that's the, the backbone of the, of the herb garden.

But then we also have herbs that could be quite calming.

If you could create your own, what would you include in it?

[laughs]

Um, and I've had, uh, marvelous support from, uh, New Milton Hedgehog Rescue Team, he- headed by Shirley.

Shirley has been my savior.

As soon as I spoke to Shirley on the phone, she got what I was trying to do, and she gathered a team of people, um, who are volunteers to look after and rescue hedgehogs and build them up till they're healthy and a good enough weight to be released back into the wild.

And so they've had people sign up and, um, wanting to be hedgehog rescuers in the local area through being at the show.

So they're really happy about being here.

And all the materials for the, for the hedgehog nest are leaves that have come from a customer's garden.

but it was delicious.