BBC Gardeners World Live

Well the 2013 BBC Gardeners World Live show is revving up just around the corner, and I for one can't wait! In the area the weekly sunny day count has risen, and the forecast is good for another sizzling show full of botanical beauty. Indeed, as the title proudly states, the Royal Horticultural Society Flower Show Birmingham returns, and as I type I'm also keeping tabs on the construction of the @The_RHS Plant Village - it's our own Chelsea folks!

If you've not visited before you could be in for a very pleasant surprise. Gardeners World Live is one of those events where you can expect to see celebrity gardening people, and not on a lofty stage but down at eye level; engaging with their people. Yes there's a lot of product endorsing, a lot of glitz, and a fair amount of glamour, but there's also a good deal of horticultural excellence and down to earth tips and advice that can be really useful to us in our home gardens.

Gardeners World Live is twenty one this year, as Darmuid Gavin quotes, who'll be returning to add a touch of celebrity to the event. Additionally, amongst many others; Gardeners World regulars Monty Don and Carol Klein will be there and are sure to draw a crowd with their honest and engaging approach to gardening. I feel these gardeners, along with the likes of Toby Buckland, who will also be at the show, really do make gardening understandable and achievable.

There will be the pre-requisite RHS Plant Village along with a host of demonstration areas including The Kitchen Garden, where gardening experts and chefs from the BBC Good Food Show will take us from Plot to Plate. My area of focus and fascination, as ever, will of course be the RHS Show Gardens, where year after year designers return with new ideas to keep our gardens fresh and inspiring. I'll be personally looking to see which gardens have been created with environmental conservation in mind, as this is a topic of huge importance to many professional and amateur gardeners alike - it may be a garden show, but have the gardens been sustainably created? We'll see won't we!

Putting the glamour aside for a second, I know that for many suppliers BBC Gardeners World Live offers not only a platform from which they can sell their wares, but also a point where they can engage and meet with new customers like you and I; who visit the show to see all their favourite suppliers in one place. Like other Royal Horticultural Society shows on the gardening agenda, for exhibitors they can be marathon like in the effort required. Just imagine bringing huge stocks of plants to perfection over many months, transporting them, displaying, promoting and selling them; long day after long day. For some nurseries it can be their one and only show of the season, especially due to the shear effort required to attend, so I hope you'll join me in celebrating the effort and occasion that is BBC Gardeners World Live: Five days of Live Gardening!



I shall be at the show on day one, the 12th June, and engaging with the show thereafter, so if you find yourself there please tweet a photo or three to @GARYWEBB1, and remember to copy in @BBCGWLive and or @The_RHS!