For a great day out for garden lovers, you could treat them to a day at the RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2025 ( (Malvern, Worcestershire).  

It takes place from the 8^th to the 11^th May 2025.

There's a Festival of Houseplants, with indoor plant gardens.  More and more people are looking to bring nature indoors, and houseplants are a great way to do it!

Delve into the Indoor Plant Gardens - bring nature indoors!
The Festival of Houseplants is hosting eight indoor gardens, 
designed with different perspectives and purposes in mind. 
Find out more here - there are tips from the designers.

There's a Dog Day on the last day of the festival (Sunday 11^th May).  Well-behaved dogs on short, fixed leads can enjoy the Festival with their owners on this last day but you need a ticket.  There are a limited number of ‘dog tickets’ you can book in advance.  (Assistance dogs don’t need a ticket.) 

There’s lots of food and drink on offer around the showground, and there are plenty of kids’ activities as well!

Everything you need to plan your visit can be found here.

Find out more and get tickets here. 

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show is drawing closer!  The Show runs from the 20^th to the 24^th May, the Tuesday and Wednesday being Members’ Days. 

I’m watching the BBC’s Gardener’s World as I type this, and am very excited about the news of the garden Monty Don is creating (aided by his gorgeous golden retriever, Ned) the RHS and BBC Radio 2 Dog Garden!

The idea is to ensure that dogs are integral to the design.   Ned helped Monty design the paths that intersect through the planting.  As you can imagine, golden retriever Ned just followed his nose – and that forged the routes to be copied at the Show!

Monty is creating the garden with a team at Form Plants, led by Jamie Butterworth, who is a plant expert and horticulturalist.  After the Show, the garden is heading to Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, where the animals can enjoy it! 

Read the five tips for creating a dog friendly garden from the RHS and Battersea here

The hope is that the RHS & BBC Radio 2 Dog Garden will encourage dog owners to create green spaces for both owners and pets. 

The RHS and Battersea have got 5 top tips for creating a dog-friendly garden which you can read here.   They include fencing off anything which could be toxic to your dogs and the article has information about that.  

Woof for now!

Dig here for more information about the garden Ned has had a paw in designing.

Please note that for entry to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, the RHS website says, "Only guide and assistance dogs can be admitted, no pet animals. Please do not leave dogs unattended in parked cars."

Why not treat your loved one to a day out at an RHS Flower Show? 

There are a number of these throughout the year, including a new one, the RHS Flower Show Wentworth Woodhouse in South Yorkshire from the 16th to 20th July.   Find out about the RHS Flower Shows here.  

Well, May is just round the corner and for garden enthusiasts that means No Mow May is on its way from the plant charity Plantlife, who are asking us all not to mow our lawns.

No Mow May is all about giving Power to the Flowers, and letting your lawn (or at least some of it) grow.   Why?  Plantlife say that about 97% of flower-rich meadows have been lost since the 1930s, and that means that vital food and habitat needed by wildlife has gone as well.  Wildlife need things like clover, knapweed and long grass to help themsurvive and thrive. 

So they are asking us all not to mow our lawns with a campaign called #NoMowMay.  Different flowers give different resources for different wildlife,  so it’s good to have a variety.  Leave a mix of grass lengths in your lawn and help nature!  You can find out about it here – if we had a sprinkling of longer lawns across the UK, that would really help nature.   Watch for #NoMowMay  on social media!  And then follow on with Let it Bloom June!  Plantlife have lots of help and advice for your garden lawns to help nature and wildlife. 

Take a look at Plantlife's You Tube Channel

We’ve decided not to mow some of our lawn – we haven’t got a big one, but flowers are starting to appear on it, and they look very pretty!   Plantlife has advice on how to increase the number of wildflowers in your lawn, and they’ve got a guide to a nature friendly lawn too!

Dig here for more information.

And if you’re looking for a gift for a plant lover, you could think about giving your loved one a Membership to Plantlife or adopting a reserve, a flower, lichen or fungus, an acre, or a veteran tree.  They've also got very pretty sustainable bags.  Find out more here.

It can be really difficult to come up with gifts that are a bit different.  Those fabulous people at Paper High have had some new gifts in recently and I wanted to share some of them with you!

How about this duck?  Introducing from Paper High, Janhvi,
the Small Quacking Duck Wire Garden Ornament.
For £26.95

~
Or how about this Multicoloured Jute and Cotton Oval Rag Rug
from Paper High?   For £44.95

For people who love writing in a journal,
Paper High have this Large Sari Fabric Journal 
for £16.95. 
There are different colours to choose from, 
and they could be used as a diary, travel journal, sketchbook or simply for to do lists!

How about a Vaani Multicoloured Saddle Crossbody Bag from Paper High:


These are handcrafted from recycled leather.
Designs are a patchwork of bright colours,
stylish patterns and animal prints.  For £64.95
 

Paper High's products are unusual, eco-friendly products carefully crafted by artisans in India, Sri Lanka and Nepal.  The products on their site are handmade from recycled and sustainable materials.  What's more, purchases made on the Paper High website supports Fair Trade artisans in Sri Lanka, India and Nepal AND it helpls fund the planting of 200 trees a month!  

They work with Tree Nation, who are on a mission to reforest the world.  Every month, Paper High plants 200 trees wherever they are needed most, be it Africa, America, Asia or Europe.  Tree Nation's efforts help to  restore forests and protect biodiversity, to create jobs and support local communities.  

And if you leave a review on Feefo, it will help Paper High fund the planting of 50 trees a month with Treefo/Ecologi.  Find out all about it here. 

And - there's a special offer! Enjoy 12.5% off ** with Paper High until 31.7.25 with the code GIVINGGIFTS  

Visit Paper High here

If you didn't buy a calendar at the start of this year - or a diary, or a planner - and you wish you had, then now could be a very good time to do it.

The CalendarClub.co.uk have got 50% off on their 2025 calendars, diaries and planners, and they have a HUGE range of them covering all sorts of interests and passions for all ages.

From lovers of cats and dogs to cars and gardens, they've got something to help you make the most of 2025.  

It's a good time to review what you want to do this year - are there things you want to achieve, or have a go at, or discover or learn?  What sort of year do you want to look back on?  What memories do you want to have?  Who do you want to spend more time with?  Who or what cause do you want to make a difference to?  What milestones do you want to achieve?   

In the old days New Years Resolutions were all the rage, and it was the thing everyone asked everyone else going into the New Year.   "Did you have a good Christmas and New Year?" was normally the first question, and then "So what New Years' Resolutions have you got, then?" followed up.  

Calendars can help you mark things like appointments, birthdays, anniversaries, the start and end of term, holidays and so on.  But they, along with planners and diaries, can often help you determine your goals for the month/week/even the day to help you stay on track.  

 
You may find yourself saying, "well, it's too late now to start a calendar, or diary".   I've bought diaries before a few months into the year, and actually I used the first few months to both recapture (where I could) what I'd done so far, and also to write down my thoughts and hopes for the remaining months of the year.

The thing is, it's never too late to start!  Even if you didn't have any goals or things you wanted to do this year at the start, you can always make a start this afternoon, or this evening, or tomorrow morning and consider that your new start to the year.

With everything that's going on in the world, it's nice to have something we can try to achieve which is outside the reach of our leaders and to set out our plan to make that happen.  It gives you a sense of control, and something to aim at.  Calendars, diaries and planners can help give you structure.  I want to improve my drawing skills this year, so I'm finding ways to do this and just jotting down all the various ways I'm doing it. (The animals I'm drawing are actually starting to vaguely resemble the animals they are supposed to be!)  I want to have more memories to look back on and experiences to discover, even if they are local to me.  I want to make a difference to the animal kingdom.  I'm using my diary to make that happen and record what I've done.

Take a look at the CalendarClub's sale here to see what they've got to help you make the most of 2025 - and don't forget there's 50% off 2025 calendars, diaries and planners!