As you all know I run my own gardening gift company designing products for the UK and Europe, this means that I receive every catalogue for every new gardening product on sale to the buyers of garden centres. So I thought I would share with you all this week the trends, designs and new products that may or may not be wowing you this summer in your local shops.  Companies are continually innovating and in this financial climate, products have to work even harder for your money. So here is my pick of the most innovative.

The garden is now becoming your outdoor living room, this now seen by designers is something you can accessorize and enjoy all year round. As with your home, outdoor audio is very much a trend this year, outdoor wireless speakers, floating waterproof speakers are all solar powered and designed to play music via your iPod, phone, mp3 or other multimedia device.  Lighting again is a trend that seems to have taken off, solar panelled designs with mirrors and floating bubbles extend your time spent in your garden and up light your trees and shrubs. As with your home gardens now have pictures to hang on fence panels that are water resistant and give you all round interest, so if you couldn’t recreate the planting scheme from Chatsworth in your borders you can now have it hung up on your fence. Baubles, ornaments and Globes are now seen interplanted in our pots with our bedding to give extra colour and design to our gardens. Tree ornaments are again popular with the designers and can give you sound and movement in the garden.  However all these products are great but in Great Britain with a maritime climate we are very cold and wet so outdoor living does need two constants if we are going to maximise our space, heat and shelter from the wind and rain.  So the clever product designers have taken the designs from ships and produced large sails we can suspend over our area to protect us, these sails come in a variety of sizes and shapes and colours. Heat now can be found from our stoves, chimeras, patio heaters (wood) and fire baskets; these ensure that we do not need us to dress like polar explorers to enjoy our garden in the winter. Ponds are now aqua creations, and ornaments are mesmerising optical illusions that will captivate you, (honestly) so hold on to your seats 2012  in your garden will be stunning Enjoy

One of my joys of gardening is that I can share it with you, I find great pleasure in discussing my triumphs and failures throughout the year. I feel there is great satisfaction than being able to give away an admired plant of snipping a cutting or two to friends, so in this blog I will share my years experience in my gardening and hopefully you will get as much pleasure out of gardening in the next months as I have!

Last winter I was a little complacent with the extreme cold temperatures , I didn’t protect my Acers, Myrtle, Witch Hazel, Victoria Plum, sadly these all did not return in 2011. So this winter I will protect my tender shrubs and trees and wrap them with some horticultural fleece, tied with string.  My Winter Vegetable GroBox is already producing small broad bean flowers and pea flowers, I am going to cover with fleece though and protect from keel slugs and mice as they are really hungry this time of year. Here is a list of a few jobs I will be doing in the garden this winter.

Kitchen Garden

Protect Veg. GroBox Cabbages with netting, lift parsnips and carrots, Winter prune (lightly) bush apples and pears, Plant fruit trees, Order and plant bare rooted trees and shrubs, Remove weeds and Compost, Plant Rhubarb, Choose Veg patch for 2012, cover with plastic for early crops.

Flower Garden

Sweep fallen leaves and compost, Winter prune shrubs, Plant your favourite trees and shrubs (look at colourful leaf (red) varieties) Brush Snow off trees and shrubs, protect tender trees shrubs and plants with fleece. Take hardwood cuttings, cut under a bud or leaf and insert in the soil. 

Enjoy