As part of HortWeek's Parks & Gardens Week held 23 - 29 March 2026, Rachael Forsyth held a Horticulture Question Time session to answer reader questions with a truly expert panel which featured:

Jane Moore - award-winning writer and author and a head gardener for more than 30 years

Joe Whitehead - head gardener at Burghley House and new Professional Gardeners Guild chair, with more than 20 years of expertise in garden design, plant care, and landscape management

FIND MORE PARKS & GARDENS WEEK CONTENT HERE

The Questions

00:02:24 What are the biggest issues you are seeing from drought and excess rain and how can this be managed?

00:11:35 What can I do about brown lawns?

00:14:04 How can I communicate what we are doing to mitigate climate change in my park or garden?

00:19:19 How can I bring nature back into the garden when I need to maintain a formal, tidy or neat-looking garden?

00:28:55 What is the one piece of tech that has made your life easier?

00:31:14 How can I work my way up to a head gardener position?

00:33:58 What kind of park/garden events have you found to be most successful?

00:36:12 What plants can you suggest for adding winter interest into a garden?

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What did the Space-Comm Expo conference and exhibition tell us about connecting space and wider business? How does this manifest as tech connectivity in telecoms and why do farmers care about that? What did we learn about the benefits of extreme cold in manufacturing laboratories and why do pharmas care about that? How vulnerable are global logistics to the spoofing of navigation signals? And why is the UK government centralising space strategy in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology?

Join Alice and Jonners as they reflect on the UK space sector’s largest trade event and the “energy, diversity and …sheer scope of what this industry has to offer”.

Contributors:

Alice Bunn, President of UKspace

Dr Alice Bunn OBE FIMechE FRAeS CEng | LinkedIn

UKspace: Overview | LinkedIn

Jonathan Daves, The Karman Line

Jonathan Daves | LinkedIn

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Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-k%C3%A1rm%C3%A1n-line/id1876605462

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3qED4CgdRDxfKKzYNKZCIH?si=lZ-I4a19SPGLAJL-dHi4DQ

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheKármánLineUK

Key topics covered:

Space-Comm Expo, London, March 2026

Conference overview

Sector integration

Insurance

Customer utility

Government role

Future outlook

Technological advancements

· Telecoms

· Manufacturing

Defence and security

· Satellite capabilities

· Current threats

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GIMA director Vicky Nuttall retires from the role this spring after 12 years in the role.

GIMA's annual big day conference event on 26 March is about future of the supply chain and will include panels on sales agents versus employed staff, logistics, marketplace and Yorkshire Garden Centres' Mark Farnsworth.

Talking to Matt Appleby on the HortWeek Podcast, Nuttall says the biggest changes at GIMA since she started there 12 years ago include GIMA taking on the Garden Press Event in 2016 and Nuttall says she was really pleased to add the event, alongside the HTA, to its offer.

Covid in 2020 saw trade associations "come to the fore" and GIMA joining the CBI in 2019 proved to be a good decision as they were close to Government. Bringing trade associations closer together and growing the membership, helped by Tony Kersey (ex-Homebase), has helped that.

She says she seeks influencers online, and "they find us" and they generate content from the Garden Press Event. She added that GIMA manages who comes through the door so only people who are trying to make a living get in.

GIMA has taken on some members from the defunct Gardenex export organisation and will manage their international lounge at Glee in September.

There's uncertainty about the weather so far in 2026 from retailers, after a good Christmas, Nuttall observes: "Everything is in place for a good 2026 season. But the most important factor is the weather."

She adds: "It's tough out there for some of the smaller businesses...that might be a reflection of what some of the more established brands are doing."

The biggest challenges looking ahead include increased employment taxes, regulations such as EPR packaging bills eat away at margins and some smaller garden centres are coming to the point where they think they canlt be boithered and we are seeing consildiation, as well as some in the supply side. She advises using professionals to monitor reporting of EPR.

"It's tough for smaller or single product suppliers to get a "foot in the door". There are fewer buying points and buying groups and chains are getting stronger and some bigger suppliers are getting "more dominant".

Marketplace retailing gives more opportunity but has a knock-on effect for the retail landscape, especially for DIY and High Street stores.

In terms of trends, "accessible and easy" wellness and well-being hobbies than gardening are getting more popular, she says.

Nuttall says the organisation is well-placed placed for the future.

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