Gardeners' World Live 2024: Win a pair of tickets for Sunday 16 June, plus discount code

The competition has now closed, thank you to everyone who entered.

The discount code GARDENS15 is available to use until it expires at 23:59 on 6 June 2024 - for full details see the ‘Use my discount code’ section in this post.

Once again I’m happy to pair up with the team at BBC Gardeners’ World Live for this competition where you can enter to win a pair of standard adult tickets to BBC Gardeners’ World Live at Birmingham NEC. The tickets offered as the prize for this competition are valid for Sunday 16 June, 9am entry with a RRP of £56.00. For details of how to enter please see the ‘How to enter’ section further on in this post. I also have a discount code which you can use when purchasing tickets, the code is shown in the ‘Use my discount code’ section also further on in this post.

As you know I love going to Gardeners’ World Live so it’s great to be able my readers the opportunity to go too. Below I’ve included what you can see at this year’s show, but if you want to see more from my visits to previous year’s shows then be sure to take a look at my posts - and come back here after the show, as I’ll be adding to that collection of articles.

What to see at this year’s show

  • BBC Gardeners’ World presenter Adam Frost’s headline Show Garden, The Chef’s Table - a large walk-through garden full of vibrant home-grown produce, a rustic outdoor cooking and eating space. Adam will also host a daily programme of ‘plot-to-plate’ themed conversations and demos with chefs from the BBC Good Food Show including James Martin and Michel Roux.

  • New for this year, and designed to inspire town and city dwellers is the Urban Gardening space, sponsored by Blue Diamond Garden Centre group - expect to see ideas, plants and products for creative containers, brilliant balconies and wonderful window boxes.

  • On the Urban Gardening Stage Ade Sellars (aka The Good Life Gardener) will host daily sessions with a line-up of expert urban gardeners, and there’ll be a Showcase Garden showdown between the UK’s top young landscaping teams with both teams competing to build the perfect city garden designed by Cherry Carmen.

  • The show is also the new home for the British Orchid Council’s annual International Orchid Show which will surely be the highlight of the Floral Marquee with displays by more than 20 specialist orchid growers and societies.

  • Also in the Floral Marquee will be an expanded Hot Off The Potting Bench where you can see brand new plants and varieties close up. There will be Plant Expert Workshops and the Plant Expert advice desk, or you can soak up the floral advice from BBC Gardeners’ World presenters, plant specialists and special guests on the Let’s Talk Plants stage.

  • Another new addition for this year is the Get Growing Stage - an informal, drop in space dedicated to the joy of home growing, as well as a daily programme of top tips and growing advice and alfresco cooking demonstrations.

  • The highlights of the show for me are always the Show Gardens and this year they will be showcasing back garden designs inspired by the theme ‘The Good Life’. The Showcase and Feature Gardens are always a place to pick up ideas and inspirations for gardens sized more similarly to our own gardens, and the Beautiful Borders really are just beautiful and show how much can be done with a small space - their theme this year is ‘Share my Space’.

  • You can catch up with the presenters from Gardeners’ Wold at the BBC Gardeners’ World Live Theatre who will be ‘in conversation’ with Nicki Chapman and swapping summer garden tips with the BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine editors.

  • If you’re a keen indoor gardener then head for the House Plant Hub, which also includes a House Plant Market and Stage.

  • There’s plants for sale too in the Floral Marquee, Plant Village, House Plant Market and new Urban Gardens zone, so make sure you have plenty of scope to carry your plants home!

  • And the Health for Life Wheelbarrow Competition also returns, where children from local schools and nurseries create wheelbarrow planters with a ‘food and climate change’ theme which visitors can vote on.

  • And finally, your tickets also include entry to the BBC Good Food Show Summer with demonstrations, theatres, stages and talks, book signing, tastings and workshops, street food and plenty of food and drink to taste and buy.

Phew. It’s a great day, but one that’s often full on - so make sure you’re ready for it. I love it!

How to enter

To enter to win a pair of standard adult tickets valid for Sunday 16 June 9am entry, you need to leave a comment on this blog post telling me why you want to attend Gardeners’ World Live, then click on the widget below and complete your entry - you can get more entries by interacting on social media.

A winner will be chosen and contacted by email on Wednesday 15 May.

Use my discount code

Use the discount code* GARDENS20 for 20% off standard adult/concession entry tickets (excluding Saturday) - this code expires on 9 May 2024. From 10 May use the discount code* GARDENS15 for 15% off standard adult/concession entry tickets (excluding Saturday) - this code expires 6 June 2024.

*Discounts valid on adult/concession standard entry tickets on Sunday 16 June only. Not valid on Saturday, VIP, 2-day tickets, added extras or with any other offer. 20% discount offer starts on 1 February and ends at 23:59 on 9 May 2024, 15% discount offer starts on 10 May and ends at 23:59 on 6 June 2024. £3.95 transaction fee per e-ticket order. Details correct at time of publication.

The Path of Renewal

* I was invited to the press preview for and provided with a pair of tickets to Gardeners’ World Live so I’m marking posts from the show as 'Ad’ - as usual my views and opinions are very much my own. Be sure to check out all of my posts from the show.

One of my favourite show gardens was this one designed by David Negus which had the main aim of ‘challenging people’s perspectives on materials’ as well as to ‘inspire them to see the potential for reuse and repurposing by showcasing the beauty and benefits of reusing items’. The garden does indeed provide a visually stunning backdrop for the plants - as planned - but also provides spaces for wildlife too.

Scaffold planks stacked horizontally and vertically to provide structure to the edge of the seating area - the seat itself looks like an old radiator on top of scaffold poles.  Sleepers are used to frame the decking area h

For me it was this scaffold plank structure that caught my eye as a clever way of adding something that would give height and structure throughout the year. I loved the detail of turning some planks vertical provided a nook for all sorts of paraphernalia, but mostly because every garden needs somewhere to put your cuppa, doesn’t it?

I’ll admit though I was less keen about it being full of bugs and spiders, though I can see their attraction in such a space!

Wooden uprights of varying heights in the foreground, the borders and decking are behind

What this garden did help highlight for me is that gardens need height. And that doesn’t always need to come from plants. While we won’t be adding anything as near as grand as the scaffold plank shelving to our garden, I think we will be adding something with height - partly for privacy, but also for interest. These simple uprights above show it doesn’t have to be something elaborate, which is food for thought indeed.

A red workman's stop sign bottom right, the light stone path above edges the beds edged with sleepers and iron railway parts

The STOP sign made me smile, as I’m also quite partial to a sign in my garden - though my ‘pool’ sign hasn’t yet found itself a new home here, yet!

A wider angle of the same garden showing the paths, borders and decking area - with the scaffold plank structure in the background

It still blows my mind at how much is achieved by those that build these gardens in such a short space of time, and how ‘at home’ every garden looks too. And then after the show, it’s taken away again though often the gardens find new homes in alternative locations, so very little is wasted.

It’s bonkers though when you think of it like that, but I’m actually glad that it happens and that I’ve been fortunate enough to see many inspirational gardens like this one first-hand.

* With thanks to Gardeners’ World for inviting me to Gardeners’ World Live, it was as fabulous as ever!

The Newson Health Menopause Garden

* I was invited to the press preview for and provided with a pair of tickets to Gardeners’ World Live so I’m marking posts from the show as 'Ad’ - as usual my views and opinions are very much my own. Be sure to check out all of my posts from the show.

This garden was to empower visitors to the garden to feel empowered to start conversations about their health, and get inclusive and accessible perimenopause and menopause support. And you may automatically assume it’s a space for women, but as Dr Louise Newson said at the Best in Show Awards, which took place after the press preview, menopause is something which directly affects 51% of the population, and 49% of the population indirectly.

Entering the garden encouraged in by log piles stacked to form a curve

She also said while she is a menopause expert she wasn’t a gardener, but had worked with Ruth Gwynn who was an extremely talented garden designer as evidenced by these photos.

The garden is designed to be a place to relax and reflects ways of relieving symptoms of the menopause, and importantly it is also affordable and achievable, and can be done without overwhelm.

Two wooden rocking chairs painted grey set on gravel in front of the border

The plants were selected to create a visually enriching yet calm atmosphere, and during the show it held talks around relaxation, yoga and nutrition as well as having clinicians and experts on hand with information and advice for those visiting.

Stacked logs acting as both a border edging and bug hotel, in front gravel and baskets of logs, behind a colourful flowering wild border

The show stopper for this garden was the standalone bath tub with the scented rose bush behind. It was especially appealing on the very warm afternoon we visited, and we weren’t the only ones eyeing it up!

The whole space was incredibly calming, and it was great to see this space at the press preview as I’m sure it would have been a really popular garden at the show. It was also a great way to further raise the awareness of this subject in a non-controversial, practical and inclusive way. It was also a very worthy winner of its platinum and Best Show Garden awards.

* With thanks to Gardeners’ World for inviting me to Gardeners’ World Live, it was as fabulous as ever!