The Underground

The garden industry has made progress in recent years, but how much has really changed? Recorded live at Glee 2026, Kate Turner is joined by freelance marketing consultant Angie Lloyd and Jayne Hickling, The Allotment Cook, for a candid conversation about women in horticulture, career opportunities and the value we place on industry knowledge and experience. From the difference between genuine car...

Can garden centres embrace automation without losing the personal touch that customers value? Recorded live at Glee 2026, Phil Wright is joined by Paul Pleydell (Pleydell Smithyman), Johnny Critchley-Salmonson (Scotsdales), Helen Lloyd (Stratford Garden Centre) and Justin Williams (Fron Goch Garden Centre) to explore how technology is changing garden centre catering. From QR-code ordering and self...

After 43 years in business, Alan Roper believes the trading environment has fundamentally changed. The tailwinds that once helped retailers grow have disappeared, and he doesn't expect them to return any time soon. But Blue Diamond Garden Centres isn't standing still. Recorded live at Glee, Alan begins with a frank assessment of the challenges facing garden centre businesses before joining...

Peat-free compost has come a long way, so why is the industry still struggling to move forward? Recorded live at Glee, Phil and Kate are joined by Dan Durston and Simon Blackhurst from Durstons to explore the commercial pressures, quality challenges and consumer perceptions shaping the future of growing media. With retailers still pushing for low-price compost, are manufacturers being forced to co...

Where could profit be hiding in the everyday workings of your garden centre? For Josh Novell, a sandwich arriving 10–15 minutes before his coffee prompted a closer look at how Polhill’s restaurant operated. That led to a wider examination of the processes, buying decisions and business habits that affect both profitability and the customer experience. Recorded live on stage at Glee 2026, this epis...

What does the next generation of garden customers actually want from us? Recorded at Glee 2026, Kate Turner is joined by Natalie Boynton, Sales Director at Happy Plants, and Ed Hill, Managing Director of The Horti House, for a conversation about a customer who may look very different from the traditional green-fingered gardener. Natalie introduces the idea of the affectionate “plonker”: someone wh...

What happens when growing your own food becomes about much more than what ends up on the plate? Recorded live on stage at Glee, Phil Wright and Kate Turner are joined by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, chef, broadcaster, author, campaigner and the man behind River Cottage. Hugh takes us back to the childhood experience that first sparked his fascination with growing, and explains how that relationshi...

Whenever Michael Perry joins The Underground, the conversation is unlikely to follow a predictable path. Recorded at Glee 2026, this relaxed and wide-ranging chat sees Michael join Phil Wright and Kate Turner to discuss what could come next for Gardeners’ World, whether gardening television needs to become more commercially aware and why different parts of the sector need to understand the audienc...

Gemma Haigh’s route into horticulture hasn’t exactly been conventional. After starting her career in museums and heritage, she turned a lifelong love of plants into The Plant Parlour, working across houseplants, content creation, design and interior landscaping. She also created a Houseplant Studio for the 2024 RHS Chelsea Flower Show, inspired, perhaps unexpectedly, by the post-apocalyptic world...

Glee is one of the biggest dates in the garden industry calendar. It’s also three very long days of walking, talking, networking, discovering new products and trying to remember who said what by the time you get home. So, ahead of Glee 2026, we’ve delved back into Season 1 of The Underground and brought together some of the best Glee survival advice from our guests. And between them, they’ve clock...

With Glee just a month away, we’re heading back to Birmingham, as well as the conversations we recorded there last year. At Glee 2025, we asked every guest who joined us one simple question: What’s one change you’d love to see in the garden sector over the next five years? The answers gave us a fascinating snapshot of where the industry thought change was needed. We heard calls for more young peop...

From a four-acre smallholding growing strawberries and potatoes to three award-winning garden centres, Perrywood’s story is one of family, plants and steady growth. In this episode, Phil and Kate talk to Hannah Powell, HR and Communications Director at Perrywood Garden Centres, about how the business has expanded without losing the values that shaped it. Hannah explains why plants remain at the he...

This week, the tables are turned as Kate interviews The Underground co-host Phil Wright, co-founder of creative marketing agency WrightObara. Phil recently wrote an in-depth article exploring how people choose one product over another. In this conversation, he explains why those decisions are rarely driven by facts, features and price alone — and why good creative marketing needs to do more than s...

Garden writer and horticultural lecturer Ross Pearson joins Phil and Kate to talk about his ambitious Dig for Victory allotment project and what wartime growing advice can still teach gardeners today. Ross has set out to grow food using guidance originally produced by the Ministry of Agriculture, exploring what might have been lost as gardening has become more convenient. The conversation covers t...

At a time when so much marketing is measured in clicks, what can a physical magazine still offer garden centres, suppliers and their customers? In this episode of The Underground, Phil and Kate are joined by Nick Trachillis, director of The Garden Centre Magazine. Nick explains how the business creates bespoke magazines for garden centres across the UK, free to both the centre and its customers an...

We're back for a brand new season of The Underground Podcast! In our first episode, Phil and Kate are joined by Dr Ana Attlee, co-founder of Seedball, to talk about wildflowers, pollinators, biodiversity and the role garden centres can play in helping people make more wildlife-friendly choices. Seedball was created to make growing wildflowers from seed as simple as possible. Ana shares how See...

What’s the one change you’d most like to see in garden retail over the next five years? At Glee 2025, we put that question to all 20 of our guests who joined us in The Underground podcast booth – from garden centre owners and suppliers to marketeers, educators and innovators. The result is a sharp, hopeful snapshot of where the garden sector wants to head next.  In this compilation episode you’ll...

The science of plant nutrition is moving fast, and it is reshaping everything from peat-free compost to profit margins on the shop floor. In this Glee 2025 special, Phil and Kate sit down with  Steve Harper , MD of  Grass Gains  and Chair of the  Responsible Sourcing Scheme , and then with  Simon Taylor  and  Helen Thomas  from  Empathy, Plantworks , to explore what comes next for lawn care, plant...

Marketing for garden centres is changing fast. In this Glee 2025 episode of The Underground, Phil Wright and Kate Turner sit down with two specialists to explore how loyalty data and paid media can work together to drive footfall, sales and long-term customer value in the home and garden sector. First up,  Vanessa Cranford from Spring Marketing  explains why garden centre loyalty schemes should be...

Recorded live on the show floor at Glee 2025, this episode of The Underground discovers how the garden sector is nurturing innovation, supporting newcomers and helping customers navigate a changing retail landscape. Phil and Kate first sit down with Tony Kersey, Membership Ambassador at GIMA, to explore why the trade association is seeing record growth, how it is supporting over 200 members, and w...

Garden centres aren’t just about plants anymore. Recorded live at Glee 2025, Phil & Kate sit down with Paul Pleydell of Pleydell Smithyman and Barry Knight of The Full Range to unpack how experience, smart design and a considered food offer can lift margins, smooth seasonality and win younger families. From “make it better before you make it bigger” to being famous for something (yes, even a l...

Recorded at  Glee 2025 , Phil Wright and Kate Turner sit down with  Lee Connelly, the Children’s Gardening Coach  (formerly Skinny Jean Gardener), and  Nigel Thompson, Sales & Marketing Director at Sipcam Home & Garden , to explore how the trade can engage families, support schools, and modernise product ranges for today’s consumer. Expect practical ideas for garden centres, insight on bra...

In this live Glee Q&A, Phil sits down with  Alan Roper, Managing Director of Blue Diamond Garden Centres , for a frank look at what really drives performance in modern garden retail: culture, commercial discipline, and relentless differentiation. Roper explains why scale only works when the “engine room” is tuned for profit and cash, not vanity growth; why benchmarking and ownership culture be...

This episode takes on a distinctly international feel: once again at Glee 2025, Phil and Kate sit down with two voices from opposite sides of the Atlantic who share a common mission: get more people excited about nature, and make it easier for retailers to serve them brilliantly. First up, Michael Perry (Mr Plant Geek) explains why he now calls himself a plant promoter, what makes a plant “promoti...

This episode pays homage to the  support systems  that make horticulture special. Phil Wright and co-host Kate Turner talk with  Nat Boynton  and  Meg Warren-Davis  from  YPHA  about practical ways the community invests in young professionals: from bursaries and employer-backed time to train, to sponsors and partners who step in when it matters. Then  Kaz Edwards  (Heart of Eden) shares how the tr...