Bradford Garden Centre partners with TV gardener for fifth year
The Editor
A Bradford Garden Centre is continuing its collaboration with a Yorkshire gardener and TV presenter.
Tong Garden Centre has partnered with Leeds based garden designer and ITV's Love Your Garden presenter, Katie Rushworth for a fifth consecutive year.
Of the renewed collaboration, Tong Garden Centre's marketing manager, Jo Dales said: "We're thrilled to be working with Katie again as her warmth, passion and knowledge make her a natural fit to work with the team here at Tong.
"For many of us, gardens have been our sanctuaries over the last 15 months, and we're delighted that one of the projects that Katie will be working on is a Wellbeing Garden with a ‘retreat, relax, retreat' theme."
The 16m2 space will open with plants chosen by Katie for their scent and evergreen structure and the garden will also feature an outdoor kitchen and a seating area where customers can immerse themselves in the garden. Ms. Rushworth will be assisted by Tong's first horticulture apprentice, Alfie Taylor for the initial planting and subsequent seasonal changes.
"This is an amazing opportunity for me to learn from Katie and see how she creates the popular seasonal planting schemes that customers come to see in her show garden at Tong then and replicate at home. I'm already a fan so working with Katie is going to be a wonderful way to help me to grow my knowledge," he said.
Katie, who works alongside Alan Titchmarsh on ITV's ‘Love Your Garden' and ‘Love Your Home and Garden', is delighted to be working with Tong again: "My brand new garden has been created around the theme of wellbeing, drawing on a year of lockdowns where our gardens became havens. There has never been any doubt in my mind that gardening is good for you and studies prove the positive impact it has on our mental and physical wellbeing.
"This is a small plot packed with plenty to inspire you and I will change the plants frequently to show you how to plant what's in season from my selection of ‘VIPS' - those Very Important Plants that I always go to or really love for their contribution to the garden."
Alfie attends Shipley College one day a week to study for a Level 2 Horticulture and Landscape Operative qualification and works four days a week with the plants team at the Tong Lane centre.
