A day out at Gardeners' World. NEC Birmingham.

I was fortunate enough to win tickets with Stephanie over at BosworthLife for The Gardeners' World and Good Food Show at the NEC in Birmingham last weekend.

It clashed with The Three Counties Show in Malvern and I'd originally planned to attend both events, but as we'd been in Brighton for my Uncles funeral we missed the Malvern Show, it was a nice treat for mum at the end of a difficult weekend.

Whilst The Gardeners World Show was a lovely event to attend and it is nice to go somewhere different, it was very similar to The Three Counties Show in terms of plant and food sales, the venue was bigger but it attracted more people, but it did have a huge advantage of being mainly indoors should it have rained or become too hot, unlike the Malvern show which is mainly outdoors.

However, with a 90 minute train journey each way and the added cost of the journey and travel time, it's not somewhere I'll be going again as Malvern is on the doorstep with the added extras of entertainment and a wider variety of stalls.

If you're living in Birmingham though or getting to Malvern is too far or you rely on public transport then I do recommend getting up to the NEC next year. We had some great bargains with the plants going on the last day and waiting till the end of the day to purchase plants at a considerable discount and I got some great ideas for the garden as well getting to look at a wide range of green house and bin tidies for future planning in the garden.

There were lots of interesting displays.

I'd love a Bonsai tree one day, but they're so expensive.

Mum was disappointed I wouldn't let her buy any of the display plants, she may have had her shopping trolley with her, but there was no way these were coming back on the train with us.

My nan grew fuchsias in pots. She had hundreds in her garden.

Hydrangeas remind me of my Gran her garden was full of them.

These gladioli's smelt amazing.

My dad's favourite flowers on fathers day.

A fun display.

School displays outside for bee garden design.

I have a variety of tea pots and old pans etc outside filled with succulents. I want a dog too.

These flowers have been growing in various gardens my whole life, I finally know what they are called now.

Raised bed ideas. Triangular shaped to fit a gap.

I love everything about this garden display. Wondering what I can incorporate into our garden.

I love this bin tidy with more succulents growing on top.

I came home and ordered a mini greenhouse.

Our Tain journey and walk through the NEC was an interesting one as Anime Con event was going on at the same time and I had to explain to my mum what a Furry was.