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It's never too late… Staff trainer wins Chelsea design competition

Gardeners concerned over climate change Green issues are on the agenda

12.30 pm

Of about 1100 RHS members who responded to a questionnaire sent out in April, over 80% said they wanted to do more to make their gardens greener. But a significant minority - 20% - said they didn’t think anything they did would make a difference.

“I think on the whole it shows gardeners take a reasonably common-sense approach,” says Guy Barter, head of the RHS’s Horticultural Advisory Service. “Even the ones who are not particularly concerned about the environment seem to be focussing their interventionist methods rather than carrying on willy-nilly.”

There’s still a long way to go to eliminate the use of chemicals altogether in the garden; 44% of gardeners said they still use pesticides and weed killers from time to time - mainly slug pellets - and only a third said they never use any chemicals at all. The survey found the longer you’ve been gardening, the more likely you are to use chemicals - and male gardeners use them more than women.

Most of us do something that helps the environment. The vast majority of gardeners compost green waste or mulch around plants. Well over half buy peat-free potting compost, and nearly three-quarters of us own water butts. And, perhaps most encouraging of all, nearly all gardeners - 89% - choose plants to attract wildlife into their gardens.

7.30 am

At the RHS Chelsea Flower Show it’s fingers crossed for another day of sunshine after the show opened to RHS members in perfect weather yesterday.

The show has had a particular emphasis on green issues and sustainability this year, and this will be backed up by the release this morning of a survey by Fetzer Vineyards and the RHS into how green we gardeners really are.

Known as a "green audit", the survey will test how much gardeners know, and care, about the ways we can make our gardens more sustainable. The RHS sent out a survey to its members asking questions about what measures you can take in the garden, and also, more importantly, finding out how many people are actually doing something about it. It's hoped that the results will show the RHS where more could be done to encourage us to make our gardens greener.

Also at midday the Garden Design Competition results will be announced. The show sponsor, Marshalls, held two design competitions - one for amateurs, the other for professionals. The ten finalists will be at the Garden Design Forum, in the Great Pavilion, to hear the results and receive their trophies.