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We tested the original Gtech cordless vacuum cleaner soon after it was launched (when back when in 2013!) and as we said at the time, it's a good machine for quick clean-ups. On the downside it was noisy, didn't get close in to the edges of skirting boards and kick plates and I also felt it was better on carpet than on hard floors.

Nonetheless I wasn't expecting any significant changes when we were given the Mk2 upright and the hand-held Gtech Multi to test...possibly a bit of new styling, a little more horsepower so to speak. 

The first B&Q Gardener of the Year competition should come as a relief to everyone who's lamenting the postponement of the 2021 Chelsea Flower Show until September. Gardening has proved a godsend to many over the past year and the country is benefiting from this industriousness in the form of many spruced up front and back gardens, plus the addition of millions of very beautiful window boxes that make our streets look so much more tempting.

Interest in gardening, or more particularly interest in helping people with limited space to garden, is, thankfully growing as fast as grass and ivy do in summer.

Whether it’s prettier pots for indoor and outdoor plants, herbs for the windowsill or hydroponic LED kits so you can grow herbs and salad leaves on your kitchen table, it’s good to see that the garden sector is acknowledging that far more of us have little to no outside space than have rolling lawns and abundant herbaceous borders at our disposal.

Heligan is poised to take on the challenge to create an enormous, World Record-breaking, insect hotel. Insects are crucial to life and Cornish bugs need a new hotel to provide them with a safe place to shelter and hibernate. The current World Record stands at 81.26m³ (2869.66 ft³), so the team will need help from as many Heligan Wild Things as they can.