Anyone who's anyone in the garden, pet and leisure business will be heading to Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre (NEC) on Sunday as a huge range of gardening products make their public debut.

The occasion is the trade's biggest bash of the year - the International Garden and Leisure Exhibition, now universally known as GLEE. Taking up 8 of the NEC's cavernous exhibition halls, GLEE is the meeting place for over 25,000 visitors from across the world, who come to see what the leading names in the garden, pet and leisure trade have to offer for 2008.

With over 1,500 exhibitors filling the GLEE halls at the NEC, there are literally thousands of new and (sometimes!) innovative products to view over the three days, and many will end up in mail order catalogues, in shop windows and on internet shopping sites immediately after the show.

I'll be attending the show on Monday 17th September and will probably cover a good few miles during the day as I pick my way through the various stands and exhibits. And with sectors featuring nursery, landscaping, water gardening, machinery, garden care and retail services - not to mention outdoor living and home & gift - I'm sure to uncover some unknown gardening gems for our catalogue and website!

Unfortunately, GLEE is open to trade visitors only, so you'll have to trust my judgement on this one - but I certainly hope to pick up some great ideas!

GLEE is a trade-only event and runs from Sunday 17th to Tuesday 19th September.