The latest figures from GfK show some somewhat surprising results in the gardening sector.
For instance, the chemicals and fertilisers market continues to grow, despite the lateness of the season. GfK's figures reveal that October sales of tomato fertilisers alone are up by almost 41% compared with last year, while plant insecticides have increased 9% and fungicides by 17.4%.

Interestingly, October sales of vegetable grow bags are up 138% on last October, showing, according to GfK, that the grow-you-own trend is not confined to summer. However, one has to question whether these products are actually being bought for use now, or if end of season promotions have encouraged shoppers to stock up for next year.

It does seem that the end of the gardening season may have encouraged homeowners to turn their attention indoors as sales of paint and decorative equipment have seen positive growth after a pretty tough year.

Paint brush sales for example have seen growth in two of the past three months - August and October - with the latter month seeing a 17.9% rise. Decorative equipment in general grew 10.3% in October, while emulsion paint sales were up a more modest 3.5%.