24/04/2026 General News
Ever since the pandemic made us all realise the value of outside space, and that our gardens weren’t just an adjunct to our home but an integral part of it, more and more people have been investing in making their outside space a comfortable and welcoming place in which to spend time, writes Tim Blyth.
For many years, Keys included a plant sale as part of our weekly Monday sales. Sadly, the partner we worked with to put on these sales had to retire through ill-health three years ago, and since then we have not held specialist garden auctions.
So I am delighted to announce that for 2026, we are once again introducing not just a plant auction, but a monthly Plants, Garden Furniture and Equipment Sale.
The first of these took place this month, and featured nearly 300 lots, comprising a huge variety of plants, a wide range of gardening equipment, wooden and metal garden furniture, statuary, metalwork and gates.
The sale, which took place on a Saturday, drew a huge crowd to our Aylsham saleground, as well as lots of online bidders taking part in the live auction.
A particular pleasure is the opportunity this gives us to support local nurseries. Our May sale already has more than 100 lots in the plants section, all of them from local growers. The April sale featured everything from lavender to bamboo, olive trees to Japanese acers, wisteria to topiary hedges.
Unlike many of the plants you will find in the various chain garden centres in the county, these plants have been grown locally, and are being sold direct from the grower at the sale.
In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, brand new garden furniture can be prohibitively expensive. Perhaps that is why the garden furniture section of the sale was so popular. With a variety of pieces ranging from traditional wooden sets to more modern metal and mixed material chairs and tables, it came from a variety of courses, including house clearances and surplus stock from garden furniture suppliers.
The beauty of such a sale is that there are items at every level, from pristine furniture just like you will find in your local garden centre (but at a fraction of the cost), to vintage pieces which need some care and attention to bring back to their former glory.
If you are looking for some statuary for your garden, you have probably visited several garden centres looking for something characterful. Soon the depressing realisation dawns that you are looking at the same pieces every time – most garden centre chains source their garden ornaments from the same few suppliers.
Once again, this is where an auction can win hands-down; as with indoor furniture, it is in the saleroom where you are more likely to find that individual, unique piece which you are unlikely to find in all of your neighbours’ gardens.
Aside from the benefit of cost and individuality, there is another plus in purchasing items for your garden in this way – sustainability. Recycling and upcycling items which already exist will always be greener than buying new, and many of the bidders who attended our April sale told me that this was a big draw for them. Giving new life to perfectly good items will always be more sustainable than buying newly-manufactured ones.
Our Plants, Garden Furniture and Equipment Sales will take place monthly right across the summer, with the next one taking place on Saturday 16th May. We are constantly accepting items for sale in these auctions, so do please get in touch if you have something in your garden which you no longer need, but which you would like to give a second life to.