Lee Connelly & Sipcam’s Nigel Thompson on Schools, Greener Gardening, and Innovation

Lee Connelly & Sipcam’s Nigel Thompson on Schools, Greener Gardening, and Innovation

From The Underground by The Underground Pod

November 6, 2025 · 56 min · Season 5 · Episode 7

About this episode

The episode features a discussion on engaging families in gardening and modernizing product offerings with insights from Lee Connelly and Nigel Thompson.

Recorded at Glee 2025 , Phil Wright and Kate Turner sit down with Lee Connelly, the Children’s Gardening Coach (formerly Skinny Jean Gardener), and Nigel Thompson, Sales & Marketing Director at Sipcam Home & Garden , to explore how the trade can engage families, support schools, and modernise product ranges for today’s consumer. Expect practical ideas for garden centres, insight on brand-building as a challenger, and new product thinking across outdoor and houseplant care. What you’ll hear School gardening at scale: Lee’s 2025 tour reached 10,000 children in a single week across 30 schools , sparking classroom-to-home participation and long-term follow-up with teachers. He argues for sustained brand investment in primary as well as secondary to seed future gardeners and employees. Making garden centres true family destinations: low-cost activities that create reasons to dwell, learn and buy—without feeling like a “kids’ corner” bolt-on. Greener gardening in practice: Nigel outlines Sipcam’s focus on ecofective® , simplifying purchase and sell-through for retailers while keeping efficacy front and centre. Challenger brand mindset: why being smaller enables creative…

People in this episode

Hosts: Phil Wright, Kate Turner

Guests: Lee Connelly, Nigel Thompson

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Sipcam Home & Garden, Glee 2025, Sipcam, Children’s Gardening Coach

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