John Walker solicits some much needed self-reflection in this week’s Guardian Friday Debate, in which he asks why charity Garden Organic is in detailed discussions about handing over the shop to major retailer Webbs Garden Centres. This is, he suggests, because retailers push the idea that organic gardening requires so much specialist equipment and accessories. Real organic gardeners know different.

As a retailer of gardening tools and accessories, and whole-hearted proponents of organic and sustainable gardening, we’re frequently caught in a balancing act between offering goods we believe are necessary and beneficial to gardeners, and keeping abreast of current trends in gardening that might affect us commercially. The ‘organic’ turn in gardening is one such trend: growing your own might suggest being more frugal and sustainable: less harmful chemicals, less packaging etc. Yet it seems to have gone the other way: the word ‘organic’ is used as a marketing tool to, in Walker’s words, “flog more stuff.”

At Garden Boutique our ethos has always been: buy good quality goods, take care of them, make them last. It would be lovely to think that our leather gauntlets might be passed down from father to son in the same way that a passion for gardening is passed to new generations. This, we believe, is a much better lifestyle choice than buying cheap organic cotton gardening gloves or organic coir seedling pots that have to be replaced every six months, adding to the global chain of supply and demand which contributes so much to greenhouse gas emissions.

So in answer to Walker’s final question, yes you can be an organic gardener and still shop for gardening paraphernalia: it’s all about making thoughtful, informed choices about what you need and what you don’t.