The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Joy as garden centres spring back into life
Green-fingered shoppers across Tayside and Fife welcomed the reopening of garden centres yesterday.
Easter Monday saw some more easing of lockdown measures in Scotland, with a number of shops allowed to reopen.
With the day being a holiday for many, some centres had people queuing up eagerly at opening time.
The Bridgend Garden Centre in Ladybank Road in Freuchie had people waiting to get in 10 minutes before opening.
Customer assistant Finlay Methven said: “It’s been very busy. We opened at 9am – there were people queueing up at 8.50am waiting to get in.
“It’s been busy from 9am, we don’t have queues
outside but steady.
“It’s fantastic to be open again after the weeks of being closed.”
At Kirkcaldy Garden Centre, there were queues of people as the business reopened, as it returned to trading seven days a week.
Staff were unable to take phone-calls as the centre was so busy, with a recorded message saying the centre was open from 9am to 5.30pm every day.
In Dundee, Ross Turriff, owner of Turriff’s Garden Centre and Farm Shop in Albert Road, Broughty Ferry, said there were customers in from the moment they opened.
He said: “We opened at 10am and the phones had been really busy in the lead-up to that. it’s been quite
“It feels like quite a long time since (the lockdown began) in January, so it’s good to be able to let folk back in.
“We’ve had the farm shop open because that’s food and classed as essential, and we’ve been doing cafe stuff through the takeaway hatch, so it’s good now to be able to let people wander round the whole place and to pick up anything they want with no restrictions.”
From April 26, if all nine priority groups have been offered the first dose of coronavirus vaccine, all remaining retail premises will reopen, as well as tourist accommodation, libraries, museums and galleries and indoor gyms – among a number of other restrictions being eased.