Garden centres ready for the rush
Feverish preparations have been under way to make sure the nation’s gardeners can safely buy supplies
WHETHER THEY are hankering for compost, lawn seed or bedding plants, gardeners will be keenly anticipating the reopening of the vast majority of the UK’s garden centres from today.
And after a seven-week lockdown which made a washout of three of their four biggest selling weekends of the year – including Easter and the early May Bank Holiday – garden centres have been furiously busy getting ready to serve customers again.
Boyd Douglas-Davies, president of the Horticultural Trades Association, who was at a garden centre in Camarthen, Wales, which reopened on Monday, said cars had been turning up before opening hours two days running. “Compost is big – tomato plants seem to be on everybody’s shopping lists, so are strawberries and bearing in mind we are in South Wales, leeks. Then there’s salad crops and lots of bedding – fuschias, busy lizzies, geraniums.”
Customers can expect supermarket-style social distancing queues, one-way systems and limits on the numbers allowed inside.
Restaurants and children’s play areas will stay closed and for the time being it will not be a place to while away an afternoon.
Just 90 people at a time will be allowed into Bradford’s Tong Garden Centre under rules which allow one person per 1,000 square feet. Managing director Mark Farnsworth said they were excited, but nervous about “making sure we do everything safely for the team and customers”.
He quoted a YouGov survey where 75 per cent of respondents said they would be comfortable about shopping in a garden centre, adding: “I’d imagine that 75 per cent has only strengthened over the last couple of weeks. On social media we’ve had an amazing positive response from customers wishing us well and can’t wait to come.”
He expects people to make fewer visits, but buying more when they do, mirroring the way food shopping habits have changed. Everything has been worked out, so people can get round the garden centre safely. He said: “It is a bit surreal as I walk round the site, but as an industry we have been really innovative and prepared to adapt and change.”
As well as giving people a chance to stay “sane and active” in the coming weeks, shopping centres are crucial outlets for local growers who have a brief two or three month window a year to sell their products.
“It is vital that we can support British growers and keep the industry going over the next few weeks,” said Mr Farnsworth.
Mr Douglas-Davies expects some of the season’s losses to be recovered – but sounded a note of caution. He said: “The problem we still have because of social distancing, is having to limit the number of people. There isn’t any way garden centres can achieve their normal capacity in the coming bank holiday weekend.”
Tomato plants seem to be on everybody’s shopping lists.
Boyd Douglas-Davies, president of the Horticultural Trades Association.