The first green shoots

Monty Don, the television presenter, has been ruing the fall of garden centres from suppliers of “plants, seeds and equipment” to “soft-furnishing stores with restaurants attached”. He is right that this was the way too many garden centres were going, but – oh! – if we could visit even a half-good garden centre, just to pick up some sweet-pea seedlings or some onion sets. Is it not strange that off-licences are open for sale of absinthe and cream-liqueurs but garden centres, with their promise of outdoor exercise and healthy mental therapy, are battened down by state order? The Government felt it could not change its mind straight after imposing the rules. But, now that “green shoots” beckon, garden centres are the ideal place to lift unnecessary restrictions as light appears at the end of the polytunnel.