Days out - Bridgemere garden centre

I have not been to Bridgemere garden centre for many years Europe's largest garden centre so when on my way home from my parents. I saw a sign for Bridgemere so I decided to take a detour luckily the girls had not noticed that I had gone on a detour otherwise there would have been a few moans about gong to another garden centre.


Now it is pretty much a normal garden centre café, books, plants etc. but what makes Bridgemere different apart from the sheer size of the place is there show garden. The garden covers six acres and you could easily spend several hours just wandering around the show garden. The garden was originally built for the Gardening program Gardeners Diary which I believe was aired in the 1980's. I even found an old episode on You Tube proper old school gardening program teaching how to grow plants.

 If I remember rightly there used to be a booth at the entrance to the show gardens when you had to pay a small fee to get into the garden. Now it is free to get in there is not all the fruit and veg that there was during the TV years but there is defiantly lots to see.

 Although the fruit and veg are no longer there which is a shame the garden was full of glorious spring colour. A couple of the beds where empty waiting to be planted up with this coming summer bedding.

 The garden is also full of lovely clipped box and yew hedging which added lots of colour and shape to the borders.

 One great part of the garden is the fake ruined castle tower which if it was not for being able to see the brick work inside you think it was a real ruin.

 The tower sits well with in the garden especially down below where you get to gaze across all the summer flowers up to the tower.

 The garden is well maintained in fact there was hardly a weed to be seen it will defiantly be worth another trip back in the summer to see how it develops through the season.

Full details can be found on Wyevale's website

http://www.wyevalegardencentres.co.uk/garden-centres/bridgemere/Bridgemere/2

Open 9am - 6pm seven days a week

What Is A Garden Centre

I remember as a boy going off with my dad to buy some plants if he wanted some veg we would go to the local market gardener. He would get his spade go to one of his nursery beds and dig a bunch of what ever we where after it would be wrapped in newspaper and we would be on our way. If we wanted some  flowers we would go off to a nursery get what we wanted and back home. Not a cup of tea, barcode or the contents of a department store in site then came the Garden Centre. 

 At first most garden centre's grew the majority of there plants and bought in compost, fertilizers etc to compliment the plants. But the whole affair was purely garden related with the plants being the headline act but not now. Most Garden Centre's are more like an out of town department store clothes, suit case's, shoes, toys, butches, bakers and i even went to one once that had a candle stick maker. Don't forget the 200 seat restaurant where you can get anything from a cup of tea to a three course lunch. Once you have worked your way through all this right at the back of the shop you will find the plants where once they used to be the star of the show they are now tucked away more as a side line. 

 

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Now don't get me wrong Garden centre's are very popular and i do enjoy going to one myself at the weekend it's just they are not what they used to be. Gardening is not the main purpose of  a visit to a Garden Centre any more they have become a destination for a day out some Centre's even have coach company's booking with them. You get a good day out at a Garden Centre it's all very well done clean, tidy and very good quality products on sale but now i feel one Garden Centre chain has gone a step too far with there offerings. The Garden Centre Group are set to open up W H Smith Newsagent out lets at some of there Centre's they already have one outlet at there Bicester branch and are set to expand out to other Garden Centre's. The same group is also bringing in Costa coffee outlets into some of there stores a lot of visitors go to the garden centre for the independent coffee shop and the nice home made cake but you wont get that from Costa. Will our Garden Centre's slowly turn into out of town shopping some of them are nearly there already introduce a few more multinational outlets to there centre's and they will be. Of course lets face facts they would never get planning permission for most of these stores if they where labeled out of town shopping centre's. But give them the title Garden Centre and it's a different story but no matter what i think the modern Garden Centre is hear to stay.

What do you think have garden centre's lost there way and become more like out of town shopping centre's or do you like the new look big shinny Garden Centre's that they have become ?.