In Praise of Garden Centres

Garden centres have become leisure places of choice. Most of them have a coffee shop and restaurant. With coffee there are (usually) outsized scones, portions of tray bakes the size of small lock block units, and any amount of your coffee or tea of choice. 

Over the years they have grown in size and range of facilities which can include women's fashion, outdoor clothing, brand food outlets described as high quality and correspondingly high priced. Then there's the full range of household bric a brac, greeting cards, house and garden ornaments, garden furniture and tools, and landscaping materials from compost to bark, paving stones to aggregates, and trees to turf.

In fairness, there are also wide stocks of garden plants and shrubs, household plants and seasonal bedding plants. We all go to such places, and not always for that packet of seeds, or the odd household plant. The garden centre has become a gathering place providing social space for families, couples, friends, business meetings, and all under one roof with an ever increasing range of retail options for those looking to wander around. 

We go to such places for all kinds of reasons. I can end up there on a wet day because it's largely inside, there's a lot to browse, there's coffee and scone or a breakfast or lunch. Nearly always you see folk you know, and even if you don't conversations tend to happen when you're browsing around plants, tools, or food shelves. I've always thought it's worth asking why certain kinds of shop or service outlet becomes popular. With garden centres it's the attractive combination of good food, the buzz of a place that's usually busy, a well set out environment, and human company and activity. 

It says something about our culture and our daily lives that social spaces like garden centres are important places of human intersection. Those who are lonely and simply need a sense of people around them; those looking for safe space and some peace and quiet; people whose spirits are jaded and in need of stimulus, something to take them out of themselves; and people like me, older, retired, active, interested in all things horticultural, partial to a a nice coffee or meal, or even needing somewhere to walk around out of the rain!

One other quite small, but for myself significant benefits, is that there is so much beauty to see, and looking is free. The flowers in the photos were taken at one or two of our local garden centres. "He has made everything beautiful in its time." Indeed.   

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[John Rackley]

I have learnt recently that moments of beauty in whatever form they may take are God’s calling cards. Fleeting. Often brief. An invitation to transcend. Thank you for the reference from Ecclesiastes. A crucial companion over the years.