Kitchen Garden Forum

Why do garden centres at this time of the year convert completely to Christmas tat and tinsel towns? Presumably, it is is to keep the pennies flowing in, but don't they realise that gardening is not just a January to October affair? It does upset me when even the most basic gardening goods are either tucked away in an obscure corner or not available at all.

Rant over. Discuss.

Dear Monika, i always try and avoid garden centres at this time of the year, for this very reason. To make it worse, if you do buy something related to gardening, you have to try and fight your way through all the Christmas shoppers, to get to the till.

I did speak to to a garden centre manager about this one year, and he said they can make four months money in two months, so i suppose i can see why they do it. He did also say, the profit margins are huge, that's why they can sell stuff off so cheap after Christmas.

It won't be long before the seed potatoes are on the shelves.

Nice optimistic reply OH! I do go to the Garden Centre this time of year as they generally put on a good Xmas display & it is worth a look but buy nothing! I don't need any thing off season but my garden centre has real reindeer! Now they are cute!

They try to hide them so you have to pay to see them but they are critters that are just no good at hide & seek!

Westi

Our local garden centres are the same. I never buy any Christmas tatt either but find all rhe bright coloured cyclamen really joyful and usually end up treating myself to one or two. But they really don,t like our centrally heated rooms. But I do have one plant rant. I don,t like pointsettas. i always seem to end up being given one at Christmas and in all the years I,ve had them and tried to nurse them through a second Christmas I have never once succeeded in getting a plant to produce any red flowers a second time

Let's apply a little logic here.

Garden centres are businesses which need to make a profit to survive.
They primarily make their money by supplying the needs of gardeners.
Winter is a time when far less people are buying gardening supplies.
The Christmas trade is a way of staying in business.
Without it profits would plummet.
An insolvent garden centre closes down.

What's more annoying? A garden centre which has a Christmas season or a garden centre which is closed down?

OK, coming at this from the other end as someone who used to run a garden centre... When annual figures are analysed for a small, plant based nursery or GC you will find that 3/4 of the income is taken in just 1/4 of the year, basically March-May. This gives cash flow problems. The big boy GCs came along and sold all sorts of everything which depleted trade even more but I can understand why they do it, it's to keep cash flowing and there's nothing wrong with that as they still have to employ their staff and keep the glasshouses heated, especially if they are growing their own stock for sale in March to May!

Customers visit GCs during the spring but the moment tennis at Wimbledon comes on trade drops like a stone and doesn't reappear until March unless you offer other year round experiences. People who visit in the busy period always think GCs are making a fortune but how often do you visit in August or November?

I'll get off the soapbox now...

MW

And yes Alan, I did have to close down. Can't do it on plants and garden related stuff alone.

Do your garden centres only fill with tat at Christmas ? Ours are 75% tat all year round. I assumed that "Garden Centre" had become a euphemism used to get out of town shopping centres past the planners.

Then there are "Farm Shops". Well I suppose it was all grown on a farm of sorts. Maybe in Ghana or Kenya though.

A garden centre/nursery this far west could sell pots-and-pans if that is what it takes to keep them going. Ours is a family business, open every day of the year other than christmas day, any time I go there I have never seen more than six people at a guess.

I'm amazed they survive and though they do-do christmas trees they have yet to buy in a lot of tat.

It's just as well they don't rely on the likes of me, they need a throw-away customer base to keep coming and buying rather than those who care for their cyclamen so they flower the following year.

Ive been to garden centres that are fairly close to department stores or maybe they are department stores doing a bit of garden centre. Either way I feel uncomfortable, at our garden centre the owner will be scarce because he's pricking-out seedlings or humping tree saplings or just not there because as a sideline he does a bit of consultancy work.

Real reindeer ? reindeer poo ?

Oh Richard - never thought of that! They do support our allotment site as we are literally right behind them & they have judged at our little show. Might chat to the committee - is it any good though? Probably quite concentrated?

Westi

Any poo that is well rotted will be good, in-fact I'm rotting down all our food waste (Sorry to digress) this year. Mixing it with grass cuttings and whatever I can find including sawdust and shavings.

One of our farming entrepreneurs empties our septic tank for less than half the price the so called environmental services. It all goes into slurry pits than sold back to farming by spreading.

Back to garden centres, our one didn't even sell seeds and sundries until they built a new building this year. Prior to that it was just nursery stuff, bushes, trees, pots, composts and a service for those who needed help.

Go south into what we call Tenbyshire and the garden centres are department stores including expedition-underwear.

Expedition underwear ?

Did you try any Richard? With the weather & winds you get any trip into the garden sounds at times it could be an expedition!

Westi

My home is split into two parts, the barn which is a converted milking parlour and the 'shed'. The shed is new-build 6 X 8 metres two stories high that serves as a utility room, workshop, junk store and garden shed so I spend a lot of time going to-and fro between the two buildings. In winter, or as soon as temperatures drop much below 10 degrees I wear thermal underwear most of the time.

The shed is heated by a stove fired by coal products or wood.

Even on the coldest/windiest days I keep warm because of the clothes I wear, this makes heating the barn very economical when I'm home-alone though when my partner is home she like it much warmer so I have to peel-off.

I have three levels of keeping warm outside/in-and-out, first it'd be long wooly socks. (Socks that go with the kilt) then I have two thicknesses of long-johns. The second thickness are Patagonia/Northface underwear that are in themselves two levels. It has to be ice and blowing 30 knots before I can wear those.

I keep warm Westi but I don't like the barn to be hot, evenings by the fire are the exception though when home-alone I tend to go to bed early for my sore back and other joints but also I couldn't afford double the heating oil costs.

I have broccoli plants growing under cover, kale under nets, little gem and coriander under fleece and netting, next opportunity I need to cover the French tarragon and other winter salad stuff under fleece and netting.

5 degrees outside today, wet and windy.