Why garden centres?

[TheoriginalLEM]

Why are they chowing garden centres to be allowed to open?

It's been nice weather so people have been doing stuff in the gardens, i get it, so have we. But itsnot really essential for me to buy a load of bedding plants or wander aimlessly around a garden centre because I've bugger all else to do.

I can't help but wonder if the weather had been pants if we would be opening them?

One of my friends works at a garden centre, and he's been telling me about what changes will need to be made to their layout and putting procedures in place before they can reopen, so even if they are given the go-ahead, they certainly won't be opening tomorrow morning.

Plants and garden stuff hasn’t transferred to online shopping very easily. I suppose they are easily damaged in transit, and would need specific conditions, humidity, controlled temp etc

I buy most of my plants online from specialist nurseries, and have done so for years. Better quality, better value and more variety than garden centres. Postage is not actually a problem - there are ways to package plants safely.

this is something that people in London don't do, (no space) hence the MN puzzlement.

as others note, opening garden centres is a way of saving a LOT of jobs, and possibly also allowing people to produce some of their own food.

the inside floral-tat bits will probably stay closed but that's no bad thing.

and possibly also allowing people to produce some of their own food

I doubt it. This isn't ww2, we're not on rations. We have a perfectly adequate food supply...we don't need to start growing our own food to survive.

The sector will disappear if they can't trade soon. Many garden centres are independent/family owned businesses who rely on trade in April/May/June to sustain them over the rest of the year. Their suppliers - mainly in rural areas where economies are fragile - will go under. Workers in the garden centres, nurseries, etc are anything but privileged.

As other PPs have said, social distancing should be doable in garden centres- lots of space, big car parks, separate exit and entrance.

Nicola Sturgeon said she is considering opening garden centres - as well as waste and recycling centres. Yippee!

We have a perfectly adequate food supply...we don't need to start growing our own food to survive.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Vegetable growing and allotments are absolutely booming up and down the land
more than half of my garden is food crops

some of us remember what is likely to happen on 31st December ...

Well good luck feeding a family on a handful of carrots and a few runner beans...

former
How much of the UKs food is grown in the UK ?
How secure is the UK food supply?

I grow stuff that the shops do not do well
and I'm still harvesting crops I sowed last March

I'm sure it's a nice hobby but I don't believe for a moment someone can grow enough food at home to feed their family or make a meaningful difference

Very simple. It's gardening centres, angling and golfing. In other words safe, middle-class tories.

It may be to stop all their stock dying off, they're at least semi-open air and you might be able to manage social distancing in them, so it's a crumb they can throw people.

I don't believe for a moment someone can grow enough food at home to feed their family or make a meaningful difference
bless

I grow enough that I do not have to buy other than onions for several months of the year I have white rot in my soil so cannot do alliums

a standard allotment is large enough to feed a family - that is why they are the size they are

My thought is why not garden centres? All the economic and space reasons already cited plus tending the garden is good for a lot of people's wellbeing.

*Garden centres usually appeal to an older demographic don't they?

I see the elderly are once again being prioritised over children*

Christ, people come up with some bollocks.

Very simple. It's gardening centres, angling and golfing. In other words safe, middle-class tories.

I think sometimes I live in a different world. Golfing perhaps, but not the other two.

Has anyone considered the fact that although garden centers tend to be "large and open" if people flock to them as a novelty place to go they will soon be as packed as the underground.

Christ, people come up with some bollocks

Children have given up more than anyone else during this lockdown. No thanks from anyone. I do hope the elderly will show some respect to them once this is over.

Well they will have to be appropriately managed then, other shops are doing so.

I was looking at an article that said the big risk on Covid-19 transmission was confined and crowded indoor spaces where people stay for a sustained time. Garden centres are mostly outdoors and rarely crowded, with social distancing and basic cleaning they should be pretty low risk.

It's gardening centres, angling and golfing. In other words safe, middle-class tories

It's gardening centres, angling and golfing. In other words pursuits in which it’s easy to social distance.

Very simple. It's gardening centres, angling and golfing. In other words safe, middle-class tories

I’m working class, earn minimum wage and I love garden centres. I also vote Tory 😲

"Novelty place to go" reminds me of when DC were pre-school and we used to go to the garden centre just for somewhere to walk around the play house display and stake out a corner of the café with our prams.

Politics.

Garden centres’ main customer base is retired people. The Tory party’s most important voter base is retired people. The Tories are pandering to their own supporters, as all political parties who win elections do.

Children have given up more than anyone else during this lockdown. No thanks from anyone. I do hope the elderly will show some respect to them once this is over.

Older people have made their contribution to the world through the long years they worked and the taxes they paid. Children have contributed what? Most of them are little princes and princesses who have never known a days hardship in their lives. It is the poor and slack parenting of the last two generations which had made them so.

I buy a lot of plants online and locally as I'm a member of a local gardening club. The main thing I buy from gardening centres is compost, fertilizer and plant pots. My LO has only been to a garden centre once.