Playing hooky, a visit to Oakgate Garden Centre

That's smashing, Jen to have well looked after gardens to look at as well as the garden centre and cafe.
I hope your husband bought you something as you let him have a few hours off!!

Oh how lovely, I would love to sit in that café garden with a coffee and cake, it would be bliss.

Lol Paul, I let him buy me some wallflowers and lunch. Part of the reason for our move was that our daughter would move up here, he would train her then start taking it easier but he is a workaholic! Some of our customers didn't help back in Kent either, lost count of the times they couldn't get him on the phone due to him being a one man band and if he answered all the phone calls then was have trouble getting all the work done so they would just turn up at our house quite often on a sunday morning!!!

Callie1914, I wish I had had the time to have taken more pics of the gardens. They are both sides of the drive and beautiful. Lots of pathways around the different bed but hubby wanted to get back to work. The cafe was very reasonable as well. They do cream teas that we have said must go back and try.

Love the red coloured flowers in the garden cafe. Beats my local B&Q or Homebase that's for sure! Lol

I am a great fan of Oakengate!! I recently took a friend of mine who absolutely loved it! Am planning another visit there soon. It's only 20 mins from me and like Jen said tucked away. I've got my eye on a few ceramic glazed pots, maybe Father Christmas might deliver one ? Glad to hear you had a great time. It's my 'secret' garden place I visit only with fellow gardening friends.

that looks a lovely place for a visit. Nice when you find these special hidden away places. :O)

Its a great "find"Jen. I love the planting of colchicums under the tree.

Wow, what a great place! Lucky you!o

I was over the moon finding it. Back in July was my 50th birthday and Tim was panicking about what to get me. I said wanted something for the garden so we gone around all the local big garden centres but had seen nothing that caught my eye. We had driven pass this shabby sign for oaklgate on the main road alot but never bothered going down there if honest thinking the sign reflected what it would be like. In desperation that day hubby suggested we go and look. Wow what a surprise!

Sue, I too loved (thank you naming them :-) ) the Colchicums.

Amsterdam, think we are both so lucky having this so close :-). Can understand about the pots. When was looking for my birthday I nearly bought one. Had seen alot on net and our trips and oakgates have got the best prices on the pots that I've seen and unusual ones as well.

Maggie, I can name them. About the only thing I can :-). They were a mixture of Fuchsia (Triphylla) koralle and Begonias. They made a real impact and while we had lunch saw all the other customers commenting on them.

I love the yellow giant daisy in the corner, I took a picture and went back into the nursery to ask about it but the owner had gone to lunch and the young girl wasn't sure. She thought it might be Heliopsis but not sure. What do you all think?

Well done you Jen on naming them.... I couldn't! ?

Lol Maggie, knew the Begonias as have used them in previous gardens but cheated a little bit with the fuchsias. Knew they were fuchsias as I love fuchsias but didn't know the name. This summer I ordered some petunias off the net. My order came with their catalogue so I looked it up in there. :-/. Glad I kept the catalogue as my petunias did really well. One wall basket ended up over 2ft long with flowers.

Your still more knowledgeable than me Jen!....
I'm useless at all these names....hopefully I will learn though. Lol ?

Maggie, You will get there. Am I right this is your 1st garden? I can recognise a few plants but I've had a few gardens over the years but finding GOY and now working from home so having more time has helped so much. A bit of advice I was only given a couple of years ago is look up on net for garden nurseries rather then only go to the big chain garden centres. The staff most times love plants and have more knowledge then the chains, the plants again most times are in better condition and normally cheaper.

I will definitely take your advise there Jen....as I have only ever been to B&Q/homebase or ordered on line....will look into what you say.... so thanks.....and we have been at this house for some years now but never got round to doing anything to the garden....it's only in the last 2 years that we have managed to do it....my hubby did all the structural jobs ect and wired lights into the ground ( he's an electrician), but he hasn't any interest in plants or gardening so I did the rest..... but having never ever done gardening before im still learning......and yes it's the first garden I've done so it's all trial and error at this stage I suppose! lol ?

Everyone on here will tell you they still make mistakes, in fact there was a blog a little while ago about it and everyone joined in with their tales of mistakes this year. B&Q and Homebase are not bad places for plants but I find they have to same plants at our store as your stores if you get what I mean. If you find a good local nursery then they can tell you what grows well in your area and hopefully have more of a selection. Near Bromley near a village called "pratts Bottom" (great name), is a really big Garden Nursery called Cooling. Its won tons of awards so shame not closer to you. My last house had a problem front boarder, raised and south facing so very dry. We went there and at the information desk told them about it and showed them pictures on our phone. They printed off a list of suitable plants then got a member of staff to walk around wth us to show where to find these plants and help us choose. Cooling a bit pricey but worth it as we had no idea what to plant and wasted money before on unsuitable plants that just died. Your garden sounds lovely already with all the lighting and I'm sure your gardening will only add to it!

It's a looks a lovely garden centre. I find the local ones much better than the big 'chain store' ones. They care about their customers. The big ones are rather impersonal.

Now thats the sort of shopping that I do like, I cannot drive so have to wait for my hubby or daughter to take me, when we go there are two very similar to this one that we enjoy and we often treat ourselves to a snackette whilst we're there, they are nicer if there are gardens to walk around as well and this one near you is extra special isn't it...
I've been gardening for over 60yrs and openly admit that when it comes to the names I am often stuck, saying that since joining Goy I have got a lot better, lol...

I so agree Hywel, and I find that if you go to the bigs ones at weekends the staff tend to be teenagers and have no knowledge of plants and it just a job. Cooling, that I was telling Maggie about was big but not a chain and they grow most of their own plants and gave very good customer service but at the end of day I was just 1 of many customers. Oakgate I think I can build a relationship with them (especially taking 2 big German Shepherds with me, hard to forget) lol.

Jen I did the same as you..... I bought lots of plants last year ( can't remember the name now but they were all the same) to plant in my borders not realising that the plants I bought were unsuitable for planting in direct sunlight and all of them died! So I will definitely search out the other nurseries near to me in Chelmsford to gain their knowledge and plants ect....and hopefully they will be as good as your find and the one near "pratts bottom"....
( funny name ) lol.
I recently planted lots of clematis and really hope they do well there.... have to wait and see!

Lincslass, you have made me feel better about naming plants lol. Thank you. I am hoping too that GOY will improve me as well :-).Its such a shame that alot of the nurseries you can only get to if drive. This one I found is in the middle of nowhere. I'm lucky where I drive now but didn't learn to till my late twenties and ex worked away alot so found it hard. Its nice though that its something you can do with your OH and daughter and it makes it so nice stopping for cake because what is life without cake lol.

Maggie, good luck with your clematis. I seem to remember they like their roots in shade? Something else I was told years ago when 1st started gardening was to walk around my neighbourhood and see what was doing well in their front gardens and I liked so getting an idea what grew well in my area. Good luck with it and can't wait to start seeing photos of it.

I've planted lots of the clematis plants and OH NO they are in full sun!!!! Let's hope they survive! And will defenetly post pictures when they bloom next year. (If they bloom next year! Lol).

If I'm right, you are better looking it up, they like sun but deep coloured flowered can fade in sun but they're like their roots in shade. Hubby had some in his garden (my last house) when I met him and he put a stone to shade the roots.

It is the roots that like to be cool Maggie, so put a large stone or something similar over the base to help shade them from the full sun, the tops need to be in the sunshine (generally) so with a bit of luck they will be ok.

Love finding plant shops to explore..this one looks a real gem. Bet you will be on first name terms very soon..lol

Thank you oliveoil, I'm amazed I got it right about clematis roots lol. I wasn't sure that why I put question mark. I might be starting to learn some things yet :-)

Thanks oliveoil, I have planted them in my borders of slate.... (parted the slate and cut hole in the membrain then covered back slate again) so with any luck the slate might shade the roots ?

And Jen...your so clever you know. Lol ?

Sandra. Lol maybe next year or they will be thinking, oh no not that women again :-).

Maggie, lol thank you for the lie :-). It made me feel bit more confident. I don't know anything compared so so many on GOY but hopefully I'm starting to learn :-).

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