Shopping Guide: homegrown Garden Centre
Homegrown Garden Centre: Your Shopping Guide
Why You Should Visit
Based on my experience, Homegrown Garden Centre offers a delightful shopping experience. Here's what you can expect:
- A Modern and Inviting Atmosphere: You'll find a modern garden centre with a lovely vibe, offering a refreshing take on the typical garden centre experience. The decor is described as fresh, earthy, and modern. The building itself is lovely with plenty of parking.
- High-Quality Plants and Garden Supplies: The garden centre boasts a great selection of plants, with a range of plants and quality that's "second to none."
- Exceptional Homeware and Gifts: The location offers beautiful homeware and luxury wax melts.
- Delicious Cafe with Variety: The upstairs cafe serves amazing food with exceptional refreshments, food, and cakes. The menu is not generic, and there is a big cake section to choose from. You can anticipate that the brunch menu looks better than the main menu, and they stop serving it early on weekends.
- Excellent Coffee and Treats: The cafe has delicious coffee, with specific mentions of the iced banana bread latte and toasted coconut iced latte being 10/10. Additionally, the cakes are "to die for," with a recommendation for the fresh empire biscuits.
- Friendly and Helpful Staff: Shoppers can expect staff who are friendly, helpful, knowledgeable, and genuinely interested in assisting you. One staff member went above and beyond to understand a customer's needs.
- Pet-Friendly Environment (Cafe): Dogs are now allowed in the cafe.
- Dog-Friendly Events: The establishment hosted an excellent personalized experience for dogs. One example included a dog being greeted by name, offered mulled wine and sweets, receiving a pup cup, a Polaroid photo, a paw print, and lovely gifts, all for the dog.
- Convenient Services: The garden centre offers services such as plant potting and prompt delivery of large plants and pots.
- Rewards Program: There's an app for collecting points. Upon spending £100, you receive a £5 voucher.
Why You Might Consider Alternatives
While the garden centre offers much to enjoy, here are some points to consider before your visit:
- Cafe Wait Times: Be aware that you may encounter queues in the cafe, with wait times of up to 20 minutes for seating and another 20 minutes for your order to arrive. However, the team are trying to improve, and the cafe is generally busy.
- Cafe Food Quality Inconsistencies: The quality of food is not always consistent, with some dishes receiving high praise while others are less impressive. Some customers noted that a chicken parm sandwich was flavourless and dry, and a slice of cake was stale and dry.
- Price: The cafe can be expensive, with a bill of nearly £80 for two people, including drinks.
- Limited Butter Portions: The bread basket is served with a tiny portion of butter, and requesting more may result in the same small serving. Butter isn't even served at all with some items.
- Smaller Shopping Area: The shopping and garden centre areas are smaller than some might expect.
- Brunch Menu Hours: The brunch menu is stopped early on weekends, which can be disappointing if you are looking for a later brunch.
