Homebase

With my new penchant for gardening, which thus far has included watching my friends dig up my borders for a good few hours whilst I watched and picked out a few weeds, I decided to make a brief trip to Homebase for inspiration before doing a bit of a shop at the gargantuan Tesco on Roundhay Road. (Yes, it is rather amusing that I’ve not exactly been an active part in the tidying of my own garden, but in fairness said friends were incredibly keen to take on the project — and who am I to stand in the way of green fingered aficionados?!)
So, keen and rather green at the gardening game I wandered in with basket, not trolley — that would be asking for trouble and expenditure, I took a mosy around. It’s of a reasonable size, is this Homebase, but certainly not a gardening haven. It’s a mishmash of many household things, a touch bizarrely laid out with double beds centrally spread next to BBQs and garden-​related items bordering them, but to truly find the plants and flowers one must walk right to the other end.
Lawn mowers, strimmers, whiskey barrels, plant pots of all sizes, weed killer, lawn seed and all the usual suspects lay within. In terms of the actual plants (and indeed anything relating to plants and gardens) the majority have Jamie Oliver’s simpering visage plastered over them –it seems there literally isn’t anything that you can’t obtain without his mark of approval. It’s a bit weird. His face is ruddy everywhere, to the point where it feels a touch stalky. Maybe that’s just me…
In any case, it was a useful enough visit for ideas. However, the majority of the plants, of which there wasn’t a great deal of choice, looked a little sorry for themselves and the prices verge on outrageous most of the time. Annoyingly I purchased lawn seed on my visit — the cheapest of which being about £8 — and found in the Tesco just next door it was as little as £4. Unless it has something you can’t just pop next door for it’s none too good. There were a few deals on, which marginally made the visit more pleasant, but I think I’ll seek out somewhere more dedicated when I become a fully fledged home gardener!
Until then, I now have seeds to tend. Yippee!