First anniversary celebrations for garden centre near Wellingborough

It was a weekend of celebrations as Cherry Lane's Podington garden centre marked its first anniversary.

The garden centre in High Street, Podington, has undergone significant changes since it was acquired by Cherry Lane 12 months ago, including being extended to make room for an even wider variety of trees, seeds and shrubs.

A new larger 140-seater café bistro, The Watering Can café, has sprung up at the centre, serving a wide variety of food and drinks.

There’s also something for the younger members of the family to enjoy in the new Garden Tots indoor play area, with sections suited to both babies and toddlers, although the play area is currently closed due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Podington now has an extensive range of gardening including sheds, tools, garden care and accessories, as well as homewares, gifts, toys, kitchen products and furniture.

A vast selection of wild bird and wildlife products are available and a fantastic range of pet goods within the centre’s new Scallywags shop.

There is also Archie’s Country Store for grocery supplies too.

Cherry Lane retained all existing employees when it acquired the garden centre with 40 staff work currently across the garden centre and café.

The official first anniversary celebrations took place on August Bank Holiday weekend, with a host of extra special deals for Cherry Lane’s reward card holders.

Richard Durrant, manager at Cherry Lane Podington, said: “We’re very pleased to be a fully-fledged member of the Cherry Lane family, with our makeover complete in time for our first anniversary.

"Every area of the garden centre has so much more to offer, from our increased range of plants to the new larger capacity Watering Can café.

"The coronavirus pandemic has made 2020 a challenging year but we were determined to mark our first birthday as a Cherry Lane and our achievements in the past 12 months.

"There is lots to look forward to for the future too – we’re already getting excited about Autumn and bringing in our Christmas ranges.”

Mike Ryan, operations manager for Cherry Lane Garden Centres, said: “As a family-run business, we were keen to make Podington a more family orientated garden centre and we are very pleased with the finished result.

"The team at Podington has done a brilliant job this year, not only in managing the amazing transformation of the garden centre but also trading in difficult circumstances caused by COVID-19.

"It was lovely to be able to celebrate with the in-store team and customers.”

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