Dobbies Garden Centre, Milton Keynes
 

This is a totally independent GardenAction opinion of Dobbies Garden Centre in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. Click any picture to enlarge it.

PLANTS

The outdoor plant area at Dobbies in Milton Keynes stocks a large range of plants. The paths are massively wide, allowing easy access to all areas. All the hardy plants are covered by their comprehensive 5 year guarantee.

Conveniently they have ordered the plant groups in alphabetic order. Great if you are looking for an individual plant. The plants were in good condition, tidy and well-watered. There were no specialist plant groups but they did have a particularly comprehensive range of fruit and ornamental trees.

On site was a franchise which offered garden design services. Their informative display of well-developed trees gave a good guide to their final appearance. The individual tree write-ups was also extremely useful.

As the picture above left shows, there was also another franchise on site which offered a comprehensive range of sheds, greenhouses and other garden buildings. This is definitely the garden centre to visit if you want a large shed or greenhouse.

At the far end of the outdoor plants areas were several show gardens. Of particular interest were three gardens which displayed how gardens might have looked in Roman times. Other garden displays included an artist's garden complete with it's own chicken (click left picture to enlarge it) which was more than happy to pose for this photograph!

PRICES
The prices of everything except the spade and fork were about average for this area of the country. The spade and fork however (especially the cheapest spade) did appear to be high.

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