Gardening

Some of our deliveries for new gardening stock have arrived earlier than expected, so we  are pleased to be able to take telephone orders for delivery or collection. There is no access to the garden centre at present, so we can only accept phone orders: call 01835 830315 – please leave a message if there is no answer. The grocery shop remains open daily, 10:00 to 16:00

Seed Potatoes:

We now have the following available at £3.99 per bag (apologies that we can’t split bags at this time)
Arran Pilot – 1st Early with white flesh and a firm waxy texture which holds its shape when cooking
Duke of York – 1st Early with a dry mealy texture. A very popular variety for Scottish growers
Epicure – 1st Early which matures early and makes renowned “new potatoes”
International Kidney – 1st early also known as Jersey Royal
Pentland Javelin – 1st Early waxy new potato for salad use and boiling
Rocket – 1st Early which matures early and has good disease resistance
Sharpes Express – 1st Early with pale lemon flesh which is excellent boiled as a new potato
Organic Colleen – 1st Early with good natural disease resistance making it suitable for organic gardening
Charlotte – 2nd Early which is our best selling variety, suitable for a wide range of uses, and is well known to all cooks
Estima – 2nd Early and one of the most popular all round UK varieties, makes good baking potatoes
Nadine – 2nd Early – one of my favourites for picking early for new potatoes or leaving longer for a good all-rounder

Vegetable Seeds:

Our 2021 range of vegetable, herb and green manure seeds is now in stock. There are too many varieties to list, so the best thing to do is to call on 01835 830315 and tell me your list and I’ll let you know what varieties we have and will pull an order together for you. Please note that I’m still waiting for my delivery of onion and shallot sets but hope these will be in soon.

Fruit trees:

Fruit trees are going to be very difficult to get hold of this year, but I’ve managed to get hold of a batch to keep us going for a while:
Apple Bramley
Apple Charles Ross
Apple Katy
Apple Discovery
All apples are on a M26 semi-dwarf rootstock

Damson Merryweather
Gage Cambridge
Gage Oullins Golden

Pear Conference
Pear Concorde
Pear Catillac
All pears are on a QA semi-dwarf rootstock

Plum Czar (St Julian A)
Plum Opal (St Julian A)
Plum Victoria (St Julian A)
Plum Victoria (Pixy)
These are all lovely looking trees and are ready to be planted out, once the ground conditions improve.

Compost

Our new season delivery of compost is due in next Monday (weather permitting) and I have ordered a bigger load than usual so that we don’t end up running out like we did last year. Demand is likely to be strong again this year, as we are all champing at the bit to get growing and get gardening, so I’m happy to take pre-orders. I know it seems early for items like growbags and seed compost, but I do recommend purchasing in good time so that you’re all ready to make a start once spring arrives.

We will have:
Peat free multi-purpose compost
Multi-purpose compost with added John Innes
Ericaceous compost for acid loving plants
Seed compost
Dalefoot Wool seed compost (Peat Free)
Farmyard Manure
Growbags – 2 different sizes
Dalefoot wool compost (peat free)
Dalefoot wool compost tomato planters (peat free)
Dalefoot wool compost for salads and vegetables (peat free)
Vegetable compost
Tree and shrub planting and potting compost
Decorative mini bark
Composted bark for mulching
Soil Improver
Lakeland Gold Claybuster

In addition to logs and kindling  we have extended our sustainable fuels to include coffee logs and eco-friendly firelighters.

Eco-Friendly Firelighters

Many of our customers have been requesting these, so we are now stocking eco-friendly firelighters from manufacturer Dr Heat. These are made out of a grass called Miscanthus, and combined with waste candle wax, they make super efficient firelighters. Here is some information about them:

Miscanthus is a high yielding grass grown specifically for energy production. These crops are grown  in Somerset and harvested in the Spring when they are naturally ripe. Therefore, reducing the need for further drying, and removing the use of fossil fuels to do so, unlike some other wood firelighter products on the market.

Each tonne of Miscanthus burnt, in replacement of coal, will prevent the emission of up to two tonnes of carbon dioxide. An additional benefit of growing Miscanthus is its ability to actively sequester carbon within the crop’s roots.

Miscanthus is recognised as the number one energy crop by the biggest power producers in the UK, as a carbon neutral replacement to coal.

• High dry matter yield
• Efficient use of available nutrients
• Efficient water usage due to deep rooting
• No recognised pests or diseases
• Requires no Pesticides or chemical fertilisers

Coffee Logs

Coffee logs  are made from waste coffee grounds collected from cafes across the UK, and turned into compact “logs” with a long burn time, intense heat and good flame, along with a slight coffee scent when you open the bag. These are for use on closed stoves and burners only and are not suitable for firepits or open fires.

The Grocery

Our fresh batch of fruit and vegetables has just been delivered, along with stock cupboard food items, such as curry sauces, naan breads, brioche baguettes and rolls, driied mushrooms (NEW), gnocchi, basmati rice, olive oil, granulated sugar, local honey, free range eggs, polenta, semolina, organic oatflakes, lentils, split peas, dried fruits and chocolate ginger and much more. We also have frozen ready meals available too, just in case you fancy a break from cooking!

January is the time for marmalade making and we have Seville oranges in stock now.

Call & Collect Update:

As I’m sure you are aware, all garden centres and cafes across Scotland are currently closed, and new restrictions have now been put in place for collection services. However I’m pleased to say that garden centres and plant nurseries are still permitted to offer collection services, and you can still place your orders by calling 01835 830315 10am – 4pm daily (just leave a message on the answerphone if no reply). Please note that I cannot accept orders through social media, so phone calls only please for all garden centre products, including wild bird feed, RHS Wildlife Flower seed mixes, and our fabulous SHOWA range of garden gloves. Don’t forget you can collect items when shopping for our groceries too.

I’m sure that you’re all still reeling from the weekend’s shock announcement that tighter restrictions will be in place throughout mainland Scotland from Boxing Day, meaning that all non-essential shops, pubs, and cafes must close, along with other businesses.

The good news is that Garden Centres have been reclassified since the initial March 2020 lockdown, and are now in the list of essential shops, which means that Woodside Plant Centre can stay open!

The bad news is of course, that our delightful tearoom must close from Christmas until restrictions are lifted again. Currently we do not plan to offer a takeaway service as we feel that this would have very limited appeal in mid-winter, but we will keep this constantly under review, and we may change this decision if we feel that there is sufficient customer demand.

For now though, it is “business as usual” until we close for our Christmas Break on Christmas Eve, so do come along this coming week to support us. Here are our revised opening times.

Until Christmas Eve, our tearoom is offering the usual range of soups, sandwiches, fresh scones, cakes, baked potatoes, pigs in blankets rolls, mulled non-alcoholic wine, and hot and cold drinks.

Our Plant Centre is well stocked with Christmas decorations, wild bird food (and we’ve just had a delivery of feeders too), garden tools, garden ornaments, and plants. Don’t forget that we stock a good range of fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as dried food products. Our current highlights are – pomegranites, fresh cranberries, figs, chestnuts, Pink Fir apple potatoes, Conference pears, red cabbage, Bramley apples, chocolate coated peanuts, raisins and ginger and much more. Shopping for food at Woodside is a much nicer experience than supermarket shopping, particularly at this time of year, so do come and have a look at what we do.

As you can see we’ve had an invasion of rabbits! Luckily not the living breathing sort, but attractive garden ornaments to bring a smile to your face. We’ve also now got back in stock birdbaths, slate planters, statues, chickens and ducks. These are all lovely additions to the garden and would make welcome Christmas gifts.

Bird Food

A couple of years ago we stocked locally produced bird cake pillars made with ground corn. I’m pleased to say that Adam, who makes them, has gone back into production with them again, and we have them back in stock. They were really popular when we had them before, both with customers and with our hungry wild birds, and with the weather turning chillier and the nights drawing in, the birds will be grateful for the warming energy boost that these fat pillars offer. They are priced at £9.99 for a pack of 2. We’re also well stocked up with all kinds of bird food to help our feathered friends keep condition over the autumn and winter months that are ahead of us. Remember our bird seed mixes don’t contain corn, so you’ll not get a lot of wastage and mess.

Garlic Doocot

Our first delivery of this Scottish bred and grown variety sold out in record time! More has arrived today, along with some lovely garlicky food items, such as mayonnaise and oatcakes. Our planting garlics are £1.50 per bulb or 3 bulbs for £4. Each bulbs contains on average 5 cloves which are planted individually. You can find full planting instructions on our website here.

New in the Tearoom

Now it’s getting colder we are offering hot jacket potatoes in the tearoom to either sit in, take home or take out into the garden. We still are only able to have limited indoor seating due to social distancing measures, so please be prepared to sit out under the shelter of one of our gazebos. You may want to consider putting on an extra jumper to deal with all this sitting out and outdoor queueing that we have to do at the moment!
We’ve also started to do bacon rolls from 10am – 12pm each day. Perfect to set you up for the day ahead.

Our plants and other garden supplies are continuing to sell quickly, so we are pleased to announce the following new arrivals.

Roses:

We are pleased that after huge demand earlier in the year we have new season roses in stock. The current selection of roses for sale include:

• Fragrant Cloud, Hot Chocolate and Rhapsody in Blue, which are bush roses;
•  a choice of roses with names suitable for present giving, such as Many Happy Returns, The Anniversary Rose, Warm Wishes, For You With Love and Golden 50th.
• Climbing Roses includes Arthur Bell, Compassion, Golden Showers, Handel, Iceberg Climbing, New Dawn and Starlight Express

Perennials:

You all just love your Hellebores, and last week’s batch sold out in no time at all. So we have fresh ones in this week, including Double Chocolate, Shades of Night, Double Cream Speckled, and Smokey Blue.
We also now have Gentians back in stock and the climbing Hydrangea petiolaris which is always very much in demand.

Bedding Plants:

After recent frosts, I expect that many of the summer bedding plants have now finally given up. We have just had a fresh delivery of pansies, violas, bellis and primroses, all suitable for planting out now. We also have bulbs available in the shop to underplant your beds, borders and containers with to plan ahead for Spring colour. We’ve also just had a big delivery of mini cyclamen, as the last batch sold out very quickly. New this week are packs of 6 mini cyclamen which are excellent value at £12.99 per pack. Sinlge plants are £2.99 each, so it’s a good saving to buy the pack. These are suitable for patio planters and do even better in a cool indoor space such as a porch or unheated room. They are really stunning and would brighten up anyone’s day.

Fruit Trees:

I’ve had another delivery of fruit trees and we now have pears back in stock after a few weeks without. Our varieties are Catillac, Concorde, Doyenne du Comice and Sensation. We’ve also got Medlars  and Quince Vranja available again.
For those of you wanting to order bare rooted fruit trees our list is now ready and can be downloaded here.You can come in and place your order, or you can post it with a cheque, or email it with a contact number for us to call you back to obtain payment. Whichever suits you best.

Please note that we have taken peaches, nectarines and cherries off our bare rooted availability, as we feel these do better in our area as potted plants.

Bare Root Hedging:

Our bare rooted hedging list is also now ready and you can download it here.
Please note that the minimum quantity per variety is 5. You can place your orders with us in the same way as the fruit list.

If you have trouble opening any of these price lists please let me know and I can either email you in a different format, or you can pop into the shop and use a printed copy.

Compost:

Compost sales continue to exceed expectations, and we are getting a new delivery in on Monday which will include Multipurpose with added John Innes, Peat-free Multipurpose, and John Innes numbers 1,2 & 3. We currently have in stock ericacous compost, farmyard manure and Dalefoot Potting Compost.

Firewood:

We’ve just had another delivery of logs and kindling for your open fire or stove. This is all locally and sustainable sourced, and is available in handy nets to neatly fit in the boot of your car.

And Finally….

Our fruit and veg sales continue to do well. We get two deliveries each week, on Tuesday and Friday lunchtimes, and we now have a big selection of fruit, vegetables and salad items available. This week’s highlights are UK Russet apples ( I tasted one a couple of days ago, and I think it’s the nicest thing I’ve eaten for ages!), local vine tomatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, enormous cauliflowers from Kelso, Conference Pears, also from Kelso, aubergines and leeks. new this week are quinces and sweet potatoes. We’ve increased the amount of baby salad potatoes. leeks and carrots as we ran out last week. Do tell your neighbours and friend about our fresh range, as the busier we are the more we can stock.

Whilst you are here stocking up on fruit, veg and plants why not have a hot bacon roll which are available again between 10 and 12 daily. We know they are appreciated by the hungry cyclists

We are delighted to launch our own mini green grocery at Woodside this weekend. This is set up in association with Down to Earth of Selkirk who will be supplying us with a range of seasonal vegetables and fruit. We are also harvesting here at Woodside  – some of the produce will be made into soup in the tea room and some of it will be sold in the green grocery too.

Down to Earth is a high street green grocers based on Selkirk and supplying across the central Borders. Their aim is to sell vegetables and fruit grown locally, reducing the food miles, supporting local producers and ensuring you, the customer get fresh and tasty fruit and veg. Read more about them here.

This weekend’s highlights include tomatoes grown in the Borders, UK grown Cox’s apples, potatoes, mushrooms, leeks, parsnips, and plump green grapes from Italy, crisp Pink Lady apples from New Zealand, juicy easy peeler oranges from South Africa and much more.

We’re also beginning to stock a range of dried food products such as lentils, split peas, and broth mix. It’s so much nicer shopping for these items at Woodside, instead of battling round a supermarket, and I’m sure you’d all rather support a small local business rather than a big multi-national company, and you’ve the added bonus that you can buy fruit, veg, plants and cake all in the same shopping trip!

Autumn Planting

Mini cyclamen are now in stock and make a lovley splash of colour in your tubs and baskets. Autumn bedding plants are also available, choose from pansies, violas, myosotis and primulas.

Now is also a good time to start preparing for spring, with our range of spring bulbs and wallflowers.

For late garden colour the dwarf asters are just coming into flower and provide an excellent late nectar source for bees and butterflies. We still have some Phlox and Rudbeckia in flower for you to buy and plenty of plants and shrubs that have finished flowering but still have interesting foliage – plant them now for your summer borders next year. For winter interest why not choose the contorted willow, the twisted stems are very attractive in winter when they are most noticeable.

Keep Warm this winter

As the evnings are getting chillier and night longer you might have started lighting your fire (we have). We now have local logs and kindling for sale and will soon be stocking eco-friendly “coffee logs” made out of recycled coffee grinds.

It’s been busy in the plant shop with boxes and boxes of Spring Bulbs arriving. We are working to get them ready to sell this weekend. Varieties include daffodils, crocus, snowdrops, hyacinth, alliums, miniature iris, and much more.

Tips for planting spring bulbs

Now is the time to get spring flowering bulbs, planted either in the ground or into pots to give cheerful spring colour next year.

• • If planting in pots I’d recommend using specialist Bulb Fibre, supplied to us this year by bulb experts, Taylors Bulbs
  • plant several different types of bulb in one pot to give a succession of flowering times and a variety of heights.
  • Plant autumn/winter bedding plants over the top, such as pansies, violas, forget-me-nots or primroses to give an even brighter and longer display. Wallflowers should be ready in a couple of weeks, and we are taking orders for these just now.

Other New Stock

We’ve also got some new plants in stock just now, including:

• • a beautiful new Astrantia called Burgundy Manor, which is a lovely wine red colour;
  • 4 different varieties of candelabra primulas which are huge plants and look set to produce masses of flowers early next summer;
  • hardy ferns suitable for damp and shady spots in the garden, or for planting in tubs and pots in a cool place. We have a good variety of leaf textures, heights and shapes of this interesting group of plants.
  • More statues and garden ornaments are due in from two different suppliers, following the success of last week’s delivery which sold very quickly.
  • More wild bird food and feeders are also due in.

New Range of Ornamental Garden Pots

We are all looking forward to the release of the new seasons range of ornamental garden pots. The local rep for these is visiting next week with a brand new catalogue and I’ll be placing an order for immediate delivery. I’ll let you know when this comes in.

There is plenty to look forward to in the garden, and with all our plants being container grown, you can plant all year round as long as the ground conditions are suitable. Just now conditions are perfect, with plenty of sunshine to warm the soil and lots of rain to keep new plants well watered!

Best wishes to you all, and hope to see you over the next few days to enjoy our selection of bulbs – browsers in the shop are most welcome!

We now have the first batch of autumn and winter bedding plants for sale. Coose from Violas, Pansies, Myosotis (Forget-me-not) and Primroses which are ready to be planted out now in tubs, baskets and in beds to give colour over the next few months. If your summer bedding plants are all beginning to look tired then now is the time to replace them.

Underplant winter displays with Spring flowering bulbs for extra colour and interest.

Our packs of bedding plants are £3.45 each or 4 for £12 and you can mix and match varieties.

GET A FREE PACK OF BEDDING WITH A FULL LOYALTY CARD until 30th September 2020. Offer limited to 8 packs (8 full cards) per transaction.

It has been a pleasure to see you all enjoying sitting outside in the garden tucking into our scones, cakes and sandwiches. Even if it is raining you can still enjoy the refreshments as we have put two gazebos up to keep you dry. We’ve a new seating area near the wildlife pond which is nicely tucked away, so if the seats in the main garden are full it’s always worth checking this “secret” area for space! You are very welcome to bring your own outdoor seating if you prefer.

New Herbaceous Plants in Stock:

• Ajuga Black Scallop – dark purple leaved ground cover
• Coreopsis – bright daisy like flowers above pretty foliage
• Kniphofia (Red Hot Poker) Nancy’s Red or Tawny King
• Crocosmia (Montbretia) George Davison (yellow) or Walberton’s Miss Scarlet
• Papaver (Poppy) Patty’s Plum – a very popular pinkish purple form
• Sedum Red Sparkle or Herbstfreude – great later summer flowering plants for bees
• Aster (Michaelmas Daisy) Jenny or Marie Ballard – another good late summer plant loved by butterflies
• Salvia Love and Wishes – beautiful flowers and looking lovely just now
• Tiarella Sunset Ridge  or Sprin Symphony – similar to Heucheras but more dainty and green leaved
• Hardy Geraniums – Bob’s Blunder, Rozanne, Buxton’s Variety or magnificum
• Monarda (Bergamot) Cambridge Scarlet or Scorpion.
• Nepeta faassenii (Catmint) – in flower now and attracting lots of bees

Ornamental Grasses in Stock

• Miscanthus Ferner Osten, Silberfeder, or Zebrinus
• Panicum Heavy Metal
• Stipa gigantea
• Imperata cylindrica Rubra (exceptional plants)
• Ophiopogon Nigrescens (not strictly a grass, this is actually in the lily family, but is generally known as the “Black Grass”)

Face Covering Reminder

Just a reminder that all visitors should wear face coverings when entering the plant shop, according to the new rules that came into force in Scotland on 10th July.

Some of you have also been asking about our toilets – yes, we have one toilet now available for customer use – please only use it if absolutely necessary in order to minimise any risks. We have plenty of hand sanitiser on site, both at the entrance gate, and at the tearoom, and sanitiser spray for trolley handles, shopping baskets and carry trays is also readily available. We have a supply of disposable gloves, so if you need any for your visit please feel free to use them. Bins are available outside the tearoom and at the entrance gate.

Woodside remains a very enjoyable place to visit, with a lovely friendly atmosphere, and we welcome browsers, so do come and pay us a visit. We’re also happy to accept cash ( in fact it’s much quicker for us at the tills due to a slow card machine connection), as well as card payments.