Fern in a gloomy corner

Pete and I finally made time for our annual Valentine's Day trip to a nursery or garden centre. A few weeks ago a friend told us about a small nursery in Market Deeping that we'd never visited, so we decided to be adventurous and see what it had to offer.

It's associated with a farm, and the entrance is down a track marked by a handwritten sign and arrow. We were the only people in the car-park, and the nursery itself was somewhat scruffy and completely opposite to all the standard garden centres, which sell food and generalised tat. This was all about the plants, and there were many gems that I'd never seen before, though there was no real effort to provide any information or really to encourage people to buy them! 

We went round a couple of times, and found a small group of ferns in a rather damp corner of the section containing plants for shade - one of the cultivars of Soft Shield-fern I think. In the end we selected five plants of species that might thrive in our garden, though a couple are quite experimental. By this time a rather scruffy young man had appeared and he took our money in a  garden shed. He clearly knew about his plants and loved each one, so it was good to talk. We loved the non-commercial vibe and will certainly return again later in the year.

By contrast, our favourite farm shop moved into larger premises last August. It started out as a small, family-run affair but now it occupies a large purpose-built shop with a cafe and landscaped gardens. The large car-park was nearly full and the cafe was heaving so after browsing the very wide range of foods, mostly at the expensive end of the range, we left with a pot of their home-made coleslaw (very good!), some carrots, a loaf of Lincolnshire plum-bread and some Lincolnshire Poacher cheese. Our afternoon tea was taken at home!