Byline: LYNNE ALLBUTT
SOME women get excited by shoes and handbags. For me it's plants, so I was thrilled to find a new nursery the other day.
Mens CufflinksWhen I say 'new', I mean new to me. The Dutch Garden Centre has been quietly indulging gardeners for nearly 30 years.
Cwtched into the countryside just off the M4 at Cardiff Gate it is a plant-aholic's paradise.
No coffee shop, no gift section, no clothing, just healthy, happy beautiful plants. And lots of them.
Owner Jap Deen, pictured, is a Dutchman who has spent his whole life with plants and has a dry sense of humour.
"If I wanted to run a coffee shop, I'd buy a cafe." he says simply. "This is what I know, this is what I love, this is what I do.
"Plants are my life. I grew up in a horticultural family and was working in the Dutch bulb fields from a young age.
"As I grew up I wanted to better myself, so came to the UK and started landscaping. Then I bought this site and developed the nursery.
"I think people should do one thing at a time and do it properly. Garden centres try to do too much and now you even have supermarkets buying garden centres.
"They have no experience of plants, they should stick to selling food."
Even more exciting is the fact his plants are cheap, something which Jap takes as a compliment.
"We have three or Cheap christian audigier four lorries from Holland in here every week.
"They have delivered to all the garden centres and then they come here last. I buy what they have left for what I want to pay. I get a good deal so the customer gets a good deal.
"I used to drive my own lorry to Holland to buy plants from the nurseries and auction houses.
"The Auction House at Allesmere on the outskirts of Amsterdam is the biggest commercial building in the world. It could hold 55 soccer pitches.
"The plants are bought and traded, with buyers coming from all over the world.
"A million plants are sold every day.
It's not financially sensible for me to do that any more.
"It's cheaper and easier to get the plants to come to me now. That's good business sense."
I'm keen to learn from Jap's knowledge and experience, so we spend quite a while talking about the great outdoors.
"The secret of a good garden is the soil," he explains. "It has to be nice soil for the plants to be happy and do well.
"Good soil is nice to see and easy to maintain, you don't need mulches and plastic covering it.
"You just work the hoe through it now and then.
"If you put plants into clay they don't like it; it is hard work for the plants and for the gardener.
"Dig in chipped bark to loosen heavy clay soils, to get it workable.
Sometimes it's necessary to import new topsoil. You will never have a good garden with rubbish soil.
embroidered patches
"You have to manage a garden, especially plants and pruning is important. It's complicated to know when and where to prune properly.
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