Retailers

If there was ever an Aladdin's Cave for landscapers then Nailsea Patio
Supplies is it and John Marshall the owner is the Genie of the Lamp!

A tiny part of the vast array of hard landscaping products: The land on the horizon is another storage area mostly for natural stoneHere, between the A38 near Bristol and the M5 right next to Nailsea Railway Station, you’ll find all those impossible to find hard landscaping materials that you need in any quantity: paving, walling, both ‘recon’ and natural, brick, stone, slates, gravel to pebbles of every size from every corner of the country and mulching materials of every type and colour imaginable from shredded tyres to broken glass. And the prices? They are not design for the pick and mix hand scoop, we talk in tonnes and square metres here and the prices encourage you to buy in those sorts of quantities. There are ornament and containers, pergolas and archways. On top of that there is fencing, edging, sleepers (old and new), timber and the decking. There is proper top soil too and silver-sand for horticultural use; I haven’t seen that being sold by the ton for years. John even recycles old building products for use as hardcore or footings or fancy mulches. There is a lot of recycling going on here. Wait until you see some of the exotic mulches that seem straight out of an outré garden designers’ handbook with crushed and tumbled coloured glass,bricks, metal, rubber and most attractive of all, recycled toilet bowls!

The history of Blagdon Water Gardens has been some what chequered, but don’t think trade has ever been bad. Nothing could not be further from the truth; with good management you could sell dead matches on that site and still make a profit. The site has tremendous potential and that is what the present owner David Smith is slowly coming round to exploiting.

What is making it a success now is the basic ideal behind the centre, that here is where you can get everything you need to create a water garden. You can even get the spade and shovel. Basic sand and cement you willThere is certainly no shortage of stock and if there is a compliant it is that you are spoilt for choice. need to get from a builders merchant, but from the liners to hose clips, from the underlay to planting baskets and aquatic soil, from plants to fish, it’s all here.

Fortunately the site and the shop are huge enough to give you, not only a complete range of all the products you might need, but also a choice of different ranges from different manufacturers so that you can choose products to suit your budget. Although they try to keep away from products that are so cheap they hardly see out their guarantees, they stock ranges of good quality products that are exceptional value for money. These are side-by-side with products that are renown for their exceptional quality and reliability and so carry price tags commensurate with their reputation. Even these are at exceptionally low prices though. Because they have the room to buy and stock in large quantities to feed the demand from the large customer base, they have the opportunity to negotiate keen discounts especially in the pre-season, when manufacturers are keen to off-load products and get them out of their warehouses. These discounts get passed onto the customers, which in turn feeds the demand.

THE COMPLETE WATER GARDEN SPECIALISTS

When good advice comes free with every purchase, there is not only the knowledge that you have made an informed choice, but whatever that purchase was, you know that it was appropriate. If it was a fish, you know it will survive; if it was a dry product, you know it will work and if it was a treatment, you know it will be effective. If that information were not freely available you would pay for it because you know that is the sort of knowledge that will save you money in the long run. Where can you get it? You certainly wont find it in the 'pile 'em high, flog 'em cheap' DIY sheds. You need a connoisseur of water garden products and our first retailer of the month is one such, and to get it, you will have to wend you way right down to the tip of Pembrokeshire within ten minutes drive from Tenby - Manorbier.