Yarnton Nurseries Garden Centre

Visited this afternoon after an absence of about 6 months. This is a good, comprehensive garden centre but in dire need of a facelift. Everything is run down and shabby, e.g. spilt cat litter on a filthy carpet. However, it’s good for aquaria, pets and various fashion items if one is over 50! Edinburgh Woollen Mill, Dash, Eastex and Mosholu all have concessions, plus there is a handbag department. Also a craft centre with a very comprehensive range of all you’d need for cardmaking, beading, etc.
Foodwise, the café is another area in need of refurbishment and decent staff training. I watched an entirely disinterested girl making a half hearted attempt at clearing tables, the expression on her face clearly showing her contempt for the task and customers. We had tea (drinkable) and cake, of which there was a poor selection.
A very helpful young man pointed the way to the kuni kuni pigs but they were nowhere to be seen! The pets dept. also has a huge range of bird feeding accoutrements and also cat and dogs foods.
This place, it can, I guess, count as a ‘destination’ on a wet Sunday afternoon as there’s not much else to do in the Kidlington area! The fish and pet areas are nice for the kiddiwinks.

Excellent garden centre offering a wide variety of shops inside. First of all you are greeted by the works, then the kitchen shop, christys towels, cotwold clothing, shirleys aquatics. My children love looking at the freshwater and tropical fish and seeing the rabbits and guineas in the pet store. There is also an excellent antiques centre run by sally and michael. The café does lovely food and there is a small inside play area so the kids can play safe whilst you enjoy your latte.

A garden centre with lots of added extras. There is a café (with a little play area for very small children). There is a branch of «the Works» selling books and stationary. There is a branch of Cotton Traders and a picture framers. There is a great shop called eco-​street which has lots of different styles of low energy light bulb wind-​up radios and wind-​up torches. They even have a wind-​up front bike light which was going to be the invention that made my fortune since I’d looked all over the place for them. I’m now going to have to invent a wind-​up rear light in order to make my fortune since for some reason they don’t stock the back lights. They also refill Ecover washing up liquid and cleaning stuff and have bigger stuff such as photovoltic cells if you are thinking of going seriously green.
And then there are the fish and reptiles. All parents of young children know that to have a cheap afternoon out on a rainy winter’s day you go to somewhere that sells fish. This place has a Shirley Aquatics concession that sells beautifully displayed tropical fish and live corals. They also sell reptiles and stick insects. And sometimes they’ll get the snakes out and let you stroke them.
They do stock boring, grown-​up things like hot tubs, swimming pools, garden sheds and even plants. And useful things like mouse traps. But lots of people go just to potter around and enjoy ourselves and it is a great place for doing just that.