Wilko Alternatives?

silverwhistle

I used to use Wilko for many gardening bits and pieces including onion sets and seed potatoes and they were decent qality and good value. Mail order suppliers and many garden centres are expensive and my allotment society doesn't run a shop, so I was wondering if anybody else had seen any alternatives?

OutdoorQueen

The Range are now stocking some Wilko bits.   We also have Boyes which are similar to Wilko but they dont have as many shops..  https://www.boyes.co.uk/storelocator

fatbelly

Trago Mills if you live near one

https://www.trago.co.uk/

Flugelhorn

Boyes, Trago Mills, Poper Job, the Range etc are all good options 

YoungBlueEyes

I've bought various bits from B+M that have been alright. Not top quality but worth the money they charge.

twopenny

Proper job do a good line in seeds, no spectular varieties but 89p a pack and do well.
Seeds picked up in sales, usually autumn at garden centers.
There's a whole basketload of bulbs and seeds sold off at our local hardware shop late autumn.
Poundland do onion sets which are good doers but they didn't have any this year. They sell them randomly spring or summer.

gwynlas

Poundland have always sold some shrubd, roses and fruit bushes I think they might extend their inventory given that theyy have taken over some Wilko shops.

twopenny

Gwynlas, you can hope.
Ours in a small town has gone from Halloween to Christmas to valentines to easter then childrens for the summer holidays.
All replacing gardening.
I'll check out the bigger one in a bigger town if I'm there . That's where there used to be a wilko.

I tried their roses. Poor doers but some lovely flowers and scented. 
I'm thinking these are the remnants from trials that were never going to make it so there may be a treasure in there if you're lucky 

silverwhistle

Thanks for the suggestions. I wander through Poundland occasionally, B&M too and I'm sure there's a Range in the area although no Trago Mills. In Hampshire we have In Excess which is also worth a look, but like many of them sometimes a bit random.

Let's hope Wilko's suppliers still want to make the effort in the UK and are looking for alternative outlets, and the spuds were definitely UK suppliers.

Farway

silverwhistle said:

Thanks for the suggestions. I wander through Poundland occasionally, B&M too and I'm sure there's a Range in the area although no Trago Mills. In Hampshire we have In Excess which is also worth a look, but like many of them sometimes a bit random.

Let's hope Wilko's suppliers still want to make the effort in the UK and are looking for alternative outlets, and the spuds were definitely UK suppliers.

Surprisingly, the UK, specifically Scotland, supplies spuds worldwide. Down to climate and greenflies, apparently.

Climate for lack of Blight and same for greenflies, they don't fly in colder climes, which means Scotland is ideal for seed spuds, just a shame about the midges

RAS

Check out whether any of the other local allotments has a shop? Ours has a "gardener's membership" as well as allotment one and a lot of people n other sites buy from us.

For potatoes, check out local Potato days which will be next month. They are often very busy, so go early. Most sell by the tuber, so you can buy a range of varieties.

For basic garden seeds, in addition to on-line seed companies check out Lidl, which has there own limited range. Much more limited since Brexit but their pea and bean packets are a very good deal. Last year my local one was restocked after the first batch almost ran out and they had some stock of less popular varieties, mainly flowers, into late summer.