Great day exploring bournvile area!…read more Only a few mins walk away from Cadbury world, this a great shop to visit on a warm summers day, One of my goals this year is to grow more of my own fruit and veg and found the shop to be a great starting point. I could find everything I need here, the staff were also very helpful to offer me advice too. There's also a free parking area too, after a long day of shopping you can rest your feet in the quaint little café which offer a range of freshly prepared food and even afternoon tea. There's an outdoor area to see all the seasonal plants! We'll be back soon Have a good day everyone, thanks a bunch for reading

OK, so I'm a bit biased, as I tend to automatically love anything green. However, Bournville Garden…read moreCentre is a particularly good haven for all things bright and beautiful that you may fancy in your garden. Personally, I would like almost everything that they stock in my garden. But this is sadly unfeasible. As well as the beautiful plant displays outside, they also have a lovely shop inside, with lots of lovely Emma Bridgewater-style gardening ornamentation as well as things for the boys like barbecues and fire pits. They also do a great Christmas tree service: they will cut and plant to your requirements as well as carrying the darn thing out to your car. The shop always looks amazing at Christmas as well, with lots of lovely hand-crafted decorations. They have their own store card as well, which is great if you're a regular. Which I am. Even if I just spend most of my time strolling around looking at plants rather than actually buying anything. Perhaps I need to get out more....

I'm a big fan of this place. As a garden centre it's a lot bigger than you'd expect, given it's…read morelocation in sleepy Bourenville. There is a large outdoor section with a huge selection of plants and shrubs and the interior boasts a whole host of goods, from the decorative to the useful. As I'm currently taming my large and unruly back garden, I'm often in here looking for dangerous chemicals! The have a 'Gardening Club' reward scheme that is free to join and actually works out as a genuine reward scheme - many is the time I've got to the counter to pay and fished out my card to receive a discount. They also post you a leaflet every month or so with a list of offers and some vouchers.

Since buying a house in the area a couple of years ago I have been dragged, kicking and screaming,…read moreinto the grownup world of DIY. This is something I had hitherto shunned on the basis that I am left-handed and as such at a natural disadvantage when it comes to hammers, nails, power tools and the like. Being a homeowner means that such excuses go out the window and you take on those hundreds of little jobs that need doing. As such, this place has become very useful to me. It might not look much from the outside - in fact, it looks pretty terrible from the outside and is in dire need of a lick of paint (says the DIY expert) but inside it is a treasure trove of washers, screws, drain unblockers, mop buckets, and just about any other product you might need. If you can't find what you're looking for the guy will hunt for it on your behalf and, amazingly, almost never comes up openhanded. He's friendly, helpful and not overpriced. It's actually a pleasure to give him money!

Let's get something straight from the outset, when it comes to DIY I am hopeless and as such I only…read moreever begrudgingly visit a DIY store if my dad asks me to accompany him. So on many an occasion I have found myself inside Kirk's on Raddlebarn Road. It is a store which reminds me of a bygone era, before the high street and before huge chain establishments such as Homebase. The outside of the store has a worn look about it, if anything though it gives the business that added sense of character. The owner of this business seems to have a knack of finding all manner of items which don't seem to be available elsewhere and my dad has often found things at Kirk's which he had long given up hope of locating. It is a friendly place too, with more than reasonable prices and a great level of customer service.

Always has a large selection groceries. toys .sft drinks .dog food and treats recommended.read more

If you haven't discovered Home Bargains yet you're missing out. I always come here before going to…read morethe supermarket. They often have the brand names I am devoted to at a fraction of the price you can get them anywhere else. Why pay £4 for Sensodyne when I can get it here for 99p?! Also, toilet rolls. Don't buy them anywhere else. I could go on for a shocking amount of time about the great deals that can be found here. Admittedly, just like any other discount store some of the stock is a little naff and of a low quality but the branded products are worth the trip. They stock toiletries, dried/packet food, cleaning products, some general household products, toys, confectionary, drinks, alcohol and usually an isle or two of seasonal goods, anything from gardening equipment to fancy dress. But really you're never sure what you might find until you visit. I've not had much contact with the staff. I often find that they're joking around whilst staking the sheaves and there always seems to be a lot of them. I wouldn't say they are particularly friendly but I guess it isn't the sort of experience they are going for and it certainly isn't something I would expect so I don't find myself disappointed. The store always seems clean and in decent order. The only shame is that there is always a queue. On most occasions you won't be able to just pop in. You'll have to go down every isle hunting out deals and things you never knew you wanted. Then you'll have to wait because everyone else has a huge basket full of goodies too! Go. Now. Save money!!

This is a small but well-stocked hardware store of the traditional variety - nothing appears to be…read morein order, the shelves are groaning with stock, there is very little space in what aisles there are, but they appear to have just about anything you could want for all those little jobs around the home - from electrical bits and bobs to plumbing, locks, small tools - you name it, chances are its there, hidden under a box of hanging basket brackets. The couple that run it are helpful and friendly and will locate something for you, and there's a fair chance you'll need their help! Parking can be a bit of a problem as this is right in the middle of Cotteridge. You can sometimes park on the pavement out front, but you'll be better off parking on Station Road, which is a few hundred yards away.

Hardware shops shouldn't be called hardware shops if they aren't higgledy-piggledy, or full of bits…read moreand bobs that you usually see knocking around in your Grandad's garage. (In fact, I think my Grandad's garage could give a lot of hardware stores a run for their money!) Anyway, Qutby's is definitely worthy of hardware shop status, and its tiny premises is jammed full of little nuts, bolts, pins, pieces of wood and much much more. Anything to do with home improvement, Qutby's will sell. Have you ran out of screws? Have you ran out of light bulbs? Have you ran out of glue?..... Head to Qutby's! You could literally go on an on, because they're bound to have it. The only problem is that there's no official order or sections within the shop, so as a new customer, you might struggle to find 'that piece of electrical equipment' that you're after. But obviously never fear to ask, because the staff will always find what you need. It might take them a good old rummage, but they'll get there in the end!

This is a great little independent garden centre and one with a social conscience, so well worth…read moresupporting. It's tucked away halfway up the Umberslade Road, and chances are you may even have passed it without knowing what it is as most of the activity takes place on the large piece of land that sits behind the houses that this place is sandwiched between. The front entrance is a fairly anonymous set of green municipal iron gates and only a small sign tells you that this is, in fact, a garden centre. The place is run by a charity that helps young people with a variety of issues and provides them with horticultural training. As such, all of the plants that that are for sale in the centre have been grown in the nursery out the back. There are a decent selection of plants for sales, ranging from potted, decorative varieties to shrubs, bushes and trees. We bought a cherry tree there last year and for a very reasonable £10 and it's still going strong in our garden. There is a small office/shop that stocks a small selection of branded products, like seeds and fertilisers, and these are also fairly reasonably priced. I often pop down there for bits of cane, or bags of compost, as well as to browse for plants to go into the areas of my garden that I am slowly starting to reclaim from the ivy and the weeds. The guys that run the place are knowledgeable and friendly and I always enjoy having a chat with them over green-fingered matters. It also feels good to be giving your money to and supporting a worthy cause. Highly recommended

This garden centre has a real community spirit about it and I have enjoyed coming here on several…read moreoccasions. It always seems quite busy here and I think that it is quite popular with the locals. They have some lovely plants for sale and they are all grown here too, which is nice to know as some garden centres buy in their plants. The prices are fairly reasonable too and all of the plants have been in good condition when I have been in. Inside the shop they have a variety of plant care products and seeds, which are always useful if you grow your own plants. The people that run the place are really friendly and definitely know their stuff when it comes to plants. They are always willing to offer help and advice. It is a great little place and definitely worth a visit.

The shop-keeper rouses himself from bench-pressing weights in the mini gym that he has out back and…read moregreets me. So what exactly is hydroponics? He explains. Hydroponics is a system of growing plants via an system a called 'ebb and flood'. The plant sits in a top tray on a bed of clay pebbles and nutrient-filled water from a tray below is sucked up to later drain away to the bottom tray, and the cycle continues. This means that there is a constant flow, of water, air (and therefore oxygen), and so the grower can attain higher yields from the plant. The shop sells ebb and flow trays, nutrients, heat lamps and specialist horticultural magazines and literature. Most people starting out in hydroponics might not have a clue of how to get started and the shop-keeper is well used to this. He tells me what I'd need to get started, asks me what I'm growing and the quantity of what I'm growing. Then he sends me off with a more information so I can do some research and come back when I'm ready to buy. The most obvious application for hydroponics is the farming of cannabis plants. If you take off your blinkers though there's a world of growing that hydroponics can be applied to. Chillies, and tomatoes are some other plants that you can get high yields from. Who knows, maybe I'll start with grapes and we'll soon see Chateau Ben Shiraz on sale at craft fairs in the area soon?