HOW TO... MODEL A GARDEN CENTRE
The garden centre is a great British institution and there are now over 2000 in Britain. They started before the railways in the form of nurseries, but it was a highly-fragmented industry until the 1950s and 1960s, when pot plants took off and there was a new housing boom. This started the modern concept of a garden centre and now there is one near all urban areas of any size making it an ideal modelling subject.
Most garden centres have distinct zones: outside plant areas, a greenhouse for indoor plants and a building for other sales. There are kits on the market that can help with this and you can easily combine several to produce an overall design. I have chosen this method and the main kit I have employed is the Gaugemaster Fordhampton Garden Centre kit.
A project like this that involves lots of items is ideal for the modeller