Monthly Archives: February 2012

Shackletons are a major supplier of high quality, designer garden furniture by a number of leading garden furniture manufacturers and major brands. We specialise in many different types and styles of garden furniture, so there is plenty of choice for you to select the ideal outdoor furniture for you. We have a wide variety of garden furniture, ranging from garden chairs, garden table sets, garden benches and even sun loungers and sunbeds, aswell as many more items. We really do have all the best possible options in regards to outdoor furniture for you to relax on and enjoy the contentment of sitting in the garden or patio area. We have many well known brands for you to choose from, including Neptune Garden Furniture, Bellagio Garden Furniture, Bridgman Garden Furniture and also Westminster Garden Furniture to name just a few of the designers whose quality products we offer. We also have quite a selection of patio furniture aswell and these items come in many diverse materials, such as Wicker Rattan Garden Furniture, Teak Garden Furniture and Stainless Steel Garden Furniture. To compliment the garden furniture and also the outdoor furniture, we sell many top quality garden furniture accessories, which include outdoor cushions, garden furniture covers and many more items for you to choose from. We have a fully functional online store from which you can choose the furniture that appeals to you and order directly online.

Why not visit the gift department at Shackletons Home & Garden Centre for a wide selection of gifts & greetings cards for Mum this Mothers Day?

Treat her to something special from our new range of Nougat Toiletries, whether it be the Nougat Tuberose & Jasmine Complete Hand Care set or Nougat Fig & Pink Cedar Body Souffle or show her how truly special she is by presenting her with a Nougat Cherry Blossom Bathing Gift Set comprising of 3 luxury moisturising & conditioning treatments.......

Is your Mother a lover of jewellery? Then, we here at Shackletons have a brand new & exciting range of silver jewellery by PoM (piece of mind). Choose from earrings, necklaces', rings & bracelets all beautifully gift packaged for you.

Whatever the ocassion, the Gift Department @ Shackletons Home & Garden Furniture has something for EVERYONE.

Neptune’s expertise in outdoor furniture has enabled Shackletons Home and Garden Furniture Centre to bring you their 2012 collection of furniture. Everyone’s home and way of living is individual. What Neptune has aimed to create is a style for everyone. Be it the sleek 21st century styling of the Murano suite, the elegant curves and sweeps of the Portland and Monaco or their beautifully hand woven all weather wicker of Cadiz suite and Pesaro suite. With so many styles, sizes and designs the hardest decision will be which one to choose.

Neptune’s extensive All-Weather ticker collections have been designed to stand up to whatever the weather has to offer! Crafted from an all weather weave these maintenance free ranges will bring a chic, modern feel to any garden or outdoor living space. For when you really want to kick back and relax, Neptune offer a range of sofas and lounge suites suitable for the garden such as the Cadiz lounge suite, the Murano Sofa Set and the Monaco Suite, all giving you a low maintenance high quality area in which to take in those hot summer nights.

Polished granite and stone table tops like the Portland dining suite or the Provence dining set, beautifully coupled with wrought iron and stainless steel table bases provide the core of Neptune’s metal and stone ranges. Whether you are trying to capture the chic of the French Riviera or the sophistication of the Italian classical style their metal and stone ranges have the perfect set for you and can be seen in our showroom here at Shackletons Home and Garden centre.

As fashions come and go, timber quietly continues to lead the field. From teak to oak, Neptune’s timber sets are built to last! Whether it is a traditional feel, like the Adirondack chair and footstool, or a Hampton steamer, or maybe take a look at the Turnberry dining suite for a modern twist on a classic look, their timber ranges have it all. The outdoor benches such as Canterbury and Hatfield are carefully designed to provide both architectural beauty and comfort and can be left to age gracefully to a silver grey or be painted to your own personal taste selecting from a choice of their extensive paint pallet.

Rattan outdoor furniture is considered to be one of the best types of furniture and a beautiful addition when it comes to restyling your garden, patio or decking area. Providing a calm and relaxed feeling to its onlookers, that blends in elegantly with the natural outdoor deco. With great styles to choose from, we invite you to put as much passion into your all weather wicker furniture as you do for your indoor furniture. After all, everyone wants to spend more time relaxing outdoors. So why not make the most of the warm summer months and treat yourself and your guests to an all weather wicker furniture set that truly defines your style! When looking for rattan garden furniture always try to purchase the best quality that your budget will allow. Quality rattan garden furniture will last you a very long time and is timeless in design. ‘Buy cheap – buy twice’. Here at Shackletons Home and Garden your options are endless whether it’s a Westminster woven Lounge Suite, a Bridgman all weather rattan wicker Dining set or Barlow Tyrie sun loungers the choice is endless and our trained sales team will be more than happy to take you through all the options available and help you decide the right set for you and your garden!

Rattan Garden Furniture and Resin Weave Garden Furniture is actually the same thing, they have different names because there is such a wide range of different Weave types whether you’re looking for a rattan garden chair, a rattan sofa set or a rattan table and chairs. Some of the weave options available are:

7mm Round Rodded Weave,

5mm Round Rodded Weave,

3mm Round Rodded Weave,

2mm Round Rodded Weave,

13mm Flat Weave and

7mm Flat Weave.

These weave options all look different and therefore they will impact on your decision when deciding which set to buy.

Every piece of furniture, from the rustproof and powder coated aluminium frames to the polyethylene wicker itself, are made of the latest outdoor materials designed to resist the wear and tear of mother nature and require very little maintenance, with no need to worry about fading, warping, chipping, or any of the problems of natural wicker furniture. To clean your garden furniture after the winter we recommend a wash down with a soft hand brush using warm soapy water, and then a rinse with a hose pipe or clean water will keep the synthetic weave that’s designed to withstand exposure to sun and weather, looking and feeling beautiful for years to come.

If you would like to see the different types of Rattan Weave or Resin Weave available please don't hesitate to contact us on 01200 448888or come and visit us in the largest UK outdoor garden furniture showroom at Shackletons Home and Garden Centre.

It’s time to start thinking about the types of seeds you are going to have a go at growing this year and it’s never been a better time to choose! Unwins seeds are offering a great seed promotion , when you buy any three packets of seeds, it can be flower seeds, vegetable seeds it doesn’t matter you can choose a free packet of seeds from the promotion range! They aren’t just any seeds they are from the fantastic Gro-sure range of seeds, a range of seeds guaranteed to give the best results for your garden.

The Gro sure range has been selected for their germination, vigour, ease of sowing and disease resistance. The free seeds choices are Tomato seed (Precious) a high yielding cherry tomato which produces large numbers of sweet cherry size fruits, great to eat picked straight off the plant or add them to a summer salad. There’s also carrot seed (Charlemagne), an excellent carrot, high yielding and long cropping, quick to mature to give you sweet flavoured carrots all through the season. Lettuce seed (Nobellan), a great butterhead type lettuce with a lovely soft velvety texture and great crispy flavour. Nobellan is highly disease resistant and produces great tasting lettuce over a very long period, ideal for adding to salads or perking up to that homemade sandwich. If it’s free flower seeds your after  then look no further than Wallflower (Dark purple), the first ever hybrid wallflower, a very attractive uniform dwarf bushy plant producing  lots of flowers and a delightful scent early in the season. Fantastic to grow in containers or in garden beds or borders this hardy biennial won’t let you down.

So if it’s free seeds your after don’t miss out on this great deal from Unwins seeds, remember, only available while stocks last at Shackletons Home and Garden Furniture Centre!

Ever fancied yourself as a Mastermind of gardening knowledge? You know your herbs from your weeds, all those Latin names for flowers and, perhaps, you even know more about trees than your own family tree. Why not, then, show off this immense gardening knowledge at our up-coming celebrity quiz hosted here at Shackletons Home & Garden Centre!
Taking place on Tuesday 13th of March, our charity quiz night will be part of the UK-wide celebration of Garden Re-Leaf day – a perfect way of getting everyone in the spirit for the gardening year ahead as well as raising money for charity.
Our quiz will feature eight fast-paced rounds of questions set by gardening’s elite celebrities; including Alan Titchmarsh, Christine Walkden, Toby Buckland, Pippa Greenwood, Bob Flowerdew and Joe Swift who have all recorded questions on a special Garden Re-leaf day CD. There will even be a picture round contributed by BBC Gardener’s World Magazine.

But it’s not just about fun and games; all proceeds raised from ticket sales will be donated to Greenfingers, the garden industry’s charity dedicated to creating magical gardens for children’s hospices.

We’ll even have a raffle starting on the night; for just £1 you can be entered into our draw to win a “Grow Your Own Kit”, which is worth £100. Even if you can’t make our quiz night our raffle tickets will be on sale all through March with a winner being picked out on Monday April 2nd.

Tickets to the event, which starts at 6pm and will be held in our Pavilion Restaurant at the centre, cost just £2. You can even get a yummy supper of vegetable broth for an additional £3, and the bar will be open for those looking for refreshments. Just call us on 01200 440760 to book your place for what is sure to be a fun-filled evening!

Here at Shackletons Home & Garden Centre, we specialise in supplying a great range of outdoor clothing. There's something for the entire family in The Potting Shed- this week we have been looking at the new ranges of country casual clothing from Jack Murphy, Hoggs of Fife, Le Chameau, Aigle, and our favourite, Weirdfish!

Although we dont sell clothing on our website, we have a large range instore- why not come along and have a look?

We will shortly be increasing our collection to include all the Spring/Summer clothing, including Tee-Shirts, Tops, Knitware, Shirts and accessories- keep watching for the latest updates or join us on Facebook!

Despite the fact that much of the UK has seen wintry conditions including snow and ice in the last few days, some homeowners are likely to be thinking about about the upcoming spring and planning what outdoor furniture they want to purchase ahead of the longer evenings that are just around the corner when spring arrives.

Shackletons are a supplier of high quality garden furniture and among the wide range of products we have available, you are sure to find something that fits in to your garden. But each year sees a different style of furniture being in demand in particular and individuals will want to make sure this area of their home is on trend in order to impress their friends, family and relatives.

Bright colours are going to be everywhere over the course of the rest of the year, which means it can be affordable for homeowners to give their garden a whole new look, just by splashing out on a tin of paint in order to coat their fences or decking in a new shade. And with that in mind, it will be important to select the right type of patio furniture that fits in with the new colour scheme.

Pastels always go well together, but brighter colours will look great together when spring arrives in just a few weeks time. With the sunshine bouncing off your garden furniture and reflected off your colourful fences and patios, it will look like a fashionable and exotic home from home that you will just love to spend some time in as the long evenings stretch out in front of you.

With the weather about to turn for the better, what could be better than investing in some new reading material and patio furniture as barbecue season nears ever closer? Get in touch with us here at Shackletons and we can help you to find the right type of furniture for your taste, budget and style of home.

What are the Best Types of Multipurpose Compost?

Now is the time to get down to the garden centre and pick up some great bargains on Westland multipurpose compost. This fantastic, all-purpose compost is ideal for any type of planting. If it’s seed compost you’re after, then look no further than the John Innes seed and cutting compost. This soil based compost is guaranteed to give your seeds a great start!

If you want to really spoil your seeds go for Westland’s Surestart seed and cutting compost. What is Surestart? Well, it is a new germination and establishment boosting formulation with natural plant extract.  Its fine grade and reduced peat content, ensures closer seed contact, for swift, successful seed germination, (up to 25% more germination) and strong, healthy seedling development and growth. It has a unique formulation that releases nutrients to the plant as and when required. A first class seed and cutting compost, I would strongly recommend that if you haven’t tried it already; you give it a go, as you won’t be disappointed.

As well as Westland compost, Shackletons Home and Garden also stock Arthur Bowers multipurpose compost and Miracle Gro compost, a well-recognised, all-purpose compost that has grown in popularity due to its many TV advert appearances. A firm favourite with Shackletons customers and with some great 3 for 2 deals on currently, 2012 should be another great year for Scotts with their Miracle Gro multipurpose compost fomulation.

Shackletons Home and Garden Centre is the premier stockist of an extensive range of Teak Garden Furniture by leading brands such as Gloster, Barlow Tyrie, Westminster, Alexander Rose and Neptune Classics.  We have a large range of garden tables, chairs, garden benches and patio furniture sets

Teak is a dense, coarse-grained hardwood that has been used for centuries in furniture making and is renowned for being the world’s best wood for outdoor furniture due to its own natural high oil content that is highly water resistant. This content alone can help protect the Teak from decay, insects, and bacteria ensuring that it lasts for many years and weathers to a beautiful silver grey colour. During the first 12 months of weathering you may find the grain on your garden bench or Teak garden furniture set lifts slightly and small cracks may appear in the end grains, this is a perfectly normal weathering procedure and only adds to the character of your Teak Wood garden furniture.

We are often asked how to care for your Teak Outdoor Garden Furniture whether it is a garden bench or a complete Teak Patio set- we recommend this is done with a soft household brush across the grain and some warm, mild soapy water. Wash the product down after cleaning with cold water. For easy maintenance we recommend leaving your teak product to weather naturally to an elegant silver grey but if you prefer to keep the colour similar to the original colour, then we recommend the use of a wood treatment such as exterior Isoguard treatment or Cuprinol garden furniture teak oil which are products that protect your furniture from the elements and restore their appearance. Before applying or reapplying any treatments the teak must be completely clean and free from any colour variations or black spots- this may require a degree of light sanding.

The expert team at Shackletons Home and Garden Centre are always on hand to answer any questions that you may have regarding the care of your outdoor teak garden furniture!