CHOOSE GARDEN CENTRES BY COUNTY BELOW
This independent review of Cherry Lane Glebe Garden Centre was written by David Marks and was last updated in March 2026.
This is an in depth review by a real human as a result of visiting this garden centre, no Artificial Intelligence is involved! We reviewed the inside and plant sales areas, took pictures (see lower down this article) and checked out the cafe. The cafe check involved ordering and tasting the food and reporting our findings for you to judge.
Entrance to Cherry Lane Glebe Garden Centre
Glebe Garden Centre first opened in 1975. It was brand new and purpose built on a greenfield site by Roy Carter. In 1979 Roy moved to the Isle of Man and the garden centre was sold to Bernard Hanraads and Mary Knifton. The garden centre then underwent two major expansions in 1990 and 2002. These increased the amount of land and also doubled the undercover sales area.
Cherry Lane purchased the Glebe Garden Centre in February 2016 and renamed it to Cherry Lane Glebe making it the 10th garden centre in the Cherry Lane group.
Yes, Cherry Lane Glebe Garden Centre is dog friendly. Dogs are allowed in all areas of the garden centre including a designated area of the cafe. It was not clear to us which area of the cafe is designated as dog friendly.
Palmers at Enderby - 5 miles away
Sapcote Garden Centre - 9 miles away
Kibworth Garden Centre - 8 miles away
SIZE: The Watering Can Cafe at Cherry Lane Glebe is medium to large size, we guess that there are around 30 tables.
FOOD TYPE: The cafe serves standard type food for a garden centre. Breakfast service ends at 11.30, lunch service begins at 11.30. Service finishes at 4pm each day.
There is a wide range of food on offer at this cafe and most people will find several choices which suit them. There is a dedicated children's menu.
There is also a dedicated "Senior's" menu which has a good choice. We were particularly impressed by the price of one "Senor's" lunch time choices, £8.25 or soup and a sandwich.
FOOD QUALITY: We sampled a ham sandwich priced at £5.95 and an Americano coffee which is cheaper than most other garden centre cafes. See the picture below.
Ham Sandwich at Cherry Lane
The salad which came with the sandwich was attractively presented and tasted good. The sandwich itself was rather dry with only one side of the bread buttered although the ham / gammon itself was fine. The coffee was tasty and hot. So all in all for the price it was about average.
DECOR: The decor was basic with plastic tables and chairs - not particularly clean. The overall impression of the cafe area was that it is rather drab and needed some redecoration.
When we visited in very early March, the cafe was cold and should really have been warmer - this is not an area which encourages its customers to linger over a meal!
View of the cafe at Cherry Lane Glebe
OUTDOOR SEATING: The outdoor seating area was very pleasant with good views, a far better place to have a meal (on sunny days) compared to the indoor area. It has about 15 tables each with a parasol, basic but attractive.
Cafe outdoor area at Cherry Lane Glebe
SERVICE: Service is to your table after placing your order at the main desk. We waited 20 minutes or so for our basic meals to be served to our table. The staff were very pleasant but appeared to be rather overwhelmed at times.
Cherry Lane Glebe has a medium to large plants area. Disappointingly there are no signs to plant groups which makes it difficult to find particular plants. The plants are clearly bought in but were in good condition.
Similar garden centres have a full range of plants by March time but this was not so with Cherry Lane Glebe. Several of the plant bays were empty.
The design is totally uninspiring, little thought has been expended to make the area interesting. Prices were slightly lower than average. The paths are solid and wide enough.
The inside sales area is a mixture of standard garden centre items and an inordinate amount cheap kitchenware. The food section is very uninteresting unless you fancy buying baked beans and the like from a garden centre. We found little to recommend in this area of the garden centre.
Outdoor garden furniture
If you enjoy walking round a garden centre for an hour or so then Cherry Lane Glebe will not suit you. The choice of garden furniture is minimal. There is a clothing area but again, the choice is restricted.
Clothes at Cherry Lane Glebe
The choice of houseplants is extremely restricted.
The car park is too small for the number of customers. We saw several cars circling the car park in search of a free space. This was on a mid week visit in March. This can only be worse at weekends.
The number of disabled bays was only six and all were occupied when we visited.
Disabled access, both inside and outside, is excellent at this garden centre, however see our comments in the CAR PARK section above.
ADDRESS:
Cherry Lane Glebe Garden Centre
Foston Road
Countesthorpe
Leicester LE8 5QP
GOOGLE MAP:
Click here for a Google map showing the location of Cherry Lane Glebe Garden Centre.
OWNER:
Cherry Lane Garden Centres, part of the QD Group
TELEPHONE NUMBER:
0116 277 1570
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