This week, Robert Gleave & Sons garden centre will begin welcoming customers to its new outdoor Willow Tree café.

"For the past seven or eight years, we've had a really successful café within the garden centre, and then Covid hit and we had to close it," says Robert Gleave's Sal Halpin.

Even as other indoor eateries began to reopen, the garden centre decided that this space was not conducive to social distancing measures.

"So we've put that on hold, and in the meantime, we've built an outside café, because that solves most of the problems!

"The idea is to make it 'lockdown-proof'," Sal explains. Even if there is another lockdown, the café hopes to be able to continue with a takeaway service, securing its employees jobs until normality resumes.

With the same chefs, the same popular dishes and the same Halloween and Christmas season themes, the café will seek to emulate the success of its indoor counterpart.

However, this time, customers will be able to listen to the birdsong drifting from the nearby aviary, while they sit surrounded by flowers.

The café will also be using compostable packaging only, to help reduce plastic waste.

Excited about this new project, Sal says, "I'm expecting a lovely influx of the old regulars. We've had people knocking on the door for weeks and weeks saying: "Come back! When are you opening again?" So it's really nice to be able to say that we're doing something.

"As with our other café, this will develop over time into what we want it to be. But with the same staff, the same menu and with the same environmental considerations as before, hopefully we will be able to keep the five-star rating that we have now and build on it."

Thanks to the DIY section of its store, Robert Gleave & Sons were able to stay open for much of lockdown, and staged a huge delivery operation for their many loyal customers.

"We didn't put anyone on furlough, we didn't need to," says Sal. "We also haven't had to lay anybody off, which is great because we're all so close here it would have been really awful.

"As a business we've come together as a team. Everyone has taken on different roles, taken on different jobs, helped each other out and covered hours when necessary. We've all pulled together and got each other through it, which feels lovely."

After successfully weathering the lockdown period, Robert Gleave & Sons hope that they are ready for whatever challenges the autumn and winter bring, and that their customers will enjoy their new al fresco dining experience.

The café will be open seven days a week, 9am – 3pm. Visit Robert Gleave & Sons' website for further details.