Loida's GardenCentre

Loida De Leon grew up farming rice, fruit, vegetables and coffee in the mountains of Nueva Vizcaya on Luzon before settling in the Northern Rivers, where she turned that hands-on growing background into a garden centre beside Alstonville's heritage-listed former butter factory. The stock runs to seeds, seedlings and plants for home gardeners — vegetable and herb seedlings, flowering shrubs, roses and fruit trees among them — alongside basic garden products, rather than a large-format hardware-style range. De Leon is often on the floor herself, talking through soil, seasons and what will actually hold up over a Northern Rivers summer. It is a small operation built on personal knowledge rather than volume, open Monday to Friday, 8am to 4pm, and Saturday mornings until 1pm, closed Sundays. Worth a stop for anyone building a vegetable patch or flower bed while passing through the Ballina hinterland.