Garden centres saw turnover rise slightly to €3.8bn in 2014 following falls over the previous three years.

The improvement is wholly attributable to the rise in house sales, sector organisation Tuinbranche Nederland says.

‘More people are moving house and they redo their new garden with plants, bushes, a fence, tiles and sometimes a pond,’ director Frank van der Heide told broadcaster Nos. ‘This has given sales an impulse because a job like this usually costs thousands of euros.’

Moving house counteracted what would have been a 2% drop in turnover because of the relatively mild winter weather when few flowers and plants were hit by frost, Van der Heide says.

‘We’ve definitely noticed a rise in the number of people who have just moved inquiring about a new garden,’ says Luuc van der Raaij, of Amsterdam gardening firm Stadstuintjes. ‘Sellers are also investing in their properties to spruce up their gardens for a spring sale.’

Garden centre turnover has dropped around 10% since the top year of 2008 – before the start of the economic crisis – when it reached €4.2bn.

Recent attention for vegetable gardens in supermarkets and on television has also helped turnover with demand for small greenhouses rising 9%.

The Albert Heijn supermarket chain has given away 44 million seed pots as part of its kitchen garden campaign.