Days Out NI
Farm Shop Ballymena, Co. Antrim

Slemish Market Garden

A long, light glasshouse of fruit, vegetables and plants at the ECOS Centre — with a free nature park on the doorstep.

5 photos
Mon–Sat, 10am–5pmClosed Sundays
Free to visitPay for what you buy
Kernohans LaneAt the ECOS Centre, Ballymena
Get directions Official website
30 minHow long
All agesBest for
BothShop & park
On siteParking
Mon–SatClosed Sun

A long glasshouse at the ECOS Centre stacked end to end with fruit, vegetables and plants — and a free nature park with lakes and trails four hundred metres away.

  • What you'll do — walk the length of a proper market-garden glasshouse buying seasonal fruit and veg by the crate, plus bedding plants, rhubarb crowns and local preserves.
  • How long — half an hour in the shop. Add an hour or two if you do the ECOS park next door, which you should.
  • Closed on Sundays. Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm — a later start than most farm shops, so don't turn up at nine.
  • It's a garden centre as well as a greengrocer — geraniums and bedding in season, rhubarb crowns, and plants alongside the produce. Come for the dinner, leave with something to plant.
  • The ECOS Nature Park is next door — free to walk, with lakes and trails, and it turns a shop into a genuine morning out with children.
  • Worth knowing — 4.8 out of 5 across 170 Google reviews, and 98% recommend from over 200 on Facebook. Locally, this place is very well thought of.
Plan your visit

The shop and the park, in one stop

Slemish Market Garden opens Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm, closed Sunday. It sits on Kernohans Lane at the ECOS Centre on the edge of Ballymena, with parking on site. The thing worth planning around is what's beside it: the ECOS Nature Park is a few hundred metres away, free to walk, with lakes and paths — so buy the veg, then take the children round the water. They run day-to-day updates through their Facebook page rather than a website, and you can email [email protected] or ring 07720 541720.

Mon–Sat · 10am–5pm Seasonal fruit & veg Plants & bedding ECOS park next door Parking on site
Don't stop at the shop:

The ECOS Nature Park is a few hundred metres from the door — free, with lakes, trails and open ground — and Ballymena town is a couple of minutes if you need the rest of the messages. Doing the two together is what turns this from an errand into a morning. Stock is seasonal, so what's stacked highest changes every few weeks, which is rather the point of a market garden.

What's on site

What's under the glass

  • 🥕Fruit and vegCrates the length of the glasshouse — cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, potatoes, apples, whatever the season has. Sold the way a market garden sells it, by the crate rather than the pre-pack.
  • 🌱Plants and beddingGeraniums and bedding in season, rhubarb crowns and potted plants. It's a garden centre as much as a greengrocer.
  • 🍯Local preservesJams, chutneys and preserves from Northern Irish producers along the shelves, which is the bit that ends up as presents.
  • 🎃The seasonsPumpkins and gourds stacked on straw at the door in October, bedding in May. Worth calling in at different times of year for entirely different reasons.
Good to know

Everything before you go

Cost
Free to walk in. You pay for what you buy.
Opening
Monday to Saturday, 10am–5pm. Closed Sunday.
Where it is
Kernohans Lane, at the ECOS Centre on the edge of Ballymena, BT43 7QA.
What's stocked
Seasonal fruit and vegetables, bedding plants and potted plants, and preserves from local producers.
Next door
ECOS Nature Park — free to walk, with lakes and trails, about four hundred metres away.
Parking
On site at the ECOS Centre.
Food
No café here. Ballymena town is a couple of minutes away.
Dogs
We haven't been able to confirm a dog policy for the shop. The nature park next door is a better bet for a walk — ring and ask if you want to bring one inside.
Accessibility
Level access into the glasshouse and wide aisles between the crates. For anything specific, a quick call is the surest answer.
Online
They run through their Facebook page rather than a website — that's where seasonal updates get posted.
Reputation
4.8 out of 5 from 170 Google reviews, and 98% recommend from over 200 Facebook reviews.
Contact
07720 541720 · [email protected]
Questions

Before you go

What time does it open?
10am, Monday to Saturday, and it closes at 5pm. Closed Sunday. The later start catches people who assume farm shops open at nine.
Is it a shop or a garden centre?
Both. The glasshouse runs fruit and veg down one side and plants through the season on the other — bedding, geraniums, rhubarb crowns.
Can I make a morning of it?
Yes, and you should. The ECOS Nature Park is a few hundred metres away, free, with lakes and trails. Shop first, walk after.
Do they have a website?
No — they run everything through their Facebook page, which is normal for a small grower and not a warning sign. Seasonal updates go up there.
Is the produce local?
It's a market garden shop stocking seasonal produce alongside preserves from Northern Irish producers. Reviewers rate it 4.8 out of 5, and 98% of over two hundred people on Facebook recommend it.
What's it like at different times of year?
Completely different, which is the fun of it. Pumpkins and gourds on straw at the door in autumn, bedding plants and geraniums in late spring.
Getting there

Slemish Market Garden, Kernohans Lane, Ballymena BT43 7QA — at the ECOS Centre on the edge of town, with parking on site.

Directions on Google Maps Official website See it on our map

Check what's in season: 07720 541720

Nearby

Make more of the day

ECOS Nature ParkFree lakes & trails · 400m Mid-Antrim MuseumFree museum · 2 min Seven Towers LeisurePool · 2 min IMC CinemaBallymena · rainy day
The story

A glasshouse full of what's actually in season

There is something honest about a market garden shop. The stock is whatever is ready, so the thing stacked highest in February is not the thing stacked highest in July, and nobody is pretending otherwise. Slemish Market Garden runs the length of a glasshouse on Kernohans Lane, crates down both sides, prices on cards, and a roof that lets the light in over all of it.

It sells two things at once: dinner and the means to grow your own. Cauliflower, broccoli, carrots and potatoes by the crate, and then geraniums, bedding and rhubarb crowns for whoever fancies doing it themselves. In October the front fills with pumpkins on straw and it becomes, briefly, an entirely different shop.

Locally it is well loved — 98% of more than two hundred people on Facebook recommend it, and it scores 4.8 out of 5 on Google. That kind of number for a vegetable shop tends to mean the same people are coming every week.

And the piece of luck is where it sits. The ECOS Nature Park is four hundred metres away, free to walk, with water and trails and space to let children run. Buy the veg, walk the park, go home with both.

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