THERE'S no going back for a Preston care worker who has packed up her hospital job to set up a gardening business with her fiancee.

Shirley Pendlebury and husband-to-be Jeff Leary, of New Hall Lane, Preston, are preparing to cut the ribbon to their new garden nursery later this month at a popular location on the outskirts of the town.

Former care assistant Shirley will be running the business on a daily basis while landscape gardener Jeff will continue with his job accompanied by Shirley's son Lewis, 20, as apprentice.

And the couple are already making big plans for the future with ideas of branching out and running a garden maintenance and planting service at the nursery.

For Shirley, 38, the new nursery business in Newton-le-Scales, near Blackpool, is a job involving skills unlike those required in her former career.

While she is used to nursing sick people in her former job as a care assistant at Royal Preston Hospital's cancer unit care and at the children's clinic in Chorley and South Ribble Hospital, Shirley now has to tend the needs of plant life.

But for Jeff, 43, the business is a dream come true and an opportunity too good to turn down.

"Opening a nursery was something I always wanted to do later in life," said father-of-two Jeff. "But it has come a lot sooner than I initially expected."

According to Jeff the previous owner decided to sell up after closing for the winter and, as a regular customer, he was given first refusal.

Now the couple, who have been partners for more than a decade, plan to open Penlea Nursery -- named after themselves -- on February 22.

Expert staff will be on hand to answer gardening questions as well as a reference library and Internet access offering gardening websites for those who prefer to browse.