About Holme for Gardens

Holme is a family business run by Simon and Liz Goldsack. Holme is all about the place, the beautiful surroundings, the relaxing ambience, the gorgeous plants, the gardens, the birdsong and most of all about people enjoying themselves.

As well as an extensive garden centre, with friendly and knowledgeable staff who are happy to share their expertise, we also have the Orchard Café, gift shop and our very special planted gardens.

The Holme ethos can be summed up as; “Holme is a place where people who like gardens and the outdoors choose to spend their day off, to relax and to be inspired”.

At Holme for Gardens, visitors can expect to find a wide range of plants, from traditional favourites to more exotic varieties. The Holme for gardens Orchard Café serves Holme-made meals and refreshments, specials of the day, cakes and cream teas from 9am to 5pm every day

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Meet The Team

Our team of friendly staff at Holme are always happy to provide advice and tips for your garden.

Stokes

Chief Hole Diger

Some of you may have seen a black and tan flash streak past and that will have been Simon’ dog Stokes. Never without a wag in his tail, he often has to be chased out of the shop when he has his eye on yet another squeaky toy. His selective hearing can usually be overcome with a biscuit bribe or a game of ball

Simon Goldsack

Director

Simon started Holme for Gardens in 1993 after working at a garden centre locally. He qualified at Writtle College and has put his horticultural training to good use designing not only our fabulous gardens here at Holme, but also many local gardens and projects. He is always developing new ideas in the gardens and garden centre, as long as it leaves enough time for his beloved cricket and supporting Bournemouth Football Club.

Liz Goldsack

Director

Liz joined Holme in 1995 when she married Simon and has seen Holme through all its many changes from dairy farm to garden centre. She has worked in all the departments, and is still in charge of houseplants and gifts. Liz’s most recent project is in the creation of a kitchen garden area to provide and showcase produce and flowers for the café and shop.

Sue Shivlock

Accounts & Management

Sue is the glue that holds Holme together. She completes the accounts, personnel matters and is general trouble sorter
and fixer. Unfailingly unflappable, she can take a turn on the tills, stock the shelves, help a customer and reboot the tills,
all whilst answering the phone and keeping a smile on her face.

Security

Garden Centre

TJ is a rescue dog with a slightly nervous disposition which our staff and customers are gradually breaking down. A biscuit treat always helps! He is never far from David, but likes his bed in the little office on a cold day, or when it gets too busy outside.

David

Manager

Garden Centre

A keen gardener and allotment holder himself, David is an expert plantsman with many years of experience and a broad knowledge of everything gardens and gardening. He has been the plant manager at Holme for over 10 years and knows our customers well, “They like the traditional garden plants but also enjoy introducing something rare and special into their gardens”. With all his connections in the trade David can find you just the right plants and tools to make your garden as good as it can be.

Dawn

Seasonal Colour Supervisor

Garden Centre

Dawn is our bedding and annual plants manager and has grown the department hugely since taking over 3 years ago. She has found new suppliers and varieties and is always on hand to make the displays look beautiful, along with giving good advice on not only seasonal colour but also can help with anything else that grows in your garden.

Hamish

Supervisor

Holme Shop

Having joined us as shop manager in 2023, Hamish previously run a very successful local building company, and now finds himself enjoying the customers and day to day running of a busy garden centre shop and tills area. He is calm and thoughtful and has built up a good relationship with new suppliers already helping Holme to a wider range of products for our customers and visitors.

Kayleigh

Manager

Orchard Café

Kayleigh is the Orchard café manager, taking the reins just over 3 years ago. She has many talents, not only in the kitchen preparing the delicious meals you can enjoy at Holme, but also developing new menu ideas, finding new suppliers, keeping the customers happy and making the Orchard cafe the lovely place it continues to be.

James

Head Chef

Orchard Café

James qualified as a chef from Bournemouth university and has used his knowledge of the trade well since joining us 11 years ago. As Head Chef he is keen to try new dishes and recipes, whilst retaining the firm favourites our customers like best. Many of you will have spotted his cheerful grin and most will have tried some of his delicious meals on a visit to the Orchard.

Chris

Chef

Orchard Café

We were fortunate enough to have Chef Chris recently join us in the Orchard, and already he has proved himself to be a huge asset in the café with his delicious special curries and attention to detail. He has many years catering experience locally and will know most of our customers and just how they like their meals to be.

Sonia

Assistant Manager

Orchard Café

Sonia is assistant manager in the Orchard and has been at Holme almost as long as Simon. She knows our customers very well and is always bubbly, cheerful and on hand in the café, as well as helping Kayleigh with all the behind the scenes jobs that a busy kitchen has.

Terri

Supervisor

Orchard Café

Terri is a café supervisor and has been trained well, coming from a busy local school she knows how to keep us all in order! She is unfailingly cheerful and always has a smile and kind comment for all our regulars and visitors alike.

MARIE

Marie is a café supervisor who is calm, efficient and can always be relied upon to spot a customer who needs a little extra assistance. She has been a key member of staff for many years, and knows just what our customers like.

The History of Holme

In the 1970’s Holme was a dairy farm of about 120 Friesian cows run by Jim and Venn Goldsack, Simon’s parents. They gradually built up a farm diversification business where Venn grew bedding plants for sale and ran the shop while Jim managed a Pick Your Own fruit farm and looked after the cows.

Simon originally studied Amenity Horticulture at Writtle College in Essex. On qualifying, Simon started growing and buying plants to develop plant sales alongside his parents’ fruit and bedding plants.

In those early days the business would close in Autumn and re-open in spring and Simon would complete gardening, forestry and landscaping work to cover the quieter winter months.

In 1995 Simon met and married Liz, and in spring of the following year Liz gave up her job to help expand the business at Holme. Liz is also from a local farming background and one of the first things they did together was dismantle her father’s old chicken sheds to re-use the wood to build plant display benches with the help of Liz’s brother Tom.

They gradually built up the plant sales and have developed the Holme site over the last 25 years into the thriving centre that you see today.

Simon has always continued with Garden Design and Customer Consultations, and now works closely with several local landscapers who complete the building work to his plans. Look around at the gardens of Purbeck and the surrounding areas and you may well be looking at one of Simon’s many designs