Sustainability

We are lucky enough to live in a beautiful part of Dorset with a fantastic diversity of native plants, reptiles and wildlife. Here at Holme we are working towards having as low an impact as possible on this wonderful, local natural environment and give nature a boost where we are able.

Rain water harvesting

In 2022/23 Holme went further towards making our water supply self sufficient with the installation of a 4000 litre capacity reservoir for watering our gardens and plants. This takes rainwater and run off from the garden centre and channels it to a wildlife pond before pumping it up to the reservoir ready to use when we get some hot sunny weather!

Plant conservation

Holme hosts the National collection of hypericums for future preservation as well as holding a substantial collection of over 2500 cultivars of garden shrubs and trees. Further Nationals collections of Deutzias and Magnolias and Mountain Ash are on the way….

Solar panels

In 2023 we completed the installation of a 72 kw array of solar panels in our top car park field, which will save 38 tons of CO2 per annum.

Sewage treatment

Home is upgrading all its sewage treatment facilities to make waste biologically safe and have the nitrogen and phosphate removed, far exceeding environmental recommendations and making it safe for our local streams and rivers.

Holme Grown

All the annuals on display in the Holme gardens are grown here in peat free compost, and every year we are growing more of our own cottage garden plants reducing ‘plant miles’.

Wildlife gardening

Holme encourages as much wildlife as possible into the gardens with bug hotels, compost heaps, natural hedgelaying practices, and native planting in the meadows. Good for pollinators and predators alike. We are replanting native hedges for the nesting birds, and using natural compost and leaf litter for mulch and fertiliser.

Meadows and bio-diversity

Several differing meadow environments at Holme ensure there is a habitat for many native plants and insect species.

Holme practices no dig techniques to keep carbon capacity in the soil.

Renewable electricity

All the electricity which Holme uses that is not provided by our solar farm comes from suppliers which are using renewable sources such as solar and wind farms. No fossil fuels are knowingly involved.