WELCOME MAT LAID OUT AT REVAMPED GARDEN CENTRE

Passion project puts the ‘welcome’ back into Palmers Welcome Bay.

Two years ago, life partners Brandon Beattie and Christo Ferreira became business partners to take on Palmers Welcome Bay in Tauranga. “Six months later Covid kicked us in the guts,” Brandon recalls. A big smile is never far away though, and he quickly adds, “it’s been a hard slog but we’re really proud of what we’re creating and we’re doing well”. The garden centre had been through some ups and downs before Brandon and Christo arrived in 2019, but the new owners couldn’t have been better suited to the challenge – Brandon with a solid background in horticulture, and nationallevel retail and marketing experience, and former university lecturer Christo holding a PhD in finance. It’s also helped that the couple aren’t averse to a change in direction. After Brandon decided to quit his job they sold up in Auckland, bought a motorhome and toured the country for a year, along with their much-loved Weimaraner dog Emmett, before settling in Dunedin, buying an old villa and undertaking a massive restoration. “We’d thought about moving to Tauranga for a while,” says Christo, whose parents live at Ōhope. “It’s a good midway spot to Brandon’s family in Palmerston North and our friends in Auckland.” Brandon and Christo aren’t kidding when they talk about rebuilding the business. They’ve replaced shade sails, reroofed the building, wrapped their fence beside a busy roundabout in branding (“it’s the best billboard”) and taken on new staff, including Sean Quinn, a Kiwi fresh from managing a large garden centre in California. “Having Sean on board means Christo and I can now start focusing on business growth,” Brandon says. “We’re ready to move things to the next level.”

As well as revamping the plant selection, the couple are also direct-importing pots and hand-carved stone sculptures from Bali, some of which they’ve designed themselves. “We believe we’ve got the best plant range in Tauranga,” Christo says, “and the Balinese products are unique to us. It’s all about giving people a reason to walk through the door – and to keep coming back.” Other drawcards include the popular Café Botannix, a refreshed gift shop and staff members whose interests include indoor plants, native plants, landscape design, and healing plants. Brandon and Christo are ready to help with advice around Tauranga’s new year-round water restrictions which permit hand-hosing for only one hour between 7pm and 10pm until May. “It’s a good wake-up call that we need to be realistic about gardening,” Christo says. “We’re happy to advise on how to achieve the look or feel of what people want for the conditions and soil they have.” Brandon adds that key to being a water-wise gardener – besides being sure to water a plant’s roots and not its foliage – is mulching. “A layer of natural material, such as feeding mulch, on top of the soil helps slow down water evaporation from the soil. Experience shows us that good, rich, healthy soil requires fewer artificial inputs. When you get that, the garden will start to look after itself.” Here’s where you’ll find this 100 per cent Tauranga owned and operated garden centre: