A Cornish garden centre that lay derelict for nearly two decades has been transformed into a thriving café and social enterprise. Potager Garden, located in the picturesque coastal town of Falmouth, was initially rescued by assistant head gardener Dan Thomas and architect Peter Skerrett in late 1999. At that time, the site had been neglected for approximately 15 to 20 years, having previously operated as a market garden during the 1950s and a plant nursery and garden centre throughout the 1970s and 1980s before falling into disrepair.
When Dan and Peter discovered it, the entire four-and-a-half-acre site was completely overgrown. However, their dedication paid off, resulting in a remarkable rags-to-roses transformation. This was further enhanced by the arrival of Mark Harris, now 49, who joined the project in 2006. Mark was working as a boat builder at the time but quickly became captivated by Dan and Peter's vision.
A vision realized
Speaking about the venture, Mark explained: "I came across them in 2006 and after a number of years, it became obvious that they were sort of running out of steam with the project, but I loved what they were doing. In order to keep the project going, I went into partnership with them, and we're still partners now, and I've been running Potager since 2009."
Mark noted that after his involvement, they were able to develop the site's commercial potential and generate momentum while simultaneously capitalizing on the positive mental health benefits of spending time in a garden. He said: "What I discovered in Dan and Peter's project was a garden and a few art studios and a team of volunteers, and it was very much a place certainly not being run commercially. It's always been a passion project and very much that continues to this day. What we all agreed on, Dan, Peter, and I, was there is something fundamentally good about spending time in a garden."
From derelict greenhouse to bustling café
Mark added: "It doesn't matter if you're coming there as a café customer or you're coming to learn apple tree pruning, for example, or you're coming to work in your studio here. It's all built around the idea that gardens are good for you. I've been running it since 2009 with Dan and Peter. And we built up the café into a much more substantial business."
The café now welcomes between 20,000 and 30,000 visitors annually. Guests are free to enjoy the grounds, which are tended not by paid professionals but by a dedicated team of volunteers ranging in age from their twenties to their eighties. The team has since launched a social enterprise, offering therapeutic horticulture to people with physical and mental health problems, according to Mark.
Financial challenges turned into opportunities
What makes the venture all the more extraordinary is how little financial assistance Mark, Peter, and Dan have received throughout its development, aside from some European Union funding. Remarkably, Mark revealed this actually proved to be an advantage. He explained: "The biggest challenge is also one of the things I've come to appreciate most, which was an almost complete lack of funds to do anything. It certainly presented a challenge. But it's also provided an opportunity over the years and everything we've done here. So we did, the café had started off as a fairly derelict greenhouse that dates back to the 1970s."
Mark elaborated: "We've rebuilt that and we've created new art studios. Everything we've done here, we've done incredibly slowly. And so everything's been done in a very, very considered way. And so yeah, that biggest challenge is also, I now appreciate what it offered us, which is that sort of measured slow organic growth so that we were never overstretching."
Mark was unable to provide an exact figure for the total cost of the Potager Garden project, though he indicated it fell somewhere between £500,000 and £1 million throughout its lifetime — a venture he reflected upon with genuine emotion. He said: "I really feel like it doesn't really matter what you do in life as long as you do it well and you do it carefully and with some amount of consideration."
