It couldn’t be faulted, even on judgment day when the weather was a total prick.
Golden Bay Hammer Hardware picked up first prize for its “immaculate” garden centre at the franchise’s annual awards on 30 July.
The Tākaka store helmed by Tarnae and Gavin Palmer was “happily surprised” since other finalists, Onerahi , Waipu, Devonport, Kawerau, and Kaikōura had equally elegant garden centres.
“The judges came the day of the [Tasman] floods, probably the worst day of the whole year to actually come and judge, but it’s such a beautiful space whether it’s sunny or raining,” Tarnae says.
Tarnae says the store’s idyll had grown and been spruced up since November 2023 after its landlord purchased a neighbouring piece of land.
She says there’s never a dead flower or loose leaf, and its displays, layout and gardening and landscaping product range were well paired with team members Liz Watson and Nicky Morris’s incomparable knowledge of the department.
“Every customer that comes in, they do love it, and they can get everything they need to power their garden from fertiliser to plants,” she says.
“We’ve got a really beautiful rock garden under our palm tree out [in the garden centre] that highlights all the different rocks you can buy, and that’s quite a key feature as well.”
Tarnae says the decorated store’s 11 staff will continue growing the centre to pave the way for more stock.
It’s Garden Centre of the Year gong means the store’s trophy cabinet is also growing, having claimed Store of the Year in 2024.
