Our History

Established in 1957 by Commander D Saban, Garthowen Garden Centre has been many things over the years.
The land at Garthowen was bought in 1956 by Dennis Saban when he retired from the Fleet Air Arm having served in Africa and Malta during the war. When Dennis and his wife Edna started the land was a chicken farm and a large field of wheat. Over the next few years the a commercial Nursery was built to grow hothouse tomatoes cucumbers and chrysanthemums with a cold house  for lettuce, strawberries bedding plants and outdoor chrysanthemums. In 1972 during the oil crisis when prices sored a new direction was needed and the garden centre  was started.  Denis and Edna's 4 children and 3 grandchildren have all had experience of working in the nursery and garden centre, with Chris and Sally having run the Garden centre with their husbands Dave and Graham since the death of their father in the early 1990s. The grand children work in the business and on the site with Chris and Dave's daughter Lottie managing the coffee shop and a director of the Garden Centre, their second daughter Louisa working in the office.