It got by me that the Hole family opened their most impressive Enjoy Centre in St. Albert, Alberta this past April. It was under construction when I last posted about it. You can see many more photos on Facebook.
This is a very efficient and water conserving form of sub-irrigation for container plants. The floor is flooded on a timed schedule, the water rises by capillary action and the water is then allowed to drain and is recycled. There is also an aquaponics farm at the center.
I am looking forward to visiting The Enjoy Centre next year on new knees.
The Hole family’s legacy started simply enough. In 1952, Ted, ’52 BSc (Ag), and Lois Hole, ’00 LLD (Hon), established their family farm on the banks of the Sturgeon River where they began selling vegetables from their garden patch to roadside passersby. Fast-forward nearly 60 years later and the accidental market garden is a thriving garden centre and greenhouse business with successful forays into floral design, e-commerce, publishing and media.
“Status quo is not really an option for us. Our family is a little too restless that way,” says Ted and Lois’s youngest son Jim Hole, ’79 BSc (Ag), co-owner and -founder of Hole’s Greenhouse & Garden Centre in St. Albert.
Today, the Holes – including Jim’s older brother Bill, ’78 BSc (Ag), and sister-in-law Valerie Hole, ’82 BSc (Ag) – have expanded the empire again in an effort to develop the concept of gardening to reflect a broader, more modern view of living. Reimagining their already wildly successful enterprise, the siblings opened the doors to their new, state-of-the-art, $30 million gardening mecca, The Enjoy Centre, on April 11.
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