Works on the dedicated new home for ASQ Garden & Landscape Castlemaine are well underway.
ASQ Garden & Landscape closed its doors at former location Skydancers at Harcourt late last week and opened a new pop-up Garden and Giftware shop in the Maxi IGA supermarket complex and a temporary Nursery adjacent to its new site at Miners Court, Castlemaine on Monday.
ASQ Garden & Landscape Castlemaine horticulturalist Elisabeth Templeton said it is an exciting new chapter for the local business which was founded by Graham and Lyn Bird and is now operated by the couple’s sons Tim and Wes.
“The brothers have proudly taken over the reins and are leading the way with the new build on the site of ASQ’s original quarry,” she said.
The new development, thought to be the largest industrial development in Castlemaine in some years, will see the new ASQ Garden & Landscape site occupy five of the eight allotments in the newly created industrial area in Miners Court, Castlemaine. With the remaining three blocks to be opened up to local businesses once the major build is complete.
Works on the brand new purpose-built garden centre commenced in late May and contractors have wasted no time getting stuck into the project with the building quickly taking shape.
“We are capturing footage of the build and our customers can catch up on the progress via the time-lapse video in the window of our pop-up store in the Maxi IGA complex,” Lis said.
The ASQ Garden & Landscape team had a massive week last week moving from Skydancers and setting up their temporary pop-up shops.
“The goods news is our entire team has relocated to Castlemaine so you can expect to see the same friendly faces,” she said.
The Mail understands the Skydancers site has been purchased by a local family business.
The new ASQ Garden & Landscape Castlemaine will feature landscape, garden and cafe areas all under one roof.
Horticulturalists Lis Templeton and Gary Sobey are looking forward to the challenge of building the new nursery from the ground up. This will be the third local nursery that Sobey has had a hand in, establishing the original Castle Flora Nursery (now Rodilesa) on the edge of Castlemaine with his late wife Christine back in 1979.
“We then established Skydancers as Chris really wanted to include a cafe element,” Gary told the Mail.
The horticulturalists say the new ASQ site will be complemented by a massive nursery, wildflower walk and alfresco areas, dedicated access for those collecting landscape supplies and plenty of car parking.
“Everyone on the team has had input into the overall design, its been an amazing collaborative effort and we can’t wait to bring the vision to life,” Gary said.
“The streetscape will be lined with October Glory Canadian Maples which will look stunning come Autumn,” Lis said.
The brand new ASQ Garden & Landscape Castlemaine site is anticipated to open in November.
Until then local green thumbs can source their indoor plants and gifts from the pop-up shop at the Maxi IGA complex which is open seven days and all their plants, mulch, soils and landscape needs from the temporary nursery located in Miners Court just opposite the new site. The temporary nursery is open from 7.30-5 Mon-Fri, 8-4 Sat and 10-3 Sun, with horticulturalists on site to provide expert advice from 9am daily.
“We have 2000 bare-rooted trees arriving Monday for the planting season so we expect to be busy!” Lis said.
