News / Da Barn branches out with opening of Lerwick garden centre
HILLSWICK horticultural experts Da Barn are seeing their business bloom with the opening of a garden centre in Lerwick.
Da Potting Shed, based in the former Cindy’s hairdressers building on Harbour Street, opened to the public over the weekend with an array of pots, plants and seeds on offer.
With Da Barn’s plants in shops from Bigton to Brae, James Titcomb – who owns the business with wife Carol – said opening their own shop was a natural progression.
“I always knew at some point we would need to move towards a retail space,” he said.
“We’ve been growing by about 20 per cent a year consistently, but this probably came a few years earlier than we would have thought.”
Da Barn has been selling its plants from the Fort Road yard, which sits at the back of the new shop, for well over a year.
Titcomb said they were initially only interested in taking on the yard, before agreeing to buy the building and transform it into their own little garden centre.
“We spoke to Ingrid Moar from Sound Service Station at the beginning of last year and asked if she would be interested in selling our plants,” he said.
“She said she wasn’t sure about that but said, ‘why don’t you take my yard [at Fort Road]’, so we did.”
A year on, at the start of 2024, came the opportunity to buy the shop, and yard, outright.
Titcomb said they were surprised to find the former hairdressers was in a good, dry condition inside – and they begin to see the potential for the site.
“We could see immediately that house plants were going to look good in this back room,” he said.
As well as those house plants, Da Potting Shed also has art works on sale from photographer Kev Forth – who works for Da Barn – and Kelly Robertson, among others.
There are also planters, gloves and seeds, with the hope to open up the back of the shop to allow customers to walk in and out from the back yard – if planning permission can be secured.
Work started on the shop in May, Titcomb said, which he took on at nights through the summer while balancing a full-time job.
He estimated they sold more plants at their Lerwick yard in a week than they did at all the other country shops they supplied to, and he hopes that expanding in to a garden centre style shop will help the business to continue to grow.
“It’s obviously quite a seasonal business, but we’ll look to change things up and get the right things in at the right time of year.”
Da Potting Shed is open from 11am to 5pm, from Tuesday to Sunday every week.
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