7 August 2026 –
When Holly Briar joined LandWorks as Market Garden Lead in January, it felt like everything she had done before had come together.
“For me, LandWorks is the dream combination of a grower’s job and the social impact side of it, working with the trainees,” she says. “Helping people connect with nature for their health and wellbeing has always mattered to me. Coming to LandWorks felt like the perfect merger of those two interests.”
Holly’s love of growing began in childhood. She moved around quite often and her parents always had a garden or allotment to grow veg in. “Mum and Dad gave us a little plot to grow our own stuff,” she recalls. “I’ve always enjoyed growing things.”
Although she has only been growing professionally since 2023, Holly brings a wealth of experience. Having originally trained as an ecologist, she studied regenerative land-based practices at the Apricot Centre in Huxham’s Cross, where she completed a year-long a placement at a market garden near Dawlish before taking it over herself. Later roles included working with Common Flora, a nature-based social enterprise supporting refugees, job seekers and people experiencing food poverty.
She found her current role almost by accident. While working nearby at Foxhole on the Dartington estate she mentioned how difficult it was to find a full-time grower’s job. “Someone said, ‘I think there might be one going down the road.’ I felt incredibly lucky to find LandWorks,” she explains.
No two days are ever the same. “There’s no such thing as a typical day,” Holly laughs. “There’s planting, harvesting, watering, and weeding, but one of the main things is having lots of different options for people, depending on how they’re feeling. If someone needs to do something physical, there’s an option for that. If somebody wants a chat, there’s an option for that too.”
Watching trainees discover growing is one of the highlights of her job. She remembers taking trainee Judah to harvest salad for the kitchen. “We called it foraging,” she smiles. “He said, ‘Oh wow, this is what it looks like when it’s growing!’ He loved it. Then he took it to the kitchen, where he has really got into cooking. Having that connection between growing, cooking, and eating is something people really celebrate here.”
For others, the garden offers something different. “For some of our trainees life can feel quite chaotic. They spend time here with their hands in the soil and you can really see the calming, grounding influence it has.”
Holly makes a point of celebrating progress. “I try to remember who planted what, so I can say, ‘Do you remember planting this? Well, look at it now – it’s ready for the shop, or for lunch!’”
She is already putting her own stamp on the market garden, introducing dried flower production, a thriving plant nursery, seed balls created with trainee Cherry, and new crops including melons and tomatillos. But she’s careful not to lose sight of what matters most.
“There are targets for shop sales,” she says, “but the most important thing is the experience the trainees are having. It’s not about growing as many vegetables as possible – it’s about making sure everyone has a good day.”
