Like many people my life changed when Covid happened. I used to be a stage manager in the glamorous world of opera – touring theatres & drinking champagne on first nights. But with all the theatres closed during lockdown I needed something else to fill my time (& my pockets!), so I retrained with the RHS & swapped my headset for a spade.
I have always gardened, having grown up in rural Somerset in an old farm worker’s cottage that backed on to miles of fields & open countryside. My Mum grew flowers in our garden, & we borrowed a field from the farm next door to grow our veg in. We kept chickens that would occasionally roost in the apple tree if you forgot to close the shed up at night.
Every year in summer our dining room would be full of stacks of strawberries to feed audiences at my Dad’s outdoor Shakespeare productions, & we feasted on home-grown rhubarb, potatoes, & corn; we even grew grapes! Moving in to horticulture felt like a natural step for me.
The past three years have seen me growing a fledgling gardening business from weeding lawns to where I am now – taking people’s overgrown & out of control gardens & turning them in to something beautiful, manageable & wildlife friendly. My absolute favourite is when people tell me they would like a cottage garden, because that is my speciality & honestly where my heart is. I am in love with the sight of masses of multicoloured flowers tumbling over winding paths, swathes of lavender that send up incredible scent as you brush past them, & tantalising views of sundials through walks of lupins & snapdragons. Cottage gardens invite you to explore & interact with them, I can’t get enough.
The other brilliant thing about cottage gardens is that because there is so much plant diversity, there is a wealth of all kinds of biodiversity – every insect, bird & critter can find something to eat & somewhere to live. I never use any pesticides (in fact I’m fully organic) because I don’t need to – something will always come along to eat whoever is causing trouble!
This year I started growing plants at home to plant in my customers’ gardens & it’s been a game changer. Now I can get the exact plant that I’m imagining for them – the right style & colour sure, but also I know it’s grown organically, it’s never going to have travelled more than about 10 miles, it’s hardy in Buxton (yes we have a microclimate!), & I know it’s been cared for & will survive whatever the Derbyshire weather has to throw at it. I’ve loved growing for my customers so much that I’ve decided to start my own micro-nursery from home & try to sell plants for a living, & that’s what this blog is about!
Come with me as I get to grips with nursery life. There will be success & no doubt there will be failure, but there will also be pretty pictures of plants, & I know that’s what you’re really here for 😉
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Buxton Gardens 
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