What’s it like to run a small garden nursery?
Garden designer Andrew Staib talks to Garden Sage Nursary about the joys and difficulties of running their own nursery.
It was a great leap of faith three years ago when Ed Nugent and his wife Josie decided to set up their own nursery in Hassocks.
It was 2015 and they knew both they were in the shadow of two large commercial garden centres and despite a life time working in retail horticulture, they had never had to put their own savings into such a venture.
It was a risk that has paid off, despite working their fingers to the bone. During the Summer Ed starts work at 5.30am and doesn’t finish sometimes until 8pm. Josie, who works as a professional gardener during the week, comes in to work on the weekend.
And they have kids! Hasn’t the hard work of running a nursery orphaned their children. “ Luckily they are still at an age where they can run around and have adventures here!”
The sacrifice is worth making.
“I’m lucky” he says, taking a sip of tea as we sit in the nursery cafe, “I earn an income from the thing I love the most- talking about plants.”
“It has been my whole life. I have been around plants since I was 16 and I’ve have worked for all the major plant nurseries as well as doing the plant arranging for Chelsea and Hampton Court displays”
“Our goal here is to offer something very different to other nurseries. Excellent advice to members of the public about which plants to buy that will suit their garden and how to care for them. People come in here ready to invest in their garden and we take that responsibility very seriously. We don’t sell people plants because we have a lot of a particular plant in stock. If we don’t have the plant that we think will be the right one then we will order it it.
“Yes that’s it” he says, “we sell good plants with good advice. That’s our ethos. I have worked in lots of big garden centres and it becomes all about squeezing money out of people. I was fed up with the commercial aspect and wanted to do something different.”
“It is for this reason I will only employ people with a solid horticultural knowledge and an appetite to learn more”
Ed takes me on a tour of the nursery. It is a delicate maze of paths with well presented plants in interesting combinations, so different from the rows of the same plant arranged in alphabetic order in a typical garden centre.
“One of the things we do here is concentrate on unusual species like Helwingia chinensis and sometimes this means returning to old varieties that have gone out of fashion like the green Ophiopogon. We make sure we have plenty of standard plants in stock but it is exciting to offer unusual plants to the public not just designers.”
The cafe is work in progress and the coffee and food is of unusually good quality.
“We will also bend over backward trying to source unusual plants. It takes way too much time to do this and I don’t get paid for it but at the end of the day it is not the time it takes but not wanting to be beaten. I get obsessed with trying to find particular plants!” He grins. Ed comes over as a very hard working but gentle and honest man and you have a feeling that the plant choices he would give you would be spot on.
“We would like to expand over the next ten years but not get too big. I’m worried we would loose our ethos.” And Ed would loose the very thing that is dear to him- talking about plants and caring for plants all day long!
They are open all throughout the winter from 8.30am to 5pm and on Sundays from 10-4pm.
If you bring this magazine along they will give you complimentary 30 Allium Drumsticks.
What to do this December
It’s the right time to plant trees and hedges taken
straight from the field. They are normally called
‘bareroot’ as opposed to ‘container grown’. They are
half the price and settle in nicely into the cool moist
earth.
It is still ok to order and plant bulbs. The soil is still
very warm even if the air isn’t.
You can prune heavily sapping trees like Birches now and
Grape vines before the winter sets in.
Harvest the rest of your root crops and lift and store your
Dahlia, Canna and Ginger Lilly bulbs.
Don’t worry if your garden looks messy. The more mess the
better for wildlife that needs a place to hide away during
the winter. You will have plenty of time to clean your beds
in Spring. Just think- Your laziness now is creating a 5 star
hotel for wildlife.
However where needs must, continue to rake up leaves and
store them separately from the summer’s grass clippings as
they need a different process to break down quickly.
What to do in December
Obviously it is the time of Xmas Fairs- Horsham Sunday Xmas
market, plus the Ukfield Festival of Xmas, Arundel by
Candlelight and ice skating at the Pavillion in
Brighton are just a few things to do!
Happy Xmas Everyone and give your back a well earned rest.
