A business recently launched by the new owner of a plant nursery in a village near Warminster has seen a ‘good start’ to its quest to offer ‘forward thinking’ gardening to south Wiltshire.
Earlier this year, Lewis Higgs, 35, opened his business Wylye Valley Plants at Codford, just off the A36.
Mr Higgs has been a gardener for around eight years on estates including Stourhead, but decided to launch the business – which had been a plant nursery before – so he could make his contribution to changing Britain’s growing habits.
He said: “I was in a job that wasn’t fulfilling, and I always had a love for nature. Then I got a job a Stourhead and since then have worked my way up over the years. I’ve had three estate jobs, and had a love for propagating plants.
“I believe we should try and stop importing plants from abroad and try and grow as much as we can in Britain.”
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Mr Higgs, who said he still offers his services as a gardener on the side has begun to open on selective hours. Nevertheless, he says the first couple of months have been “pretty good” for business.
He said: “I’ve had some good feedback, and a good amount of customers”
Mr Higgs’s speciality is in perennials, and he is looking to play his part in bringing a natural and environmentally friendly method of growing back to Britain.
He continued: “I mainly grow stuff that comes back each year, like perennials and shrubs.
“I also grow quite a few unusual plants and rare plants. Tropical plants, and I’ve got something called pelargoniums, and I’ve got a collection of those.
“It’s mainly kind of tropical things, and doing some Mediterranean plants because they’re good in this changing environment we’re seeing.”
Environmental concerns are near the forefront of Lewis’s gardening philosophy, as his approach also takes his gardening’s carbon emissions into account.
He said: “I’m peat free. When people use peat, it sends a lot of carbon into the atmosphere. I’m peat free, so that will help keep the carbon footprint down.”
“I’m trying to focus on homegrown plants, peat free home-grown perennials. I just really wanted to bring back some British growing and grow some unusual plants, something a bit different from what you can get at garden centres.
“People like going to nurseries. I’m just trying to bring my love of plants into a place of my own and hopefully share that with others.”
Wylye Valley Plants is open on Fridays and the first Saturday of every month between 9am and 1pm.
More details about the nursery can be found at Lewis’s website: https://www.wylyevalleyplants.co.uk/
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