Our philosophy
We believe that everybody young or old can grow plants successfully, you don’t even need a garden.
Gardening programmes, experts and books often use technical language with confusing instructions and often out of date information, this can leave the impression gardening is complicated or difficult.
Our aim is to provide simple advice based on years of growing and selling plants.
If we start spouting jargon or gobble de gook please let us know.
Using our experience and trade secrets, we will offer unbiased reviews, insider knowledge and advice.

Join us
We would encourage you to interact with the site and other users, a problem shared is a problem halved, rest assured you rarely meet a grumpy gardener.
Gardeners by nature are friendly and sociable.

Growing experience

I have been growing and selling plants for over 40 years.
In the 60s and 70s, there was no internet or even games consoles, my childhood was spent playing outdoors and exploring the beautiful Scottish countryside.
I was a keen naturalist and often helped my parents in the garden.
My earliest gardening memories were the flower and produce displays at the local agricultural shows and the family vegetable patch.

After leaving school I grew chrysanths and pot plants in the Clyde valley before heading off to Auchencruive college, to learn about a wide range of crops. I spent my industrial year at Challis of York growing pot mums and poinsettias, a relatively new crop back then. They also had a wide range of pot plants for the rapidly expanding supermarket trade

After college, I moved on to a market garden in Shrewsbury growing a varied range of products for the roadside shop and wholesale market.
Eventually, I headed back to Scotland to join the National Trust near Castle Douglas.
Threave the Scottish national trust school of gardening is full of unusual plants, and all aspects of garden design, this really improved my plant knowledge.
I then moved to a small Garden centre in Dumfries.
Finally, I ended up working for Barton Grange near Preston, I spent 7 years in the garden centre as plant area manager before moving to manage the bedding and pot plant nursery.