Winter Wonderland: Cold and frosty mornings...

If you had said to me a few years ago I would be sitting here writing my first ever blog about my own nursery, shop and cafe I would not have believed you!

So this is the story so far. How it all began, Growing from nothing and what is planned for the future.

I have lived here on the family farm most of my life. As with most small family run ventures it has had to change to survive and over the years has been an arable farm, chicken unit and is currently a pig farm.

Growing up here was idyllic, long summer days, harvest time, miles and miles of meadows and streams to explore and quiet country lanes that were safe to bike on. Sleeping in tents and building camp fires to cook our tea on were favourite pastimes. If you were not lucky enough to grow up in a rural area you may think of it as being a bit boring...there were (and still are) no local shops or playgrounds etc. I suppose imagination is the key, something we sometimes seem to loose as we get older. I can never remember being bored, in fact the days never seemed long enough...

I think my love of plants came from my mother's love of gardening but also from the time when the farm was arable. Fields of wheat and barley plus sugar beet that I used to help clear of weeds and 'runners' with a chopping hook, from an early age, all for the princely sum of 25p a row! And my grandad had a fantastic veg patch that we children were not allowed in, neat rows of perfect looking fruit and veg and tender pea pods that were just too tempting to resist. I had my own little garden from an early age, the small prefab pond that I was given took pride of place in the middle and housed a large amount of wildlife, including one year millions of tadpoles. I was fascinated to discover they liked to eat cat food, they would go at it like piranhas devouring a large chunk in minutes.

Primary school was fun and I had lots of friends but secondary school was not so good. I couldn't wait to leave but had no idea what I wanted to do with myself as far as work was concerned and so ended up doing odd jobs around the farm for a year or so. There are only so many nails you can pull out of wood before you get bored, especially at that age, so after a while my family decided I needed a 'proper job' somewhere else. I went to work at www.banhamzoo.co.uk

This was such an important step for me; it taught me how to deal with joe public, gave me an enormous amount of self confidence that I didnt have before and also practical skills that have helped me get to where I am today.

I left the zoo when I fell pregnant with my son, after being a stay at home mum I was eager to get my teeth into something but times were hard. I had very little income and no interest in working for someone else. I wanted to be self employed, but was still not sure as to what I could do. I had a large vegetable and flower patch that I loved to spend time in, the produce was especially welcome as I had such a small income. I would buy out of date veg seed from local markets and car boot sales and almost all would thrive in the rich and fertile soil on the farm.

One day I can remember very clearly was very decisive for me. I had a glut of marrows and had given some away to family and friends but still had loads left. I decided to set up a little table by the side of the road, I put my produce out with a jam jar and a price list. I wasnt holding out much hope of getting any money from that jar but had nothing to loose (only some surplus marrows!) so decided to give it a go. I checked it a couple of times that first morning and although nothing had gone I found it exciting to look and see. Later that day I went to pack it away to discover I had sold A MARROW!!!

That first 50p was the most important money I will ever earn as far as I am concerned. I got the bug, and soon had a thriving little stall by the road, selling all my own home grown produce. I re invested some of the money I made to buy some new tools and more seed. The following spring I had too many tomato plants to grow on myself and decided to try a few on my stall. They sold like hotcakes and so I expanded into fruit and veg plants as well as produce. The pots were running out and I didnt want to spend my profit on more so I put a sign up asking for any unwanted plant pots. The flood gates opened and bin bags full of pots would appear next to my little stall as if by magic. Soon I had so many pots I thought I would never have to buy one again so I took the sign away but still they kept coming!!! Even all these years later I still get black bags full of pots deposited outside the nursery, it makes me smile to see them and remindes me of how it all started.

The stall grew and grew, so much so that I started to think I could make something more of it. One day we were having a clearout of one of the barns on the farm. There was a pile of old odds and ends that were to go on the bonfire. I dont like waste so thought maybe someone would be able to use a few of these things, I cleaned them up and put them out by my stall for a few pounds. The whole lot went in the first day! I couldnt believe it, it seemed like I could sell anything from this stall and the vast majority of people were so honest. Of course there were some who would steal my produce or the money out of the honesty pot, but these were the exception and luckily for me few and far between. It feels horrible to find someone has stolen from you, I agonised over it for days the first few times, but even with this I was still making a nice little profit. I decided to expand.

It was an exciting time. I had plans to move the stall up the farm drive and onto an area in front of our big Dutch barn. You could still see it from the road and I put up signs to say it had moved onto the farm. People still came, by this time I had regular customers who told all their friends etc so it was still growing through word of mouth as well as passing trade. My dad knocked up a couple of plant sales tables that I could use and it grew to three times the size it had been by the road. I still had the honesty pot, a jam jar with 'thankyou' written on the lid, and the number of thefts dropped away to virtually zero. I expanded what I was selling to garden plants, learning how to propogate them through trial and error. I made a few items to sell at Christmas such as wreaths and posies, plus a few chalkboards I had designed. They were selling so well, it was so exciting to go to the jar and see notes inside! When you have so little money it means the world that people support your efforts to make a living. Each sale put a bigger smile on my face and gave me more enthusiasm to build it bigger and bigger.

The barn where I had my stall had a door on the front which lead into a nice sized storage room. As it was not being used for anything I decided to claim it so set to work clearing it out. I saved the profits from the stall to buy some cladding for the walls and soon the door was opened on 'THE HONESTY SHOP'

I had collected lots of old furniture etc from friends and family plus what I could find in the various barns on the farm and managed to fill this room. It was a worry when I first started selling furniture that people would just take it without paying; it was still just a jam jar on the counter but the items for sale were no longer just plants and produce at a few pence but other things for a few pounds. The gamble paid off, I must say you are an honest lot in Norfolk/Suffolk! Word of mouth helped to make it a sucess and for a few years it ticked along nicely like this. I would open the door in the morning, spend the day growing my plants/produce or looking for furniture to paint and sell, then close the door in the evening and empty the jar. There is no greater thrill than to see a jar full of money on the counter, Happy days. The Honesty Shop expanded into a further 2 rooms, filled with furniture, plus the plants outside the front grew in number and variety, although the produce side did die off after a while (there are only so many hours in a day!)

In 2010 a family member proposed to make The Honesty Shop into a proper business, a plant nursery plus a retail shop to sell our handmade items and a selection of shabby chic furniture that has always sold so well. It was an unbelievable opportunity for me, scary as hell but there was no way I was going to look a gift horse in the mouth! So after various meetings it was decided that I would be the 'hands on' plant person, growing the stock and running the shop; she would be the 'paper pusher', taking care of everything behind the scenes and helping out during busier times. Of course it hasn't worked out like that, she is here getting her hands dirty just as much as I am. We rub along well together, each having our own favorite jobs and helping with the not so good ones.

We opened on 16th April 2011. Nerves were running high, would anyone turn up? Did we have enough stock? Did we have too much stock?? It was very much trial and error in the first year, knowing what to grow and what people wanted to buy. We grow 99% of our stock ourselves here on the farm so if we run out we run out! We don't raise a great deal of annual bedding as it requires artificial heat (which we don't have) plus it is hard to compete with the big boys, especially supermarkets who import vast amounts. But we can compete on other things; we have a good range of herbs and alpines plus a nice selection of cottage garden plants. The stock is what I have collected over the years, propogating and growing on. The Honesty Shop is an important part of the nursey, people love looking through the ever changing ecclectic mix of old and new, handmade and vintage. As I am typing there is a nice old couple looking through a drawer of cupcake cases, I dont think they can decide which ones to go for! We still do secondhand furniture but on a smaller scale, as I am getting older it is becoming harder to lift the bigger items so the stock is getting smaller in size the older I get...

We now have 4 polytunnels and 2 small glasshouses. The sales area is gravelled with tables for the plants. We have a small garden that houses a lot of the stock plants I have collected over the years since I set up the stall by the road. We have a little shed outside that is at the moment used for Christmas wreaths and some home made gifts. A bigger shed ouside houses our Christmas products this time of year, but it is also used for various things from dress sales to gardenalia.

The future plans we have are to open a tea shop on site, selling home made cakes etc; you know it will be just a litle bit different from the rest!!

Thanks for taking the time to read this, come over and have a look for yourself. It really is true that from tiny acorns grow mighty oaks (although we are still at the sapling stage :-)www.dutchbarnnurseries.co.uk