About Us
Ken's interest in plants began at a very early age, with a small border round the edge of an coal bunker made from the remnants of a wartime Anderson shelter! Marigolds and radishes were among the earliest sucesses. Linda's interest in plants began similarly, but without the Anderson shelter!
Marriage in 1974 gave the opportunity to garden for two years in Devon, before moving to Ely. The garden here has changed over the years from a rugged patch coping with family needs, to its current state as a collection of small areas, each with its own appeal. There is also a railway, but enough of that!
In 2003, Linda took early retirement from nursing, and began her career as a full time gardener. This has flourished, and we have a reasonably large clientel. We also began growing and selling plants at this time, using our allotment as a base.
The year 2004 saw our first entry into the 'Yellow Book' and our first open garden. This concentrated our minds regarding the garden, and what we wanted to do in the future with regard to making a living from our interest in gardening and plants.
Ken's interest has been in propogating plants,maintaining the allotment, and helping out with the gardening work in school holidays and at weekends.
2007 was for us a year of change. Simply Gardening of Ely has reached the point where, really, there is too much work for one and a half people! The opportunity to reduce his teaching hours, and a chance conversation with a friend linked an idea that Ken had, with the opportunity to persue it. A local man with a hanging basket business wanted to retire. He kindly agreed to support us as we moved into this area. Details of how we plan to do this are on this page.
2008 was an exciting, if busy year. We expanded the range of plants sold to include bedding and basket plants, as well as producing a range of hanging baskets. We began the year with one polytunnel and an allotment that we used to produce vegetables and plants, and ended it with two large polytunnels on two different sites! The scariest part was looking at the new poly with over 4000 plants in it! It has always been our intention to develop our plant selling activities, and we pleased with the outcome of our efforts.We had a wonderful time selling the plants and talking to like minded people. The NGS Open Garden in June gave us a chance to renew aquaintances, and share our garden with new friends. We ended the year in a state of change. We were very greatful for the temporary home that we'd been given for our new poly, but we needed to find a more appropriate site. We were still looking at the end of the year. Also, major changes were afoot in our garden. A large ash tree in our garden had outgrown its place, and needed to be removed. You can see the activity on this page. Let it be suffice to say that the garden looked like the Somme, with ten tons of tree all over the lawn. Hmm. Only seven months to the Open Garden, and four to the delivery of next year's plants. Well, there's nothing like a challenge, is there?
So, to 2009. Simply Gardening was having a minor crisis. The tree had been dealt with, the wood distributed to various friends to burn, and our own stache salted away to be burnt later. However, added to the equation was the arrival of the New Greenhouse, involving a major sort out of the bottom of our garden, and the approach of an operation that would take Linda out of the frame for a while. Find out how we coped on the pages that give a more detailed account of our garden. We still needed a new home for our big poly, and finally found one in February, a month before the new plants were due. We settled in quickly, and over the early part of the year were gratified by the comments that we were getting about the quality of the plants. Linda's operation was re scheduled to happen shortly before the Open Garden. Useful. We coped though, enjoying the company of many like minded people. Plant sales have been good over the year, and we intend to offer just as comprehensive a range next year. If you have any thoughts on what you'd like to see us grow and supply, then please contact us and have a chat!
The gardening side of our operation has prospered. We were greatful to our eldest son Andrew, who stepped into the breach to help with grass cutting, and Mark, late of Hamfatter and Dragons Den, for his help too. We have a fairly large client base and our activities range from general garden work through to taming hedges and garden design. If you feel that we can help you, then contact us.
So. we're approaching the end of the year, having moved to a new site where the big polytunnel is sublimely happy producing lovely plants (have a look) the greenhouse settled in, and preparing for the new season - on the allotment, in the garden and in the Poly!
A write up fo 2010 follows soon.....