MEET EMILY FROM FRESHWATER BOTANICAL
Balance + Glo co-Founder Jenny regularly visits Freshwater Botanical here on the Isle of Wight to buy flowers for her home. Jenny has got to know the business owner Emily Rufian…..another female founded island business - yes!
Emily’s enthusiasm for the outdoors and beautiful flowers is infectious and Jenny recently sat down with her to find out more about her love of flowers and how she started Freshwater Botanicals.
Meet Emily…..
Emily spent her childhood living on the Isle of Wight, and left like many do, when she went to university. Emily returned with her young family in 2016 and never looked back.
The family settled in the stunning West Wight, and now she can’t imagine living anywhere else. Even her London born and bred husband is a total island convert….. Oh, we get it!!
Q. How did Freshwater Botanical begin?
I founded Freshwater Botanical (or Freshwater Bay Strawberries as it was known then) in January 2021, it has grown from strength to strength with the support of the Island community. I have so many ideas for the business and I am fortunate enough to have the support of my family on this crazy adventure. My son now wants to start his own branch growing tomato plants, so watch this space!
I have always grown flowers. Wherever I lived I’ve always had a pot of flowers, or a sunflower. Even in a small top floor flat in North London with no outside space I had a window sill full of herbs and chillis.
I’m fortunate to have a big garden now (never turn down a bungalow if you want a good plot of land), I didn’t realise what I could achieve with it until the pandemic, like many people it was a turning point, I’ve always wanted to sell my plants and I thought ‘right now I really have nothing to lose’, so I settled on strawberries (everyone loves strawberries!).
I set up slowly just advertising on social media it really took off from there. We delivered over 500 plants island wide in the first month, which was amazing!
Strawberries were the foundation and this season we are still growing strawberry plants and have added dahlia tubers, and cut flower seeds to our offering, with the hope in the late summer we can supply local florists and the public with buckets of locally grown cut flowers.
Delicious……
Q. How has it played a part in your own wellbeing journey?
Personally, I have to be outside for my own wellbeing, getting my hands in the mud and growing something from seed, creating a beautiful display and seeing the joy in peoples faces when then walk away with a small pot of my plants – you can’t beat it.
Q. For complete novices, how would you suggest getting started in the garden?
Gardening is a marathon not a sprint. It’s easy to forget when we look at beautiful abundant gardens in books and social media that they have probably been developing for years and years. I have been working on my garden for over six years and it’s still not there yet!
If you have just moved into a place with a garden, don’t rush to dig everything up, try and live with it for a while, it will change over the seasons, the annoying tree in the middle doing nothing during the winter, may offer much needed shade during a blistering summer.
Pick one area at a time, it is easy to feel overwhelmed. Grow what you love, not what you think you should grow, if you want to fill your garden with sunflowers go for it, don’t like roses that’s fine – there can be a bit too much plant snobbery in gardening!
Remember you don’t need to go out and buy a greenhouse, or loads of fancy tools (these things are nice but not necessary to get started). You don’t even need a garden, a pot on a front step with some nasturtium tumbling over the side is as beautiful as a field of flowers.
For anyone on the Isle of Wight also check out the Green Island Veg Economy Facebook group for great tips and members also give away any surplus seedlings and crop they have - a cost effective way to get started.
Beautiful……
Q. What's best to plant outside at this time of year?
May is the perfect time to start seeds off in pots inside, we need to be a little bit more patient – we can still get a frost in May. Small plants will either die or just stop growing.
As soon as June 1st comes gardeners are full throttle planting everything outside, dahlia tubers can go in the ground, you can direct sow seeds and they will shoot up for summer displays.
Q. What's best to grow in small spaces e.g balconies, window sills?
You can’t beat window boxes overflowing with brightly coloured geraniums, they really remind me of Mediterranean courtyards, mix in some pots of lavender for a beautiful evening scent. Make sure you leave a spot on your window sill for a few pots of strawberry plants!
Simple……
Q. How can we get creative in the kitchen with some of the plants Freshwater Botanical grow?
It may sound very old fashioned but I cannot be without homemade strawberry jam!
Freshly picked strawberries from plants you have grown turned into delicious jam, the vibrant red and fresh taste is perfection
A slice of sour dough with a good helping of homemade jam early in the morning while sitting in your garden before the rest of the household wakes up is bliss!
Yummy…..
Q. Where’s your favourite Isle of Wight walk to explore wild flowers and plants?
I am always fascinated by what grows in the most inhospitable places, from the beautiful sea thrifts that cling to the cliffs on the coast path from Freshwater Bay towards Compton, to the coconut scented yellow gorse flowers high up on the walk past the Tennyson monument to the Needles.
Head out for a wander…..
A wander through the woods at Mottistone to see the carpets of bluebells is also a must do at this time of year. I love to have a stroll through the village to see what everyone is growing in their gardens and the beautiful community areas, you can get lots of ideas of what will work in your own garden this way.
Q. What’s one piece of advice for anyone starting out exploring growing their own?
Just give it a go….
If you’re a complete novice, start with sunflowers (the valentine variety has beautiful lemon yellow flower heads perfect for cut flowers) and strawberries are not fussy and will grow almost anywhere!
Find a plant growing friend and see what they are growing. I will talk to you for hours about growing!
Always check out local plant sales for home grown varieties, you don’t have to spend a fortune.
Remember, if it doesn’t work that’s fine, try a different plant! I am hopeless at growing sweet peas, I try every year and I just can’t get it right, cosmos on the other hand will grow and grow for me and I am fine with that.
Q. Any tips for recycling and reducing waste in your garden?
Good gardeners have mastered the art of reusing anything they can get their hands on, everything from an old bath as a planter to bicycle wheel as an elaborate hanging living chandelier.
The key is to reuse as much as you can - yogurt pots or the plastic trays fruit comes in from the supermarket makes fantastic seed trays. They can be washed, stored and reused the next season.
Plastic plant pots can be saved or passed on to friends. Local freecycle sites are perfect for picking up tools and greenhouses.
If you end up really getting into gardening, you can start a compost heap and whole systems of rainwater collection tanks – the options are endless!
Get creative……
One last thought from Emily
Please support local Isle of Wight flower farmers before heading the garden centre. We have forgotten that just like fruit, flowers are seasonal, we are used to buying tulips in February, when the field grown season doesn’t start until April.
Many UK flower farmers are small family businesses growing sustainably and seasonally. Like many agriculture based business in the UK we are extremely passionate about what we do and want to share that passion with our customers.
Freshwater Botanical is an independent, female founded, micro flower farm on the Isle of Wight.
Offering a beautifully curated range of cut flower seeds and Dahlia tubers with UK wide delivery.
Freshwater Botanical is known for its strawberry plants, available locally during the spring season.
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