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Business Feature: Planting the Med in your own back garden
Jackie Thackeray and Tim Thackeray, owners of the Olive Grove Nursery, in Oundle Road, Polebrook. Picture: Paul Franks
WHEN Tim and Jackie Thackeray opened their specialist garden nursery business two weekends ago, it was an auspicious beginning.
A blazing sun under cloudless skies, provided typically Mediterranean weather for their Mediterranean-style venture.
Olive Grove Nurseries majors in olive trees, about 1,200 of them to be exact, and palms, plus an array of other southern European plants such as yuccas, japonicas, agapanthus, jasmine, and much more besides.
Modelled on a high-end Spanish or Italian-style nursery, the centre has a very relaxed feel – where you could indulge in a glass of wine and discuss your gardening needs with Tim and Jackie. The couple are keen to help gardening enthusiasts design high-impact gardens that evoke the Mediterranean lifestyle and memories of holidays in warmer climes.
Olive Grove Nurseries aims to become the UK’s largest supplier of high quality Mediterranean plants, stocking a vast number of olive trees from one year to 400 years old, hardy palms up to 4m tall and a range of less hardy plants for the conservatory, summer house or home office. With plants ranging from £13.50 for a two-year-old plant with olive oil to £2,500, for a 450-year-old tree, which would make a centrepiece, say on a patio, there is something for everyone.
Tim and Jackie decided to set up the specialist plant business after finding it difficult to source good quality Mediterranean plants for their own garden.
As well as wanting to provide an excellent specialist resource for gardeners, they wanted to dispel the myth that Mediterranean plants are not hardy enough for the British climate, sourcing some plants that survive at 14C below freezing in their native Italy.
Every plant has been personally selected by the couple at Spanish and Italian nurseries which they vetted over several weeks,
Jackie said: “We want the nursery to be a place where gardeners come for a font of ideas, the very best quality plants and striking garden features. On arrival, every customer gets a nursery brochure signalling them to the relevant bay for viewing stock, advising them on plant care and including several labels for them to tag the plants of their choice for ordering and delivery. If required, Tim and I can also guide clients around the nursery, discussing the plant range from dwarf blue fan palm and camellia japonica to callistemon, agapanthus and aloe.
“Our new website www.olivegrovenurseries.co.uk also enables customers to get useful plant advice, source some great gift ideas and order plants online. We also supply modern garden sculpture and contemporary or traditional plant pots that are up to a metre wide”.
As many of the larger plants available can weigh up to two tonnes, Olive Grove Nurseries has invested in specialist handling machinery to offer a nationwide delivery and planting service, which is very useful where cranes are required to locate particularly large trees.
Tim said: “What we are offering is niche and small scale, but with big brand professionalism to ensure our customers feel valued and know they can rely on our expertise and commitment to quality. What’s more, it is a very pleasant place to visit with its towering palms and elegant show area, evoking that sense of peace and fertility associated with the olive tree we named it after”.
To find out more about Olive Grove Nurseries, visit www.olivegrovenurseries.co.uk or call Tim and Jackie on 01832 275660.
Nursery project was a real labour of love
WHEN Tim and Jackie Thackeray bought the nurseries property in Oundle Road, Polebrook, it was with the aim to “produce something totally different, to encompass a lifestyle we’d enjoy and build our eco-house.”
When asked if it was a labour of love, Jackie said: “If you had seen the site when we bought it you would know that it had to be.
“We are in the fortunate position of not having to work now, but we wanted a project that would take us on a journey and challenge us and it has definitely done that. When we arrived it was to a dilapidated garden centre full of row upon row of hundreds of neglected plants, many of which had rooted to the ground through pots.
“Not only did we have to clear out tonnes of old plants, but we also had to lay out neat new bays, put up wind breaks, bring in and arrange new stock and create a Mediterranean-inspired plaza at the back of the office to give clients an idea of the amazing impact you can have with Mediterranean garden design.”
Tim agreed when he said: “Designing our eco-home was just as important to us. We could have made life easy on ourselves and just bought a nice cottage nearby, but we wanted something that reflected our own interest in contemporary, sustainable living and it’s good to know we have achieved that.”
The house, at the rear of the site, is modular in design, and features sustainable timber, efficient heat pumps and a rainwater harvesting system.
The couple have invested about £750,000 in total in their venture to become the country’s largest supplier of Mediterranean plants, catering for both amateur and professional gardeners.
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Weather for Peterborough
Saturday 04 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -1 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: -1 C to 4 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: West
