My name is Ian, and I operate GrowPlugs as a sole trader from my garden in Derry/Londonderry in Northern Ireland. I left the rat race and went back to college to get a National Certificate in Horticulture at the age of 30 to turn my hobby into a career.
I have been running garden businesses on and off for the last 25 years integrating work with my family life. I have done private gardening, garden design, landscape gardening, providing and maintaining plants for public buildings, teaching in schools, horticultural therapy, providing herbs and veggies for local restaurants, and I even worked for one day laying lawns!
When we bought our first home in 2011, a small town house, I got a polytunnel for my birthday, and my business evolved from there. It started when I saw a batch of about 1,200 vintage Victorian Carleys’ Bridge pots for sale which I impulsively bought. My wife accuses me of being a hoarder, which of course I deny.
I started giving them away, but my son suggested selling them online and that was my first product. Selling the pots was fun, but not sustainable. I enjoyed the process of packing and posting and dealing with customers. And was considering if there was anything else that I could sell to earn my living?
I had a little ledge that needed filling between the polytunnel and the path and I thought that lawn chamomile (Treneague) would fit well, so I bought a few plants. I loved the plants. I loved their smell- so calming. They were fun to grow. They don’t grow from seeds, as they don’t flower and I enjoyed experimenting with offshoots and soil mixes. Lawn chamomile is a robust, practical ground cover, and easy to post, so I put a few up on eBay and that is how GrowPlugs started.
I have always enjoyed experimenting with new plants and I usually try my hand at something different every year. Some of these experiments were for my own interest, like soapwort, stevia (sugar plant) and loofah, but some have become part of my inventory such as London Pride (Saxifraga × urbium)and Catnip (Nepeta Cataria). The garden has become a bit of a haven for the local cats, much to my wife’s delight (I'm not exactly a cat person) and the chagrin of the local mice population.
As a sole trader, I am responsible for all aspects of the business, including growing, packing, shipping, and customer service. I am very customer focused, and keep the business as sustainable as possible.
I grow the plants in a peat free organic compost. I use cardboard boxes for posting the plants and any plastics I use have 30% recycled material. I have a robust community with many returning customers, and I always make an effort to reply to messages, so feel free to contact me at info@growplugs.com if you have any questions.
