Hello, I’m Craig, I wanted to share a little bit about me, my gardening passion, and how I came to create Yew Gardens.
I cannot recall when I started gardening or the moment when my love for gardening began, but I do know that I have always been involved or connected to the outdoors and a garden for much of my life.
I grew up in a rural area where our closest neighbours either side of our home were farmers a few fields away. Our home garden started out as a field, a few acres in size surrounded by woodland on two sides. Both of my parents had a keen interest in gardening, particularly my Mother whose knowledge of plants is something I still seek to this day. My parents started selling small bedding plants on the driveway of our home and several years later this had grown into a nursery and then a garden centre where the fields once stood. Growing up, I had always enjoyed the energy and adventures that living next to a garden centre brings. However, it was never for the plants or the polytunnels, more for the diggers, and forklift trucks and delivery trucks. Once I was old enough, I started working full-time with my parents, and before I knew it, was soon a very competent landscaper. I was very fortunate to be able to learn and develop skills from a wide range of craftsman that I had worked with over the years, from carpenters, stonemasons and even the odd old wise gardener. We had landscaped and created dozens of gardens over the years, and as the business grew, unfortunately, the pressures of working in a family-run business had taken their toll.
When I was 22, my parents separated and with it, so did the garden centre that I had grown up with for most of my life. I went to College to study photography and design and then went on to University where I graduated with a 1st BA Hons degree. My new familiarity with design and photography and the technology associated with it led me to work for the technology giant Apple. I have enjoyed every moment working with Apple, and have the privilege to work with some incredible people who I would call my best friends for the past 8 years. Having a job in Apple has taught me many things, none more so than the drive to achieve the best possible customer service, as well as having the drive to achieve goals. It’s also allowed me to become a homeowner, and most importantly a home with a garden. Perhaps it is the fast pace of working in Apple that has rekindled my love for gardening, stimulating something that has been there all along since I was very young. It often is the case of not knowing what you love until it is not there, and in my case, that is gardening, plants and getting my hands dirty. I enjoy the rewards that gardening has to offer, whether that is simply getting dirty, constantly adapting through the seasons, or putting the finishing touches to an idea that was dreamt up months before. Gardening is about the empowerment it can give you, however small or seemingly insignificant your garden may seem. It can be surprising how liberating having your own space can be, to escape it all or entertain the masses, a garden should be about a space that means something to you and the ever-changing journey that it brings. I am so pleased to be gardening again and hope that I can share this joy with you.
“Find what you love and do that.” Monty Don.
This is me, standing by the outhouse in 1988 amongst the Buxus, now one of my favourite plants.
