Wilder Flower Farm
ABOUT US
HELEN POOLEY
Helen trained in Graphic Design at Camberwell College of Arts and since then has worked as a designer in the voluntary sector but after becoming a mum realised she needed to be outside. That meant a career change into flower growing...happy happy days! If you want to find her, she'll be outside, hands in the soil and laughing...far too loudly!
THE FARM
Wilder Flower Farm is near Chipping Norton in the Cotswolds. It is run by Helen with the cheerful support (and quite often muscle) of her brilliant family and the constant company of Gertie the dog. Founded 3 years ago, we are seasonal, chemical-free and a little bit wild and we love what we are doing. We deliberately choose flowers (or varieties) that you won't find in Supermarkets or (most) high street florists. We favour scent, rarity, delicacy and plenty of colour.
Care of the environment matters to Wilder Flower Farm. The flower industry has been a depressing story of using and abusing with huge transport costs and the associated pollution, single use plastic wraps and refrigeration units on a massive scale to name but a few of its crimes. By contrast we want to produce flowers at a time they naturally grow without unseasonal heat, light or especially the 'trip' from Africa, but more than that, we are trying to farm in a way that improves the quality and bio diversity of the land and the soil that we work. To that end we seek to be as sustainable as possible, we don't use floral foam in our arranging, harvest our rain water, don't use pesticides, feed the soil NOT the plants (avoiding chemical fertilisers) and are working towards no-dig. Flower farming is diverse in terms of species and therefore much richer in terms of habitat and food for wildlife than monoculture farming and we seek to encourage as much wild flora and fauna onto the plot as possible (ok we admit that we don't welcome the rabbits!). We work to supply a beautiful product that is good for the land, the wildlife and those with whom we work.
