Muddy Stilettos


<h2 class="wp-block-heading">How did it all begin?&nbsp;</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="666" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Untitled-design-2023-09-11T131653.209.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-77210" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Untitled-design-2023-09-11T131653.209.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Untitled-design-2023-09-11T131653.209-600x400.jpg 600w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Untitled-design-2023-09-11T131653.209-788x525.jpg 788w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /><figcaption>credit: Jonathan Buckley jonathanbuckley.co.uk; insta @jonathanbuckleyphotography</figcaption></figure>



<p>I started experimenting with gardening when my children were tiny as I’ve loved cut flowers from a young age. I did trial patches in yard squares of 15 or so different plants to compare productivity and get a good range. Bringing science into it helped clarify what I wanted to do. It became quickly clear that the perennials were the hopeless producers but the annuals, which at that time were highly unfashionable, were what I should be doing with minimal space and time.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">So you quit your career as a doctor to pursue unfashionable flowers?&nbsp;</h2>



<p>I was working in Charing Cross Hospital and had a nine month old baby when we moved to West Sussex. I’d leave the house when the baby was asleep and when I got back she was usually already sleep. It didn’t take me long to realise this was not compatible with family life.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Was there a moment, or a flower even, that changed it all?</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="666" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Untitled-design-2023-09-12T142506.402.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-77374" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Untitled-design-2023-09-12T142506.402.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Untitled-design-2023-09-12T142506.402-600x400.jpg 600w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Untitled-design-2023-09-12T142506.402-788x525.jpg 788w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /><figcaption>credit: Jonathan Buckley jonathanbuckley.co.uk; insta @jonathanbuckleyphotography</figcaption></figure>



<p>Cosmos Purity (above) and Cosmos Dazzler, and Ammi Majus and Indian Prince Calendula &#8211; those were the annuals that made me think I could have a domestic scale plot and make a go of it. At first I thought I’d bunch them up to sell in the local farm shop. But if I took harvesting and the visit to the farm shop into account, it wasn’t covering costs. </p>



<p>So I wrote my first book, <em>The Cutting Garden</em>, in 1996. and realised communicating and teaching was way to do it. People came to my courses and saw the seeds I was growing, some of which were hard to get hold of and came from America or Japan, and they wanted to buy them. I had 100 people on that list to start with. Then they would have come on a course and seen a sweetpea in a vase, and love that, so I started selling vases. I remember it &#8211; it was a turquoise vase that I&#8217;d bought from Iran.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Where are your strengths and what skills have you hired in?</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="666" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Untitled-design-2023-09-11T131519.338-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-77212" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Untitled-design-2023-09-11T131519.338-1.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Untitled-design-2023-09-11T131519.338-1-600x400.jpg 600w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Untitled-design-2023-09-11T131519.338-1-788x525.jpg 788w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /><figcaption>credit: Jonathan Buckley jonathanbuckley.co.uk; insta @jonathanbuckleyphotography</figcaption></figure>



<p>I’m a creative person but quite all over the shop &#8211; the epitome of multitasker. I’ve got many balls in the air but I’m quite unstreamlined in a way, so I needed someone to do finance and customer service, and someone to control stock levels. I’m good at selling stuff but have no concept of how much to buy &#8211; which is where merchandisers come in. We now have a department of 8 or 10 of them. They predict how much will sell and tweak it season to season with our suppliers. I’m best at the front end.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Is there anything you’d have done differently? What might you have said to the Sarah Raven starting out in the mid 1990s?</h2>



<p>I suppose, have it all closer together. My head office is in Marlborough where my business partner is based so it’s a lot of travelling which has such an impact on your day-to-day living. But overall, it has been such an organic thing I’m not sure I would do it differently. Just perhaps press the go button harder &#8211; we&#8217;ve had 25 years with no outside funding and only ever growing to the bounds of our bank account. I’m now 60 and I wonder if perhaps I could have pressed the go button earlier.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">There’s been an explosion of flower farms, PYO flowers and cut flower workshops in recent years. Is it welcome, and is it sustainable?</h2>



<p>It’s been building for ten years, with Flowers from the Farm and so on and I celebrate it. My CEO might say different as we have a lot of competition and there are companies that copy exactly what we do, which puts pressure on. But now I feel confident enough to know that I have new ideas for next year that they don’t know about yet.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">How has the cut flower business changed in recent years?</h2>



<p>As a country, we’re not importing as many of our flowers from Kenya which has to be a good thing.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">So the business is greening up?</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="666" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Untitled-design-2023-09-12T142448.711.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-77375" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Untitled-design-2023-09-12T142448.711.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Untitled-design-2023-09-12T142448.711-600x400.jpg 600w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Untitled-design-2023-09-12T142448.711-788x525.jpg 788w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /><figcaption>credit: Jonathan Buckley jonathanbuckley.co.uk; insta @jonathanbuckleyphotography</figcaption></figure>



<p>At Sarah Raven we&#8217;re leading the way in terms of sustainability. We’ve spent seven years developing peat free compost and testing it across 100 flowers in our range, finally finding one we’re happy with launched that this summer. I’m very proud of that. At our Lincolnshire nursery we have biomass boilers, so no oil, and use waste wood from the locality, and we get our water from our greenhouse roofs, collecting it all. Then 95% of our packaging is plastic free. </p>



<p>Pots are more challenging and a debate we have the whole time. We’re trying all the time to finish the circle. We’re trialling sending out starch pots in the post but they’ve been getting mashed so we’ll have to work on that until we’re happy with it. We recently were approved for crowd funding with Triodos Bank which is only possible if you are a sustainable and conscientious employer. It’s not just about the environment but also fair employment.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Is the rest of the sector following?</h2>



<p>The sector as a whole has to because gardening is nature and nature is garden. It’s just simply unjustifiable to use chemicals.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">You&#8217;re very wedded to the business. How do you wind down and manage the work/life balance?</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="666" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Untitled-design-2023-09-11T131622.406-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-77213" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Untitled-design-2023-09-11T131622.406-1.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Untitled-design-2023-09-11T131622.406-1-600x400.jpg 600w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Untitled-design-2023-09-11T131622.406-1-788x525.jpg 788w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /><figcaption>credit: Jonathan Buckley jonathanbuckley.co.uk; insta @jonathanbuckleyphotography</figcaption></figure>



<p>It’s very very hard. The other day I was at a shoot and my younger child was in A&amp;E for something and it reminded me of those many times when the one place you want to be is at home looking after the children. I always put family first, so it is stressful, but I’m not good at work-life balance, and do a bit of work every day. I start at 5am in the morning and do mostly 10 hour days but it’s because it is my life and it really doesn’t feel like work.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">And finally, how do I make my garden look like one of your brochures? Is there anything I can still plant for cut flowers?&nbsp;</h2>



<p>Hardy annuals will survive when it gets cold and wet, so try snap dragons (antirrhinums) for late sowing. They may not work if we have a November cold snap like we did last year, but they can flower until Christmas. Cerinthe, Calendula Indian Prince are others and Salvia Viridus Blue. Those may work if sown in September if they’re in a sheltered spot.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-inspired-to-start-or-turbo-charge-your-own-business"><em>Inspired</em> <em>to start or turbo-charge your own business? </em></h2>



<p>Let us help you! Enter our <a href="https://muddystilettos.co.uk/women-in-business">SHE MEANS BUSINESS</a> AWARD for £10,000 cash funding to your company. Applications close 9 Nov 2023.</p>



<p><em>Check out Sarah&#8217;s books, seeds, plants, homewares and more at <a href="https://www.sarahraven.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sarahraven.com</a> including the repackaged edition of&nbsp;<strong>Sarah Raven&#8217;s&nbsp;Garden&nbsp;Cookbook</strong>, published by Bloomsbury, and available now priced £31.50. </em></p>



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Muddy meets Sarah Raven: ‘How I started my own business’

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