Why you should buy your plants locally.
At The Lewisham Garden Company, we believe that creating and maintaining a garden in a sustainable and effective way is important for you and for the planet. One action we take to maintain a sustainable approach is buying local.
This isn’t just about feeling good about your green credentials—it’s about getting the best plants for your garden, supporting local businesses, and ensuring your garden will thrive for years to come. Here’s what makes our approach, sourcing plants from high-quality independent nurseries across the home counties, so unique and valuable.
1. Supporting Local Horticulture and Expert Skills
When you buy locally produced plants, you’re doing more than just making a purchase; you are investing directly in UK horticulture. For us, being in South East London gives us access to a wealth of incredible independent nurseries. Such as The No Name Nursery in Kent.
- Protecting Skilled Trades: The UK has a long history of plant development and garden design. The skills of our brilliant nurserymen and women can only be maintained if their businesses remain viable. By buying locally, you help support jobs and keep this invaluable horticultural expertise alive in the area.
2. Discovering Greater Variety and Finding the Perfect Fit
Large retailers and growers typically focus on a small selection of popular varieties that are guaranteed to sell to a mass audience. But when you look at the huge variety available in the plant world, that narrow focus can begin to look uninspiring.
Independent nurseries, which serve a smaller, more focused audience, have the freedom to offer something different, like the plants available from Bright Green Fox in Sussex. This means they are far more likely to have unique, fascinating plants that will thrive in your garden. At The Lewisham Garden Company, we tap into this rich variety to bring you something truly special.
3. Plants That Are Built to Thrive
One of the greatest benefits of sourcing plants locally is the resilience and reliability you gain.
- Weather-Ready: Plants grown locally have spent their lives in the same weather environment they will be planted into in your garden. They are already acclimatized, which means they will be more resilient to the weather, quicker to establish, and far more likely to thrive than plants shipped in from different climate zones or grown in large, industrial greenhouses.
- A Smaller Carbon Footprint: Local plants are less likely to have been grown intensively in a heated greenhouse or shipped long distances to a large store. This means they have a far smaller carbon footprint, reducing the negative environmental impact of your garden.
4. Unmatched Expertise and Peace of Mind
Because smaller, independent nurseries, like Great Dixter Nurseries, produce their own stock, they understand that product more than anyone else.
When we purchase from them, they are able to provide us with every detail we need to help your plant flourish. They know every step of the production process: where the seeds originated, the specific soil mix they were grown in, and the exact conditions the plant has been exposed to.
This complete knowledge helps us make informed decisions, ensuring we only purchase plants that are responsibly grown and appropriate for your garden—and that knowledge is passed directly on to you.
The Lewisham Garden Company is unique because we prioritise this local, expert-driven approach. It allows us to give you a garden that is not only beautiful but also environmentally sound, built with the best-acclimatised plants and supported by deep horticultural knowledge.
Ready to see the difference local plants can make in your own garden? Contact us today.
