Gardening business founder of nearing decade-and-a-half proudly launches wholesale plant venture
The founder of a gardening business, which is impressively nearing a decade-and-a-half operating across the county, has proudly launched a new wholesale plant venture.
Kim Tegg launched Beautiful Borders 13 years ago in what was a complete career change after returning to college to train in horticulture.
This was inspired by her love of the outdoors and wanting to set something up of her own, as she could not find a job with flexible hours that suited her life as a mother.
Beautiful Borders is led by a small team of passionate and dedicated horticulturalists, who specialise in borders and planting. They found a gap in the market after steering clear of grass cutting and hedge trimming.
“No companies focused on plant care and back then there seemed to be a gap in the market in the county,” said Kim, who has spotted another market to tap into with wholesale plants.
Beautiful Borders Plants Ltd, which is the new strand to Kim’s work, supplies to the horticultural trade and large estate gardens. The website comes under the name Northamptonshire Wholesale Plants.
The founder said: “Over the last few years, it’s been harder to buy wholesale plants locally. As a gardening business which does lots of planting, we had to start buying in bulk as we couldn’t get them when we needed them.
“We rented a small yard and were stockpiling a bit. There was the opportunity to rent more land and in that time, all the wholesalers in the county closed. The three that we used regularly all closed in the last 12 months.”
After being approached by another gardener who knew that Kim and her team grew some of their own stock, they took the plunge to register to sell wholesale and made it worthwhile by setting up Beautiful Borders Plants Ltd.
“It’s a mixture of us growing our own stock from seeds and cuttings, and sourcing plants for people,” said Kim. “We have our stock and buy to order, for self-employed gardeners all the way to landscapers doing whole garden designs.”
The new business launched on September 16 and the stock has already been praised as good quality, wide ranging and reasonably priced in comparison to garden centres offering trade discounts.
Kim stocks perennial plants, grasses and ferns, shrubs are available to order but will not be stocked, and the business is steering clear of supplying trees.
Looking to the future of the two businesses, Kim said: “I’d really like to build some good relationships with designers and garden businesses. It’s quite a lonely world maintaining gardens when the owners aren’t at home.
“We don’t want horticulturalists in the county to be put off as we aren’t competition. I share work with other local businesses and work in partnership.”
Beautiful Borders Plants operates by appointment only and the best way to view the stock is online. Kim has tried to simplify the process by ensuring the website is a one stop shop, with orders delivered to wherever customers need them and when they need it.
Following her personal experience as a gardener, Kim knows the value of getting these orders delivered exactly where you need them – which saves both time and money.