One of our biggest recent projects is just coming to fruition (or should I say harvest!). We have been working with the Sarvari Research Trust since April of 2013. The Welsh breeder of blight resistant potatoes has worked to develop six unique varieties that are now ready for commercialisation. Garden Ethos is at the centre of a small team that is bringing sales, marketing, production and financial management to bear with this potentially vital family of potatoes. It has meant building up a business almost from scratch, starting with the brand, developing a strategy of both increasing production and prioritising sales across gardeners, allotment holders, organic growers and export to Ireland and much further afield. The essence of the Sarpo varieties is that they are non GM, traditionally bred to have effective resistance to potato blight and to be be low input spuds needing little or no sprays be weed smothering, reducing or removing the need for herbicides be storeable all winter without the need for refrigeration or the need for anti sprouting fumigants. The 2014 harvest is in and we are very busy developing new packaging, leaflets, PR materials and all the background support materials and systems to get Sarpo Potatoes Ltd off the a flying start Key is our website development which will be going live in time for spring orders, It’s a tall order to create a complete e commerce site from scratch and incorporate the Sarvari Research Trust as well! Watch this space
We have just completed 9 months of engaging, “learning by doing” workshops across the UK. Where a Homebase store is being refurbished we have provided 2 days of back to back events covering garden tools and Garden Care “Garden Tools” were run at wonderful venues with lawns, hedges and trees where both branded and own brand products could be tried in comparative exercises. The response was overwhelming as the majority of attendees had not had any hands on experience before! “Garden Care” followed on from tools.We used a nearby Proposition Store with the days activities moving from training room, to plant area, garden care fixture and even a product trial area in the warehouse yard! The results were beyond our expectations and we had a series of very happy store colleagues either coming away fully informed or revitalised.
We have all just returned from a great interactive experience, representing Fiskars at a well known retailers trade show. The whole team got to work together building, running and inspiring 750 store staff. Each group had exactly 13 minutes to hear about Fiskars 365th birthday (yes they really have been going in Finland since 1649) and then try out key products like Powergear pruners & loppers and the now famous weedpuller As you can see from the shots we had a stand built to use and branches to prune and “weeds” to pull. The attendees were kept happy and busy for the whole period and entered into a competition to win the famous tools for their own gardens. After 4 days of being on the stand and presenting to 180 groups we certainly knew our stuff . But then … it was easy talking about and demonstrating the best tools in the world!
We have recently been getting to grips with this new service product that appears to be meeting a need for some garden care companies. The seasonality and weather related nature of our beloved national pastime means that with consumers it is all or nothing! Our new service allows you to do one of several things .. Have your out of hours emergency calls taken and answered by a first aid qualified, gardening expert who can handle the matter with empathy Programme in periods during the season (during periods of staff leave for example) when we can answer calls, emails and even letters Use the service on an ad hoc basis when the queries start to backup! All our staff are gardening experts, have worked with garden care products for many years and are first aiders. If you look at what we can do and our reasonable costs then it could well mean savings on having to employ temporary staff or using a haz chem type emergency service (hardly the kind of response for a concerned consumer). Contact us to see what we could do to help.
Garden Ethos has been working with Sarvari Research Trust who have bred the Sarpo (pronounced Sharpo) family of spuds since April 2013. Our aim is to launch the new trading company, bring production up to the point where we can start to meet the demand that has been created! A dynamic business plan has been developed and the various channels that Sarpo can serve have been researched. Sarpo potatoes are resistant to the devastating late blight as well as viruses that lower yields. They have fast growing foliage that quickly smothers weeds and can be stored without refrigeration or fogging with anti sprouting chemicals. All this has been achieved using traditional (Non GM) breeding methods. What’s even better for the grower are the very high yields that are obtained. Its a win win situation. With all the skittles lined up , it was time to move onto funding. We have been running a 3 month crowd funding campaign through Buzzbnk (the ethical crowd fund platform) and have been delighted to achieve our first funding milestone with the help of multiple donors and lenders Buzzbnk . This will now allow us to move to the next stage of creating the brand and ID ready to start trading the 2014 crop come autumn. The fund is still open .. why not visit our site above and join the crowd. The overall aim of Sarpo Potatoes Ltd is to get the Sarpo varieties into the hands of gardeners, allotment holders, organic and green veg box scheme growers, export customers and eventually the ware crop growers of the UK and ROI. Profits from the business will flow to the Research Trust Sarvari whose function will be to continue the breeding work, campaign for sustainable potato production and “release” these wonderful, low input spuds to places in the world that need them. Sarpo had another boost recently when independent top Chef Gelf Anderson of River Cottage fame, tested and raved about the quality of the Sarpo varieties. They are now going to be test growing for their own kitchens this season. River Cottage Report
We have just had the best of days helping B&Q, building a lesson plan for one of their You Can Do It (YCDI) classes for kids. In a many of their larger stores, B&Q has purpose built classroom where skills such as painting and tiling can be learnt. Well now its the turn of gardening and more specifically gardening for children! B&Q have teamed up with Friends of the Earth to encourage children to plant up a “mini garden” with flowering plants that will encourage bees throughout the season, providing both nectar and pollen for our winged friends. Recent publicity and government has highlighted the plight of the bees and the effcet it can have on our ecosystem and food production The bee cafe is a hanging basket, stuffed full of flowering plants that have the type of flowers that bees are attracted to, and more importantly, can access the nectar and pollen. Did you know that many of our most popular bedding plants either have very little in the way of resources or the bees cannot actually get to them? As well as researching the project and its associated key stages in the National Curriculum, Garden Ethos sourced the best plants from B&Q’s exhaustive plant lists and put together an hours plan and suggested follow on activities for 8 to 11 year olds. They also filmed the activity so that the YCDI trainers could familiarise themselves with the various components of this fun class. Thank You B&Q 🙂 Here is the short instructional video designed for the store stuff to familiarise themselves Bee Cafe workshop
Garden Ethos has started working with Sarpo Potatoes Ltd (SPL) . to develop the the garden and smallholding market for their unique blight resistant varieties. SPL has been formed to market and sell present and future varieties of potatoes that have emerged from the breeding work at the Sarvari Research Trust in North Wales (http://www.sarvari-trust.org/) . These acclaimed potatoes have very high resistance to late blight of potato including the newest strain that have recently become in the UK. They are very suited to being grown by amateur gardeners, small holders and veg box schemers who do not (and cannot) spray their crops every few weeks to keep fungal diseases at bay. The yields are superb, the flavour exceptional and they can be stored for up to six months without sprouting Garden Ethos will be working with the new directors of SPL to develop a marketing plan, make contact with the multiple routes to market available and help to organise sustainable funding streams. “This is a great opportunity for Garden ethos the nearly 30 years of UK and ROI garden retail experience to assist this young start up. The opportunity across multiple channels is just waiting to bear fruit and we are all looking forward to a great long term relationship” said David Gale of Garden Ethos
Garden Ethos facilitated at an industry networking event this week. 22 enthusiastic growers, retailers, end users and suppliers came together at Aberglasney Gardens Camarthenshire, Wales to meet, talk, exchange ideas and contacts. We were shown around Aberglasney by head gardener Joseph Atkins, treated to a beautifully prepared buffet lunch by the cafe and were promoted to think about local sourcing and the Welsh Connection when it comes to ornamental plants. An overwhelming message from the day was that these events worked, that more end users needed to be attracted to them and that an all Wales directory of both plants suppliers and retailers/end users would benefit all See more images
Welcome to our new website. The holding page has been there a lot longer than we would have wanted it to. Its been a great exercise in focussing on what we actually do do! It made us realise that our business model is quite unique. Extremely niche in terms of only working within the gardening and related industries but so broad in terms of what we do within that niche. Over many years we have developed these skills that we hope you will find of interest. We are brimming over with ideas and concepts and are always happy to discuss and provide initial ideas FOC! We want your ideas to succeed A big thank you to Mark, Emrys and Arfon at Matrix 10 for making this website a reality Matrix10
This project is part financed by Gwynedd Council and the Welsh Government through the Local Investment Fund and the European Union - European Regional Development Fund.
Mae'r prosiect hwn wedi ei rhan ariannu gan Gyngor Gwynedd a Llywodraeth Cymru drwy'r Gronfa Ddatblygu Lleol a chan yr Undeb Ewropeaidd - E.R.D.F