Now, every great story has a turning point that moment when the little dream becomes something real, something bigger than anyone ever imagined. And for David that moment came when he found this first real business home at Willingham Hall, near Market Rasen.
It wasn’t perfect oh, far from it! but it was a start. A new beginning.
He found a warehouse space to rent big, echoing, and a little rough around the edges. Down one side, there was a narrow strip of land, barely wide enough for anything, but David saw potential in everything. Before long, that “slim slither” of ground became home to eight small greenhouses, each one soon bursting with life. We created walls to try to section certain areas.
The inside of the warehouse, though… well, it was enormous. When the girls first saw it, their eyes went wide with wonder. “We could fit a bouncy castle in here!” they cried and they did, too! That first summer, the warehouse was as much a playground as it was a workplace, filled with laughter and the sound of tiny feet bouncing..
But once the excitement settled, the real work began.
David had to take on staff to help kind, hard-working people who learned to bunch oxygenating plants, reading and fulfilling orders, packaging and maintaining plants, and care for delicate aquarium plants. Orders kept pouring in from customers all over the country, each one wanting a little piece of greenery for their ponds and aquariums.
The days seemed to shrink, and the nights were never long enough.
There were websites to design, photos to take (I had just taken up photography), listings to upload to eBay and now Amazon, emails to answer, orders to print, parcels to pack and of course, endless plants to water, trim, and sort.
And in that narrow row of polytunnels beside the warehouse, they even managed to create a little shop, so that locals could pop by and buy plants in person.
But there was one big problem the warehouse, wonderful as it was, didn’t have much natural light. Plants need the sun as much as we need air, and even with lamps and heaters, it was a struggle to make them thrive inside those four concrete walls.
We had tried putting plants into tanks of water with lights on shelves, after all it had worked in a bedroom, but the warehouse was very cold and the air quite stale. We even tried putting a poly tunnel inside the warehouse and using artificial lighting but the same problem arose.
Still, we carried on. Orders continued to roll in, and the business just kept growing.
By this time, I was still teaching full-time, Computer Programming, but needed to help. So at four o’clock in the morning, before heading off to college, I’d go across to Willingham Hall to help pick plants or bring fresh ones in from the tunnels at home, after all I was still growing plants in the garden and bedroom. Then off I’d go to teach all day and back again in the evening to help wherever I could.
David worked all hours truly, I don’t think he ever stopped. Even Kayleigh was roped in, sitting up late answering customer messages, often with a cup of coffee going cold beside her. We were all working around the clock, driven by a shared dream to make this little family venture into something lasting.
Eventually, I made a big decision myself. I gave up my teaching job and joined David full-time at Willingham Hall.
Birthday time, I wanted to give him something special something that would push us out into the world. So I bought him a stand at the Harrogate Flower Show Autumn. “There you go,” I told him with a grin. “No backing out now we’re going in September!”
Shows take a little planning, Harrogate Flower Show was just the same, Our stand was an outside stand so we had to create only a small display which would still be judged. I say these take planning as we did not really leave ourselves enough time.
And off we went plants, stands, and all to show people that we weren’t just a name on the internet. We were a real family, working hard with muddy hands and full hearts. Still building the stand at ten o'clock in the evening by the head lights of the Luton. And do you know, it worked? People loved meeting the faces behind the business. They could see the passion that had gone into every plant, every root, every leaf.
But as our little company continued to grow, it became clear that even Willingham Hall wasn’t going to be big enough.
We needed more space a place where we could grow our own plants properly, under real sunlight, with room to breathe and expand.
That’s when Kayleigh spoke up. “You know,” she said, “I grew up in Brookenby I know some people I am sure on RAF Binbrook in Brookenby, there are old buildings for rent. Maybe we should take a look.”
And so we did.
When we arrived, it felt like stepping into another world. The old RAF base stretched out before us rows of weathered buildings, unkept lawns, and the gentle whisper of history in the air. But it was the nissen huts that caught our attention long, curved, and full of potential. With a bit of imagination (and a lot of elbow grease!), they could be transformed into enormous polytunnels, perfect for growing.
Of course, it wouldn’t be easy. The place needed clearing, tin removing, tunnels skinning, and fixing before it could be made fit for plants or people. But if there’s one thing this family never shied away from, it was hard work.
And so that’s where we’ll leave it for now on the brink of another new beginning.
Because the story of how we turned those old RAF huts into thriving greenhouses is one you won’t want to miss… See how we got on in the next instalment…
