All about us

We moved to Warden Hill Farm in December 2003.  We had taken a huge risk & bought the farm at Auction without selling our previous home in Bournemouth so lots of stress!   Definitely not to be recommended.  The whole place was very run down – particularly the bungalow that we live in.  It was dark, cold and unloved.  Friends thought we were mad (and still do!).   What we had was a whole new lifestyle for us and our two sons who were 10 & 11 at the time.  

Outside we had a nursery and paving business again run down.  Paul carried on working in IT until 2007 working on the farm early mornings, evenings, and weekends.  Finally in 2007 we took the plunge and started to rely on the farm for our living.

Jackie has tackled the nursery slowly building up our stock of perennials and shrubs from scratch.  Now we offer over three hundred varieties together with annual & basket plants.   We are always trying to add to the varieties we offer but it can be a battle being so high up (250 mtrs above sea level).  Certainly any plants that can survive here are definitely hardy as we are around 2 degrees colder than surrounding towns.   Nature takes its toll here – very windy so we get a lot of damage during the winter – now we know why it all looked so run down!  But we really enjoy, and are passionate about what we do, so we carry on mending the polytunnels.  Paul works with the plants but also makes excellent paving. 

We have gradually created a new life here.   Although the bungalow is nowhere near finished its now a comfortable place to live.  Jackie is itching to create a beautiful garden but there are only so many hours in a day!  We are planting trees in the field and we hope that one day we will be self sufficient for fuel.  We grow as many veggies as we can but the nursery takes up most of our time in the summer. 

Yes its hard work but we’ve made our ‘Escape to the Country’!