Sussex garden nursery goes 'green' - in more ways than one

The nursery – Garden Sage in London Road, Henfield – is doing its bit to save the planet by cutting waste.

Owner Ed Nugent says: “We want to save waste whilst saving customers some pennies. We don't offer multi buys, just a good price for one.

"Encouraging people to buy what they don't need is not in our ethos at all. Buying just one cane is fine if it’s all you need.”

The nursery – which grows most of its own plants for sale to the public as well as the horticultural trade – offers compost in ‘bag for life’ style bags that can be returned and refilled. It also supplies fertilizers in kilner jars. “Buy the jar once and then return to refill,” says Ed.

"Once the initial expense of the jar is dealt with the feed is much cheaper and because it's in a jar with a seal, it doesn't go off.”

As well as an array of plants on offer, there is also a nursery shop housing a local florist and houseplants and a second newer shop holds sundries for gardening.

"We don't stock fudge or tupperware, just gardening gear and good advice," says Ed.

The nursery is full of unusual and fun plants including Chinese lanterns, Japanese anemone, Australian tree ferns, English oak ‘and everything in between’ and is now gearing up for a busy spring. “We are restocking and we have created new areas in the nursery for people to browse. We don't like to stand still.”

The nursery has 10 staff, including a planting and growing team, and also employes three more in its cafe – Mayblossom.

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Garden Sage was first opened by Ed and his wife Josie in Hassocks in 2016 but moved to Henfield three years ago. Ed and Josie are both horticulturally trained. Josie focuses predominantly on her garden maintenance business – Josie Nugent Gardens – but still plays a big part in the development and structure of Garden Sage.

Ed has worked in horticulture on retail nurseries and wholesale nurseries since he was 16 and has gathered knowledge from all over the world.