MEET THE GROWER
Consumer demand for products which help to live a more sustainable life has inspired entrepreneurs to come up with new business ideas to meet the changing environment. Goody Foody Gardens is one such business, launched in Glasgow in April 2020, just as the pandemic struck. The company installs raised vegetable beds, set up by experts, into the gardens of people who want to try growing their own but do not know where to start.
The differentiating factor of this business is that the set-up is undertaken by an expert local gardener. This family friendly service gives confidence to the new grower and reduces time spent researching what to do yourself. To keep up momentum, the expert gardeners return four times a year with seasonal top ups, to help maintain the beds and offer lots of advice.
The idea came from the founder, Laura Molloy, a working mother of three, who wanted to give growing veg at home a go but did not know how to start. She liked the idea of showing her children where food comes from which in turn would encourage them to eat healthier meals. She tried to create her own veg patch in the garden during a maternity leave but found she had little idea what she was doing nor had the time to find out, and so in the end gave up.
The business works on the premise that everyone is a novice with no prior knowledge. Everything is made with convenience and ease in mind such as a ready-made frame, child friendly instructions, WhatsApp messaging for questions, and vegetables selected from a list which is vetted for suitability for the Scottish climate.
A pilot ran in 2019 to test the concept of providing a grow-at-home service and refine the process. The feedback was positive and reinforced the importance of the face-to-face support of the gardeners in helping people transition from thinking about it to getting started. One of the participants, Catherine Reilly, a mum of three from Glasgow, who took part in the study said, “I just couldn’t think about it, I’d need to work out how to do the construction, and this puts me off. I’d need to find a joiner then I’d then need to find the time to research what to grow online. The fact that someone is doing the construction, showing where to start and has that gardening knowledge is ideal.”
A successful Crowdfunder was completed in early 2020 and the business launched shortly after in April 2020…exactly as the country shut down.
Despite the initial success, Goody Foody Gardens was hampered by the nationwide supply shortages particularly for timber and compost. Laura said of these issues, “The first lockdown was essentially about problem-solving every day. I was lucky in that we were an outdoor business and we adapted to no-contact visits and reset the processes around covid safety measures but trying to find compost suppliers was crazy! It wasn’t just the lack of timber but the sawmills also closed for a while, so I had to learn how to cut timber and carry out every aspect of construction on my own. It was a very valuable learning process.”
The growth in gardening shows no sign of abating. A study by Nationwide on millions of their customers' transactions in the first quarter of 2021 compared with the previous quarter showed a 77% growth in gardening spend as we eased out of lockdown. Through the pandemic the number of tutorials, influencers and articles exploded and there is now a huge array of information online.
Does Laura think the need for face-to-face services for growing your own will reduce as restrictions lift? Laura said, “It is true there is a huge amount of content out there, I follow lots of growers and influencers on Instagram myself and enjoy seeing what they are doing, however, at the heart of our service is the understanding that our customers are busy. They want to adapt their lives to a more sustainable way of living and teach their children where food comes from but they are juggling the children, jobs, clubs, emails to answer. The last thing they need is another task to find out how to build a raised bed or what to plant for success. That’s the value we bring – we give them it all in the easiest, and hopefully, friendliest way.”
The Scottish Government has set out its consultation on how Scotland becomes a ‘Good Food Nation’ which makes sure everyone can afford a healthy, pleasurable diet. Any drive to encourage people to use small garden spaces and have a try at growing their own is a great way to start.
Do follow Goody Foody Gardens on Facebook and Instagram to keep up-to-date with all their exciting developments.
Goody Foody Gardens are currently planning a franchise pilot in the Edinburgh area. If you have passion and knowledge for growing vegetables and are interested, you can get in touch by emailing hello@goodyfoodygarden.co.uk or use the contact form on their website.