Thyme For Nature ~ My Story




My first Saturday job was working as an assistant in a local flower shop when I was 15 years old. I decided I wanted to work in floristry, so after leaving school I went to Oaklands Horticultral College in Hertfordshire where I trained to become a qualified florist. I worked in various local flower shops after gaining my floristry qualification and also did some freelance wedding floristry too.
In 2004 I gave birth to my first son and my husband and I went on to have 3 more sons. We made the choice quite early on that we wanted our sons to be educated at home. So while my husband ran his own business full time I stayed at home to educate our sons. Little did I know that THEIR learning journey would also become MY learning journey.
Whilst teaching them I learnt so much about so many different things but most of all I learnt about myself and what I feel really passionate about. We spent a lot of our time learning outdoors in the natural world. I became incredibly passionate about wildlife conservation and began photographing, researching and reading about anything nature related from fungi, herbs and wildflowers to pollinators, native species and ancient woodlands. I also began gardening and growing food but after everything I had learnt about wildlife conservation it was really important to me that our garden was beneficial for wildlife and that any food I grew was grown with nature in mind. I became particularly interested in planting for pollinators and wrote as a guest blogger for Bumblebee Conservation Trust – an amazing charity working hard to protect bumblebees.
Whilst learning about all these new things I realised that everything I loved and felt passionate about was connected to nature, the earth and humanity. I found a deep love of natural history and cultural history which led me to discovering green witchcraft and paganism. As soon as I read about green witchcraft and the pagan wheel of the year I knew this was the path for me. I love the idea of living by the seasons and the natural cycles and rhythms of nature.
In April 2018 I decided to start sharing my love for wildlife gardening, nature & flowers in a blog which I called ‘Thyme For Nature’. Thyme is one of my favourite plants – It’s a wonderful, medicinal herb with beautiful flowers that are so beneficial for pollinators – so it seemed like the perfect name to encompass everything I love !
My garden is natural & wild, some might say a little overgrown or messy ! I always try to plant and garden with nature in mind. I avoid using pesticides and I’m very fond of weeds and wildflowers.
As a self-employed florist I work from home, mainly in my garden. My floristry style reflects my garden – natural, informal and a little bit wild ! Where possible I like to integrate some flowers & foliage I’ve grown myself organically in my garden into my designs and I try to use sustainable materials and techniques where I can. Anything I create using flowers & foliage is made with love and care.