Clamerkin Wild…

Sarah Cox, Clamerkin Wild, British Flower Farmer, Isle of Wight

Clamerkin Wild was established Autumn 2024 out of a passion for growing flowers. 

After a lifetime as a keen gardener, I set up our flower field solely for the purpose of growing and cutting flowers for others to enjoy.  We moved to the Isle of Wight 4 years ago after leaving my job as a teacher.

I was excited to utilise some of our newfound field space to establish a permanent growing patch. We set about rabbit-proofing an area within an existing field and then embarked on making our 1m x 22m beds using the No-Dig method as advocated by Charles Dowding. This involves layers of cardboard and organic matter of varying quality to build up a flower bed without digging into the soil.  This helps preserve the soil's structure and establishes a new growing area without disturbing the fragile ecosystem within the soil itself. 

All our plants have been propagated on site from bulbs and tubers to thousands of seeds, and as many of these as possible have been sourced from the UK to cut down on air miles. Mulching and feeding the soil with seaweed fertilisers and homemade compost have enriched the soil as organically as possible, no chemical pesticides have been used. Plastic seed trays and pots are always reused with peat-free compost to germinate and grow on seedlings.  We aim to enrich the biodiversity of the field alongside flower growing, it has been so rewarding to witness this through our farming techniques.  The bees have particularly loved the flowers - more to come on our very own Clamerkin honey!

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