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Ruth Goudy

Probationary

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About

Ruth has contributed to Horticulture Week about the experiences of running a nursery through lockdown and beyond. In 2021 Ruth wrote for the ‘Garden View’ section in Garden Answers. This year she was delighted to be asked to be a ‘Garden Expert’ on BBC Radio Suffolk’s gardening hour. Ruth's first regular commitment was with her ‘Grow Your Own’ column in the East Anglian Daily Times in 2015. She regularly wrote in the ‘Homes and Gardens’ section. In 2017 she was asked to write monthly for the Suffolk Magazine and enjoyed this for three years. She has also written monthly for the weekend ‘Heaven’ section in the EADT. Ruth and her husband, Paul, started a plant nursery on her family farm in Suffolk in 2002. She had previously loved her work as a Montessori teacher but she became caught up in her husband’s gardening work while their first daughter was a baby. They built the nursery on an empty field, bought a second hand shed and began by opening at weekends. They were growing plants, potting up and weeding with their daughter in the pram beside them. Ruth always says that she cannot forget a plant once she has potted up a batch of fifty but she finds that this method of learning about plants means that she remembers the latin name better than the common name! As plants matured and customers asked more questions, so she found that she was referring increasingly to text books about plants and became well and truly hooked as a plants woman. Nineteen years later Paul and Ruth still run their nursery Kiln Farm Nursery but now it is a full-time business with a shop, employees, several polytunnels, growing beds and retail area. She loves the ‘hands on’ side of the work and firmly believes that gardening and nature has a place in all our lives, so she enjoys the chance to share this via workshops, talks, writing and social media.

Additional Interests

Favourite jobs are planting hanging baskets, running fairy garden workshops and potting up bare root perennials. Most common expression is "This is my favourite plant . . . .. " but the plant changes every day! Researching the folklore of wildflowers and taking time to meditate on their spiritual meanings.

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