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Mid Life Crisis Results in New Business!

How I became a Garden Diva

By Gilly Brown

Turning 50 for me was not the greatest time of my life and the future seemed worryingly empty. My grown-up daughter was leaving home, university was beckoning for the youngest, I was still grieving the loss of my Mum and my high flying city financier husband (bless him) was busy, busy, busy travelling hither and thither with over keen city gals in his wake eager to latch on to his lifestyle (but somehow I don’t think that included me!!).

I had done the property thing – bought old offices (formerly a hay barn) and converted them into a super stylish home. Fortunately I managed to sell it before the property downturn but it would have been crazy to take on another similar project.

So what next?

I had a lovely home, husband, family; numerous friends only too happy to lunch and socialise. I played racketball, I took Salsa classes, I had a large garden where I grew all my own veg. But somehow it didn’t seem enough. I needed a project; something that was of my doing, that would give me back my own identity alongside the everlasting roles of wife and mother.

Then, strangely, the inspiration came from the very pastime which had always helped me through life’s difficulties – gardening. Losing myself in the garden has been a source of back-breaking enjoyment, I suppose ever since I was a reluctant teenager taking on the task of helping in the garden after the early death of my Dad. It was comforting yet reaffirmed that life goes on. Planting a seed and watching it grow has never lost its fascination for me.

A new business and spade loads of enthusiasm

And so it was after a trip to Chelsea Flower Show in 2006 and at last finding some gloves I could garden in (never did like those stiff bulky types) that a tiny seed was sown in my brain and with the help of another friend who came up with its’ inspirational name, Garden Divas Ltd was born.

Armed with the profit from the sale of my property conversion and having researched what businesses were out there selling garden gifts, tools and accessories I began to source products which I could offer for sale via the internet – they had to be fun, funky, well made but overall colourful and not just pink!! After all our gardens can be a riot of colour and surely we all realise the benefits of colour in our lives. Who has not bought a bunch of daffs and marvelled at the fact that they light up a room???

It took time and energy and spade loads of enthusiasm but I wasn’t deterred and in June 2007 the website www.gardendivas.co.uk was launched. Within a week we had our first customer!!!

After that – well all I can say is that it was a rollercoaster ride with highs (oooh we are in that magazine) to extreme lows (where have all the customers gone??) and then after our first year of ups and downs and disappointments galore we hit the biggest recession of a lifetime – not a great time to have a fledging business I can tell you. However, now with the help of my extremely astute daughter who continues to keep me on the straight and narrow, Garden Divas still trundles along, steadily growing and attracting new customers weekly.

Money has been tight, and most of it is channelled back into the business, overheads have been kept low by working from home and financial advice has been free (sometimes there is an advantage to being married to a banker!!).

Tended with love

Mistakes have been made and many sharks have been encountered but overall it has been an exciting journey of self discovery for me. And just like a garden the business has steadily grown, having been lovingly tended along the way, encouraging it to progress despite the pests waiting in the wings.

As we approach our 3rd year birthday of trading online there are signs that Garden Divas Ltd could be about to burst into bloom and at last I can feel I have left my mid life crisis behind.

Gilly Brown