40 weeks of gestation. Thats how long it takes to grow and develop a baby ready for this world, but when I first had my big idea I had no idea it would also take me that long to develop a business to the point it was ready to be unleashed upon the world too.

So let's rewind, to a cold day in January 2022. Opening up my seed tin (old biscuit box), getting out my planner (5 year old scrap of very tatty paper with sowing and harvesting info, coloured in with pencils borrowed from my son), looking at the chaos in front of me and thinking there must be a better way. I searched online, I could find plenty of downloadable sowing and growing calendars, but they covered almost every type of veggie and flower. I didn't want all of them, just the ones that I wanted to grow. I also didn't want an excel table, I see far too many of those in the day job, and yes they're functional but they're not designed. They convey information in a purely functional way. I wanted the practical information, but was a little bit of design too much to ask too!

But it wasn't just about having a plan on a page, I wanted more. Because I don't know about you, but when I open a pack of seeds more often than not I rip off some of the growing instructions or end up with just the little foil sachet separated from the main packet with no information for what to do with them when I need it. And when your fingers are covered in compost, trying to unlock your phone to find the information you need online is more hassle than it's worth.

That was my bright idea, to solve my own problem and hopefully one that other people encountered too. Within the space of about two hours I'd formulated in my mind our two flagship products, the Personalised Seed Calendar and our Let's Get Growing Pocket Companions & Growing Guides.

So I got to work, countless hours over the first few weeks researching, writing, designing and editing until I had something I could show a fellow gardener as a prototype of my idea. They loved it! Admittedly, it was my mum so she's somewhat biased, but she's a gardener, the one who after years of trying to get me to join her was so pleased when I finally caught the bug. If she thought it could be useful, maybe other people would too! But she and my husband made me expand the idea, it couldn't just be the information, the one thing a gardener covets above all else is seed! We needed to give people something to grow, not just give them the theory.

With that came the thought that as well as allowing people to create the garden of their dreams through personalising their calendars, seed tins and pocket companions, maybe we should introduce some collections too, so we did 12 (and counting) so far.

Seed catalogues are gardeners' porn, and when you manage to get hold of a wholesale catalogue (or several as we needed to find the right supplier for us) - OMG! Be prepared to lose days of your life flicking through getting excited about the possibilities.

As I did more research and this idea began to take shape as something that could become real it needed a name, as someone who loves growing vegetables, flowers and has a Border Collie the name came quickly - Collie Flowers. I'd called Cooper my little Collie Flower for sometime, since he dug his first hole in the garden and plonked himself down there to cool off.

Fast forward now to the present day, we're about 3 weeks from launching Collie Flowers, most days I feel a little bit nauseous and think maybe it would be better if I just saved it all for me. But it wouldn't, I've invested so much of my time on evenings and weekends outside of the day job into developing and refining this that it deserves to see the light of day. And maybe, just maybe it'll help a few people create the garden of their dreams.

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