I was walking by Woodruff’s Yard this morning and indulging in the prettiness it fills that alleyway with – you know, the one that runs from Cliffe High Street towards Malling Field. From March to October every year, this plant nursery brings the abandon of wild flowers – in an orderly way of course – to a kind of boring little red-bricked slice of the town. I love glancing at it as I rush (late, always late) to my son’s nursery in the mornings. I miss it in the winter months. Here, Matt offers winningly friendly advice to gardening dunces like me. The stock changes throughout the season, but it’s all hardy and healthy and mostly grown in the UK, so suits our make-your-mind-up-already climate.
I featured Woodruffs in a post I wrote last year about ideas for Father’s Day, and they’re still doing the teapots and vintage cookware filled with succulent sempervivums that I featured back then. I remain steadfast in my view that they’re a lovely idea for Father’s Day, because dads surely like a bit of pretty as much as anyone else. And it doesn’t really matter if your fella isn’t green-fingered – as Matt said at the time, sempervivums ‘thrive on neglect’. As my post said at the time: ‘a bit like dads, then’.
Just joshing, of course.
THE ESSENTIALS
Address: North Court (off Cliffe High Street), Lewes, BN7 2AR
Tel. no: 01273 470 843
Website: woodruffsyard.co.uk
Little Lewes 