Caroline Wykes, based in Islip, is an independent grower of top quality vegetable and garden plants, nursed without pesticides or sprays. Caroline is passionate about gardening and freely gives out growing advice or growing sheets to those who visit her garden. As a child, Caroline loved gardening with her grandmother, who taught her the in and outs of growing plants. As her own children were small, Caroline rekindled this passion for gardening and involved them in growing vegetables for their own use - to this day, her children still prefer freshly picked vegetable eaten raw on the spot to prepared ones.

Any surplus was given to grateful friends and family but it was attending a car boot with a tray of surplus plants, which went like hot cakes, that brought it home to Caroline that gardening was something she ought to pursue not just as a hobby. A kind neighbour let her have use of a greenhouse to keep all her plants and, last year, Caroline started expanding her business.

Caroline experiments with seeds and trials new varieties of vegetables, herbs, perennials, shrubs and bedding plants. She particularly enjoys talking to the elderly generation and learning from their experiences and she is keen to pass on her knowledge to the younger generation who may not be fully experienced in gardening. Many are setting up allotments and others have not got the time or space required to grow plants from seed, which is where Hilltop Plant Nursery comes in.

Plants have got to work - you need the right plant in the right conditions for our climate and length of season. Caroline is an avid promoter of companion planting to increase the chances of success of growth and avoid pest infestations. Another favourite of hers are wild fl owers and plants, which encourage birds to enter the garden for insect control and bees for pollination, so she grows old cottage garden fl owers such as lupin, delphinium and hollyhocks as well as verbena, fuchsia, sweet peas and many more. This is particularly important for our gardens, as Northamptonshire is the county which has lost the most of its wild meadow land in the country.

Caroline’s tomatoes, from Italian and French beefsteak to compact cherry tomatoes, are all grown in bio-gradable pots to ensure best transition when planted out; one particular Italian variety is favoured by chefs. The range of chillies covers some 15 varieties, grown for their use in various cuisines from Hungarian Hot Wax to Hot Thai Culinary.

 In addition to fruit bushes and vegetables from aubergines to squashes, there are many compact varieties of plants grown for containers. Caroline also offers containers, baskets and single plants ideal to give for Mother’s Day and Easter. The nursery is open regularly, but please confi rm opening hours before you venture out.

Hilltop Plant Nursery
65 Kettering Road,
Islip, NN14 3JT
Tel: 07792 336 787

 

Hilltop Plant Nursery

Hilltop Plant Nursery

Hilltop Plant Nursery