Great British growers: peat-free Perfect Plantings Nursery
At Perfect Plantings Nursery in Norfolk‚ father-and-son Mike and Aiden Read have created a healing space that’s rooted in the past but looking to the future
Some places wear their history on their proverbial sleeves, in the form of weather-beaten statues, perhaps, or mossy stone walls. Then there are the places where the past is not so much perceived as it is felt. Perfect Plantings Nursery is such a place. The early morning autumn light is ghostly pale. As the cool breeze blows through a sea of ornamental grasses, a sound like that of whispering voices floats on the air. Here, hidden away in the heart of the Norfolk countryside, is a nursery home to many beautifully raised plants, yes, but also something altogether more ethereal. There are hidden depths, here. Hidden stories, too.
The nursery’s founder, Norfolk-bred plantsman and landscaper Mike Read, first leased the site in 2017, opening Perfect Plantings to the public two years later. He built his business on the site of a derelict nursery, itself installed on the remnants of a disused airfield, RAF Attlebridge.
More than 100 different grasses are grown on–site
Walking between rows of grasses and
There are memories here, and not all of them good. The nursery is run by Mike with his son Aiden, the youngest of three boys. Both Aiden and his eldest brother, Connor, have served in the armed forces themselves, the former spending five years in the Royal Navy, the latter in the Royal Marines before joining the police force. Their middle brother, Ryan, tragically died from a rare form of cancer during the covid crisis. Ryan used to work on the nursery with his dad, and together with his brothers he helped to build this place from the ground up. His presence is felt here every day, his absence, also.
Mike Read runs the nursery alongside his son Aiden, with a little pigeon-deterring help from labrador Shelby
The nursery grew from Mike’s need to supply planting schemes, and a desire to cut out the middleman. He grows the plants he loves and his clients want: grasses, perennials, ferns and shrubs he knows from experience will grow well and look great, with an emphasis on climate-resilient selections. “Financially, it just made sense for us to grow the plants we wanted to supply to clients for their planting schemes, and it means I can give them the best plants and grow the quantity I need. We grow the plants we wanted to supply to clients for their planting schemes, and it means I can give them the best plants and grow the quantity I need. We grow a lot of grasses – more than 100 cultivars in all. I enjoy using them in landscapes and I’ve always thought it’s best just to do what you enjoy.”
Experience of working directly with clients informs Mike’s plant choices and wider approach. He focuses on low-maintenance plants that provide maximum effort with minimum toil. “We find that gardeners don’t want anything too fussy,” he says. “They haven’t got the time. I think they’re content to let things go sometimes rather than keeping everything perfectly manicured. They like the naturalistic look. And they want plants that can be chopped back and that’s the job done.”
The nursery is surrounded by mature woodland. At its sunnier centre, an open space is packed with billowing grasses and an array of inspirational perennials. There’s no conspicuous evidence of the site’s aeronautical history. Stick a spade in the ground, though and it’s a different story: the whole nursery sits atop a bed of hardcore – the remnants of the old airfield. That’s why every single plant here grows in containers, from recyclable plastic pots to shiny, beer barrel-like drums salvaged from a bead manufacturer. An inconspicuous irrigation system makes the job of watering this sea of containers that much easier.
Free-draining paths are recycled surplus from an events flooring supplier and the large metal planters were repurposed from a bead manufacturer
Relaxed is right. This is, without doubt, a space that heals. And it’s not just the business that’s healing emotional wounds for Mike, Aiden and family, nor the flourishing plants teeming with invertebrates that are healing the surrounding landscape. There’s a calm and sense of optimism here – this is a place with a troubled past that nonetheless offers hope of better times to come.
