I recently visited Steve Boyd the owner of Folkestone Flower Farm, a small-scale urban flower farm growing across three previously underused plots around the town. It was a chance to understand the ethos behind Steve's work but also discuss products and details that he looks for in clothing.
What interested me wasn’t only what Steve grows, but where and why he grows it. These are spaces that had largely been overlooked, awkward plots with difficult access and little obvious value. Through growing, they’ve been brought back into use and transformed into productive, beautiful places.
“This is a spot no one wanted,” Steve explains. “But if I'm clever enough, you can make it work. Once I transform it, everyone’s kind of like, ‘Oh, this is nice.’ I love doing that ultimately, changing a place.”
Steve grew up on the East coast of the US and later lived in LA, so growing in the UK has meant learning a very different climate. What has surprised him is the sheer variety of plants that can be grown here. With relatively mild winters and ground that rarely freezes hard, plants can remain part of the garden throughout the year. It has opened up a different way of growing and, in Steve’s words, meant learning a lot of new things.
That sense of place runs through the whole operation. Flowers are grown in Folkestone, cut on a Thursday and sold locally from Friday. There’s very little distance between the ground they come from and the people who eventually take them home. For Steve, keeping things small is intentional. It gives him the opportunity to develop his craft, grow unusual varieties and concentrate on producing healthy, beautiful flowers rather than simply producing more.
There’s something compelling about that model: taking overlooked pieces of a town and making them useful again; learning what can grow in a particular place; growing it with care; and selling it directly to people who live nearby. Derelict ground becomes productive ground, and something that might otherwise have been forgotten becomes a source of beauty.
Fresh flowers from Folkestone Flower Farm are available locally each week:
Docker Bakery
Friday & Saturday
Park Farm, Folkestone CT19 5EU
Sandgate Deli
Thursday–Sunday
88A Sandgate High Street, Sandgate CT20 3BY
Steve wears a selection of the new Natural Dyed caps that are available for pre sale now as well as Gardener Jackets prototypes in Linen.
