Member Blog

We met 11 years ago in London and came together over our love for dogs, both pet and working. Chris was already working as dog handler with his two general purpose dogs Rebel and trainee pup Titan for a parks unit in London and Ruth was a dedicated pet dog owner. The relationship developed and in 2014 we decided to reform Alpha Canine Specialists which was a company Chris formed and had been a director of in the mid to late 1990’s. Although Ruth had not previously worked within the industry, she quickly fitted in and developed as a drug detection dog handler and along with Chris achieved her level 3 NASDU qualification in 2015 with Labrador Stanley and Chris with Labrador sisters Nell and Mabel. In 2016 the company moved into the specialist role of explosive detection when Chris qualified with his first EDD Riley and Ruth followed suit in 2018 with her Labrador Flo.

The company has quickly developed into a small but bespoke specialist canine security organisation maintaining the company’s principles of Quality over Quantity.

We both have established a reputation within the industry which has led us to work at some of the country’s best known events and stadia. The strong foundation that we have laid down over the past years has been aided by the close relationship we have and the understanding both as business partners and a husband and wife team. The roles and responsibilities have been clearly defined which removes any misunderstandings when running the company together and the success of Alpha Canine draws on the greatest of understanding and ambition to succeed in a large and at times flooded sector of the security industry. The daily running and operational requirements are at times stressful and difficult but are easily overcome and managed because of the strong and self motivated unit that we have achieved.

The Passion for our four legged partners has only increased since we first met as has the number of dogs we personally own and continues to drive us on to greater things in the future.

Yes, I have an affinity to film. This is not the next version of Gerard Butler’s 300 or a modern version of the original.

In February, there were over 2million pieces of stolen data released on the Dark Web. It comes from all over the globe, as Cyber Crime is not bound by borders. The fact that we are connected to the internet for the majority of the time, means we are connected to people worldwide all of the time.

Whether it is connected to friends in America on Facebook, or emails with family in Australia, we are connected. In Business we work with people from all over the world, having meetings are strange times, to fit in with everyone. We are emailing and passing content, asking people to click on links and book meetings or register for a webinar. As businesses, we store lots of data on our customers, whether personal or business-related.

In February, there were 3 data breaches in the UK worthy of note. Npower had to take its Mobile App offline because hackers had gained access and been gathering data from its users. The App is currently still offline without a date for it to go back online. Oxford University confirmed a breach of its systems in the Division of Structural Biology. The level of this breach is also unknown at this point. One where we do know the scale is Foxtons Estate Agents. They are a bigger Estate Agent, but they are not a huge global power like some of the others we speak about.

Foxtons breach happened in October, with very few people knowing about it. They did not report the breach to the ICO, which will lead to bigger problems down the line, and Foxtons didn’t know until January. In February, 16,000 card details, addresses, and correspondence were found on the Dark Web, and still Foxtons have not told their customers. The hackers are reporting that this only about 1% of the stolen data they have, meaning this could be just the start of what is to come.

This is very much the approach of SMEs in regards to their customer and business data. What does it mean for Foxtons? The likely hood is that the ICO will investigate and fine them for the breach, and also for not complying with UK Law on the reporting of such a breach. Foxtons Customers will be entitled to compensation and legal firms are shouting about this and actively encouraging people to get in touch to start proceedings. That’s the physical monetary cost to their business. But what about the negative publicity, the damage to reputation, The people that won’t sell their property with them, or want to give them details to pay rent? This will affect them deep into the future. We have seen this before with other businesses, such as Travelex, who fell into administration after their cyber attack. Now the Pandemic has played a part, but Paying such a huge ransom, and still taking 2 and half weeks to become operational was the starting point, and money paid out for nothing.

There are ways to protect your business and your personal data. Having the correct tools in place, with the right support is a start. making sure you have a backup set up is also helpful. Thinking that using a cloud service such as 365 or Dropbox, is a backup is wrong. Those tools are syncing with your devices at all times they are connected to the internet. So a compromised or deleted file on a device is the same in your cloud setup within nanoseconds. 365 will say there is a backup you can roll back to, but do you know how to get there?

Antivirus is getting more advanced, and they are starting to add extra features, and to become Endpoint Protection. But there is an old saying ‘you buy cheap, you buy twice.’ but in terms of your data, the cost can be much higher. Having real enterprise tools will allow you to protect your data and your business.

We have helped SME’s, including Estate Agents, protect their data, become more productive and profitable, whilst taking the IT pain points away. We work with these businesses as part of their team, working on Strategic Business Outcomes, not just keeping the lights on.

Take a look and think, What would it mean to you if you couldn’t access your data for days? Or your IT not working for a week or more? Would you be able to bounce back?

If you would like to discuss this more, get in touch or come along to one of IT Surgeries.

One of the most important partnerships your business will ever make is with your IT support company.

Just think how reliant you and your team are on technology. When everything works as it should, it’s great.

But when you’re constantly tackling big problems and small frustrations, it’s exhausting. And it impacts everything.

Coronavirus taught businesses just how important their IT partner can be. We’ve been inundated with new enquiries over the last year.

So we have written this guide. It’s not about us; it’s about all IT support companies and how to choose the right one for you. Inside, you’ll find out:

1. Why you want a partner that thinks strategically.
2. The reasons business owners and managers like you switch IT support providers
3. How to protect the most important asset your business owns
4. And why you should be highly sceptical of all IT support businesses (yes, including us)

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When The World Paused is a blog which began life on 29 March 2020 to capture reflections on the first lockdown. Over the subsequent few months, 76 people added their voices and it culminated in a book which has now raised more than £550 for NHS charities.

We thought the story of Covid-19 and life in lockdown was coming to an end last summer. But really, there was a lot more to come.  And so, the blog has relaunched to bring together reflections on life during Covid-19 – and what the pandemic has taught us about living.

There are still spaces available for contributors – if you would like to take part, please send us a message via the contact form. We’d love to hear from you as we capture our reflections on this moment in history.

Here’s the first post from this series of When The World Paused reflections:

Monday, 29 March, 2021: Michelle Gant, Norfolk

And they thought it was all over.

Exactly one year ago today, I started a journal to capture the reflections of people when the world paused. Lockdown had just begun in the UK as the novel coronavirus wound its devastating way across the world. I was, like so many others, frightened, uncertain, anxious, and trying to find sense and meaning in the most incredulous period I had ever known.

Writing, I thought, would help. Not only would it allow me to capture the reflections of this moment – which felt imbued with future historical significance – it would also enable me to process my thoughts and feelings in words. It turned out this wouldn’t be a secret diary though as 75 other amazing people joined me in sharing their innermost musings.

The journal closed in June and I turned it into a book to raise funds for NHS charities. It felt like a neat ending; I like things to be ordered. I like too to be able to find the good in any situation, and it certainly felt like through the journal, and subsequent book, that had been achieved.

But it turned out that it wasn’t ‘the end’, and as the Chief Medical Officer had said, it was merely the end of the first phase.

There was more to come.

It was September when the alarm started to buzz. Cases rising. Cases? People.  Mutterings of second waves. I am, by nature, a woman who drinks from a half-filled glass (of wine, often) and so I tried not to be too concerned. Things will work out, I told myself. It will be all right. We’ll be back together by Christmas.

But then things got worse and in November we had our second lockdown. Albeit with the schools still open – thank goodness our children didn’t have to give up their newly found classroom freedom. When we came out of it, my part of the world was in tier two which meant restrictions were a little looser than in other parts of the country. It was ok. I could still see my loved ones. Even if it wasn’t close up.

And then something magical happened.

Question: What is Margaret Keenan famous for?

This was a query I posed in our virtual Christmas Day quiz. And the answer is quite magnificently – she is the very first person in the UK to receive the coronavirus vaccination. On Tuesday 8th December 2020, I cried as I watched the images of this 90 year old lady receive a shot in the arm, a significant victory in the battle against the virus. It was actually happening. Thank you scientists. Thank you NHS.

But what’s the saying? The night is always darkest just before the dawn. Because then things got bad. Really bad.

A new variant, easier to catch. Spreading with speed across the country, particularly in the East of England.  That’s my area. Gulp. Tightened restrictions, and then on 4th January, another lockdown was announced.

Oh my.

We’ve been here before. It’s ok. We’ve got this.

We have.

Only, this time, it’s winter. The days are dark and cold. The news is scary, the numbers of people affected higher. The novelty of lockdown activities of baking, and crafts, of appreciating the time to do and try new things has long since worn off.

This lockdown felt like wading through thick, murky fog.

It was the fear. As acutely demonstrated by a covid test for my poorly and distressed daughter Thea at the start of the year, and the suggestion from medical staff that she had caught the dreaded virus. “But we haven’t been anywhere,” I bemoaned, plaintively. The kindly lady on the phone just murmured in agreement: it didn’t matter, this strain could reach you however careful you were. Thank goodness, she was negative (and eating ice-cream again within hours).

It was the sadness. Those numbers. As I type, over 126,000 people in this country have died with Covid-19. The pain of those left behind is unfathomable. May they find comfort.

It was the missing. This past week we marked one year since the first lockdown with a national day of reflection. I realised it’s well over a year since I’ve hugged my parents or my sisters or my friends.

It was the weariness. It’s just so exhausting, trying to keep hopeful and positive when waves of bad news and negativity keep washing up onto your shore. I hit a low point around February half term when I just felt so tired and defeated with trying to offer Thea anything but my dodgy arts and crafts by way of entertainment. Which brings me onto…..

It was the guilt. The constant nagging feeling that I wasn’t doing enough, worrying about the impact of all of this on poor little Thea. When she said to me: “I don’t like the video calls. I just want to huggle people,” I felt so proud of her eloquent self-awareness, and terrible that her little arms ached so for those she loves.

But.

Whilst there has been so much awfulness in the last year, there has been so much good stuff too. And a pandemic has taught me so many things about living.

Firstly, life is happening. Right now. And even when it’s not shaped the way you’d hope, it’s there for the living. Grab on to it, and carpe the diem out of it. That was why for my birthday earlier this month I had an amazing virtual party – I found myself saying “next year, I’ll have a party.” “Next year,” doesn’t exist. But now, right here, does. So squeeze every drop of pleasure out of it that you possibly can.

And life isn’t certain. In any way shape or form. So just go with it. Accept it as it is in all its mixed up, confused glory and who knows what nuggets of gold you might find down amongst the dirt.

Fears are there to be overcome. Over the last year, the most frightening one I’ve known, I’ve come to realise that what scares us should never defeat us. I’m not fearless, I still have things that frighten me, but I know that I can deal with anything. It’s why this year I’ve started trying to do one thing out of my comfort zone every day.

You don’t need to sit beside people to feel close to them. The two-metre rule has not prevented me from feeling connected to more people than ever before: we’re all in this thing together. There has been so much virtual looking out for each other that has brought us closer.

That we are capable of so much more than we can ever conceive. Like my husband Bobby, who has been an absolute home-schooling hero, devoting himself every lockdown weekday to our daughter’s education with tender attention and care.

And the things that I always thought mattered, the material stuff, bears little value to that which is really important in my world.

Today marks a further easing of the restrictions. Six people can now meet up outside together. And hopefully this is another step on the road towards a resumption – of a fashion – of our former lives.

So, one more time, we’re going to capture what happened when the world paused, and look ahead as we share our thoughts on what a pandemic taught us about living…..

Dr Kevin Stannard, MA PhD., Director of Innovation and Learning at the GDST

• Gender affects the way that students experience education
• Girls face pressures to conform to gender stereotypes – pressures which are stronger in the presence of boys
• Girls need and deserve space in which to develop their full potential, and to make informed and unconstrained choices about interests, subjects and careers
• In girls-only schools their needs and preferences can be fully accommodated within a dedicated learning environment
• Successful girls’ schools are those in which a dedication to girls’ education is reflected in their physical design, curriculum and co-curriculum offer, teaching and learning approaches, and in their whole-school culture
• Today’s girls’ schools serve to subvert, rather than support, gender stereotypes and a priori assumptions, by offering an education designed for and dedicated to the development and empowerment of successful, confident and adventurous girls.

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For some time, we’ve been hearing about the decline of physical retail, spurred on by the digital age and our growing preference for the online marketplace. In the 10 years between January 2010 and January 2020, for example, the UK lost over 50,000 shops.

Despite that, physical retailers still hold much of the market share. And there remains plenty of opportunity for physical retailers to set themselves up for renewed success. One such opportunity lies in the very thing that’s blamed for their decline – digital technology.

It’s almost impossible for online shopping to replicate the most experiential elements of buying something in-person. For this reason, physical retailers should play to their strengths while also exploring how digital technology can give customers the best of both worlds in-store.

Take Amazon as a case in point. Its Amazon Fresh brand has launched its first till-less grocery store in London, which sees shoppers simply scan their phone on entry and receive a bill automatically on departure – without a need to scan products individually. This ‘effort-free’ mode of shopping, however, relies extensively on technology and connectivity, with hundreds of cameras and sensors working seamlessly.

Other retailers have focused on transforming their fitting rooms through the use of augmented and virtual reality. Imagine being in a fitting room, putting on a jacket you like the look of and being able to change the colour or size in the blink of an eye. That makes life easier for the customers, but it also saves time, allowing more people to make use of the changing room and thus generating more sales.

Technology can also be used to encourage passers-by to step inside through interactive window displays, as Ted Baker has shown to great effect.

Perhaps most importantly, retailers can use digital tech to better understand consumer behaviour. By harnessing data, they can make informed decisions such as what merchandise to prioritise and how to lay out the store to encourage sales or make them more profitable. Stock levels can even be tracked, helping keep unneeded stock to a minimum and saving money on warehouse space.

These are just a few of the opportunities presented by digital technology for the high street. And while the cost of some of these technologies may be prohibitive for now, that will change as the tech becomes more ubiquitous – meaning it won’t just be major retailers who can reap the rewards.

However, data hungry technologies need connectivity they can rely on – without that, any positive customer benefits could easily be undone by a glitchy experience. They need the best possible digital foundation which is why CityFibre is soon to be building a new full fibre network in Norwich.

Designed for the digital age, full fibre networks use 100% fibre optic technology to carry data at light speed all the way from the home to the point of connection – a pristine open highway with no bumps in sight. This gives users consistently faster speeds, near limitless bandwidth and connectivity you can depend on.

Most importantly for retailers, full fibre underpins 5G connectivity, which will be crucial to their ability to adopt cutting-edge technology and encourage shoppers to flock to the high street. Think of it as a high-capacity public wifi, connecting consumers with digital tech in shops, restaurants and on the streets themselves, and creating an experience that just can’t be matched in an online-only world.

So whether it’s friction-free shopping, interactive displays or smart fitting rooms, full fibre and 5G helps to power all of these advances. Now, who’s for some retail therapy?  

For more information about CityFibre’s Gigabit City Programme visit www.cityfibre.com

As employees, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we work, with more and more of us doing that from home. And organisations are having to rapidly change the way they supply goods and services, digitising these to minimise contact between people. Of course, this only works if the technology does, and for that companies need to be able to rapidly recruit IT workers with niche skills. On top of this our region already has bustling tech communities, all of which means there are a lot of opportunities available to candidates with IT skills. But this can make things difficult for the businesses who want to hire them.

The move to work-from-anywhere

Before the pandemic, 76% of businesses were offering some form of remote working to their employees. Now over 96% of businesses plan to offer this, with 43% saying that full-time remote working will be possible over the next 12 months (source: the UK Tech Cluster Group’s 2021 Digital Skills Audit). So what does this mean for the IT recruitment market? Well, for one thing it’s changing the types of IT roles available. We’re currently seeing demand for:

• all types of roles in the software development lifecycle
• tech support/helpdesk facilities to help with the move to working from home
• developers to help organisations make the most of selling online
• data analysis and business intelligence roles, as companies look to improve management information, reporting and visualisation.

The challenges of recruiting IT professionals

There’s high demand for candidates

People working in tech roles have always been in high demand. And the pandemic has just increased this as more staff work from home and businesses move more services online. This means that candidates have lots of options – so they need a good reason to leave a secure role. Companies need to offer attractive packages and job security for applicants, something which can be tough in a time of economic uncertainly.

Companies need specialist skills

There are well over 100 disciplines in IT and technology, and every role is different. As we’ve seen during the pandemic, the need for IT skills and experience can quickly change as well. So, while organisations need candidates with specific specialist skills, they also want them to be multi-skilled. This can make finding the right people tough.

Geographical requirements are changing

With so many of us working remotely, the need to recruit local people is becoming less important. Businesses can start to recruit nationally, and even internationally, for candidates with the right skills. But what happens if and when our working lives begin to go back to normal? Will you need someone who can go to your office a few days a week? In that case recruiting locally and training people in specific areas could be a better long-term investment. At the moment, on average companies advertise 59% of roles within the local region, 29% do this across the UK, and 12% internationally (source: UK Tech Cluster Group’s 2021 Digital Skills Audit).  

How Pure can help

As we return to some sort of normality in 2021, we’re working to make sure we can give all our clients the best recruitment process possible. Here are our tips for recruiting the cream of the IT crop (all stats are taken from the UK Tech Cluster Group’s 2021 Digital Skills Audit).

How to attract (and keep) the best candidates

1. Offer flexible working

More than three out of five people in employment say that flexible working is one of the top five benefits of working for their current employer (obviously pay still comes out on top). So offering this to your tech recruits is important. But don’t forget to think about the future. If you’re going to want people to be based at your offices once life starts returning to normal post-pandemic, you should let them know – it might be a dealbreaker.

2. Think about how you recruit

Have a look at your candidate recruitment experience. Because if you get this wrong, it can affect whether the right people apply for your positions – in these days of social media, Google reviews and Glassdoor, candidates have a voice too. Branding, and how you present yourself to applicants (whether you employ them or not) is critical when it comes to successfully hiring new employees.

3. Offer a full package

IT and technology candidates don’t just want jobs – they want career paths. So, when you’re thinking about recruiting for a new position don’t just create a job description. Think about what your ideal candidate will want from the position in future, their aspirations, training development and progression, salary, working life, and so on. You need to consider the full package – because that’s what will make your organisation stand out from the crowd.

4. Think about hiring interim or temporary workers

Hiring temporary technology workers can be an easy way to meet changing consumer demands, particularly for businesses in food manufacturing, logistics, healthcare and online consumer products. If you’re not completely sure what your business is going to look like in a year’s time – more or less home workers, increased online selling or going back to more face-to-face business, etc. – then shorter-term and flexible solutions could be the answer. You can use temporary and interim workers in technology roles to manage changes in online demand and make sure your people are set up for home working. Then, further down the track, once you have more of an idea of what your tech needs are going to be in the coming months and years, you can look to take on permanent staff with specific skills.

How we can help

If all of this is making recruiting skilled tech people sound a bit daunting, don’t worry – we can take the stress out of it for you. Some of the ways we can do this include:

• creating a shortlist: our consultants can put together a list of people with the right experience and qualifications, so you don’t have to go through every application.
• getting to know your business: we build relationships with all our clients so we can work together to understand your recruitment challenges, and how to help you if the market changes. Our consultants are available to you for support and advice, and ready to point you in the direction of other services that could help your recruitment approach.
• caring about our candidates: our candidates are just as important to us as our clients. We get to know them to understand their skills and make sure we offer them the right positions. And we counsel and support them through the whole recruitment process to check they’re confident about the decision to move.
• having skilled and committed staff: we train our consultants on the best ways to work with our candidates and clients. We bring in experts to give them external training on specialist areas. So they can interpret skills and build rapport by understanding disciplines – all vital when it comes to matching the right person to the right role.

Recruiting the recruiters

We’ve recently added two new members to our team who specialise in technology recruiting. Stephen’s going to help us develop our focus on interim workers in technology, digital and marketing. He’s an experienced tech recruiter who knows our region well, and really shares our values on delivery and service. Stephen will be based in Norwich. 

We’d also like to introduce you to Henry, who’ll be focusing on technology and digital recruitment in Norfolk. He brings experience from the technology, marketing and digital sectors, and has previously worked closely with clients to help develop their recruitment strategies.

We’re looking forward to working with them both to see what we can achieve together as the market improves in 2021.

Need some help?

If you’d like to find out how we could help you and your organisation with technology recruitment (or anything else), please feel free to get in touch. 

To say that the last twelve months have been challenging for businesses would certainly be a bit of an understatement. We have seen the world lockdown, office buildings close their doors as the vast majority of workers were sent home, and we have figured out how to do everything online, from board meetings to home-schooling our kids.

It has been more important than ever to be able to adapt to any given situation, to roll with the punches and embrace an increasingly virtual workspace. If you’re wondering how you can continue to put your best foot forward in a world in which we’re continuing to face uncertain challenges, here are a few tips to help you get started.

Make Sure Your Cybersecurity Is Top Notch

It wasn’t surprising to discover that a direct consequence of more and more business being conducted online was a massive spike in cybercrime. Whether it was data hacks or good old fashioned phishing scams, the crooks were working overtime to con people out of their hard-earned money.

If you’re going to make sure that you don’t fall prey to these scammers, you need to make sure that your cybersecurity is up to the task. This is a situation that will continue to evolve, so it may well be worth bringing in a professional team to keep you one step ahead.

Invest In A High-Quality Translation Service

Even as the world looks ahead to a brighter vaccinated future, it seems fair to assume that the days when potential clients jet in from around the world, or when business owners would head out on the road to pitch themselves and their expertise, are still some way off.

It’s going to be more important than ever to make sure that we are equipped to conduct our business from home as things continue to open up, which is why a good translation service is essential. A service like phone translation is perfect for when you need to hop on a call with international clients or partners and you need to know that nothing will fall through the cracks. London Translations works with everyone from businesses to academic institutions to ensure seamless communication.

Don’t Neglect Your Social Media

We don’t need to tell you how important social media has been for businesses of all kinds during the pandemic, but smaller companies in particular have seen just how powerful an impact it can have. In a world where everyone has been staying home, social media has helped us let our customers and clients know how much they mean to us, how we have been continuing to operate during this pandemic, and what we have been doing to make sure that we can continue to operate through lockdown restrictions and come back stronger than ever.

If your social media channels are feeling a little impersonal, then it’s time to take a step back and think about how you can start making them work for you.

When we think of the benefits of asset finance, we know that obtaining finance to buy new vehicles, machinery or equipment leaves you more money in your business and more control over cash flow.

However, another option for generating cash is asset refinance. This allows a person or business to raise cash against assets they already own unencumbered. As with asset finance, manageable monthly payments are agreed over a fixed term. Refinance is available against all wheeled and tracked assets.

An important point to note is that refinance is only available on assets that you or your company own outright i.e. Assets that are not currently financed.

In easy terms:

How Does Asset Refinancing Work?

• Release equity from vehicles, plant or machinery
• Finance company take security in the equipment
• Advance is paid directly to you to utilise
• Written on a Hire Purchase agreement, so you take back ownership of the equipment at the end of the term
• It can also be used to restructure debt within the business

What Are The Benefits Of Asset Refinancing?

• Provides working capital
• Can be used to raise capital to invest in intangibles in the business
• Improve company facilities
• Could use the capital raise as a deposit on more machinery
• Invest in growth
• Your use of the asset is unrestricted

How Does Your Business Qualify?

• Suitable rationale for cash
• LTV (Loan-to-Value) against the assets is suitable
• Have opportunity for expansion

We have been helping a lot of businesses recently with this product to enable them to release cash flow into their business when they really need it.

If you would like to discuss how this product may help you or your business then please give us a call on 01603 381955 or email us on sales@credoassetfinance.com

Whether you’ve been gardening for years or have just started; there will be one thing which caught your eye and made you take that step to get stuck into the garden. We love to hear about all of your ways to grow your own, today we have teamed up with Joe to share a method to sowing & growing broad beans!

“For me, it was the wonderful memories of helping my grandad tend to his vegetable garden when I was young. It is this inspiration which spurred me on to sign up for an allotment and get our kids involved, hopefully creating these memories for them along the way too.” – @Grow_with_Joe

Broad beans are super easy to grow, the best time to sow your broad beans will in either March and April.

You can sow yours directly in your garden or plot, leaving around 20cm in between each seed and around 45cm between each row. You can also sow them indoors in an unheated greenhouse, cold frame or even a windowsill.

Joe grows some of his seeds in used toilet roll tubes which are perfect for growing broad beans in as the height of the tube accommodates the plants’ large root system, you can read more about Joe’s method to growing broad beans here 



If you’re an avid follower of the organic gardening community, the chances are you’ve come across Lucy Hutchings – also known as @shegrowsveg on Instagram. We’re excited that she’s joined our network of PlantGrow Champions to help us build our community of organic gardeners, showing them how to get started and what they can do to help the planet along the way.

Lucy is a garden writer with training in horticulture and garden design, and has a specialism in heritage and heirloom vegetable varieties – but that’s not always been the case! She started her career in fashion and for 8 years had her own couture jewellery label. But when it came to deciding whether to take the label to new heights or walk away, it became clear that it was time to let it go.

Throughout Lucy’s life, even when she was working in fashion, the one constant was that she grew food. For her, growing food is key to happiness, and you’ll most likely find her in her greenhouse at her home in Suffolk. In a time when our food is treated with chemicals, packaged up in plastic and is becoming more intensively farmed, Lucy uses her platform to show followers how easy it is to grow our own food without any harsh chemicals and insecticides and how we can become a little bit more self-sufficient. That’s why here at PlantGrow we’re happy to support her as she strives to explore innovation in food production around the world, find out more about Lucy’s journey by visiting her website – www.shegrowsveg.com/about

Why we’re happy that Lucy is a PlantGrow Champion

Lucy is a key influencer in the global gardening community and we’re delighted that she loves PlantGrow products enough to become a Champion. She’s passionate about eating in a way that’s best for you and for the planet, and we couldn’t agree with that more – which is why PlantGrow fertiliser products are 100% natural and eco-friendly.

By supporting Lucy as she delves into ideas like plant-based innovation and future-proof farming while keeping her home harvests thriving, we know we’re helping her to help others think about what they’re putting into the ground and into their bodies. As we grow our community of PlantGrow Champions, we can help everyone to do their bit to protect the environment.

Keep an eye out for more bios as we introduce you to our network of PlantGrow Champions.

Gardening is a brilliant way to relax and take your mind off stressful things that might be happening in your life. Amy from @Chicksandveg found this out, and now she’s passionate about encouraging everyone to have a go at growing and harvesting their own vegetables. She’s teamed up with us to share what she’s sowing and growing this month to attract bees, and how you can do it too.

 “I started gardening out of necessity initially, to try and keep on top of an overgrown and unloved garden. But after the loss of my best friend, I turned to gardening as a way to keep my mind and hands busy. I soon uncovered that it taught me so much about patience and overcoming things out of your control (Great British weather I’m looking at you!). I don’t think I ever stuck at a hobby until I found my love of shovelling soil and sowing seeds.”

Amy is happiest when she’s getting her hands muddy, pottering around her cottage garden in West Norfolk. She’s recently expanded her plot and added some new beds to allow her to pack in even more veg and flowers into her little haven. With PlantGrow’s help, she mulched and filled her beds over winter to prepare for the 2021 growing season; now the soil is loaded with nutrients, it’s ready to give her crops what they need to grow happily.

Alongside trying lots of new varieties of veg, Amy’s grand plan for this year involves growing her own wedding flowers! She’s going to expand her cutting patch and create a whole bed of dahlias, and she recommends growing flowers alongside your vegetables.

“Many act as great companion plants, serving as a distraction for pests attacking your precious vegetables – nasturtiums and marigolds are firm favourites to dot around the patch to try and distract some of the insects you don’t want on your veg!” Both nasturtiums and marigolds are easy to grow – Amy often pops them in pots so she can move them about.

Probably the most important role of flowers, other than to bring a smile to your face, is to attract our favourite garden friend – bees! Pollinator-friendly plants should be a must for any avid vegetable-grower. It’s a great idea to pop these in pots too; Amy sets them outside her greenhouse to welcome bees in and dots them around her beds.

Here are Amy’s top pollinator-friendly flowers that she’s sowing and growing this month:

·      Cornflowers

·      Cosmos

·      Scabious

·      Echinacea

·      Rudbeckia

·      Verbena

·      Sweetpeas

“Many of these blooms are perfect for cutting and making arrangements to pot in vases around the house. March is a busy month for seed sowing as the days are longer and warming up. Whatever you’re sowing this month, add some flowers to your seed trays and I promise you and the bees will thank you in the summer!”

You can follow Amy as she gets ready for the growing season at @Chicksandveg on Instagram or watch her in action below.