Owners of Rutland Garden Village in Ashwell say past 5 years have been hardest due to pandemic and cost of living crisis

The owners of a garden centre say the past five years have been the hardest of their lives - but they are determined to keep their dream alive.

Married couple Katey Lester, 52, and Robin Batten, 51, invested hundreds of thousands of pounds in their dream project Rutland Garden Village after picking up the keys to the Ashwell site on May 1, 2019.

Initially the pair, who live near Loughborough, were looking to take on a lifestyle business but after seeing an advert for the garden centre appear on Rightmove, they fell in love.

But the coronavirus outbreak threatened to ruin everything, forcing the centre to close before they even had the chance to start making their money back.

This was followed by the cost of living crisis and knock-on effects as a result of the war in Ukraine.

Robin said: “We were dealt a really unfair hand.

“If covid hadn’t happened, followed by the cost of living and war, we would be in a better place.”

Going into the business with rose-tinted glasses they thought it would be a ‘lovely lifestyle retirement-type operation’ but quickly realised it was a full-time job plus more.

In the past year, Katey and Robin both faced issues in their personal lives which led to them putting the garden village on the market as ‘family comes first’.

However, in a U-turn they have decided not to sell as they still believe it can continue to ‘be something amazing’ under their ownership.

“We had a wobble,” said Robin.

Katey added: “We don’t want to leave and waste all that we’ve done.”

Although it has been a tough time, the couple are proud of what they have achieved so far and have been reflecting in the run up to marking five years at Rutland Garden Village today (Wednesday, May 1).

“It’s been the hardest five years of our lives,” said Robin.

“We’ve been thrown lots of curveballs and there have been a lot of reasons to stop, in fact a lot of people have advised us to.

“But we are very proud of what we have achieved.”

The garden village is home to a number of units which are occupied by a range of external businesses including, Pets Corner, Rigby and Rover Dog Grooming and aesthetics business Calveo.

They are soon welcoming two new businesses GMO Designs, a luxury kitchen company, and Shosha Koi, which will sell Japanese Koi fish.

Katey said: “We could have put in traditional garden centre stores but we were keen to support local businesses”

Katey founded lifestyle company Barefoot Sunday, and with Robin runs the two eateries at the site Radish and The Cakery as well as The Garden Village Store.

The couple admits they ‘probably aren’t the best at business’ as instead of focusing on profit their number one aim is to make a welcoming garden village.

However, they are struggling to get new people to the site and, although making millions of pounds isn’t their aim, they ‘still need to pay the mortgage’.

Robin said: “It’s not about us trying to make as much money as we can, what we want to do is create something for people to enjoy. If we like it, hopefully other people will too.

“People need to look beyond the site’s history and the grey fencing to what’s inside.

“We are not a corporate company with a big bank account.”

Katey added: “We are struggling to get people here.

“I guarantee every day I meet someone every day who didn’t know this was here - but this garden centre has been going since 1970.”

Part of the aim is to make it accessible to everyone, including dogs and children, which Katey, who previously ran nurseries, hopes to expand on with sessions for youngsters.

Going forward, there is still a couple of acres of unused land which the couple has left to build on which could be anything from a mini golf course to a glamping site.