Natural beauty

Working with nature and the cycle of seasons, a new flower farm is blossoming in a fold of the beautiful River Teign valley

- Catherine Courtenay

It’s a weekday mid-morning in the family home of Amelia Cooper-Smith. Two-year-old Caspian is tucking into a biscuit and glass of milk, while Sybil the dog sits nearby, expectantly.

A simple vase of flowers sits on the dining table.

“They just lift you and make you feel better,” says Amelia. She has grown them herself, arranging them with a light touch. They bend and flow from the vase; petals, leaves and stems combine to create a pool of intense, natural beauty in the midst of this busy room.

There will always be a vase or two of flowers in Amelia’s house. They make any home look beautiful, but for Amelia, bringing cut flowers into the house is about her connection with the natural world. She is passionate about this relationship. “If I go into town I can feel anxious, but when I’m at home with my hands in the soil, I can breathe deeply.”

When the former primary school teacher found herself at home looking after the children (Caspian is joined by Byron, 5 and Rafferty, 8) she started making use of the land that surrounded the house. She and husband Giles bought the cottage in Combeinteignhead 11 years ago and spent time restoring and doing up the property. They had a field alongside where they introduced some chickens, then llamas and alpacas, and they grew veg. With space for a greenhouse and polytunnel, Amelia began to get her hands in the soil and grow things.

“Mum is a gardener, and as children we were always making fairy gardens,” she says. “Then I began gardening and growing veg and one thing leads to another.”