Delfland Nurseries is the leading commercial organic propagator; 2013 is our sixteenth consecutive year of registration with the Soil Association.

It is a family business owned and run by husband and wife team Jill Vaughan and John Overvoorde. John’s father’s family were market gardeners for several generations and lived near Delft in Holland (hence Delfland Nurseries).

John was born in the East Riding of Yorkshire and was interested in growing from a very early age. He studied horticultural production at Sutton Bonington (Nottingham University) and has over 25 years growing experience. John began by growing lettuce for supermarkets but after five years he wanted more of a challenge and started plant raising. Beginning with brassicas, he soon progressed to lettuce, celery and tomatoes and now grows ‘anything from seed.’

As a teenager Jill worked on a local family farm and decided to combine her interests in agriculture and geography by becoming a soil scientist. At eighteen she left home to study physical geography and geology at London University followed by an MSc in Soil Science at Aberdeen. For sixteen years she was employed as a consultant soil scientist by ADAS (Agricultural Development and Advisory Service) leaving to work with John in 1996.