How we got here
Poirier & Co. began in 2020 in a courtyard workshop a short walk from the Roman Forum in Stara Zagora. Iliyan trained as a blacksmith before he turned to garden tools; Emiliya runs a quarter-hectare plot at the edge of town where she has been growing ornamental annuals for fifteen years; Stoyan does the photography and the books. The three of us met at a market in 2018 and talked, on and off, about the kind of garden shop we wanted to be a customer of — but couldn't find. Two years later we made it.
What we sell, and why those things
The catalogue is small on purpose. We add a tool only after we have used it through a season in our own beds. We add a seed variety only after Emiliya has grown it at her plot for at least one summer and is happy with the germination, the form and the cut life. The pots are hand-thrown in Impruneta, Tuscany, by a workshop that has been firing terracotta from local clay since the fifteenth century. The waxed apron is sewn here in Stara Zagora from a Scottish cotton we have used on our own benches for four years.
What "tested in our beds" actually means
It means that for any tool you see on this site, at least two of us have used it for ninety days or more. We track which tools break, which lose their edge, which raise blisters; the ones that fail get sent back. Emiliya keeps a half-page note on every variety of seed we have ever trialled — the ones with poor germination or weak cut life never reach the catalogue.
Where we ship
We post within Bulgaria via Speedy or Econt (usually next-day) and to the rest of the EU via Bulgarian Posts and a partner courier. Every parcel is wrapped in plain kraft paper and tied with the same jute twine we sell on the bench page; the courier sticker is the only piece of plastic we add. If something doesn't suit you, you have thirty days to send it back unused for a full refund.
Visiting the workshop
The workshop is at 38 Tsar Simeon Veliki Street, Building B, Workshop 4, 6000 Stara Zagora. We're open Mon–Fri 09:00–17:30, Sat 10:00–14:00 (EET). If you'd like to come by, please email [email protected] the day before — there is usually one of us at the workshop, but not always all three.