Aside from her career as an actress, Caroline Quentin has been a passionate gardener for many years. She lives in a country farmhouse in Devon, where she grows her own vegetables and has a large orchard. Her Instagram account, @cagardens, shows her love for gardening in pictures, and has almost 150,000 followers.
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In her new book, Drawn to the Garden, Caroline shares her horticultural journey. The book mixes personal stories of her life and experiences in the garden, with practical tips, recipes and her own illustrations. We asked her about her literary loves and what gardening means to her.
Tell us about your new book.
Drawn to the Garden was inspired by my lifetime love of gardening and drawing. I’ve been a grower and a painter for most of my life. My early ‘gardening’ was in window boxes and containers and then in small urban spaces. What started as a love of growing lilies in London led me to a big vegetable plot and an orchard in Devon. During the Covid pandemic I started to share my garden and my interest in the natural world on Instagram and very quickly, I found I had a community of like-minded followers. I’ve always painted and drawn what I grow so, instinctively, I shared my artwork too. People seemed to like my watercolours so when my publisher Quarto asked me to illustrate Drawn to the Garden, as well as write it, I was thrilled.
What did you learn from it?
I didn’t intend the book to be such a personal reflection on my own mental health, my childhood and my outlook on life in general and gardening in particular, but writing it taught me that, just as the experience of gardening is unique to each of us, it’s also something that brings individuals together, sometimes physically but often metaphorically. We are a group of like-minded people, even though some of us are fascinated by root vegetables and others in rare orchids, we speak the same language and share a sense of wonder.
What advice would you like to share from the book?
Try it … whatever it might be. Don’t feel foolish and don’t let your inner critic stop you, whether it be growing a cucumber from seed, planting a meadow or sketching a hornbeam. Don’t let the ‘experts’ put you off – we all have to start somewhere and with gardening, no one dies; occasionally a peony may bite the dust, but generally gardens are a safe space to make mistakes, you can always dig it up and start again and this is a lifelong love affair. Likewise if your sketch of a hydrangea looks more like a bonfire don’t despair, it’s meant to be enjoyable, do it for yourself.
I’ll read anything about…
Birds, fungi, Anton Chekov, Vincent van Gogh, Martha Graham, Elvis Presley, ancient woodlands and studio pottery.
I’ll read anything by…
Thomas Hardy, Patrick Hamilton, Patricia Highsmith, Daphne du Maurier, Nigel Slater, Angela Carter, Muriel Spark, LP Hartley.
The books on my nightstand right now are...
This could be Everything by Eva Rice, Mudlark’d: Hidden Histories from the River Thames by Malcom Russell, London: The Great Transformation 1860-1920 by Philip Davies and The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn.
What first sparked your interest in gardening?
A combination of the miracle of mustard seeds sprinkled on blotting paper at primary school, The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter (her illustrations of Mr McGregor’s veg plot were incredible), visiting Monet’s garden at Giverny when I was 17 and seeing an exhibition of the water lily canvases at Jeu de Paume in Paris soon after. And Geoff Hamilton on BBC Gardeners’ World – he was, and always will be, my gardening pin up.
What is your current garden like?
My big beautiful garden in Devon came with a big house and it was all getting a bit too much for me. My husband Sam and I are renting a lovely cottage in Somerset and are looking for a cottage nearby where I can start a new garden and a new gardening adventure. Hopefully smaller, but a perfect balance of fruit, veg, flowers and wildlife habitats. Oh, and I’m desperate to start beekeeping.
Can you share your biggest gardening mistake or failure?
I didn’t look after the fruit trees when I first planted them. I had young children and I was super busy. I should have cleared the grass from around them and mulched more. And I didn’t prune them soon enough. Next time I’ll get it right, the kids can look after themselves and pruning will be the priority.
What’s your guilty gardening secret?
I always sow too many seeds. It’s so wasteful, not just of the compost and the seeds but of my time. I will never be able to grow as much as I’d like but every year I get excited by new offerings in the seed catalogues, particularly heritage veg.
What’s your favourite garden or landscape to visit?
Although I love to visit gardens in the UK, it is the olive and lemon trees in Corfu that make me swoon. I adore the full stops and exclamation marks of the cypress trees that fringe the craggy mountain; the Greeks call them Dachtila tou Theou, which means finger of God. One day, when I’m grown up, I’d love to make a garden there.
Drawn to the Garden by Caroline Quentin (Frances Lincoln, £20) is published on 15 February 2024.