Earliest garden memory My dad is a gardener, so as a boy I’d join him on his rounds and earn my £5 pocket money. I learned what was a ‘weed’ and how to remove it, and which customers had the best biscuit selection.
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First plant love Probably my collection of angry cacti that were packed on to our small kitchen windowsill. You took your life in your hands opening up the window.
Climate change is happening in front of our very eyes, so it needs to be at the forefront when making decisions for our gardens.
Horticultural heroes Derek Jarman and Christopher Lloyd sparked my curiosity early on. A little later, I was introduced to Vita Sackville-West through my mother-in-law’s love for the Bloomsbury Group. I can’t not talk about Vita’s husband Harold, who was as integral to the garden at Sissinghurst as she was. The vistas that he created are really clever.
Favourite garden Elizabeth Strangman’s garden in East Sussex is one that lives rent-free in my head. I can never get over how such a special place, packed full of winterlings.
I love borders that are full to the brim, ridiculously romantic, and plants tumbling over paths so you feel like you’re really exploring a garden.
Three most worthwhile tips for every gardener…
Look after your soil. It will be exhausted after working hard over spring and summer, so repay it with a good mulch over winter. Harvest as much water as you possibly can.
Take notes of what’s going on in your garden – observing is as important as doing. If you’re anything like me, you’ll forget if you don’t.
Favourite planting style I love borders that are full to the brim, ridiculously romantic, and plants tumbling over paths so you feel like you’re really exploring a garden. After that, I really crave a decompression space like a meadow, to collect my thoughts after the overwhelm of a bursting border.
Favourite ‘weed’ Scarlet pimpernel (Lysimachia arvensis). I love that its other name is poor man’s barometer; I will often go and check it when the weather changes.
Biggest challenge facing gardeners today Climate change is happening in front of our very eyes, so it needs to be at the forefront when making decisions for our gardens. We also need to recognise how multi-skilled gardeners need to be. Fair pay in relation to other industries with similar skill levels could be a start.
One easy way to be more sustainable Compost your garden waste; if you know what’s going into your compost, you’ll have no surprises with what comes out. We’ve been trialling the Bokashi method at Sissinghurst, which is producing good results.
Next big project? Rejuvenating the Lime Walk with my colleague Peter Fifield. The planting has declined over the past few years, so we are observing, identifying and recording as much information as we can over the coming year. We’re also ploughing through Harold Nicolson’s notes, diary entries and bulb-order receipts that we have from the archives to help with this.
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