You would be surprised at how many letters I get criticising me for straying outside the strict limitations of horticulture or even for expressing what is clearly an opinion.
Woods are rich with biodiversity and, above all, places of trees and light that spangles a thousand greens through the leaves.
I often eat cakes while my fingers are caked in soil.
I think we put far too much interest in trying to get ten to 20 year olds interested in gardening. I think you should do everything you can to try and get them interested up to the age of 10.
There is a direct correlation between gardening and mental health, not just to maintain good mental health but to repair it as well – that’s anything in the gamut from depression to serious brain damage, schizophrenia or autism.
Absorbing a healthy amount of dirt builds your immune system.
When you’re 15 whatever your parents tell you you should do, you’re not going to do it.
Once you engage with the simple enough business of feeding yourself, of soil and water, weather, season and harvest, it becomes personal. It is about you, your family and friends. Food becomes an aspect of those relationships as well as your intimacy with your plot.
I don’t think about being the Colin Firth of the gardening world. I live a very insular world based around my family and my home, and to them I’m not the Colin Firth of anything.
Some plants become weeds simply by virtue of their success rather than any other factor. You merely want less of them.
I’m a great believer in trying things, so I’ve eaten witchetty grubs, a mountain frog, ostrich and alligator. I like tongue, I like brains and tripe.
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