Gardening talent Meet Matthew Oliver head of RHS Hyde Hall’s Global Growth Vegetable Garden
ANDREW MONTGOMERY
Probably antirrhinums. Our garden was full of bedding plants grown from seed and I remember picking the flowers off and squeezing the sides together to see why they got their snapdragon common name. Foxgloves featured heavily too and I was fascinated to watch bees disappear into the flowers. I would say my grandparents, who lived round the block from where I grew up. Their garden was always a complete jungle so it doubled up as both a playground and somewhere you could cut your teeth as gardener and make mistakes without consequence. They were the ones who had no qualms about telling me I should go for horticulture as a career. They saw it as a proper, skilled trade and a ‘real’ reason to go to college/university. My year as a student at Hyde Hall. I did it as a practical year during my degree at Writtle University College. Working alongside other professional gardeners in a setting where the consequences really mattered was eye opening. To go back in time to a working Victorian- or Edwardian-era walled garden to see if the horticultural standards really were as good as the history books say. I’d really like to have a crack at growing pineapples in hot beds. Formal. Straight lines. Neat and tidy. Gardening for me is about the process, so I just run with the fact that anything I do is controlling and manipulating what nature intends and tend not to be shy about it. Climate change. I can handle hot summers and find plants to grow in it, but having winters devoid of frost days is a truly frightening prospect for a fruit and veg gardener. Frost helps knock back garden pests and some fruit crops need vernalisation [period of cold] for their buds to ensure a good crop the following year. Through lockdown I was invited to be on a couple of podcasts, which got me listening to them on a more regular basis. This Week in the Garden with Peter Seabrook is very listenable. He uses all of his many contacts and experience to get a wide range of knowledgeable guests. matthewoliver@rhs.org.uk Find out more about the Global Growth Vegetable Garden at hydehall@rhs.org.uk