‘My garden is my creative outlet, and the place where I feel most at peace’
For years, Zoe Woodward juggled a hectic job with her love of gardening. Now she’s found a more rewarding way of living
Iwas in my 20s when I decided I liked gardening, which is odd, really, as I lived in a tiny flat with no outside space. I’d be glued to Alan Titchmarsh’s TV programmes, and vowed that one day I would have a proper garden to call my own.
After I married my husband, Neil, we moved to Buckinghamshire, to a house with a small garden, and I devoted all my spare time to it. It was my creative outlet – the place where I felt most at peace.
Keen to understand more, I completed a part-time RHS diploma in horticulture, learning everything from the science of soil to how to dig properly. When I completed that, I felt ready for a challenge. Neil and I began looking for a bigger space, and found Swan Cottage – a beautiful thatched building with an acre of land.
We both had demanding jobs, but when we got home we’d head straight outside, often gardening until 10pm. We were constantly shattered, mentally and physically, yet we’d never been happier. When we held a charity fundraiser, opening our garden
to the public for the first time, it was the perfect culmination of all we’d achieved.
My greatest passion was for cut flowers. I planted seeds in every available area and had so many flowers, I was having to put them on the compost. It seemed such a waste that I wondered if I could sell some of them. I rang a few florists and, within two hours, someone was in the garden buying my dahlias. That moment was the seed of an idea – I lived and breathed flowers, so why wasn’t I with them all day, every day?
Within months, Swan Cottage Flowers was born. Neil and I left our jobs to work full time on our new venture. We’ve also started flower-arranging workshops – my dream is to open my own gardening school.
If you do the thing you love, it doesn’t feel like work. Neil and I would rather be gardening than doing anything else. When the sun is out, we often say we should just enjoy the day. We’ll get the chairs out and sit back – then one of us will notice a job that needs doing, and we’re off! Digging, weeding, pruning… that’s when we’re at our happiest. Our garden is our relaxation – the most soothing place in the world.