Historical gardening event of the week: 19 September 1930
COMEDY actor Derek Nimmo was born on this day in Liverpool. But for more than 30 years he lived with his wife Pat in Kensington, London. One day he awoke to strange voices in the garden. They were judges for the Kensington and Chelsea Garden Competition because, without his knowledge, Derek’s daughter Amanda had entered him into the ‘Best Windowbox’ category. He received a ‘Highly Commended’ certificate, which meant he was automatically entered into the finals for the following year. However, for most of it he was working away, so his wife filled the containers with her own brand of colour.
Dismissive of her windowboxes, he thought they looked ‘an awful mess’. Despite this, they won the prize for the best in Kensington – and for the best in the whole of London! Derek died in 1999, a few weeks after falling in his garden.
Derek swore by the use of garlic and, when he was a guest on radio’s
Desert Island Discs, he chose it as his luxury.