‘I tend to embrace chaos on my plot!’
The first plant I ever grew
When I was about five I was given a pink pelargonium by my dad’s best friend. ‘Uncle’ George was my inspiration and a terrific allotment gardener. I’ve still got cuttings from the same plant.
The plant that shaped the gardener I am today
An apple tree I grew from a pip when I was eight. We lived in a terrace with a back yard, but at that age, concrete won’t stop you. I made a garden from anything that’d hold soil, and the apple tree grew in a ‘tub’ made from a cut-off plastic container. When I moved into my house at 21, the tree was finally planted out. I’m still here and so is the tree!
My favourite plant in the world
A tie between bananas and echiums – I’m a sucker for huge leaves. It’s my dream to get ‘Dwarf Cavendish’ bananas to fruit, but my greenhouse and conservatory aren’t tall (or warm) enough. The leaves of the red Abyssinian banana are reward enough though!
The plant that made me work hardest
That would have to be echiums!
E. pininana, giant viper’s bugloss, has been the biggest success, happily self-seeding in Gateshead. I mollycoddled them at first, but now we have a ‘survival of the fittest’ relationship. This winter, which has been the coldest and wettest for years, has meant E. fastuosum has ‘bitten the mud’.
The plant I’d like to grow more of
I’d love to grow more tomatoes. I’ve grown them on my bedroom windowsill since I was a child. Outdoor growing isn’t really an option here in the North East – we usually have sunny springs and autumns, but summers are often cloudy.
The plant I am in human form
Ornamental or Chinese rhubarb,
Rheum palmatum. Big, showy, purple and exhausted by effort by the time midsummer comes around!
The plant that helped shape my life
Traditional bedding plants such as alyssum, red salvia and lobelia. My dad always planted things in rows, which I hated, so I grew up loathing these annuals. It was all about control and what the neighbours thought – nothing about our little ecosystem. There’s not a straight line in my garden. I tend to embrace chaos – I’m just a custodian of my plot.
The plant I’d always give as a gift
I wouldn’t force my choice on others. I’d rather give a nongardener a plant that’d inspire them to start gardening. Now that would be a priceless gift...