My gardening world
Griff Rhys Jones OBE is a Welsh comedian and actor who first rose to fame in the 1980s with his BBC comedy sketch show Not the Nine O’Clock News. He has recently been part of the line-up for ITV’s Cooking with the Stars and frequently shares photographic updates of his garden on Instagram @griffrhysjones
Can you describe your garden to us?
It’s not an overly primped garden, but we’re in a very pretty location, by the estuary in East Anglia. It’s about eight acres, but not all garden and it was a farm before we moved in. We started doing the garden in about 1995 in a rather too grandiose way! I began putting avenues in, then went through a Prince Charles sort of moment and thought we’ve got to have a wildflower meadow, and an area of yew and box! Then we planted quite a lot of trees.
How do you use the garden?
I’m awful really. When people say, “Oh let’s eat in the garden”, the last thing I want is flies in my food and the glare of a white plate. I don’t understand that at all. What I like most is to just bang on a pair of boots and set off. It’s a big garden, so by the time I’ve wandered around musing, it’s taken a good hour at least.
Your wife grows lovely veg – do you have a favourite?
Oh yes, silvery-blue ‘Crown Prince’ pumpkins are the most delicious things. If you’ve only ever eaten pumpkin and wondered what the appeal of this watery slop is, then try ‘Crown Prince’. We live on them – best eaten roasted.
And what fruit do you grow?
I’m a big ‘make the garden work hard’ person, so we have fruit – wild plums and apples, and
grapes in the conservatory. We have an incredible fig tree too – it’s in a sheltered sun trap and thrives there. You need a lot of sunshine to get the sweetness into figs, so they’re best eaten grilled with cheese or – the way I mustn’t eat them – covered in cream.
What led you to keep alpacas?
I wanted to encourage self-maintenance in the garden, so I thought, let’s get something that will eat the grass so it doesn’t need mowing all the time. We got six black alpacas – they do eat the grass, but also slightly ruin the field and their poo needs picking up. But we do get wool from them – though I’m in trouble, as my wife only wanted them so she could make clothes for the grandbabies, and now they’re all dressed in black.
What is your favourite gardening tip?
I think there’s quite a lot of balderdash about gardening. It can be made to seem so complicated. I only do things that seem simple to me. Gardening really comes down to ‘Is your plant in a good position?’ If it doesn’t grow, then grow something else and don’t worry about it. The truth is, be simple, really.
Griff stars in An Hour and a Half Late at the Theatre Royal Bath, from February 2022. Buy tickets at theatreroyal.org.uk
Watch Joe Swift take a tour of Griff’s garden at bbc.co.uk/programmes/p035dl6b