MIRANDA LARBI
During the lockdown journalist Miranda Larbi, 30, found herself living with her parents in east London for the first time in years. At her flat, there was no outdoor space, but now Larbi had a garden.
“I’ve always been interested in gardening,” says Larbi, who, as a child, helped her grandfather propagate geraniums in North Yorkshire.
Her parents are keen gardeners, too, and Larbi began to help out. Soon, her father suggested they transform an unloved plot by a nearby church. “We put in manure, pellets, wood chips, the whole shebang,” says Larbi.
“We turned over the soil, weeded, and planted all sorts of colourful plants.”
So successful was the transformation that a parishioner has asked the father and daughter team to work on their garden as well.
The family garden is geared towards edible plants. “We’re all avid vegetable growers. There are tomatillos, tomatoes, peppers, chillies, cucumbers.”
Larbi made pasta sauce from the tomatoes she describes as “incomparable” to bland supermarket options.
“There’s nothing like growing your own stuff and cooking a meal with it to really appreciate the achievements.”
For Larbi, gardening “is a very calming process, there’s something very nice about nurturing something, it teaches you to slow down. You can’t outrun plants, they’ll grow when they’re ready.” It also enabled her to connect with her father “in a very relaxed environment.”
Despite being an “outlier”, Larbi thinks interest is growing among her peers. She is helping her boyfriend turn his garden into “something more cared-for”.
“Over the lockdown, people have become more aware of what green space means to us; you have to lose it to really appreciate it. Home is now a sanctuary.”
Now back at her flat, Larbi has several houseplants. There are spider and snake plants, mother-in-law’s tongues and a cactus.
“I entertain hopes that one day I’ll own some form of property, in which case, I would love to have my own garden. Until then, I’ll keep turning my room into some sort of weird greenhouse.”