‘It doesn’t have to be perfect’
THE GREAT GARDEN REVOLUTION
NEW SATURDAY / C4 / 8PM / EP 1 OF 4 / FACTUAL
For many of us, our gardens have been a godsend during a year of lockdown. But now spring has well and truly sprung, what if our treasured outdoor spaces are in need of a spruce up or even, gulp, an overhaul?
Luckily, help is at hand in C4’s new series The Great Garden Revolution. Each episode ecological gardener Poppy Okotcha, who’s a regular contributor to BBC2’S
Gardeners’ World, designer Joel
Bird (Your Garden Made Perfect) and craftsman Bruce Kenneth
(Money for Nothing) transform one family’s garden. The trio of experts also offer practical advice for getting our outdoor spaces – however big or small – up to scratch. And each week a famous person will give us a tour of their garden to show off their efforts.
Here, Poppy, 24, tells us more about the show...
What do you hope viewers will get from the series?
We want to inspire, encourage and show what you can do with your garden no matter what size it is. The ones featured in the series range from a very small city courtyard to a sizeable country garden. We’ll be giving all kinds of ‘how to’ tips that people can get on with straight away. We want it to be a really interactive resource so people can get stuck in rather than be overwhelmed with information.
What led you to a career in gardening?
I’d been working as a model in an industry that was very hectic, I kind of got burnout in the end. I started growing my own food to do the best for my body, but also as a mental health thing, and I just found being in nature so relaxing so my interest grew from there. I retrained with the Royal Horticultural Society and began working in community gardens in London.
You’re a Permaculture Designer. What is that?
The ethos of Permaculture Design means exploring how we can live more sustainably while creating community connections, so in gardening it might be something very simple like saving sunflower seeds and passing them onto a neighbour.
Last year you moved to Devon from living on a houseboat in London. What are you going to be growing this summer?
I’m really interested in plants we can use, so whether that’s eating them, using them for health, or for practical things like dyeing or for medicinal purposes. I love the reciprocal relationships with the plants and the natural world: we look after the plants and they’ll look after us. As well as my medicinal garden, I’ll be planting plenty of vegetables.
Gardener Poppy Okotcha on giving your garden a spring makeover...
Are there medicinal plants that are particularly easy to grow?
A brilliant one is Valerian, for the root. It has soporific qualities, so you can dry it and use it for tea, which helps you get to sleep. Echinacea is a fantastic plant for our immune system, different mints are brilliant for digestion and nettles are great plants for our bodies and blood because they’re packed full of iron and vitamin C.
Which vegetables should a novice gardener plant?
One of my favourite bits in the show is us doing a kitchen garden and showing all the edible things to plant. I like all the classics like tomatoes, courgettes, aubergines, but I think for beginners the best place to start is with leafy greens because they don’t need so much attention. Things like kale, spinach and chard are all really great because you can harvest them well into the winter months as they can tolerate the cold.
What do you think is the main thing stopping people from having a go at gardening?
I think it’s this need for things to be perfect. A big part of gardening is saying to yourself, ‘Well, actually it really doesn’t have to be perfect’, you can muddle through and experiment, it’s part of the learning experience. The best thing is to just start. Gardening is all about finding out what works and, if plants die you can always compost them, so nothing is ever wasted.
TESS LAMACRAFT