Gardeners World Magazine

OK, so I’m a 27 year old mum of a toddler who only moved out of her mothers warm and cosy nest 3 years ago. Now my mother said “You mite be able to wash the dishes pet, but you may as well pave over any garden you may have” when she saw what I did to my rented humble abode 2 years ago. I had just had a baby and summer was coming with a vengeance and I wanted it to be all lovely for photographs for our memories. I dug a patch of land out and had plans for it to be all flowery and attracting ladybirds and butterflies for my little baby. I wanted to be the best mum in the world you see. At that time I didn’t know my cleatis from my hosta and bought whatever was ...

If you had asked me a year ago if I would be reading Gardeners’ World Magazine I would have laughed at you. I wanted a garden but mainly so I could lie and sunbathe in it and have somewhere to hang out my washing. Fast forward to December last year and we bought a new house with a garden and I fell in love with gardening. Now I am no Alan Titchmarsh (I’m female for a start) or Charlie Dimmock (I wouldn’t go out without a bra!) but I have found a real interest in gardening. There is something quite satisfying about going into your garden and picking a bunch of flowers to display in your house, or going and picking salad and vegetables for your dinner. So to feed my ...

Friday nights, 8.30, three years ago, a curious thing happened. I found myself saying down at The Vine In Manchester, "No, sorry, I better not have another pint, I've got to get home for Gardener's World..." (No, I'm sorry, I'm lying, it was 7.30, I'd got to get home from the pub, remember.) Hoots of derision followed, but I was in actual fact deadly, deadly serious.... Middle age had apparently crept up on me completely unnoticed and gripped me where it hurt - the tell tale signs were all there - couldn't stop peeing half the time, liked going to B&Q and fell in love with our old pal Alan ...