Gardening Together

Anya and her new friend Evie

I think I have started to drop the words ‘plant’ and ‘stories’ into lots of my conversations!  Sometimes I find myself describing the idea to random strangers, sometimes to friends.  Perhaps I hope that by planting the seed of my idea, something will emerge. I have always been fascinated by the ways that stories find their way out.

Recently I emailed Pam who runs a homeless project in London because I remembered a conversation a few years ago where she had talked about an idea she had to enable clients to garden.  It had struck a chord because over a number of years, I had interviewed a man called Dave, who had been entrenched rough sleeper in London.  Over time he had engaged with outreach staff, and moved off the streets. The last time we met he was in a flat and was proudly showing me his window box and telling me about his parents who had been market gardeners in Ireland.

A week later and I am in Pam’s lovely garden.  She’d moved into her new house and constructed the garden during lockdown.  I’m here because she is now sharing the house and the garden with a young Ukrainian woman who arrived from Kiev in the Summer and is now studying here for her degree.  It’s clear that Anya, though young, is knowledgeable and when we talk about who gardens in her family, she talks about her mum and her grandmother and her great grandmother.  “We take care of the soil” she says. 

So a story is unfolding and in my head I know who I would like to pair with Anya to talk about gardens in Ukraine, a journalist Lalage Snow, who I came across a few months ago. She has seen first hand, the Ukrainian love of the land and gardening, in the midst of conflict.

Closer to home and I take my 94 year old mother to the garden centre.   We pick out some plants to put on her rockery; a Hellebore and a Euphorbia.  We find pots and bulbs to plant up as Christmas presents for her carers.  Then she chooses plants for two planters to give to my daughter, she wants her to have colour on the tiny balcony outside her university room, she puts bulbs in them too so “they’ll be cheerful in Spring”.   

Mum working on the pots.

I love the way that the love and knowledge of plants and gardening passes through generations – it could be through a relative, it could be through a friend.  For me those gardeners live on in my memories every time I plant a plant they loved or sow one of their favourite flowers.

Thank you so much for all your comments last week on where you listen to podcasts. I now have a mental image of people listening in cars, on trains and on walks. I like that some people listen whilst cooking and others like to find a quiet space with no distractions. I have another request of the Podcast Crew - how long do you want to listen for? My Radio 4 brain seems to want to make programmes that are half an hour long but what do you think?