Not going to lie, on Tuesday morning I was feeling a little overwhelmed at the thought of 8 tonnes of hoggin.

But let’s go back a step - when I first left the BBC wanting to see if I could make a go of this audio/plants podcast idea, I was very clear I wanted actual gardening as part of the new mix. So once a week for 2 years, I volunteered in the Inner Temple gardens.  It was a real joy being a small part of that team and I learned so much from these immensely clever and talented professional horticulturalists.  I loved watching the rhythm of the garden through the year and the way they planned and pruned, tended and tweaked; adding more snowdrops to the meadows or thinning the Smyrnium rings around the trees.

Now, once a week I volunteer and get my ‘gardening’ fix in the Museum of Homelessness garden.  I have seen photographs of the space (once a garden, long forgotten) from a year ago and there has been so much transformation. Paths, pots and a pond all feature. We’re all learning what we like to grow and what likes to grow and where. There are plenty of plans for next year. However the path which weaves around the space wasn’t really accessible to wheelchairs which is when Jess (who along with her husband Matt founded the museum) started to introduce us to the concept of ‘hoggin’ - “you see it in National Trust gardens”, she said.  A volunteering colleague from Canada was slightly struggling to see the allure - we just put it down on loads of roads and tracks! 

Over the past 3 years, getting closer to gardens and gardeners, I’ve seen at first hand that there are huge differences in budget and knowledge but I think that this can be bridged by generosity of time and resource and the sharing of skills.  Take the difference a Dave can make.  Dave is a builder and not only did Dave bring hoggin but on Tuesday he spent all day with us, helping us lay it. He and his colleague put down the membrane and an army of gardeners shifted 8 tonnes, wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow around the path, whilst others raked and rolled… and rolled again. Dave is clearly a born teacher, not telling but showing and over the course of the day our confidence grew. In preparation for the new path we had been trying to measure and make sure we had the right depth, Dave taught us to use our eyes. Turns out he has built Chelsea Flower show gardens for Carol Klein. We now have a roller and just a tonne of hoggin, to perfect the path over the coming months.

Urban communities wherever they live and whatever their circumstances, often don’t have access to a piece of outdoor space where they can just observe nature, relax with friends, tend plants, plant a garden. When I visited Hill Close Gardens in Warwick, I had such a strong sense of those Victorians who also had no outdoor space and so they rented those detached gardens where they could observe nature, relax with friends, tend plants and plant a garden. Perhaps humans separated by 180 years aren’t so different.

And it turns out 8 tonnes of hoggin isn’t so overwhelming but maybe there is something else at play here; because there is something special not just about working as a team but about the shared experience of growing your knowledge, that’s the difference a Dave makes.

Have a lovely weekend

Sally

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