It may </em>have started with daffodils ...

My very first pot of daffodils (and tulips just budding) in spring 2015.

I am ‘nuts’ about plants and horticulture, and I’m happy to say so!

Happy because gardening is a JOY to me, and has literally been a lifeline too. I reconnected with nature about five years ago during the early stages of a very difficult point in my life. I say re-connected because, on reflection, there were sparks of ‘plant love’ within me during my childhood, as well as in my 20s and 30s. Along the way, those sparks were drowned out by other things, and dulled into near non-existence.

One of the first poems I learned in high school was ‘I Wondered Lonely as a Cloud’, also called ‘Daffodils’, first published in 1807 by William Wordsworth in England. I loved that poem. My sister recently told me that she remembers thinking that I was particularly ‘fixated’ on it, reciting it to myself and to anyone who would listen, sometimes with theatrical ‘flourish’ [??!!??]. I was living in Nigeria at the time, having moved there from Jamaica in the 70s. There were no real daffodils to be readily found growing in gardens in either country. I may have had a vague memory of seeing daffodils in a vase at home when we lived in London, my birthplace years earlier, but I might be making that up … The daffodils that William Wordsworth saw and told me about were vivid yellow, dancing and ALIVE. At 11 years of age, I was a bit of a thinker and remember being struck by the beauty and irony of the cyclical nature of existence, as I thought about those daffodils.

Well, thank you Mr William Wordsworth.

Both of my parents indulged in ‘plant pursuits’ of different types and at different times of their lives. My mother, a farmer’s daughter, was a structured and pioneering (for where we lived) gardener, growing ornamental plants, fruit trees and vegetables. We’d help her make flower arrangements for the church altar each week, using plant material from our garden. My father, a lover of the wild outdoors, focussed more on single food crops, when the fancy took him, time permitting. He was an civil engineer and businessman. He’d provide a bumper harvest of sweetcorn one year (almost half an acre!), and nothing at all the next, as he might have decided to focus his attention on erecting and populating a large aviary.

I helped out now and then but I wouldn’t say I was smitten. Not always. I do remember a particular year during the school summer holidays when my sisters and I took it upon ourselves to harvest almond fruits (from our extensive grounds and foraged from the surrounding forest), sun dry them on our large first floor balcony, and extract the creamy nuts. Who taught us how to do that? We’d lay them out in dated batches and turn them periodically, and grade them for quality. It was all quite a production! Once dry, we’d harvest the nuts and tuck in! That same summer holiday, we also took a particular interest in nurturing my mother’s tomato, cucumber and lettuce crops. We had a great harvest. Wonderful salads. Looking back, that was one long, laid-back, relatively happy summer holiday spent gardening and enjoying fresh delicious food made from our own produce, often eaten al fresco. Looking back, what came naturally to my family in tropical south-western Nigeria at that time, is something I am ‘re-discovering’ decades later living in temperate north London, England.

Thank you Mummy. Thank you Daddy (RIP). Ese sisters mi*.

I studied Botany as part of my BSc Microbiology course at university but I don’t recall being particularly enthralled by the subject at the time. I usually got decent grades in the subject though, and the knowledge (taxonomy, structure, physiology, plant pathology) certainly comes in very handy now. Scientific nomenclature and Latin derivations are a doddle.

Today, I don’t have my own garden at home. What I do feel privileged to have is allotment plots on which I am able to indulge in my passion for plants relatively, to continue learning, and to enjoy the great outdoors and fresh produce which, by the way, I often still eat on site al fresco in spring, summer, and early autumn.

I grow edible and ornamental crops on my plots. I have over 100 rose bushes of many types and varieties. I TRY to grow my roses organically, which can be tricky - but that is another topic for another day. I’m still learning. To me, my roses are a source of beauty, healing and nourishment. I could wax lyrical about my roses but will leave you with a picture of just one of my favourites called Rosa ‘William Shakespeare’.