2 Passionate gardeners: Poppy Okotcha and Adam Frost

Poppy Okotcha and Adam Frost at the British Library

I think I am going to look at this photograph and smile for sometime to come. Last night at an event organised by the British Library I had the pleasure of hosting a conversation about plants and gardening with Poppy Okotcha and Adam Frost.

I had had an email from Jon Fawcett at the British Library back in April. There is currently an exhibition at the Library called Unearthed: the Power of Gardening. Gathering together some wonderful books and artifacts, I love that Gertrude Jekyll’s gardening boots are on display, it tells stories of the importance of plants and gardens in people’s lives. The conversation with Poppy and Adam was one of the events to accompany the exhibition along with the Gardens and Empires conference that I have written about previously. Jon had seen the review of Our Plant Stories in the Observer back in February, listened and liked it, and wondered if I would be willing and able to host the conversation.

Poppy and Adam have both recently published new books. Poppy’s is called A Wilder Way - How Gardens Grow Us and Adam’s is called for the Love of Plants. The books arrived and I set to read them. There are pages turned down, sentences underlined (in pencil of course) and a note book with quotes and possible questions. Both books are about getting to know new spaces, creating new gardens. Poppy had gardened on a narrow boat, living in London and her new space was in Devon. In her book she takes us through a year, month by month, she says: ‘gardening is hitching a lift on the rhythm of the year.’ I love that sentiment. Adam had downsized to his new garden following what he describes in the introduction to his book as ‘burnout and a sort of depression’. He says of the new space: ‘the moment I walked into that garden I felt connected. It became my safe space”.

So we talked about how they had set to creating their new gardens, about the sense of belonging a garden can bring and the importance of observation. Adam has spoken before about gardening being a series of moments and ensuring that you enjoy that moment and he worries when gardeners say I haven’t got time to stop and just sit, far too much to do. But that is missing the point. Poppy describes herself as a ‘garden assistant’ rather than a gardener and says of her garden; ‘there are tell tale signs of human collaboration with wildness’. Adam talks about self seeders as ‘fairy dust’ - you let them do their magic. And for both of them ‘observation’ in the garden becomes ever more important as climate change, literally changes the rhythms in the garden, disrupting what were traditional patterns of planting.

I hope I will be able to share this conversation as a podcast episode. I would love you to hear Adam’s description of foraging on the railway lines and his memory of keeping ferrets and supplying rabbits to the Greek hairdresser in Potters Bar! And to hear Poppy’s enthusiasm for compost not just of food but also of clothes, what does happen to socks when they rot down? They also shared memories of plants that are special - tomatoes for Adam, strawberries for Poppy - plant stories - and we know how powerful they are.

Fay’s Yucca story went live this week. I’ve talked about it and shared the trail so I hope you will enjoy the full episode. I think it is beautiful and speaks to the connections that plants can give us to people, when they are no longer with us. I am not sure if M&S are still selling Yuccas but the greengrocer down the road from me is! £30 for quite a big Yucca gigantea…..I haven’t bought it yet!

Have a lovely weekend.

Sally

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