GARDENING TALENT
Poppy Okocha
Influenced by permaculture and biodynamics, Poppy aims to assist the garden and encourage it to thrive
“I’d love to own a piece of land where I run workshops on small-scale, ecological growing, with a focus on access for young black kids”
Earliest gardening memories
Watching red admiral butterflies flutter on the buddleja bush with my mum in our back garden. And also collecting buckets of snails when I was maybe four or five. I thought they were cute then and I still do now; pesky but like docile, slidy, soil cows.
Is gardening a career change?
I worked as a model for about seven years. I found the fashion industry exhausting. I was also learning more about the climate crisis and the role fashion plays in it, and there came a point when I felt I needed and really wanted to change career towards something that was both good for me, others and the Earth. Practising, writing and talking on ecological food growing seemed to tick all the boxes, so I started gaining experience.
Horticultural heroes
All the women in my family are gardening heroes: my grandma was known to me as ‘Grandma with the Nice Garden’; my mum dug a pond with us during a challenging period in our lives, and a frog came to live in it. She also started a compost heap and a little no-dig veg patch and let the lawn turn into a meadow – her exposing us to all that makes her a gardening hero for sure. And my late mother-in-law gave me so many brilliant books on gardening. She used to keep ducks to help manage pests. We now have chickens for the same purpose.
One easy thing that every gardener can do to be more sustainable in their gardening
I don’t have one easy thing, I have ten easy things! 1) Go organic. 2) Go peat free. 3) Make compost and use it. 4) Go no dig or minimum till. 5) Grow food (explore edible perennials). 6) Have a pond. 7) Reduce the flow of external resources into our gardens and when things do come in opt for reused items and local resources. 8) Harvest rainwater and use grey water in your garden. 9) Buy seed from organic, ethical, local suppliers. 10) Share space and produce with others.
Your next big garden project
To complete planting up the edible and medicinal perennial border, which will be full of ‘edimentals’ and ‘medimentals’. Plants such as echinacea, whose root is a great anti-viral, feverfew for headaches, and sage for coughs and sore throats.
A future aim
I’d love to own a piece of land where I run workshops alongside others on small-scale, ecological growing and other land-based skills and crafts, with a real focus on access for young black kids to get involved and learn on the land. That’s the dream!
Contact poppyokocha.com, Instagram @poppyokocha
You can read a longer version of Poppy’s interview at gardensillustrated.com/poppyokocha