The writer, cook and gardener Nigel Slater begins his regular column in Gardens Illustrated magazine this month

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Published: Thursday, 29 February 2024 at 13:45 PM


We are delighted to welcome cook, writer and passionate gardener Nigel Slater to the Gardens Illustrated team as our new columnist – catch his first piece in our March 2024 issue, on sale tomorrow.

From March 2024, Nigel will write a column each issue about his year in the garden, beginning with the promise of spring, seed sowing and his continual wonder at how he can grow things.

You can expect personal insights into what he enjoys in his small urban garden in London, which he regularly posts about on Instagram.

Here’s a sneak peek at March’s offering: ‘It is half a century since I ran up the path to my father’s greenhouse to tell him that the seeds I had planted in my thin strip of garden were peeping through. I can no longer remember if it was the calendula, cosmos or candytuft (my pocket money obviously hadn’t got me very far through the seed catalogue), but I still remember the excitement with which those shoots were greeted.’

Nigel has worked as an Observer food columnist for 30 years and has written many award-winning books including Tender, Kitchen Diaries and The Christmas Chronicles. His childhood memoir, Toast, was adapted for radio, made into film and has also been adapted for the stage.

He was recently a guest on Gardens Illustrated‘s podcast Talking Gardens, where he talked about his dream garden, the fact that he was lucky enough to have Dan Pearson and Monty Don design his garden, his love of Japanese design and his wish for a soft serve ice-cream machine and fairies in his plot.