The TV presenter, gardener and writer Frances Tophill talks about her new book documenting the first growing year in her own small garden <\/p>
TV presenter and gardener Frances Tophill’s new book documents her work on her own small garden. Below she explains more about what to expect from A Year in a Small Garden<\/a><\/em>, and her path into horticulture.<\/p> You may also like<\/strong><\/p> What is your new book about? <\/strong>It is about my garden \u2013 the first I\u2019ve ever owned. I moved in in early 2023, and BBC Gardeners\u2019 World<\/em> filmed it. Then BBC Books asked me if I would document the first year of how to tackle a new garden<\/a>. Initially, I felt I\u2019d have to have something concluded by the end, with a big reveal. But that\u2019s not how I\u2019d approach a new garden. So it is really just the documentation of that first growing season, what I managed to do, and how I approached it.<\/p> What did you learn from writing it?<\/strong> It gave me an overview of my gardening journey. I had a very traditional start \u2013 as an apprentice at 19, my job was to pick up dog poo and make the head gardener tea. Then at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh<\/a> I learned about conservation, community gardening and ethnobotany. Slowly, cogs move and you end up miles away from where you began, without really noticing that it\u2019s happened.<\/p> What one idea would you like to share from the book?<\/strong> It\u2019s that lesson of not rushing in, and stopping for a year if you possibly can, observing what happens, such as how the light moves through the year. My garden is in full shade<\/a> in winter, then in March the first peep of sun comes and quickly, the garden\u2019s in full sun in the morning.<\/p> What books are on your shelves? <\/strong>For me it is fantasy, adventure \u2013 anything that sparks the imagination, so, embarrassingly, I\u2019m listening to Harry Potter audiobooks. I also love podcasts<\/a>. I like Studio Lab, a really good science podcast. A lot of it is botany-based, looking at amazing research that people are doing about plants and plant life.<\/p> What sparked your interest in gardening? <\/strong>An appreciation of the natural world is deeply rooted in me, but in terms of it as a practical job<\/a>, no one ever said it was an option. After school I worked at Marks & Spencer and did a foundation degree in art. Then a gardening apprenticeship came up and I made a snap decision. I walked around the garden with the head gardener and just thought, oh, this is amazing, I want to work here. I realised I like being in soil and muddy and the creativity that doesn\u2019t involve sitting at a desk.<\/p> \u2018No one ever said gardening was a job option\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote> What are you doing in your garden at the moment? <\/strong>My garden is smaller than average (9m x 10m) with morning sun and really nice soil that\u2019s very silty, on limestone, so it\u2019s not acidic. It gets a lot of rain as I\u2019m on the south edge of Dartmoor, but it drains quite quickly. The only thing I created last year was a greenhouse because I have quite a collection of tender pelargoniums and tender edibles<\/a> such as lemongrass and liquorice. When winter came, I could protect them. I\u2019m now creating more structure, gathering reclaimed bricks for paths, and adding plants.<\/p> What is your biggest gardening mistake? <\/strong>My friend Rupert built my greenhouse<\/a> out of old windows. He came with two magnificent pub windows that were 2.4m and 1.8m across. I put it in a sunny spot so it warmed up but as it was wider than I\u2019d anticipated, it created a tiny little corridor at the far end of the garden, in the sunniest corner, that\u2019s almost unusable. I\u2019m trying to turn it into a little nook of a suntrap. I\u2019ve slowly put some tiles on the floor, and a deckchair<\/a>, and maybe a hammock<\/a>. But it is classic mistake \u2013 you should never create a wasted space in any garden. Especially in a small garden, and especially in the sunniest part.<\/p> Do you have any guilty gardening secrets?<\/strong> I don\u2019t compost. I love compost<\/a> \u2013 I compost at work and it\u2019s the best stuff in the world. In my garden I had one of those little Dalek things but I had to get rid of it as it was a rat\u2019s nest.<\/p>