'Growing Bug Started With My Nan's Gift'

I was born and raised in Liverpool in the 1960s and our house didn’t have a garden.

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The first plant I ever grew

I had to wait for one until I was 10, when my family moved. I was given a few bags of mustard and cress seed by my nan, which I grew on my bedroom windowsill. It was my first gardening success and gave me the growing bug. At school I declared I wanted to be a gardener and earned the nickname Percy Thrower. As I knew he didn’t play for Liverpool, I realised he must be a gardener!

The plant that shaped the gardener I am today