She’s passionate about planting and a champion for thriftiness but Natalie, who’s currently curator at Treborth Botanic Garden, laments the loss of botany courses from our universities.
Earliest garden memory Our family home in Devon: the garden was an expanse of knee-high grass with two gnarly apple trees, a mass of scrubby forsythias and a row of oaks that towered over the end of the garden shed. My sisters and I would bound through the grass with our dog, collecting acorns and making nests for slow worms.
Who has inspired your career the most? My grandma Olive is a dedicated gardener. When I used to visit her in Birmingham, where she lived for 44 years, it was her thriftiness that fascinated me the most. She saved every bulb, every seed and we would see it again the next year in a different bed, pot or hanging basket.
This story is from the April 2017 edition of Gardens Illustrated.
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This story is from the April 2017 edition of Gardens Illustrated.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
LAZY DAYS
Alice Vincent has had a hectic 2023, but for next year she's come up with a cunning plan to give herself more time and reduce her carbon footprint
SCULPTING THE LANDSCAPE
Charlotte Rowe's elegant design for a country garden in Hampshire fuses modern and traditional styles and captures the Zeitgeist for naturalism with a contemporary edge
Flavour of the seasons
Smallholder and former chef Julius Roberts suggests three easy, warming recipes for a winter feast with seasonal produce
JOINT ENTERPRISE
In southwest Germany, a couple have combined structural grasses and perennials with good seedheads in their garden to great effect, especially when touched by winter frost
COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS
There is a biodiversity loss crisis, but research into the wildlife found in gardens has made it clear just how important these spaces are as habitat. Discover how much you can learn, and gain, by identifying and documenting what you find beyond your back door
MATTHEW BIGGS
Horticulture's nicest practitioner on his journey from sweeping playgrounds to Gardeners' Question Time via offering gardening advice to insomniacs
YOUNG AT HEART
The garden of the late, great landscape architect Jacques Wirtz, which is more than 50 years old, is now being renewed by his children
PITTOSPORUM
These evergreen shrubs come in a multitude of sizes and shapes with shiny, often variegated or colourful leaves and small scented flowers
Festive flourishes
Entertain in style this Christmas with ideas for natural decorations from Swallows & Damsons
LUKE SENIOR
A former Ruth Borun scholar at Great Dixter, Luke is now one of the garden's full time gardeners
