FRANCINE RAYMOND

The acclaimed gardener, chicken fancier, designer and writer on a productive and sustainable life

- WORDS RHODA PARRY PORTRAIT JOHN CAMPBELL

It's a rare thing to meet someone with true panache, but it's the quality I see immediately when I meet Francine Raymond on a cool autumn day. The acclaimed gardener, fowl fancier, designer and writer welcomes me into her newly built eco-home, which sings with a harmonious yellow hue. “I like the way it makes me feel,” she says. “I'm a nester; someone who sets great store by my surroundings, almost as a means of artistic expression.”

A pioneer in living, growing and eating well – from foraging to fruit trees, animal husbandry to farmers’ markets – Francine's intuition for what's coming is her talent and secret power. It's one that's still going strong as she evolves into later life. In 2024, she divided the back garden of her Arts and Crafts bungalow in Kent in two, and downsized into a self-designed, beautifully built home. It sits beneath a 120-year-old oak tree surrounded by the orchard she herself planted, of apple, persimmon, damson and the most "extraordinarily prolific greengage". Crafted entirely out of wood by her sons, Jacques and Max, there’s no cement, no concrete, no plaster, but there is triple glazing with perfectly framed views, a carefully planned rainwater distribution system and a contemporary compost loo. “I wanted just one room for living and one for sleeping.”