THERE was nothing in Martin Gibbons’s early life that gave the merest hint of the career that lay ahead. Yet, today, he lives in what was the old kitchen garden of Ham House, with his wife, Emma, a nurserywoman, and two teenage sons, named after plant hunters Jamie (Fortune) and Henry (Kingdon). Together with their home, the site houses The Palm Centre Mr Gibbons set up in the 1980s, where he cares for his National Collection of Trachycarpus palms, several of which he discovered and introduced.
The first clue came with his departure, six days after his 21st birthday, to Australia, paying £10 as part of the Assisted Passage scheme. As a ‘£10 Pom’, he worked his way through Australia doing seasonal work, selling saucepans door to door and completing a stint on the railways. For six months, he slept under canvas working with a surveyor in the heart of the Australian desert on a seismic survey prospecting for oil, then hitchhiked back to Europe via Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar. ‘Afghanistan was just another country then, with old guys walking round with flintlocks on their shoulders,’ he remembers. ‘I don’t remember spotting a single palm tree in all that time. Today, you’d see masses of them even before you leave Singapore airport.’
Denne historien er fra April 19, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra April 19, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Tales as old as time
By appointing writers-in-residence to landscape locations, the National Trust is hoping to spark in us a new engagement with our ancient surroundings, finds Richard Smyth
Do the active farmer test
Farming is a profession, not a lifestyle choice’ and, therefore, the Budget is unfair
Night Thoughts by Howard Hodgkin
Charlotte Mullins comments on Moght Thoughts
SOS: save our wild salmon
Jane Wheatley examines the dire situation facing the king of fish
Into the deep
Beneath the crystal-clear, alien world of water lie the great piscean survivors of the Ice Age. The Lake District is a fish-spotter's paradise, reports John Lewis-Stempel
It's alive!
Living, burping and bubbling fermented masses of flour, yeast and water that spawn countless loaves—Emma Hughes charts the rise and rise) of sourdough starters
There's orange gold in them thar fields
A kitchen staple that is easily taken for granted, the carrot is actually an incredibly tricky customer to cultivate that could reduce a grown man to tears, says Sarah Todd
True blues
I HAVE been planting English bluebells. They grow in their millions in the beechwoods that surround us—but not in our own garden. They are, however, a protected species. The law is clear and uncompromising: ‘It is illegal to dig up bluebells or their bulbs from the wild, or to trade or sell wild bluebell bulbs and seeds.’ I have, therefore, had to buy them from a respectable bulb-merchant.
Oh so hip
Stay the hand that itches to deadhead spent roses and you can enjoy their glittering fruits instead, writes John Hoyland
A best kept secret
Oft-forgotten Rutland, England's smallest county, is a 'Notswold' haven deserving of more attention, finds Nicola Venning
