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 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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