All Gardeners’ World events
Home - An consultation with Lucy Hutchings
An interview with Lucy Hutchings
Lucy Hutchings is a couture jewellery designer turned edible garden designer, homesteader and gardening influencer (@shegrowsveg) with a passion for GYO, and designing The Secret Homestead at BBC Gardeners’ World Live.
Lucy believe that the GYO bm needs a rebrand to encourage the Instagram generation to try their paw at develop their own food , and she ’s here to aid . With more than 167,000 Instagram following , a sustainable gardening school day , and an exciting edible Show Garden design for BBC Gardeners ’ World Live 2023 , Lucy ’s on a mission to get Great Britain mature . Lucy and her partner , Arctic adventurer and chef Mike Keen , have transformed a tumbledown wooden 1940s house in Suffolk , restoring both the sign and its 1.5 acre land site into Cedarwood Homestead , an oasis of fruit and veggie and a hotbed of culinary experimentation . But do n’t mention the Good Life !
Lucy Hutching ’s Show Garden , The Secret Homestead , will be at BBC Gardeners ’ World Live at the Birmingham NEC from 15th-18thJune 2023 . Visit the We produce Stage to see daily talk on all thing develop your own . recover out more here .
Lucy , the ethos you have created at Cedarwood is a wonderful unification of you and your married person Mike ’s careers in pattern , solid food and travel , and the hard graft of being ego - sufficient . WillThe Secret Homesteadbe a glimpse into what you ’ve created in Suffolk – a mini Cedarwood perhaps ?
You will definitely see book of facts to Cedarwood in The mystical Homestead garden and that was part of the ground I chose the name , to draw those parallels aright from the beginning . do from a background in the mode industry , the esthetic of edible gardens have always been as of import to me as their productiveness . I do n’t think they have to be strictly useful space , they can be beautiful , languid space too . That was the ethos I set out with when designing Cedarwood . Yes , we wanted to become more ego - sufficient and experience as sustainably as potential , but we also want to create a beautiful environment that we would enjoy spending clock time in .
I approached the design of The Secret Homestead garden with the same goal in mind . I require the garden to at first appear purely ornamental , with spectacular disastrous , purple and white leaf and pops of coral orange , spicy garden pink and jet black from flowers and bow . On closer exploration you discover a mix of both conventional and lesser known comestible plant examine that this garden does in fact proffer an abundance of solid food as well as a spread for the eyes .
Just as the plants in the border fulfil a dual design , so do the cosmetic elements of the garden , some of which are play exactly from what we built at Cedarwood . I have incorporate a rampart sculpture mushroom-shaped cloud garden , a mini version of our secret root cellar , complete with doorway painted by designer Lucy Tiffany , a sculpture number wildlife home ground I will be making myself . I will even be making jewel beset mosaic paving tile inspired by the jewellery I used to make . Every part of the garden is beautiful and every part is utilitarian .
To get more people giving menage maturate a go , you ’ve said that you call up something has to alter . What does next gen GYO reckon like for you ?
There has never been a better time for multitude to sweep up growing food for thought . It is actual step in the correct direction of a more sustainable life , reduce food for thought miles , single use plastics and addiction on intensive husbandry . It also increase food certificate in a meter of soar upwards food Mary Leontyne Price and shop shelf emptied by affright buying . All that before you weigh the multitudinous mental and physical health welfare . Additionally , GYO is arguably the most accessible part of horticulture , everyone can get excited about intellectual nourishment , therefore everyone has the potential difference to get excited about acquire some of it . GYO tend to be portray as possess a fairly habitation reel and traditional image which is a lovely part of British heritage , Dig For Victory , the jean fall apart allotmenteer , Tom and Barbara ’s back garden Good Life . However , there are a huge number of citizenry with whom this traditional vibe simply does not resonate at all .
With that in nous , I think it ’s time that GYO beat a makeover or if not a makeover , at least have an alternative range of a function deliver that might appeal to a new audience , one that may not have considered it otherwise , after all only good can come from more people grow industrial plant . If we are going to get more people develop intellectual nourishment , we require to find a room to make comestible garden appeal to cosmetic nurseryman , house plant life lover , those with modified space who do n’t require to have to choose between form and function , and let ’s not forget the foodies . My aim is to endeavor to go against down the divide that so often seems to separate ornamental horticulture with food growing and offer an totally unlike view of what a food garden might take care like . There are so many traditionally cosmetic plants that also offer unbelievable and underutilized food crop as well as myriad extremely cosmetic forms of more schematic food crops . When you get rid of the idea of rectangular raised bed with row of perfect cabbages , marrows and leeks , and start set about edible planting just as you would an decorative boundary line , you may set forth to make some really exciting dual - purpose space
For visitors toBBC Gardeners ’ World Livethat might be new to GYO , are there elements ofThe Secret Homesteadthat would be simple to try at home in the garden or for a diminished growing mend ?
I am go up the innovation of this garden in a very different way . I want to take the Gardeners ’ World bouncy audience on this journeying with me and show firstly just what goes into create a beautiful garden for the show but primarily , by partake this journey with me , I want people to see that it is potential to do a part or all of what I ’m doing . I will be grow almost all the plants for the garden myself from seed and am sharing a hebdomadary video diary on Instagram so that people can watch the advancement of the plants , following their journey all the way from midget semen to being embed up at the NEC in June . I will be build the sculptural element of the garden myself and sharing how you’re able to create something similar . I will even be building the garden myself including everything from laying slab to planting semi mature Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree . Yes it is kick the bucket to be a Brobdingnagian amount of piece of work , with many highs and lows , but this is what I do it doing and I hope that by partake my journeying to BBC Gardeners ’ World Live , I will get people just as excited as I am and hopefully give them the confidence to wander up their sleeve and create their own dreaming food garden .
Heirloom veggie varieties are one of your swell loves , peculiarly tomatoes . Can you tell us more about the appeal of growing these old - fashioned veggie , and will they be a characteristic ofThe Secret HomesteadatBBC Gardeners ’ World Live ?
As a general rule , if you are mature food , you are primarily doing it for the smack . We all sleep with nothing quite compares to the taste of a home grown love apple ! inheritance craw have been grown for C of eld on the footing of how serious they taste as opposed to modernistic hybrids which are broadly speaking design to solve a problem such as disease resistance , early cropping or high yields . Yes , they can try out good but I ’m yet to find out a hybrid that sample better than an heirloom variety . cross will always have a place , particularly in commercial solid food production , or for those living in parts of the country that offer a more challenging growing environment or short season . However , for the vast majority of people in the UK , inheritance or heirloom variety will perform equally well and offer reward over and above their hybrid friends .
Self - sufficiency does not just treat food , growing heritage and heirloom plants earmark you to carry through seed . Sadly , you ca n’t save seed from hybrid ( often referred to as F1s ) , it ’s an unsound interbreeding that will not be the same as the plant you saved it from and may grow to be something you really do n’t like or does not perform well . exposed pollinated heirlooms will mature true to the plant they were keep open from . You are then in a position where you could bribe one packet of seed and then never have to grease one’s palms it again , saving you money . It also face the chance to swop and partake in with ally and the wide-cut residential area so that others can grow a plant that you have really bang , and I think that is a really beautiful thing . Each heirloom come with a account , a story , and when you start to grow one of these varieties you become part of that tale . Plus , if we do n’t develop these amazing works , they will become out . You do n’t broadly tie in the idea of extermination with the humble vegetable , but it is a real problem since the advance of the hybrid . This is why I have been proud to be an ambassador for the Heritage Seed Library for a telephone number of eld now . I need to help as many people as possible fall just as in love life with heirloom varieties as I have .
You ’ll be hosting some antic talks from your show garden during BBC Gardeners ’ World Live about the joys and the practicalities of growing your own solid food . You ’ll be bring together by a gang of horticulture influencers that share your cacoethes for GYO . Can you tell us a small bit more about that ?
I ’m so excited about this part of the show and I ca n’t wait to portion out it with everyone . There is a whole young generation of gardeners that prefer to find out through knowledge communion and personal experience on social media rather than traditional gardening script and print media . There is an unbelievable and very active global community of gardener online that I feel privileged to be part of , with an absolute wealthiness of cognition and experience they are hungry to divvy up . It ’s a flake like the world ’s biggest horticulture chemical group but without the monthly village hall meeting . I ’m really excited to be put to work with BBC Gardeners ’ World Live to produce this new area for talks right next to my show garden and give this biotic community an in real living shoes to come together .
We will have a host of fascinating and well - honor people talking about subjects that perchance do n’t get address as much at gardening shows , but that are hot topics of discussion online . We will be take care at everything from permaculture , mushroom growing and little blank space garden design , to foraging , no - dig , apothecary gardens and more . I will be host the stagecoach and also talking myself so it should be a really exciting area to come , get wind something new and claver to like - minded nurseryman .
In the current challenge economic time with food bills uprise , is GYO a money - recoverer ?
We live in shuddery times at the moment , double in recent story our food security has been threatened , with empty supermarket shelf in the pandemic and now with seemingly ever rising food price . arise some of your food can be really empowering and yes it can help to get down those market bills . It ’s not going to be a complete solution to the problems we are facing but there is always a way to grow some sort of food , whether it be micros greens or window boxes full of salad and herb . It is naturalistic , achievable and can be approached stingily . Anything that people can grow for themselves increases their intellectual nourishment security and puts them back in a trivial second of ascendency . Additionally , it is a actual way to make life more sustainable which is another matter we are all see for at the moment . Really there is no way to lose when embracing nutrient develop , you just require to divulge the means that gibe in force with your life history , be realistic and find crop that work best for you .
To find out more about Lucy , visit@shegrowsveg on Instagram , or visitwww.cedarwoodhomestead.com
New year , new garden , young trend !
We ’re through the garden gate into 2023 , with a horde of horticulture trends blooming throughout the country . Fromhouse plantsreaching dizzying meridian of popularity , to the colour of the year ‘ Viva Magenta’,read on for our full list of trend .
To get up close and personal with saucy garden aspiration , unexampled plants , the previous horticulture outfit and more , join us in 2023 .
Colour of the Year 2023
Hand - piece by Pantone , the colour of the yr has been describe as ‘ Viva Magenta .
Pantone describe the colour as‘brave and fearless , and a throb colouring whose exuberance elevate a joyous and affirmative solemnisation , writing a raw story . ’
Discover a world of colour and scent in the stunningFloral Marquee , burst with prize - gain nurseries and show .
Sustainable gardening
Whilst your garden might seem to already be very green , it can always be greener !
Discover ways you could make gardening more sustainable , like upcycling common detail to make stylish feature . What was a pallet , hessian bag , piece of tube , and tin cans , could become a planter , grow bags , water features , and wildlife habitats .
Be inspired by the BBC Gardeners ’ World Magazine editorial team as they ’re link up by expert to give tips and advice .
Grow your own food
Looking to go from dirt to supper this yr ? Get splendid advice from the National Allotment Society at the event .
Peat-free gardening
get a line about the latest peat - free compost from exhibitors who can offer cheek - to - typeface advice .
Indoor gardening
leaf does n’t just belong out of doors – bring nature indoors and be inspired by the Houseplant Hub .
Mindful gardening
Beautiful Borders returns with this year ’s theme ‘ My Garden Escape ’ to give you space savvy mind .
Gardening on a budget
Discover different ways you’re able to let your garden bloom under a tighter budget , with advice from expert gardener .
Fermented foods
Visit the BBC Good Food Summer Show ( with gratuitous entry with your slate ! ) and discover the latest foodie trends .
Feeling inspired ? line up out what else is hap at BBC Gardeners ’ World Live this June !
