CULTURE CLUB
CELEBRATE THE JOYS OF SPRING WITH JOE SWIFT ON 22 APRIL AT THE CAMBRIDGE UNION
“Normally, in spring and summer, I’m zooming around the country doing shows. Suddenly, we weren’t allowed to go anywhere at all,” Joe says. “I’ve got a very small outside space in London, and it changed the way I garden at home. It was very different. I’ve been doing Chelsea Flower Show for 22 years, and it was quite nice having a little break from that, but the phone didn’t stop ringing, because everyone else was getting into gardening!” Joe brings 40 years of horticultural knowledge to bear on these five slim books, which pack in all the essentials for cultivating small, indoor, edible, nature or modern gardens – with tailored tips for each. “The idea was to try to blend inspiration with a practical approach,” he explains. “There’s a mystique to it – all the Latin names and complexities – but the thing to do is just start, see where you end up on the journey and learn with time, as all gardeners do.” Although a seriously seasoned horticulturalist, Joe insists there is always more to take in. During his research, he painstakingly explored the right conditions for the propagation of indoor plants, feeds for specific birds and how to encourage bees and biodiversity. These gardening guides approach the subject from all angles, from the view of your garden through the kitchen window, to creating hedgehog holes in fences. SERIES Joe Swift has penned an impressive collection of gardening literature, teaching you how to cultivate a vegetable patch (top) or make the most of limited space (right) – something he had to deal with over lockdown
With such a treasure trove of knowledge, Joe had to cut down to the quick of what’s relevant. He did this by putting himself in new gardeners’ shoes: something, having helped with designing thousands of spaces, he is no stranger to. Though each guide handles one garden type, breaking advice down into accessible, bite-sized chunks, they all intertwine. “The lovely thing is that you can go in so many different directions,” Joe says. “It’s not one or the other. These themes and narratives layer up nicely in any outdoor space.” As a weekly columnist for The Times and Radio Times , Joe’s writing is part and parcel of his life. This time, however, he had to be cut-throat, excising any flowery language. “I used to struggle with writing. But being on TV, and having a voice people recognise with your personality, now means I can use that voice as if I’m talking,” says Joe.
It seemed the pastime was blooming like never before, as seeds and kit were quickly snapped up by novices in the first lockdown – but Joe believes gardening has merely been reinvigorated. “One of the things I’ve loved about gardening is that it has always crossed every barrier: age, gender, background, race. But I’m not sure it’s always been reflected in that way. There’s not so much a new market, people are just really appreciating it again.” Joe’s outlook has changed, however: “I think we’re more relaxed about the way we want gardens to look and function, which is much better for wildlife. We’re not worried about decaying plants. In fact, we embrace the beauty of them. We don’t tidy up the minute a leaf falls.”
CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK APR I L 2022 35
Powered by FlippingBook