What first got you interested in growing your own food?
I first got into GYO when I was 10 years old (I’m now 37). It just seemed like a natural curiosity at the time although I would hide this from my schoolmates.We had a patch of garden at the very top of my mum’s house that I transformed from brambles to a vegetable patch. My grandfather and other family members got wind of this and offered help. My grandfather has always grown food in his garden which I always saw growing up and he would often encourage me and this included a Christmas present of manure one year (lucky me). What I did not know, until a couple of years ago when my grandfather passed away, was that he grew up on a plant nursery and at the outbreak of the SecondWorldWar, his headmaster got him to teach his classmates to grow food too. I have since inherited his greenhouse, which has a very special feeling when I’m working in there.