Zoe Ball isn’t only one of the UK’s best-loved broadcasters; she’s also a passionate gardener, co-hosting the Dig It podcast with fellow presenter Jo Whiley, where the duo discuss family life and gardening triumphs with expert guests – and also reveal any fails. In a recent episode, Zoe confessed that getting ‘over-excited’ meant she made a pruning error, cutting back salvias in her garden while the weather was still chilly before the sunshine of the last few days.
‘I got carried away!’ she said, putting her head in her hands,‘in a moment where there was blue sky. I got over-excited seeing the new growth underneath the salvias.’ Their expert guest Jonny Hincks aka @gardenwithjonny on Instagram advised: ‘If you are unsure, wait until the weather improves just a little bit.’
BBC / Joseph Sinclair
Zoe, 55, also told listeners before about her love of gardening, and how it helps in moments of overwhelm. ‘We cannot over-estimate the power of gardening and how good it is for you,’ she says. ‘What I love about it the most is it doesn’t matter if I’m out there for two, three minutes, half an hour. The world is quite overwhelming at the moment, and when the kids drive me mad or anything like that I just get out there – whether that’s to tidy up, sweep up, or just sit on a bench with a cup of coffee and watch the birds and all the insects.’
She praised gardening’s ‘calming effect’, and added: ‘It’s amazing that they’ve actually found putting your hands (not necessarily in gloves) into soil is so good for you. That has a chemical reaction on your body. It’s incredible, isn’t it? And that’s what I love about gardening, I think, the most.’
The presenter often shares pictures of her Sussex garden and her favourite plants on Instagram, as well as giving plenty of tips, revealing recently that she ‘weeded and mulched all day’.
She recommends @henryagg’s book The Weekend Gardener for anyone short on time who wants to create a beautiful garden: ‘His book is all you need to start your garden transformation. Henry is so knowledgeable and thinks outside the box – pure garden magic!’
Much of Zoe’s garden features in the book, including a step by step guide to building a garden. So what do Henry and Zoe recommend?
‘Time management matters!’, says Henry in an interview with the Telegraph. ‘You can create something lovely without dedicating five days a week to doing it. You can just do a few hours at the weekend if you manage your time effectively.’
Try shorter time slots: ‘When it comes to planting and maintaining your garden, breaking time down into small slots can work better than prolonged periods of activity,’ he said. Henry recommends 20-minute slots for intense sessions to get lots of gardening done; and one hour ‘power hour’ slots for longer jobs like planting a tree, or putting in perennials and bulbs.
Enjoy it! Take the time to enjoy your garden, he recommends, rather than see it as a list of jobs. ‘One day I’ll go out there to do a job, and the next time I’ll sit with a cup of tea and admire the work I’ve done. It’s important to find that balance.’
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