The good soil

It’s very early in England when Bridget Elworthy gets on the phone to talk to me about her cut-flower business, The Land Gardeners. As a Kiwi from South Canterbury, she’s aware that communicating with home involves early morning or late-night calls, so she’s relaxed.

So relaxed that she starts yawning … a lot. I begin to wonder if Bridget might have had a big night.

We’re talking about the stately home in Oxfordshire she and her husband, Forbes, bought 11 years ago. It’s called Wardington Manor and is everything most of us, at some stage (possibly post-Downton Abbey) have dreamt of owning. All those bedrooms, all that space and – realistically – all that upkeep.

The house began in the 15th century as a nunnery