At the beginning of last year, I started working as a volunteer gardener at Great Dixter, and it’s no exaggeration to say that the experience has changed my life. I have loved this garden for as long as I can remember, drawn by its unique combination of high horticulture and beautiful Arts and Crafts structure. I’ve got a shelf full of books by Christopher Lloyd and I was part way through my second year of practical gardening courses at Dixter when the pandemic brought life to a screeching halt. Stuck at home, I wrote to ask if I could volunteer in the gardens and, a mere year later, I was offered a place.
I felt like I had won the lottery – a lottery in which the prize involved setting my alarm for 5.30am on a freezing February morning. Stumbling around in the dark, I pulled
