Meeting Carol

Bloody hell - two months without a post on here? That's not good! Anyway, on Sunday Hubster and I decamped to Birmingham to visit BBC Gardeners World Live, a first for me (I've done Chelsea, Hampton Court and plenty of the smaller London-centric shows). It was nice to see the gardens, and do a little bit of shopping (I replaced my frazzled Doodia media and scored a Selaginella uncinata, which I've only ever seen at Kew Gardens). But the one aspect I was most looking forward to was Carol Klein's talk about container gardening at Glebe Cottage.

I wondered out loud on Twitter whether she might be able to sign a book, and the superb @BBC_GW_Live responded to say she would be doing a signing immediately after her talk. Brilliant! Grabbed my copy of "Grow Your Own Garden" and we hit the road.

Carol's talk was fantastic. Her enthusiasm is utterly infectious, and anyone who doesn't smile when she talks about her garden has a heart of stone. And I have to admit, as I was queuing up to have my book signed I got all nervous, worried that I would babble away like some kind of sycophant with verbal diarrhoea.

One day I will learn that when I'm just so damn excited I could burst I need to keep my shit-eating grin in check. I did start off saying how much she had inspired me to garden, even though my little patch is difficult, to say the least. And then I asked if she would like to see a photo, and whipped out my phone. I'm utterly proud and a little overwhelmed to say that she thought it was "lovely" and indeed "absolutely gorgeous". And that she took down my contact details to pass on to the GW production team.

 

I suppose it is looking rather nice in Jurassic Park. I told her what I was growing in there, and she seemed really pleased that it was just what she had been talking about. We had a little chat about teaching in West London - she taught art. She must have been a phenomenal teacher with that personality and enthusiasm. So I told her that I was so impressed with her "The Science of Gardening" show that I had ordered it from our college library and that I showed it to my students at the start of their unit on plant sciences because it was just so well explained, and it had been an amazing way to introduce the topic, with photosynthesis and seed storage and plant anatomy.

I feel like an utter fangirl, but it really was one of the defining moments of my gardening life. I'm sure all of you who know her well will find my excitement at having met her highly amusing, but I'm so thrilled, and even more delighted that she liked my garden. I told Hubster that was like him meeting Neil Gaiman or Terry Pratchett and having them say they were a fan of his writing. I know you lot all comment from time to time to say how awesome Jurassic Park is, but having heard Carol say it, I believe it just a little bit more.