Val Bourne: ‘I Started Writing To Botanic Gardens For Seeds I Couldn’t Find Anywhere Else’
Contributions From VAL BOURNE
Val Bourne is a GMG award-winning gardener, lecturer and author who is known for her organic gardening style - with experience dating back over 60 years. She has an allotment and has published several books on natural gardening, including 'The Ten-Minute Gardener' and 'Colour In The Garden'.
Val Bourne is an award-winning gardener and writer who has been growing organically and without chemicals for over 60 years.
She has written several books on the subject and has built up her reputation as ‘The Natural Gardener’.
I got the opportunity to chat with Val about her career and why she is so adamant that we don’t need to use chemicals in our outdoor spaces.
Please note that the imagery featured in this article is provided courtesy of Val Bourne.
How Did You First Get Into Gardening?
“I was a very noisy child who was full of energy and I had a twin brother who was the polar opposite,” shares Val. “Because of this, my Grandmother, who was a keen gardener, used to take me to the garden on sunny days.
“She used to tell me stories about plants. For example, she told me how Aquilegia was named after an eagle and that Alchemilla was a magical plant that people used to use in experiments. She made plants seem really interesting.
“I also got lots of hands-on experience from her. I used to have to collect the cabbage white caterpillars off of the brassicas.
“I was meant to drop them into salted water, but I used to walk them up the back alley and put them down by other people’s gardens, which probably wasn’t very nice of me!
“I was just born a gardener.”
What Led You To A Career In Horticulture?
“I always grew plants,” states Val. “By the time I was about 7 or 8, I was doing the garden at home and became completely immersed in it.
“I used to look in plant catalogues and try to find particular plants in there that I then wanted to grow. I’d thrift through the seeds at Woolworths for ages!
“I started writing to the Botanic Gardens and asked them for seeds that I couldn’t find anywhere else.
“Eventually, I ended up in vegetable research – I kind of just fell into the career. I’ve always been organic and never used any chemicals because my grandmother never did. That’s just the way I started.
So Your Whole Brand Has Been About That?
“Exactly. Not only did I grow up as an organic gardener, but I also grew up as someone who was determined to stick to what I believed in.
“I remember reading things in magazines that were just so wrong. They were clearly written by people who had no experience in a garden. I had all this gardening knowledge and I thought, I’ll just have a go at writing some articles and that was how I started.
“I didn’t realise that I was completely different to almost everybody else because most people were obsessed with using chemicals and I never used them. I did a radio programme and I didn’t last very long on it, as nobody was interested in organic answers.
“That’s when I decided that I was really going to go further with this. I was going to write about organic growing and the environment and not recommend fungicides just because the papers wanted me to.
“I was 45 when I started garden writing and didn’t really care about pleasing people. If it worked, it worked, and if it didn’t, I would find something else.
“Luckily, I didn’t have to.”
What Does Gardening Mean To You?
“Gardening is about being out in the fresh air – it’s a very nurturing thing,” shares Val. “You learn to be quite philosophical because things don’t always work out.
“It makes you more accepting of the natural world. You don’t have this idea that everything is going to be perfect and work out because you know you’re in the hands of the elements.
“Being a gardener means you learn to adapt and understand that each year is different from the other.
“I get such great pride from sowing a seed and watching it flower, especially because this doesn’t happen every year with some plants for me.
“Like other people go to the cinema or to the pub, I garden. It’s everything to me.”
Do You Have Any Career Highlights That You’d Like To Share?
“Winning awards is such a nice feeling,” she says. “It was lovely to win GMG Journalist of the Year in lockdown. I didn’t expect to win it at all.
“I really work hard, so being recognised was a real honour. I write from first-hand experience and I’m a hands-on writer, so it was nice to be awarded for that.
“I used to get so much stick for being organic so it was enormously important for me to have people say that they liked what I was doing.”
Have You Got Anything Exciting Coming Up?
“I’ve got two new books in the pipeline, which I’m hoping will come off successfully,” says Val. “I can’t say what they are though, but they both have some organic elements to them.
“I’m also helping Arne Maynard with a natural garden near Henley which I’m excited about.
“I’m extremely lucky. I’m in my 70s and still have loads of things to say and do!”
Do You Have Any Final Words Of Wisdom For Our Readers?
“I have gardened without using any chemicals at all since I was 5 and I’ve probably had fewer problems in my garden than most people because I’ve built up food webs in my space.
“It didn’t seem that important in 1995 when I started writing, but now wildlife is in a really bad state. Insects and birds are in decline1The Bugs Matter Citizen Science Survey. (n.d.). Bugs Life: Kent Wildlife Trust. Retrieved June 28, 2023, from https://cdn.buglife.org.uk/2022/05/Bugs-Matter-2021-National-Report.pdf, so it’s really important for gardeners to garden in an organic way.
“Don’t turn to chemicals – ever! They’ve done so much damage in the past. Our gardens are ecosystems and can be managed by sitting back and allowing wildlife to do its thing.
“Just watch your garden and enjoy it.”
