Working with nature, not against it

“I’ve always loved being a professional gardener, but I discovered my passion for permaculture – aka working with nature, not against it – after I got fed up with mowing my three-acre plot in Surrey. Come June and July, the thistles and the dock were all taller than me.

“I thought, ‘What am I going to do here?’ And then I stopped and noticed that the land was not overgrown, but alive with nature. I saw 20 Goldfinches doing loop-the-loops and landing in the meadow. I listened to the deafening birdsong. There were dragonflies and butterflies flying around and nettles filled with Peacock Butterfly caterpillars. This is when I realised that working with the nature on your land can bring so many benefits.

“I started to feel conflicted between my own passion for regenerative permaculture and my day job keeping my clients’ gardens immaculate. So, three years ago, I bought a 10-acre croft in North Uist in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. My vision for the croft is to have a beautiful, permaculture-inspired patch with rotational agriculture, greens and vegetables and a nice greenhouse underground, all done in a way that works with nature.

“The environment here is rough and ready. When it’s lovely, it’s lovely, but a lot of the time the wind is harsh. If I grow trees, though, I can have the garden I want, and they’ll be great homes for migrating birds.

“Seeing a person of colour like myself being outside in nature, talking about plants and looking at the bees, is refreshing. I feel like I can inspire not just people of colour, but people all around the world to do the things that I’m doing. If I had nature during my childhood in London, it could have gotten me out of my darker times.

“I have a son named Cedar. He’s my right-hand man, and it’s important to me that he’s well-rooted in nature. My dream is for Cedar to carry on this lovely croft. Hopefully he’ll pass it down to his kids and grandkids and keep up the tradition.”