You can find more information, photos and advice sheets on all the plants and recipes that we talk about in this podcast by heading to the links in the show notes or on our website at sarahavin.com.

Welcome to episode three of our mini series with me, Sarah Raven and Arthur Parkinson.

And we really thought this one we would concentrate on starting out as a gardener.

And to do that, I think you really want to work out, what sort of garden do you want? Who are you?

What are your priorities, I suppose? And certainly for me, when I started out, I was pretty clear. I was colour obsessed.

I absolutely love produce. I from when I was a child, I loved harvesting things. But I was busy. And when I

started gardening, I was actually medical doctor working at Charing Cross Hospital. So it couldn't

take over my life. So it had to be relatively, not low maintenance. I'm not saying sort of box

and you shapes and everything, but I couldn't be out

there all day, every day at all. And so colour, production and easy were my priorities. And I think

it's good for you to work out what yours are. But Arthur, what would you say yours were?

Similar to you, colour especially and also wildlife. It's always been a

priority for me. But not wildlife as in, there's nettles everywhere, although nettles are very good.

I wanted to look for flowers which had open centres full of nectar. And, you know, I think increasingly

like you were when you were working in a hospital, I haven't got time anymore to be out there, you know, I think increasingly like you were when you work in hospital, I haven't got time anymore to be out there, you know, seven hours a day. So I love perennials much more. I also love the structure that shrubs give and hedges give increasingly. And I think, you know, a hedge can be so full of life and is a permanent planting and also a windbreak too

for a garden. So I think looking at your boundaries are important too.

Yeah, yeah, very much so. So I think that's the first thing to work out.

The second thing, I guess, in a way sort of condensing that down even more on a piece of paper,

well, that's how we work, because we like pens and papers

and crayons and colour. Could be on your computer. What's your favourite flowers? Perhaps if you want

to do some veg, what are your favourite things to eat that you can grow and make a list? And then

that should form the backbone kind of where you're going but of course when I did

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