Garden heroines

Gardening especially vegetable growing can often seem to be a male dominated world, images of old men in waistcoats, smoking pipes up the allotment, discussing spuds and tomato plants is often how a lot of first time female gardeners can perceive it to be.
Gardening legends such as Percy Thrower, Geoff Hamilton and the housewives favourite Alan Titchmarsh are all amazing champions of the green thumb but there are some wonderful garden ladies out there.

last night I was watching the coverage of Chelsea and saw the lovely Christine Walkden, I absolutely love her. She's such a no-nonsense plants women, she has an amazingly infectious passion for plants. A few years back now she had a TV show called Christine'garden and it was so lovely and refreshing, her garden is just stacked with plants, she doesn't appear to be interested in design or planting combinations so much, as just planting her garden full of everything she loves. It made me laugh how during the winter months she turns her dining room table over to all her tender plants, to keep them protected from the cold. I just love her enthusiasm, I find it so inspiring.

Another favourite of mine is Rachel de Thame, totally chalk and cheese with Christine. I love her for different reasons entirely, She's such a glamour-puss and I love that about her. She got quite a bit of stick when she presented Gardeners world, for being seen to be too pretty, and wearing gloves and not getting her hands dirty. But she has a real passion for beautiful plants and made a stunning garden last year at Chelsea.

Carol klein, (I really think she was robbed, she should have been the main presenter of Gardeners world) is an another wonderfully enthusiastic plants women, I adore her love of growing and nurturing plants. I really need to take a trip down to her nursery Glebe Cottage, I think she has a few open days left with the NGS. (I also love Carol because she looks a bit like my mum)

Another Gardeners world presenter again. Alys Fowler. I think Alys is great because she's young (and she has a love of vintage clothes like me). I think she's really accessible for younger women (and girls) to relate to, and that's important to make gardening a cool hobby to get into and not just something older folks with time and money can do. Gardening can be seen as a old fashioned dull pastime, but its not and I really feel Alys is promoting that.

Finally Gertrude Jekyll, who for me is one of the most important women to ever pick up a trowel. Without her influence and use of colour and texture maybe todays gardens wouldn't be as beautiful.

Just don't mention that charlie dimmock.