Welcome Cressida

The fabulous Cressida joined us in the gardens this week 

as our new Community Gardener. She has already been hard at work

with our lovely volunteers - time for winter clear up in the garden!

a little bit about Cressida from Cressida......

I think I must have been a cat in a past life, as there is nothing I like more than being right in the middle of a flower patch. When I was a kid the garden was my domain, with the lawn covered in a complicated circuit of adventure (a climbing frame that I tied to a slide, that went into a paddling pool, with a see-saw waiting on the other end so you could spin dry after the workout) and that excitement of gardens has stayed with me ever since. My first gardening job was at Brighton Marina where I really got to grips with hanging baskets (all 300 of them), then worked in a graveyard where I toiled hours away delicately strimming the grass away from headstones. More than anything I loved the fresh air, whether it was boiling hot or pelting with rain, but I did miss working with people so I decided to work as a community gardener. I’ve spent the past five years doing so at Mudchute Farm and hopefully taught a few folk to do the basics like pruning (all together now, remove the dead, damaged and diseased). I’ve also been trained in ‘risky play’ and can legitimately teach kids how to use knives for whittling, and make fires for food. I’m delighted to be amongst a new landscape and look forward to exploring all the corners of Deen City Farm, and get to know all the staff and volunteers who really are the backbone of the place.

Favourite Colour - Red

Favourite Garden – Carrie Hepple’s Garden (fictional) and King Henry’s Walk Garden Islington (real)

Favourite Vegetable – Corn on the cob

Favourite Musician – Neutral Milk Hotel

Favourite Plant – Erigeron karkinskianus

Favourite Bird – Big Bird…oh no hang on that’s fictional again  so I’ll say House sparrow