2025-04-13 – Health – www.theguardian.com
In her verdant garden in Devon, the model turned gardener talks about decay, family roots and living a wilder life
It is not by design that I have come to meet the Devon-based ecological gardener Poppy Okotcha on the spring equinox, when day and night are equally balanced. It feels fitting. In her new book, A Wilder Way: How Gardens Grow Us, Okotcha describes how it is now that she rids her garden of last year’s old branches to make way for new growth. “Clearing the lot is a springtime ritual,” she writes, “it feels like shaking off a heavy winter coat.” Okotcha sees the garden as “a kind of guru”, and one of its lessons has been the importance of things breaking down. “A really valuable takeaway from engaging with living landscapes is the idea that decay – or an ending – is required for newness,” she tells me. “I like to think of endings as beginnings.” While the idea of a horticultural life cycle isn’t new, Okotcha’s equal appreciation for every stage…