I run Damson Farm, a 2 acre regenerative smallholding in Somerset, experimenting with plants and learning how to live in balance with nature.
I grew up in Shropshire, climbing trees, cycling through country lanes and nibbling raw runner beans crisp from the vegetable patch. I remember my parents spending whole afternoons preparing windfall apples to stew and freeze for the winter, always a bowl by the sink for compost scraps. They had a natural, post-war respect for preserving resources which I only began to appreciate much later in life.
By my mid twenties, hungry for the city lights, I had a career in the London art world and was studying part time for an MA in Art History at Goldsmiths College. It wasn’t long though before it dawned on me that I’d rather be outside, doing something that felt more tangible, more real and, well, useful. I took on an allotment in Herne Hill with views that swept across from Crystal Palace to the Dome and swapped weekends of writing essays on postmodern theory for digging in manure and poring over seed catalogues. I loved that allotment, it gave me space to breathe in the city and through many years of moving between rooms in shared houses, a piece of earth which grounded me and felt like my own.
I gave up working in galleries, took an RHS Horticulture certificate and a diploma in Garden Design with the English Gardening School and set up a design practice in London before moving to Somerset in 2002.
Having specialised in designing gardens with richly layered planting my focus has shifted again, prompted by a sense of how broken our relationship with the natural world has become and a pull towards edible gardens. I’ve completed a permaculture design course and am experimenting with how to manage a smallholding with a regenerative approach, which provides food for my friends and family and looks beautiful too. It’s an ongoing learning process which I share through running and hosting workshops.
Do come and join us on the journey, I’d love to welcome you here!
Alison