Rachel De Thame, gardener and TV presenter, talks to House beautiful about swapping ballet shoes for gardening gloves, TV auditions in the rain and the power of pollinating plants.
I initially trained as a ballet dancer but then changed direction and worked as an actress for a while before turning to gardening in my mid-thirties. Looking back, I can say that my passion for plants came from my parents, who were both very keen gardeners, and as a young girl I loved spending time outdoors. Some of my fondest childhood memories include helping them in the garden and planting small alpine plants in Dad’s rock garden.
Having decided to retrain, I threw myself into studying. I attended the English Gardening School two days a week – those were the best two years – and supplemented this with extra lectures at RHS Garden Wisley, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Capel Manor College and Waterperry Gardens near Oxford. One of my tutors encouraged me to audition for a presenting role on BBC Two. Gardening World and since I already had some television experience, it felt like a natural progression.
My on-camera trials involved potting bulbs in the pouring rain and now, several years later, I’m used to working whatever the weather. The show is a big team effort and I really enjoy it. It can take a whole day to shoot just six minutes of film but then I get into a state where I’m really focused on it and it doesn’t feel like work.
It’s important to just let nature be. These days we are more aware of the environment and the creatures in it and I have a strong desire to take a more holistic approach to gardening. A few years ago I planted part of our old walled garden, which houses an organic kitchen, with pollinator-friendly plants. Some were already bee and butterfly magnets, but I also sowed hardy annuals and nailed bee hotels to the walls.
A few days later, on a sunny afternoon, the garden was bustling with life. That evening, I watched a hummingbird hawk-moth hover over a clump of catnip – the first I had seen in the garden. It was magical.
In addition to a monthly column for the RHS, I am particularly proud of my fourth book, A flower garden for pollinatorswhich includes beautiful botanical watercolors hand-painted by my eldest daughter Lauren Lusk, an illustrator. It was a great experience and fascinating to explore the life cycle of pollinators. As gardeners, we invade their habitats and private spaces. If we stopped fussing and spent more time observing, we would all feel more in tune with the natural rhythms of our gardens.
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Vikki is the senior news and features writer at House Beautiful UK. She writes about sustainability issues and enjoys interviewing garden and wildlife/eco experts for the magazine’s regular profile feature. Vikki has over twenty years’ experience in journalism and writes for various titles including Woman and Home, Good Homes, Ideal Home, The English Home as well as features for The Sunday Times Style magazine and The Telegraph newspaper. After a BA Honours degree in English and History at the University of Surrey, she gained a postgraduate degree in Magazine Journalism at the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Culture.
