Step by step for Charlie Dimmock (From Hampshire Society)

Step by step for Charlie Dimmock

3:09pm Monday 6th July 2009

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How did your passion for gardening begin? Just by being out and about at home, really. I used to go out in the garden with my grandad and avoid my grandmother who would be calling me in to clean the house or something.

What are your memories of growing up in Hampshire? I was very much a tomboy.

I used to go out on bike rides and was always climbing trees and messing about outdoors.

You’ve spent a lot of time looking after other people’s gardens. Do you get time to tend to your own? I’m a bit sunburnt at the moment from being out in the garden. I put Factor 30 on and a hat and I’ve still got a pink face! Usually I get time in the winter but then, come the summer, when I have more jobs on I end up neglecting the garden. But this year I’ve got a bit more time to look after it.

What’s your garden like? It’s got a big vegetable patch and some fruit trees. There’s a pond and a few containers although not too many as you have to be around to water them. I have things that can look after themselves. I’ve also got a wildlife area with some hardy annuals that the bees like.

How did you get into TV presenting?

It was just something that happened. I was working in a garden centre in Romsey and then I was asked to do Grass Roots, a series on Meridian. I didn’t have ambitions to be in tv, I wanted to become the manager of the garden centre. I got a phone call four years later asking me if I wanted to do Ground Force. The first series we did, nobody knew who we were, but with the second series and moving to BBC1 people started to recognise us. It’s been wonderful and I’ve had the chance to do things and go to places I would never have been able to otherwise.

What was it like to transform Nelson Mandela’s garden? It was incredible. I don’t think we’d realised it would really be his back garden. We thought it would be a big public garden where he sometimes went. He was pretty lovely. He definitely has some sort of aura about him.

You were at WestQuay’s Pamper the Planet event recently. How passionate are you about environmental issues? I think everyone should be doing something. If all of us make a slight change it’s going to make a big difference. I’m not saying that by growing your own vegetables it’s going to be like The Good Life, but there is something physically satisfying about it. And if you have a compost heap, all that waste isn’t going in the bin and onto landfill where it creates methane.

Any top gardening tips for us? Firstly to get out there and give it a go and secondly not to do too much at once. Pace yourself.

If you’re going to grow vegetables just grow a few to start with. Do it step by step.

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