She has a sprawling backyard in her £1.3 million Essex home, complete with a hydro pool, fire pit and even life-size wooden elephants, and TOWIE' Gemma Collins says her green space is her haven.
‘Everyone knows I’ve got an award-winning garden,’ she laughs when we catch up at RHS Chelsea Flower Show. ‘It’s incredible and I try to spend as much time there as possible.’
But the GC is not afraid of hard work when it comes to the gardening, and she says she rolls up her sleeves and puts in the graft like the rest of us.
‘My gardening tip would be to pick a day of the week where you can get fully into a day of gardening – mine is a Tuesday. And I say don’t wear gloves – I like to get my hands in the soil of the garden and feel all the dirt – that’s real life!’ she says. ‘It’s liberating to wash the soil out of your fingernails after a long day in the garden. I also like experimenting with having a wild garden for the butterflies and the bees. Then you get to see it all grow up without it being too ordered.’
Gemma shares tours of her garden on her social media, showing off her array of flowers – including her beloved David Austin roses which are planted throughout.
‘I also love peonies and I try to have as many of them as possible in my garden,’ she explains. ‘If I were a flower, I’d be a pink Cosmos in full bloom!’ Gemma also grows her own vegetables, and is soon to produce her own eggs too!
She says, ‘I love growing my own vegetables, I’ve got potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers and spring onions. They are delicious straight from the garden! Animals are great too – I’ve got chickens and goats on order!’
