I am not the world’s most serious hoarder and I don’t like clutter, so the house is not full of ‘stuff’. Living here for four years, when I first moved to Ireland, with all I could fit in a car, taught me that you don’t need lots of ‘stuff’. But I have retained lots of ‘mementos’ that I now need to discard. My clothes’ storage is full to bursting and I can’t get to anything. This is not because I am constantly buying clothes – quite the opposite – they are all clothes from thirty or forty years ago that I kept in the vain hope that I would get into them again. Well it is time for reality. I spent a wet day emptying out all drawers and keeping only what I can get into , plus a pile of what I sensibly might get into. The rest has gone to charity – I hope they get good money for my (once favourite) Paul Smith and Ben Sherman shirts.

I had a whole drawer of old shirts that sum up my life in ten logos.

Not a shirt but a jumper knitted to raise money for what is now ‘Plant Heritage’. I have a feeling it was knitted by Jean Sambrook (?) when I was Chairman of the London Group in the 80s.

Then came the flower shows where we sold copies of Garden News, and others, and answered questions. It went on for decades! This was Harrogate Show in the Valley Gardens and I remember it so well because we were shouting ‘Free seeds’ and someone came up and asked for Madonna – thinking we were shouting ‘free CDs’

It was in the days when Garden News was published by EMAP and we had a good marketing department. We sold as many copies at shows as possible to increase the ABC.

We had regular teams and although hard work it was great fun.

And we had various sponsors over the years .

And when I worked for Garden Answers we could combine the two.

Then the Q&A sessions became The Garden Roadshow when the magazines lost interest.

And we remained a popular component of shows for many years. And even had guest stars.

I have kept a few shirts and they are hardly what would sell in a charity shop. But the rest will become dusters.

My drawers are a bit emptier now.

garden news, garden news roadshow, harrogate flower show