Sunny ‘glass half full’ person
Penelope Walker is without a doubt a ‘glass half full’ person. Her sunny disposition instantly puts you at ease, and that’s despite us talking straight off the back of Walker relocating her All About Plants garden immediately after the RHS Chelsea Flower Show closed its doors this year.
Fortunately, she’s off to Dorset that weekend, with plans to visit The Newt in Somerset – so it’s not a complete break from horticulture. “If I were to retire tomorrow, I would still go to gardens and see plants.”
It’s quite a turnaround for someone who admits she didn’t come into garden design for a love of them. “I’m no Frances Tophill. My story doesn’t start with me as a three-year-old with an immaculate vegetable trug or winning awards at nine for my courgettes. I do love plants, but that’s not what led me into it.”
Walker’s first career was “really black and white”, working in finance in the city “with zero creativity”. “Where I grew up [in South London], lots of people just worked in the city, it was a natural place to be. I went in because I wanted to make money, but then realised that I didn’t want to sell out in that way. I needed something that feeds the soul, not just the bank balance.” And “there’s nothing that focuses your attention like a loss,” says Walker, whose father passed away when she was 29. It shifted her focus.
She’d recently acquired her own garden and around the same time too and, by chance, met a garden designer and visited RHS Chelsea for the first time. “It was a real lightbulb moment when I had my eyes opened to the whole industry. I was quite ignorant about it before and wasn’t really aware that it was a thing. So, I started looking into it and working out what skills I’d need and how that would fit, and I felt I had the skillset to become a designer. I’ve always had an interest in being creative and in architecture, I love being outdoors, and I love good design.” Read the full Article.
