BEHIND THE URBAN WILDLING

Fifteen years ago I took some time out from my corporate job and did a permaculture course, got back into acting and singing and decided I didn't ever want to ''work'' five days a week again.

Ten years ago I moved to Sussex, finally pregnant with a much anticipated baby daughter (after two devastating miscarriages and fears I would never become a mother) and inherited a bog standard lawn and flowerbeds in a suburban estate by the sea with primarily spring flowering non-native shrubs and bulbs.

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Over the past ten years the garden has been my playground for experimenting with different habitats, rewilding with more native species, adding fruit tress, wood stores, a wildlife pond and a herb garden that I use for making delicious lotions, potions, teas, infusions and salves.

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The newts, frogs, fish, foxes, squirrels, a badger, hedgehogs and more than 20 species of birds seem very happy with my work. My neighbours have taken more convincing that suburban garden with piles of logs for hugelculture and a lawn full of clovers and dandelions is such a good thing.