About

I am a retired nurserywoman – running my small nursery from the edge of our beautiful garden at Orchards, Rowfant, Sussex. I did this successfully for eleven years, until circumstances dictated that we were to leave our lovely home and garden – richly depicted in my first book ‘The Haphazard Gardener’ published with FeedARead in 2012. The first part of  ‘The Haphazard Gardener’ is a brief biography of my parents Arthur and Gay Hellyer, who having purchased the land in 1934, went on to run the 8+ acres as a market garden, whilst transforming the former scrubland into an enchanting woodland garden. The second part is about my husband Philip and my transformation of this now neglected plot to one worthy of the National Gardens Scheme and entries for several years in the Good Gardens Guide.

Since retiring in 2004, I expanded my journal entries to poetry and prose. We moved to Italy in 2005 where we remained for almost a decade, making another garden, in quite inhospitable conditions, with many plants that we had brought from Orchards.

I have had two articles published in The Hardy Plant Journal, one reminiscent of Orchards, the other about gardening in northern Italy.

My first novel Alice was published in October 2012 as an ebook.

My first poetry book ‘Where My Heart Is’, is a collection of poems written over the last two decades. It includes memories and observations and shows the path my life has taken. Available soon on Amazon and via FeedARead.