Helen Yemm - A Biography


Helen is primarily a muddy-gloves-and-wellies gardener, probably best known for her weekly Telegraph Gardening ‘Thorny Problems’ column. Taking up gardening in her 30’s, she is proudly self-taught, although she acknowledges a great debt to her academic botanist parents, themselves excellent and knowledgeable gardeners.

Before long she started passing on what she had learnt to others, teaching basic gardening to an assortment of hesitant beginners for years, in the first instance for the then Wandsworth Adult Education Institute (from which she was seconded to the local council to lead teams of unemployed volunteer gardeners in the borough). Subsequently she went on to teach from her own home and garden, her down-to-earth courses attracting a huge following and long waiting lists.

Opening her London garden for the National Gardens Scheme in the early 1990’s led to a flurry of media interest – resulting before long in her presenting BBC2’s much-repeated series, 'Gardening from Scratch'. A ‘troubleshooting’ slot in a daytime gardening programme with Peter Seabrook followed, also for the BBC. She subsequently moved out of London and became absorbed in taming her 2 acre garden in East Sussex. 

A book, 'Gardening in Your Nightie' followed, and Helen could briefly be heard on Radio Kent’s Sunday morning gardening programme. Helen’s writing commitments grew: in addition to her weekly Telegraph column and occasional book reviews and articles for the RHS Garden Magazine, Helen now writes a monthly – extremely candid - product-testing feature in the English Garden Magazine. In 2007 she was a judge for the Garden Media Guild awards.

Three years ago Helen gave up her much loved but labour-intensive acreage (also open under the National Gardens Scheme and featured in several magazines), to replant and reshape a challenging smaller village garden and a nearby allotment - with the ultimate intention of mowing and weeding as little as possible. 

She posts occasional pictures and news of her progress on her blog: www.helenyemm.com. Helen particularly enjoys ‘infecting’ others with the gardening bug - advising and encouraging gardeners one-to-one on their home ground and enjoying watching the inevitable improvements unfold as their confidence grows. As far as communicating her passion to others is concerned, de-bunking and de-mystifying are her speciality - no question is too daft and (fingers crossed) no problem insurmountable.