Daphne Ledward describes herself as a native ‘Yellow Belly’ (a born and bred Lincolnshire person), although she was actually born in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Her mother was of Lincolnshire/Yorkshire stock, and her father Liverpudlian; they met while working at the BBC, so Daphne considers that institution has much to answer for

Daphne moved with her parents to Essex when she was three years old, which was then her interest in gardening started, when her father arrived home one day with an assortment of flower and vegetable seeds and involved her in the preparation and planting of a small bed. Neither parent had much knowledge of gardening, and were unaware that the cold Essex clay they were working was one of the most difficult soils to cultivate, but there was a 100 per cent success rate, and Daphne still cannot resist growing things like radishes, beetroot, marigolds and zinnias, which gave her so much delight as she watched them daily to emerge from the earth.

A young Daphne

Her mother and father separated while the family was living in Chelmsford, her mother returning to her beloved Stamford area, where Daphne took on the role of ‘housekeeper’ and ‘gardener’ when she reached her teens, while her mother took full-time employment to support them both.

Daphne’s interest in all things horticultural continued throughout her schooldays, although during her secondary school years at Stamford High School, an academy placing much emphasis on professional qualifications, it did not occur to her to make a career out of horticulture in any form. Her primary intention was to qualify as a veterinary surgeon, but she received little encouragement from the universities to which she applied; one even told her categorically that they would always give preference to male applicants as women were likely to waste their training in leaving the work to run a home and family – but that was in the Sixties, when it was acceptable to make such statements openly.

Disappointed at the School’s inabilities to treat Sixth Form pupils as young adults, Daphne decided to leave at the end of the Lower Sixth Year and train as a quantity Surveyor, an idea she got from a boy friend of that time. She obtained a position in a local office, studying by correspondence with the College of Estate Management by night and undertaking general office duties during the working day. This also was less than successful, as she was treated as a general office worker and was not encouraged to become involved with the specialist side of the business, so found studying alone without experience and with virtually no knowledge of the building trade extremely difficult. She was also uneasy with the Sixties style of architecture and attitude towards environmental issues, and decided to make a break when the time was right.

A spell in hospital at the age of nineteen convinced Daphne that she wanted a more social career, and she applied for a post of Welfare Assistant with Kesteven County Council (now an administrative district of Lincolnshire County Council).

After six months and the untimely death of her senior officer, she successfully applied for the post of District Welfare Officer for South Kesteven. She thoroughly enjoyed the contact with the residents of the Stamford and Bourne areas and the surrounding countryside, but in 1971, after six happy years in the work, there was a national, complete reorganisation of the Social Services system, and Daphne found herself undertaking work she was not experienced to do nor interested in, and downgraded to part of a large team under strict supervision. It was at this time that Daphne started a parallel career writing short stories, mainly for women’s and teenage magazines; this was her first attempt at being published, which gave her great satisfaction.

In 1972, having met a local nurseryman who rekindled her interest in horticulture, and after a gardening correspondence course and several holidays working on local nurseries, she decided to take the plunge and leave social work forever to start up her own business in landscape gardening.

Her original intention was to design gardens for the clients themselves to construct and plant, but she found that most customers wanted the whole job done, from start to finish, so Daphne of necessity became proficient in demolition, paving, turfing, rotavating, concreting and all the peripherals that are involved in landscape gardening and maintenance.

In 1973 she was recommended for a landscaping job with Brian Ellis Mailing Services in Bedford, a direct mail company, where she developed an interest in marketing, and in 1974 established a small direct mail plant business, with the nurseryman who first kindled her idea of entering gardening professionally supplying the plants and BEMS undertaking the mail shots.

This did not make the profit Daphne and her associates had hoped for, and Daphne decided to concentrate on her landscaping and let the mail order business lapse. During this time she met her first husband, Tony, a chartered electrical engineer based in Kenya, through his brother, one of her customers.

They married in 1976, and Tony joined her in the business, but this did not work well, and Tony returned to Africa to his former profession. They were divorced in 1982, although they remained friends until his death in 2002.

In 1980 Daphne joined the newly opened BBC Radio Lincolnshire as gardening presenter. This launched her radio and television career, and in 1982 she became the first woman panel member of BBC Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time and BBC 1’s Gardeners’ Direct Line. This led to many other regular television and radio appearances, including Classic Gardening Forum and the Jimmy Young Show, and in 2001 she presented her own television series, Garden Hopping, which is regularly shown still on BBC 2, UKTV and is now being screened in America. Television and radio has made her much in demand as a magazine writer and author of books on gardening, and she is at present working on her autobiography.

Daphne met her husband, John Hands, in 1982, who was at the time working for BBC Midlands, while working on the programme Gardeners’ Question Time, for which he was one of the sound engineers. They got together in 1986 and were married in Jersey in 1992. John now runs a photographic plant library and helps Daphne with the practical side of her business.

Daphne’s lifetime passion for gardening has not diminished since making her hobby her career, and derives much pleasure from her cottage garden and her 5.3 acre field three miles away, where she has an orchard, greenhouses, experimental vegetable garden, and is establishing a 4 acre native wood, small wildflower field and arboretum. Her advice is always ‘hands on’, believing that one cannot be a gardening icon without up to the minute experience, and she intensely dislikes the modern ‘makeover’ gardening culture, where any garden can supposedly be completed in two days. “The best gardens take a lifetime to mature,” she says, “although there is no reason not to have something of interest in months rather than years.”

When not working on her latest book, garden design still occupies most of her time. Contact her for further details, including her Postal Planning Service.

Her work with various local charities raises a great deal of money for various good causes; at present she is involved with the Lincolnshire Greyhound Trust and the Fen Bank Greyhound Sanctuary near Boston. Her love of greyhounds began nine years ago when her husband found a stray dog on their friends’ farm near Lincoln which they adopted. Carlton, as he was named after the place where he was found, was joined by Sally in 2003, but he sadly died suddenly in June 2005. Within two days two-year old Paddy had arrived to cheer up his distraught pal, and last December eight-month old Muffin, a pup full of character with a deformed back foot that made him unsuitable for racing, made the canine family complete. Her four cats prove that greyhounds and cats can live together harmoniously.

Daphne will be opening her garden later in June 2006 to raise money to help retired and unwanted racing greyhounds to find loving homes.

Obviously, time does not allow for many hobbies, but Daphne and John enjoy sailing, and are constantly at work on their 18th century Lincolnshire thatched cottage – Daphne usually the ‘brains’, and the inventive John, the ‘brawn’ (“he’s much better at DIY than I am!”). Because of the dogs, they usually travel the country by caravan, and the few holidays that time will allow are also spent in the UK. ‘When I’ve seen all the beautiful places in Britain and become tired of revisiting them,” states Daphne, “only then will I look abroad for my holidays.”