v: Our Editor in the Field
Kyra Pollitt meets Hamish Martin Kyra Pollitt I am sitting in the glasshouse of The Secret Herb Garden opposite its founder, Hamish Martin. “I don’t know if that’s your bird?”, he asks, nodding upwards, and I feel some shame that an unspoken sorrow I have been carrying has chosen to manifest at our meeting. “Mine is usually the robin,” he adds. This makes sense. Robins are messengers for the lost, bringing happiness, good fortune, and rebirth. As ‘my’ magpie caws from the eaves, Hamish is prompted to narrate his own journey from a place of sorrow to the creation of this green oasis on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Sure enough, as he finishes his tale, a robin begins to sing. But let’s not rush the story. Instead, let’s follow the fluid curves of both his garden and his yarn, and circle back to the round table at which we begin, surrounded by Jasmine, Myrtle, Victorian Christmas trees, award-winning French Lilac, Lemon Verbena, Rosemary, Olive, and so much more. When Hamish first met this land, this glasshouse was broken but filled with those “native wild plants” which the unenlightened often call ‘weeds.’ Where others saw dereliction, Hamish saw the landscape of his dreams. Hand in hand with his new love, he could picture the paths, the plants, the wildlife, the way of life. Hamish’s father had made sure his young boy walked regularly in the Pentlands, learned the joy of swimming wild. Indeed, the March equinox still marks the turn of year, after which Hamish rises daily at 5am for a walk and a wild swim. As a young man, Hamish set to work in the wine industry. But the real connection with plants came later, at a time when Hamish needed solace. He found it in the small urban garden of a rented property, persuading the landlady to allow him to transform a grass monoculture into “an invitation to other beings.” Those beings repaid his kindness with fortune, and so Hamish soon found himself creating paths and borders and planting in a once derelict glasshouse. Looking around the site now, it’s clear that there is order here, and consideration. Hamish took night Looking around the site now, it’splants clear from that courses in Herbology at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and took care to source mother there is order here, and consideration. “plant heroine”, Jekka McVicar. At a certain point in all this growth, Hamish began to feel a bit Hamish took night courses in Herbology at overwhelmed. He was living on-site in a static caravan with his blended family— three children, plus Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and took four children, plus five dogs. He had seen Jekka McVicar’s place and that kind of perfection seemed care by to his source mother plants fromto “plant some way out of reach. Discouraged from book learning dyslexia, Hamish began suffer heroine”, Jekka McVicar. At a certain point in imposter syndrome. He tells of his panic at an early invasion of red spider mites. A consultant was this growth, Hamish began to a bit called in, who suggested predator aphids. But luckily, all around the same time, Hamish hadfeel another overwhelmed. He was living on-site in a static realisation. It may have been the influence of Catherine Conway-Payne at RBGE, or perhaps the with his blended family— Medicine Man Hamish encountered in South Africa, or caravan the indigenous Healer in North America,three but children, plus four children, plus five dogs. He somewhere along the line, Hamish had learned to listen. Something in Hamish clicked. He understood had seen Jekka McVicar’s place and that kind that he did now not need consultants or paper qualifications, but self-belief. of perfection seemed some way out of reach. Discouraged from book learning by his dyslexia, Hamish began to suffer imposter syndrome. He tells of his panic at an early invasion of red spider mites. A consultant was called in, who suggested predator aphids. But luckily, around the same time, Hamish had another realisation. It may have been the influence of Catherine Conway-Payne at RBGE, or perhaps the Medicine Man Hamish encountered in South Africa, or the indigenous Healer in North 22
