Gardening hero - Jamie Oliver

The celebrity chef, wife Jools and five children, have fabulous gardens surrounding their beautiful 16th century mansion, Spains Hall in Essex.

As you’d expect, they enjoy eating al fresco together. The family can be seen gathered around a circular wooden table with cosy curved benches, on a terrace outside the mansion, in an image on the Hello website.  In another shot they’re eating in an area of the estate with views of the walled garden behind.  With neatly clipped hedges and stately red brick walls clad in espalier fruit trees, it looks like a perfect environment for Jamie to grow fruit for his fabulous recipes. 

Herbs are a must in Jamie’s garden, which he’s been growing since he lived in a flat and grew them in window boxes.  As you’d expect, the estate also boasts a thriving vegetable garden.  In one instagram post, Jamie can be seen showing his son Buddy around their wonderful pumpkin patch encouraging him to enjoy growing, picking and cooking your own food.  In another video post he shows off his homegrown figs saying: ‘Look at all these figs, absolutely beautiful.

A big fan of Italian cooking, Jamie also grows a huge range of tomatoes in his greenhouse, including heirloom varieties.  In Instagram posts he talks about growing tomatoes giving you a much bigger choice than going to the supermarket and recommends ‘Sun Gold,’ as ‘reliable and first to ripen’.

The celebrity chef is clearly a busy man and is more likely to be seen cooking than gardening his produce, but he still loves to do the harvesting and like all gardeners doesn’t mind getting a bit dirty, explaining to his wife why he ‘kept disappearing and coming back with green on [his] knees.’: ’ It was courgette season and I was in the vegetable patch!’