Wise lessons from Tina Guillory

“Marvellous – life outdoors is marvellous”

In Exposé # 11 we met Tina Guillory. Tina used to work in London as a gardener, but after the arrival of her children she moved to rural Norfolk. After continuing work as a gardener, she then began to design garden products and this resulted in her starting The Carrier Company. Tina tells us about her love for gardening and delivers a handy gardening tip and important life lesson in passing:

“I used to work in London as a gardener right in the heart of the city, and what I liked most were the overgrown gardens. They’re marvellous because you can prune, you can give them new shape and you discover things. I did that for four years and when I moved to the country, I started working on larger projects because the surface areas here are simply much bigger.”

Gardening to bring yourself down to earth

“You can lose yourself completely in gardening. I think it’s a lovely thing to dig in the soil and just come down to earth from time to time. It’s good for the soul. However stressed or unhappy you might be, once you go out into the garden and spend some time working there, you’re suddenly in a different world. You move from one job to the next: there’s always something to do, to see, to watch, and there’s always something to change or modify. Life outdoors is marvellous.”

Wise lesson in life: take the plunge!

“I believe that you should always be completely open to doing something new and that you should never get stuck in a mental rut. Personally, I’m quite inclined to jump in the deep end. I’ve probably taken risks that other people thought were quite reckless but I believe you should live in the here and now, and if something seems like a good plan, do it. What else are you going to do? Spend your whole life behind a desk worrying? Take the plunge! The water might be cold at first, but you can always get out again.”

Tina’s gardening tip

“It’s fascinating how many plants like to grow in very restricted places, and however hard you try, there’s no point forcing something to grow somewhere. You won’t succeed – it’ll fight back. You need to be open to that and if something isn’t working, dig it up and plant it somewhere else. I once gave classes for worried gardeners. I taught them that they shouldn’t be scared and should look for the obvious. Leave out the small, weak things, let the things that survive dominate, and your garden will do amazingly well. I don’t think we let ourselves experience gardening enough.”

“I believe you should live in the here and now, and if something seems like a good plan, do it. Take the plunge! The water might be cold at first, but you can always get out again”

Want to know more about The Carrier Company?

Read more about Tina’s business The Carrier Company and her products.