As she approaches her 91st birthday on March 24, Dame Mary Berry remains unstoppable.
She’s written over 70 cookbooks throughout her lengthy career, but has just released her first book about gardening, My Gardening Life.
In conversation with The Telegraph, Mary discusses just how good gardening has been for her mental wellbeing.
She shares that when she’s been out all day, “it’s not long” before she makes her way to her garden. “It’s a place of peace, of solace,” she says, adding, “I go out there and feel calm. If something has been worrying me, it gets forgotten about. A weight is lifted.”
One the most delightful parts of visiting her garden is picking her own flowers, and putting them on her kitchen table. She asserts this “fills her with joy,” explaining, “It’s the best natural health cure there is.”
Mary is particularly enamoured with roses, calling them “my great joy.” Her favourite is “Chandos Beauty,” and she loves to sit on an outdoor terrace at her home that’s right next to a long bed of roses.
“Even now they’re bare, pruned and mulched, I feel such a sense of promise,” she shares, adding, “In a few months’ time, they’ll be absolutely glorious.”
(Image credit: Dave Benett/Getty Images for Killik & Co)
She hasn’t just stopped at flowers, Mary has also planted some fruit trees in her garden.
After giving her husband “a fresh fruit salad every morning,” the presenter thought she’d try her hand at growing pear trees and a peregrine peach tree.
While visiting her garden has become entrenched in her daily routine, as part of her secrets to living longer, Mary has another daily ritual firmly embedded n her daily life – and it’s quite different to spending time in her outside space.
The national treasure admits she “swears by” a glass of wine at the end of each day. In conversation with Saga, she says, “The glass has become slightly bigger. I don’t drink until the evening, and then one glass of white will last me.”
Perhaps she can combine her daily tipple with her love of roses, and sip her wine from her terrace while admiring her newly bloomed roses in the summer.
