grow, cook, eat, arrange with Sarah Raven & friends Milli Proust: The family gardening charm that inspired ‘How Does Your Garden Grow’ - Episode 265
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Mar 12, 2026 Milli Proust, gardener, florist and author known for approachable gardening and seed-packet watercolours. She talks about creating biodiverse, low-maintenance gardens in West Sussex. Hear simple frameworks like her “plant pyramid,” ideas for underplanted orchards and bulbs, using local materials, and ways gardening connects memory, belonging and wildlife.
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Book Born From Real Beginner Questions
- Milli Proust wrote How Does Your Garden Grow as a running answer file of questions her sister and followers asked about starting a garden.
- She turned tens of thousands of words and Instagram questions into a step-by-step guide for overwhelmed beginners.
From RADA And Archives To Obsessed Gardener
- Milli trained as an actor, worked as an archivist, then discovered gardening after moving to West Sussex with no prior garden experience.
- She taught herself intensively while archiving and turned a decade of obsession into a career in floristry and gardening.
Gardening As Living Memory
- Gardening connects past, present and future through memory, handed-down knowledge and ongoing stewardship.
- Milli's unpublished grandmother poem about a potting shed exemplifies how gardening ties personal history and practical objects into meaning.
