Meet Emma Jo Real-Davies

Tell us about yourself?
Hello, my name is Emma, I'm a gardener and also a presenter

What does a typical day look like for you?
One day I'll be out dead heading roses in the pouring rain, which sounds horrible, but actually it's very cathartic and a really nice mindful thing to do. And then the next day I'm rushing around all of London, filming here, there and everywhere, having my makeup done, hair done. So it's just a really nice, varied lifestyle.

What’s your favourite gardening hack?
My favourite gardening hack is to always have some lengths of string cut in your pocket so you can tie in your roses, tie in your clematis, whatever it is.

Talk us through what jobs you should be doing in your garden for July and August?
So July and August is the big cutback season, so we're cutting everything back that has already flowered. So things like our hardy geraniums, if we have anthemis, if you have nepeta, giving them a real cutback, and I mean like aggressively right down to the ground, you'll be so surprised. They will have a second flush of flowers by the end of the season.

What’s your favourite flower/plant in your garden?
I just love roses more than anything. They are without a doubt my favourite flower ever. They're the gift that just keeps on giving. They're relatively low maintenance, but honestly, the show that they give in June and then throughout the rest of the summer is just the best thing in the world.

What’s been your biggest lesson that you’ve learnt whilst gardening?
I always knew that gardening was hard work when I did it, you know, as an amateur just at home in my own garden. But actually working as a professional gardener, I realised how long everything takes. You can basically double the length of time you think it's going to take you to do a job because everything takes so much longer.

You recently got married in your Grandpa’s garden – tell us what work went into this?
So I recently got married in my grandparents garden and oh my gosh, we worked so hard to get it ready for the wedding. I grew all of the flowers myself, I had pots planted up for the aisles, I grew cut flowers for the jam jars for the table. And we're very lucky that at the back of the garden there's a woodland-y area which was where we had our meal and honestly if you'd have seen it a year ago, it was full of tree stumps and holly.

What clothes do you like to wear whilst gardening?
The sort of clothes I love to wear while gardening have to be really comfortable, loose fitting. I particularly love natural materials, so things like cotton and linen. I love wafting around the garden in a lovely linen shirt, but also I literally wouldn't be it without a hat in the garden.


You can follow Emma on Instagram @emjorealdavies

Emma wears the Burley Washed Red Linen Shirt, the Camberley Denim Blue Wide Leg Jeans, the Heaton Rose Wide Leg Jeans, the Felpham Khaki Stripe Button Top, the Maudlin Light Denim Sleeveless Shirt and the Bodiam Pink Painted Stripe Shorts .