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Gardening is a lifelong love for Sophie Thomson. Her parents ran a plant nursery in the Adelaide Hills where she grew up surrounded by flowers, vegies, herbs and greenery. After her parents sold the business, she launched a career as a gardening expert on TV and radio and, for the last 20 years, has served as a host on Gardening Australia.

Until recently, Thomson lived on a large property in the Adelaide Hills. There she spent a decade transforming a dry cow paddock into a two-acre garden, a journey she documented in the book Sophie’s Patch. Thomson has since sold that property and, while she’s OK with leaving the garden behind, she does miss the soil she lovingly cultivated there. Here the horticulturist tells us about that “spectacular” brown stuff and shares the stories of two other essential gardening items.