Before the compulsion to write books set in, (I was still learning the alphabet), my earliest ambition was to own a flower shop with my mother. This idea failed to gain traction, leaving me alone with a marvellous new ambition: to be a writer. I was seven years old.
The seed of ambition took root. The creation of Great Literature, like the books I loved, was surely my destiny. Who knows, maybe it will yet come to pass! After dabbling in the tricky literary realms (1980s), I took to romance writing (1990s). Fun, fast and financial, this phase produced two novels for teens.
My childhood love affair with flowers lingered, maturing into botanical obsession. Plants, words, flourishing life… I studied horticulture, creative writing, journalism; I travelled, protested, got arrested, had babies, planted trees, weeded five acres, needed money.
It was 1990. I called an editor. She called me back.
“I can’t stand the astrology column any longer,” said the voice on the phone. “How would you like to write a gardening column? One thousand words per issue. I need the first one this week.”
Samantha Trenoweth was the editor of iconic alternative lifestyle glossy, Simply Living.
Slightly stunned, I asked what I should write about.
“Anything you like,” came her response. End of call.
I had just become a gardening writer.
Thirty years, ten books and countless columns and articles later, I’m still a gardening writer.
And I still dabble in literary moments.
I live in Tasmania.
Sometimes I write about spiritual ideals with a yogic flavour.
Or travel, which broadens the horizon.
Saving the world is important.
I worked for ABC television (early 2000s). Wrote gardening books for kids. Made friends with Peter Cundall. He launched my special book, Beyond Organics: Gardening for the Future (2005).
I kept writing: columns, features, anything. Organic Gardener magazine. Gardening Australia magazine. Tasmanian Life. Australian Geographic. The Weekend Australian. Out There. Australian Yoga Journal. Books about yoga (self-published, crowdfunded). Online things. Medium. Something a bit academic about peace and conflict.
And a lot of newsletters. And a lot of unpublished meanderings, even poems. And a lot of false starts and lost threads.
The new century matured into decades.
Write on, write on, write on…
Helen’s Study Years (Australia)
1966-71 Harbord Primary School, years K-6.
1972-75 Manly Girls’ High School, years 7- 10, NSW School Certificate.
1977-79 The Forest High School, years 11-12, NSW Higher School Certificate, Dux of the school.
1981-82 Hawkesbury Agricultural College, Associate Diploma in Horticulture.
1985-87 University of Technology, Sydney, Bachelor of Arts in Communication.
Early 2000s Satyananda Yoga Academy, Diploma of Satyananda Yoga Teaching.
2017-19 University of Sydney, Graduate Certificate in Peace and Conflict Studies.
2022-present University of Sydney, Masters of Social Justice (Peace and Conflict Studies). Read my dissertation here. It’s called Peacebuilding Ecology and Personal Transformation in Colombia.