I think human beings need contact with soil… it’s almost a sensual, textural – I won’t go so far as to say sexual – experience to actually get your fingers in the soil and the grit under your fingernails.

I find is absolutely essential to my daily existence getting out into the backyard. When one’s feeling dishevelled, stressed out, rattled, I know that in ten minutes of fossicking about in this backyard I am very quickly, therapeutically almost, back on an even keel.