UK: Nonagenarian doctor swaps house calls for delivering lavender from the allotment he describes as “the perfect antidote to loneliness” to local ladies
“A successful professional photographer, my grandfather had, I think, nine acres of orchards and greenhouses,” he said.
Harriet Bullough
PA Real Life
10 August 2021
Excerpt:
Happily sharing his quirky gardening tips with fellow villagers, retired GP Dr Robin Salmon, 90, is passing down knowledge first gleaned from his photographer grandfather H.W. Salmon in 1937, when he was just six years old.
Cutting a dash on his tricycle, since acquiring the allotment in 2014 – the year after losing his wife, Jean Salmon, aged 80 – he has become something of a local character in Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire.
Dr Salmon, who lives in an Audley retirement village, said: “I’m slightly wacky. I like to ride my tricycle round the village and I started giving my lavender to the ‘Lavender Ladies’ based there, who turn it into gifts for visitors.
“I’ve got lavender coming out of my ears at the moment!
“I sleep with lavender under my pillow. But one day, I forgot that I’d put lavender bags in my pillowcase and it got lost in the machine.”
He added: “It disintegrated into all the sheets and clothes. I’m still picking lavender out of my laundry, but at least I know I smell lovely.”
Less lovely are some of Dr Salmon’s gardening tips, which he is keen to share as he helps celebrate National Allotments Week, which runs until August 15.
