Life as a gardening expert seems a long way from your pop career, how did your interest start?
It was always in my heart because my parents moved us to Hertfordshire from South East London when I was eight. The transition from living in a semi-detached house with a bit of grass out the back, an apple tree and some massacred rose bushes, to moving into the countryside at the foot of the beautiful Bramfield forest made a huge impact on me. My classmates’ parents were growing vegetables and beautiful flowers, they just had wonderful colours in their gardens and I was really impressed. As a nine year old I remember thinking that I wanted to have a beautiful garden one day, the outdoors had such a positive influence on me.
When I met Hal [her husband] I didn’t have a garden, it wasn’t until we got married in 1996 that I thought, ‘Right, I’d better make a garden’.  I wanted to give my children the outdoor childhood that I had had. During that time I was very inspired by TV gardening, I watched Jeff Hamilton and loved what he’d done and I loved reading his books. He talked about it in a knowledgeable but also very spiritual way, which appealed to me greatly. Then there was all the garden makeover programmes, I was really inspired and loved the idea of creating an outdoor environment.
I decided to get out of the music industry when we got married and had the children. I went to Capel Manor College to do a part-time gardening course while I was pregnant with my first child and that’s what really turned the whole thing around, that’s when I thought wow, this is an absolutely irresistible subject. But I didn’t think in a million years I’d end up becoming a professional horticulturalist.

So you were never looking to go back into the media?
No, not at all. I was a bit appalled when it all started to manifest itself in such a public way. When I stopped performing I was looking for something to occupy my time – I knew that I couldn’t just sit at home and have coffee mornings – which is why I decided to go to college, and it ended up being a decision that changed my life.
Then the TV appearances came along and I learnt a lot obviously, but I was getting frustrated at my lack of knowledge, so I went back to college for a much longer period of two years, and to do an evening course about planting and planting design, and I came out with a City & Guilds distinction.

You’re touring again now but the two careers have very different lifestyles, do you find that brings you a balance?
Yes, I think it is a bit like that, I love singing, and I love entertaining. I didn’t do it for quite a long time in the early years when the children were growing up so I went back to it with a renewed vigor, because I had had a rest. The music industry is so wonderful and so unforgiving sometimes, but the highs are incredibly high and the lows are desperate. It was really amazing to find something else that could take the place of that and give so much. It’s mostly high with gardening, very few lows. It’s wonderful because I found it the same time I found Hal and the babies, so it’s all of oursm, not just mine. Being “Kim Wilde” was all about me, being a gardener is a group effort thing; it’s a part of all of our lives.

Were you nervous about being called a gardening expert on ITVs Better Homes?
Yes, because it wasn’t true, I wasn’t a gardening expert; I was an 80s pop star who had a huge passion for another subject. I was put in a position where I had to appear at least to know what I was doing. I got caught out loads of times but my motivation was so genuine that even when I got caught out I just thought, well I’m learning. I know I got up a few people’s noses in horticulture, they were wondering what the hell I was doing there. It had just become a huge phenomena; the garden makeover, garden magazines, the industry was starting to make huge amounts of money and if you were very cynical and looking at me, you might easily come to the conclusion that I jumped off one bandwagon and onto another. I was very patient with people that had that impression, because I knew that I’d show them in the end, which made winning my gold medal at Chelsea Flower Show one of the sweetest days of my life!

What made you base your winning Chelsea Flower Show design on Cumbria?
In the first few months of meeting Hal he told me he wanted to take me to an amazing place, so we drove overnight and arrived at dawn in Cumbria. It was the most beautiful place I’ve ever been, I couldn’t believe that I had lived all my life and had never known about this place. Hal’s parents now live there and we’ve holidayed up there many times.
I did an Alice in Wonderland installation at the Holker Garden Festival in Cumbria and Richard Lucas helped me gather the plants together. After that we did two in consecutive years and started hatching a plan for Chelsea. We ended up mostly with Cumbrian artists on the garden, they provided a beautiful driftwood bench, and the beautiful Hollister slate from Hollister mine. It was a real tribute to a place we had a very strong connection with.

Would you ever enter again?
I would love to. I went and helped Diarmuid Gavin last year; I just went along for the ride really. I’ve helped a few gardeners at Chelsea without being directly involved. I would love to help in anyone’s garden next year, so anyone reading who fancies some help… I’ll get my bum there and back, I won’t even ask for any expenses, just to be there is such a privilege.

It was a triumph for everyone wasn’t it – there must have been some real celebrating?
It really was; I’m still overwhelmed by it. I haven’t got anything on display at home that will tell you I’m in the music industry, but my Gold RHS [Royal Horticultural Society] certificate, the glass viewer’s choice award, the BBC award for best courtyard garden and even the hat I wore are all proudly displayed.

How did you find becoming a gardening columnist?
My work is research and talking to people, mostly I was doing it to teach myself, I wanted to know how things worked out. People would write in and say, ‘I’m not quite sure what to do about clipping my box of Symphoricarpos. When’s a good time to trim it?’ And then I would learn and read up. It was up to me to decide what I felt was the relevant information, sometimes I got it wrong and the readers were quick to tell me. I don’t mind finding myself in a place where I’ve got no idea what I’m doing, it’s much more exciting than life being predictable and knowing exactly what I’m doing. I think what I’ve given to the world of horticulture is energy from a different generation. People are on waiting lists to grow vegetables, and it’s becoming a trendy thing. I know I was definitely part of the change of the image of horticulture at that time; I’m quite chuffed about that.

In these uncertain economic times people are looking for more thrifty pleasures, would you recommend gardening?
I would definitely recommend it. Lots of people are now trapped in houses that they can’t sell, so they might as well make a garden and make the most of it. You should just make a small investment into where you are and make it a lovely place to be. From an economic point of view growing your own vegetables is a really good idea, grow potatoes in a barrel on the patio or get a little pot of herbs, this is cheap and always tastes much better. The economic times have really focused people back on people how they can be more economical in their lifestyle.