Actor Sir David Jason has revealed he is a vegetable whisperer and talks to his tomatoes.
The Only Fools And Horses star has been growing veggies in his greenhouse since the start of the year.
And he said he chats to the seedlings to coax them into growing – and scolds them when they don’t. He said: “Every day or two, I’ll sneak in and check”.
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“After a few weeks, I’ll start getting impatient and do a bit of coaxing: What’s the matter with you?” If there’s no activity at all, I can hear myself shouting: “Come on, you damn things!”
(Image: Getty Images)
But he said when the juicy red fruits do respond he adopts a much more loving tone and likes to whisper to them.
Sir David, 82, harvests the fruit to make his own tomato chutney and said he has become rather a “dab hand” at the process.
He added though, “like Del Boy, I’d be the first to admit I’m not a natural gardener”.
Despite that he has been trying topiary at his Buckinghamshire home, shaping bushes into baby elephants and even one into a standing bear.
The much loved star admitted he grew up in a terraced cottage in north London with a “postage-stamp-sized” garden but his father would sometimes grow runner beans while his mother had a rhubarb plant and made rhubarb pies.
He added that he could appreciate the “peace and quiet” gardening provided, as well as the sense of “escapism” from ordinary life.
Sir David said: “It’s the realisation that when you’re in a garden, you’re not only more in tune with the seasons, you’re much closer to nature.”
(Image: BBC)
David has been able to spend his time focusing on the simpler things after a long TV career – with his most famous shows taking place in the ’80s-2000s, including Only Fools and Horses and A Touch of Frost.
David, now 82, still keeps himself busy and on tour with the star hosting An Evening with Nicholas Lyndhurst and Sir David Jason in the coming weeks.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
