About me
Christopher Smith - Passionate Horticulturist & Herbalist
Hi, I’m Christopher Smith and I am passionate about sharing the world of plants and medicinal herbs with people.
When I was at the Adelaide Botanic Garden in the late 1970’s studying horticulture one of the senior gardeners showed me about the healing benefits of comfrey…. A powerful herb with hundreds of years of folk usage as a healing agent.
He headed straight to the comfrey plant
He had cut his hand and while we looked for band aids, he headed to the comfrey plant, picked a leaf then squeezed the juice onto the cut. He said this will take about three days to heal and it did – cleanly no infection or scarring. I’ve always remembered that.
Well before the Botanic Garden a deep connection with the plant world was formed in childhood with my Mother’s garden in Rostrevor Adelaide and later sparked off by a kind gift of plants from my Aunty Cath & Uncle Jack.
A kind gift from my Aunty of plants
That set me on the path to the Adelaide Botanic Gardens watching the Senior Gardener heal his wound. So, behind the herbal obsession is a decades long plant obsession. For me any problem in the world is solved by more plants.
1970s South Australia in the garden
I leave you with one last photo – my personal favourite. Here I am with my Dad and brother, Aunty Cath & Uncle Jack and cousins. We are in their garden and it was this day I went home with a motley collection of plants in tin cans to start my own growing journey.
P.S. I am just to the left of Uncle Jack’s head in the yellow shirt – look hard!