Blue Peter's Chris Collins: gardening saved me from drugs

by Leanne Durr. Published Sun 28 Feb 2010 07:32, Last updated: 2010-03-02

Chris Collins

Blue Peter plantsman Chris Collins has revealed that the inspiration of gardening saved him from squandering his life in addiction to hard drugs.

On a visit to Liverpool cheerful Chris told how he was a tearaway teenager who was shunned by his family and ended-up living with addicts in a squat.

Now as a regular presenter on the BBC children's show he has an army of young fans, but Chris's own childhood was troubled and he flunked school with just two GCEs.

His parents had split when he was three and Gloucester-born Chris lived in eight homes until he settled with his mother and brother in Brighton.

When he discovered punk rock at the age of 13 he became rebellious and was repeatedly suspended from school for misbehaviour.

At 14 he fell-in with a gang of junkies and by the age of 16 he had been kicked-out of his home and was living in a dingy flat, claiming benefits.

Chris, 42, made his confessions as he was opening an exhibition named "Plantastic!" at World Museum Liverpool.

He said: "That time is a blur, to be honest. I had my own issues.

"But I watched people being destroyed because of it. There came a point where I thought, 'If I don't do something about it, I'll end up like that'."

Chris decided to make a fresh start and took himself to Scotland to come off drugs.

He says: "I'll never forget going to the careers office, I had a blue mohican at the time.

"I told them I didn't care what I did as long as it was outdoors.

"I then went up to the Isle of Islay in the Hebrides and I lived in a tent on the beach for nine weeks.

"I dried right out and got it all out my system. I ran around the beach and climbed cliffs.

"The Scots call it God's Own Country and they're not wrong. It was a very inspiring period.

"The locals would give me bowls of soup. I met hermits - it was a mad time. I probably was in pain for a little while, mentally and physically, but that's not how I remember it.

"I remember it as a positive experience, especially compared to what I'd just been through. I went from being frightened to feeling confident again."

When Chris went back to Brighton he landed a job as an apprentice gardener in the corporation parks department.

Chris, who lives in Finchley, London, said: "When I was on drugs I was in a state of mental negativity.

"But I turned it around and became positive due to the gardening work I started to do.
The transition was immediately apparent and I've never looked back since.

"I fell in love with the job straight away. My first job was planting a tree

"Within two weeks of starting work I knew that it was the right career for me. It counterbalanced anything bad that had gone on before.

"More kids should be encouraged to get into gardening. It's physical, it's muscle-enhancing and it becomes a part of you.

"Pretty soon you don't care what anyone else thinks. Gardening is rewarding and it's not so much about impressing your mates but that it gives you a personal identity.

"In Brighton I went back as a foreman three years later and my tree was still there.

"It was the night of the Great Storm in 1987. All the other elms snapped in half but mine survived.

"Then, 20 years later, I went back again to make a BBC2 programme called The Plantsman.

"My tree's now 45ft tall and there I was, sitting in it, doing this piece to camera. That sums-up the magic of gardening for me."

Chris's job has taken him all over the world - including Japan - where he met his wife Kimi.

He added: "If you'd said to me when I was 16 that I would be into flowers I wouldn't have believed you. It would have been unthinkable

"But I've been working with kids for five years and I've yet to meet one that's not interested in gardening."

* Chris was in Liverpool for the opening of the World Museum Liverpool exhibition Plantastic!

He said the exhibition was particularly good because of its interactivity, which makes nature more accessible for children and easier to understand.

“Plants are amazing things but kids need to be hands on, so that’s why I back something like this 100% because it gets kids thinking about things and that’s very important.”

Plantastic! is a great family friendly exhibition and is definitely worth a visit. It runs until 5th September 2010 at World Museum Liverpool.