I married Hal in 1996. We were living in a barn conversion and planning to have a family as soon as possible. We very much wanted a garden for the children to grow up in.
We had two willow trees standing forlornly in our garden, and apart from that there was little else but rough farmland grass all the way up to the door. Although it was an intimidating sight, I was very excited by the potential of such a bare canvas.
By the time I was pregnant with Harry, my oldest child, seven years ago, I was frustrated by my lack of plant knowledge. So I enrolled in an evening course in garden design at Capel Manor horticultural school.
The most brilliant thing about the course was that for the first time I was a really good student.
My first piece of work came back marked with a D. I was devastated. Then I was told that D was for Distinction. It did wonders for my self-confidence.
At that time, I had no idea what I wanted to do. All I was sure about was that I didn't want to continue with the music. I was tired of it, and I think the British public were probably tiring of me.
I didn't want to write songs any more. I changed my name and found being anonymous was quite a relief.
What I didn't expect was to become a gardener by profession.
We aren't exactly self-sufficient, but we do have a vegetable garden, and the children love it.
I am a huge fan of getting them outside and giving them their own trowels.
This year I'm thinking of giving them their own little beds in which to plant things, although I suspect that Rose might just hang out in Harry's.
They love growing things such as sunflowers and just messing about in the mud, putting soil into things.
At four and six, they're still too little to have much patience, so even though the phrase 'quick fix' is a dirty word as a gardener, you sometimes have to cheat a little and buy already-grown plants.
Every now and again, I have to take a deep breath as I see a little hand joyfully snapping a flower stem. But this is the childhood I want them to have and it unites us as a family.
We pick raspberries together, harvest the peas, and last year we sat and ate freshly-picked corn.
I take so much pleasure from my garden now, and I know that thousands of visitors to the Ideal Home Show will get lots of inspiration for their gardens.
