Real life stories

From asylum seeker to superstar gardener

Meet Kuda Chimbudzi, Head Kitchen Gardener for Tottenham Hotspur Football Club

Everybody is a gardener in Zimbabwe. Kitchen gardening is a way of life. People grow crops to feed their families, and sell the excess at the market, transporting tomatoes, bananas, groundnuts and other crops by donkey cart in big African baskets.

I have gardened since I could hold a hoe, and my father taught me how to grow vegetables. I remember certain things from when I was young as it was around me all the time, but I didn’t like it and would rather have played football. Now kitchen gardening is my passion.

Journeying to England

After school I went straight into the army and spent four years as an infantryman and musician playing the trumpet. When I came to England on holiday to see my sister who lived in Luton, I was told that if I returned to Zimbabwe I’d be arrested at the airport as my trip had not been approved, so I became a refugee.

I could not work, so spent much of my time working on my sister’s garden. I had never grown things in such wet cold soil and was caught by surprise one day when all my lettuces were frozen. My cousin said ‘I told you to cover these, this is not Zimbabwe!’ – it was a big eye-opener. I decided I had much to learn about gardening in Europe.

After seven long years waiting to gain asylum, I moved to Leicester and started work for the City Council. There was garden library in an Eco-House at a local park, so I borrowed new books each week to learn about the crops and what would grow on my new allotment. I relied on Dr Hessayon’s books and bought Charles Dowding’s Organic Gardening, which became was my ‘bible’ and I went on some ‘Master Gardeners’ programmes provided by Garden Organic in my free time, too.

As time passed, people began noticing my allotment and my sister’s garden, so they knew how passionate I was and what I could do. A friend suggested I enroll on the Extended Diploma in Horticulture at Moulton College in Northamptonshire, where I learned to use a computer (in Zimbabwe it was pencil and paper), as well as all kinds of horticultural things, from surveying to plant science, integrated pest management, greenhouse production, fruit and vegetable culture, identification and Latin names. I have never had such an experience in terms of education, and felt empowered. If you have this knowledge, you can grow crops anywhere – if they had this in Zimbabwe, they could feed the whole country.

I went to Leicester University, doing garden maintenance then moved to a similar job at Loughborough University where I had done a college placement. On finishing, I called Leicester University who offered me a short-term contract so I worked on their sports pitches but was seconded to Leicester University Botanic Garden, caring for plants in the greenhouses, borders and herb garden.

Finding the perfect job

I later realised that herbs and veg are my thing, and wanted to give something back to horticulture. When I saw the job advertisement for Assistant Kitchen Gardener at Tottenham Hotspur Football club online, it jumped out at me from the screen. I went for the interview and was delighted to be offered the job.

The Head Kitchen Gardener at the time was a highly skilled Italian guy, who was also a keen cook and I learned a lot from his organic Italian style. When he retired in 2018 I took over as Head Kitchen Gardener. I love that I am able to garden sustainably and efficiently, knowing that the kitchen needs to feed 58–70 people and growing the right amount of food accordingly. Nothing I grow is wasted. I think of myself as being part of a chain – the chef and I are friends and work together, deciding together what we should grow.

I like to share what I have learnt and have students coming in to the garden where I demonstrate things such as seed sowing and other practical gardening tasks. I like everyone in the community to have the chance to learn how to grow their own food to make them more healthy and environmentally responsible.

We grow lots of fruit here – alongside white, red and blackcurrants there are gooseberries and dessert pears too. There’s an orchard dedicated to apples, most on dwarfing rootstocks, where I’ll be adding more disease-resistant cultivars this winter. Stone fruit like cherries and plums are going to be grown at the end of the kitchen, trained as fans and cordons. In the long term I would like to be more adventurous too, and try growing more tender plants such as pomegranates – perhaps in pots so they can be put outdoors in summer and brought under cover for the colder winters.

“I like everyone in the community to have the chance to learn how to grow their own food to make them more healthy and environmentally responsible.”

Kuda’s favourite crops

All of the crops I grow have medicinal and nutritional value, so the aim is to provide a diet of good and interesting foods. Elite athletes need to be properly fed for their bodies to perform at the highest level – everything I grow is with the welfare of the players in mind. Our seed is organic and our soil is free from artificial fertiliser.

Kale: I grow chomolia kale, from Zimbabwe as well as those more recognised here. African kale is a staple vegetable in Zimbabwe, it is a powerful plant, without it people would die. For me, in the UK kale is still a ‘must grow’ vegetable. It is packed with calcium, iron, beta-carotene (the precursor of vitamin A), as well as vitamins E and C.

►Hear allotment grower Ashley Nkoworie talk about growing African kale in our Gardening with the RHS podcast

Oriental salads: in winter the focus moves to the greenhouse, which is packed with cut-and-come-again crops and microgreens such as pak choi and mizuna, a good source of vitamins B6 and B9, and excellent vitamin C content.

Beans: we have many types here – runner, broad and borlotti beans included. In peak season I can easily harvest 10 kg of beans every three days. They’re a fantastic source of iron, vitamin C and beta carotene.

Herbs: I became passionate about herbs when I was learning on my own allotment in Leicester. They are great for adding exciting flavour and fragrance to dishes, so are all grown at the chef’s request. Currently, I have many herbs growing, such as basil, coriander, parsley, sage, oregano, dill and mint.

Growing veg for the love of it

I run the kitchen garden using ‘no-dig’ principles – the main beds are enriched annually in winter with a mulch of well-rotted organic matter, which is covered with recycled landscape fabric. On a clear frosty day when the sun starts to shine the rays are absorbed by the black fabric, raising the temperature high enough to kill many of the weed seeds and speed the breakdown of the organic matter. The worms do the work of incorporating the lower layer of organic matter into the clay soil, and the surface is ideal for seed sowing. Once the plants mature their roots go down into the nutrient-rich and moisture retentive clay, so they’re very happy.

We try to use six or seven different kinds of leaf to make salads more exciting, supplying the kitchen with all they need, year round. An example is chickweed, tree spinach, ‘cut and come again’ chard, mizuna, mustard, pea shoots, kale, nasturtium flowers for colour. I think that the commercialisation of food means we have lost our knowledge of edible indigenous plants, such as borage, whose young leaves taste of cucumber and is a rich source of gamma-linoleic acid and of greater value than many of the crops we eat day in, day out.

Kuda’s top tips for growing veg

Find slug hiding spots: Slugs are often a problem inside the greenhouse so I wedge environmentally friendly slug pellets at various heights round the frame, where I know they love to hide.

Add nitrogen for leafy crops: When planting kale and other leafy crops, I dig a long trench, put a handful of pelleted chicken manure per square metre in the base and cover it with a layer of compost. By the time the roots have reached that level the chicken pellets will have dissolved into the soil water, the nitrogen will be available and the roots of the crops will not be scorched.

Harvest apples with care: ‘Jonagold’ apple is the last to ripen in our orchard, usually in November. When harvesting apples, cup your hand underneath and gently lift and twist, if they are ready, they detach easily, you don’t have to use force and pull them off’.

Grow salads under glass: Sow cut and come again salads in the greenhouse – day length is too short and temperatures too low for germination outdoors. The sun will raise the temperature during the day.

Year-round goodness

To me, our kitchen garden is a food bank and a place of experimentation, I was the first to grow sweet potatoes and would like to work with the chef and try new crops such as fenugreek; my latest passions are Oriental vegetables including pak choi and mizuna greens as they are winter hardy. We are here to provide a service and I want to improve all of the time in the quality of the produce I grow and in terms of sustainability. Everything is done to the highest possible standard.

“I am really excited by the massive potential of our kitchen garden, for interesting crops, for flavour and for good health.”

This page is an adaptation of an article which was published in the November 2021 edition of The Garden magazine, free to RHS members every month when you join the RHS.

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