The garden where we grow our trees has a strong connection with the beginnings of the organic movement, namely Eve Balfour, the founder of The Soil Association.

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Eve spent much of her childhood at Whittingehame and was good friends with the head gardener and her aunt, Lady Alice Balfour, a keen horticulturist. Her interest in gardening and the bustling farm life of East Lothian may have contributed to her decision to become a farmer at the age of 12.

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In her 1943 book ‘The Living Soil’, Eve talks about a range of experiments showing the effects of soil life on plant health, particularly mycorrhizal fungi.

Her conjecture that soil health and human health are inextricably linked has strong parallels to the World Health Organisation’s current One Health initiative.