Jess Gough

Jess Gough has a passion for growing fruit & vegetables. She grows almost all her own vegetables on her smallholding in Somerset. Motivated by the hugely positive impact gardening has had on her own life, Jess is on a mission to inspire & help others to get growing. In February 2023, Jess started an Instagram account called @happy_smallholding with the aim of helping people to grow food. She places a strong emphasis on gardening organically, showing people how to promote biodiversity on the vegetable patch to foster resilience and productivity. In 2024 Jess is doing a grow along series: she is showing people how to grow food in one bed from sowing seeds through to harvest by posting regular reels guiding people through the process. Drawn to gardening at the age of 21, Jess started out by growing tomatoes in a raised bed in a small garden in London. She has since learned to grow food in various different spaces: from a windowsill, to a very small shady garden, to a community garden, to a half allotment plot and now a smallholding. She has learned through experience, reading books and through her gardening community.

Instagram: @happy_smallholding