Poppy Okotcha, the model turned gardener who is one of David Beckham's countryside champions

This interview is part of a series on David Beckham's countryside champions, as featured in the October 22, 2025 edition of Country Life. Read part 1 with stockman Trevor Kirk and part 2 with milliner Barnaby Horn.

'The countryside means home to me. I find peace and inspiration in it. When I was a teenager, my father — who grew up in rural Nigeria — pointed out the problems with mono-culture and industrial farming. He shattered the idyll for me, whereas my mother, a keen gardener, helped me to see the beautiful ways it could be managed.

'In 2019, my partner and I moved to Devon, where he grew up. I have been made to feel exceptionally welcome, but people can be curious and will ask how it is to be mixed race and living rurally. They wonder how it came to be my home. However, through social media, I am able to demonstrate that you can be non-white and living in the countryside and still feel safe and happy.

'Following our move — and by then having trained in ecological horticulture — I co-ran the Grow&Share Collective community garden. People come to learn how to grow organic food and to connect with one another. The countryside can be a very lonely place. I experienced loneliness during my seven-year modelling career before I moved there. I was lucky to tread the catwalk for Vivienne Westwood and Chloé in Paris and work with brilliant creatives, but, when travelling from metropolis to metropolis and being photographed in windowless studios flooded by artificial light, I felt adrift and disconnected from the natural world.

'At 25, I wanted change, hence swapping a canal boat in London for the West Country. Once I’d moved here, I began work on my own overgrown 98ft by 19ft garden, which I partly tamed before planting with vegetables, herbs and perennials.

'I wrote my first book, A Wilder Way: How Gardens Grow Us, there, too. In it, I explore gardening for mental, physical and societal health, from a practical ‘how to’ approach. It also examines our connection with land, food and one another in a time marked by climate change and biodiversity loss.

'I was once photographed by Brooklyn Beckham on a modelling job, but I have never met Sir David. However, I really respect his journey from high-profile footballer to someone who now proudly tends to his vegetable garden. He’s a man with a following that may not have seen gardening or connecting with the land as cool or worthwhile, so he is helping to rebrand all of that in such an important way.'

This feature originally appeared in the October 22, 2025 issue of Country Life. Click here for more information on how to subscribe.