Key Takeaways
- Gardening is Andoh’s “sanity” and provides a mental health reset from her busy life as an actress.
- Gardening allows Andoh to replicate the calming feelings of her childhood gardens in the Cotswolds countryside, which provides a sense of healing from past traumas and racism she faced.
- Through gardening, Andoh learns valuable lessons about patience, using her senses, and appreciating life’s small wonders—all of which contribute to her overall emotional well-being.
Adjoa Andoh may play the regal Lady Danbury on the hit Netflix series Bridgerton, but the actress finds her true shelter- and a key to her health – in the garden.
For Andoh, getting her hands dirty amongst the plants and wildlife is more than just a hobby—it’s a way to reset her mind, find peace, and improve her overall well-being.
The 61-year-old star, who grew up surrounded by the beautiful gardens of the Cotswolds countryside, says her green space is “her sanity.”
No matter how hectic her schedule, Andoh makes time every single day to step outside, even if it’s just for five minutes in her nightie.
She lets her Labrador Millie run free as she slows her breathing and immerses herself in nature’s rhythms.
“There’s something about being in the garden that makes you slow down…that halts the speed of everything,” Andoh explained to The Telegraph.
Gardening has provided a much-needed rest for the actress, who has faced challenges from racism and a turbulent childhood marked by a difficult divorce between her English mother and Ghanaian father.
The violence she endured at school left deep scars, but the garden has always been her safe haven for health and healing.
“My garden now is an attempt to replicate the garden of my childhood,” said Andoh.
She distinctly recalls the flowers like delphiniums and hollyhocks alongside the fruits and vegetables that her mother tended.
Beyond aesthetics, Andoh believes getting her hands in the soil imparts invaluable life lessons about patience, senses, and appreciating the little wonders around you – lessons that contribute to her overall health.
“Nature doesn’t give you instant gratification…but when it comes, it will be marvelous,” she remarked.
A passionate bird watcher, Andoh now has an app to identify species by sound and delights in spotting bluetits or goldfinches up close.
For her, the garden is a classroom teaching presence, a place to practice mindfulness and nurture one’s health.
While Bridgerton’s Lady Danbury showcases sophistication, the real Adjoa Andoh finds her greatest refinement and source of health digging in the dirt, letting the garden’s ecology rebalance her body and soul.
Gardening, it seems, allows this accomplished actress to simply enjoy the beauty of being human while nourishing her overall health and well-being.
In Case You Didn’t Know
- Besides acting credits, Adjoa Andoh has lent her voice to various video games.
- Andoh possesses mixed ethnicity as her father is Ghanaian, and her mother is English.
- She won the 2022 Black Reel TV Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress in the drama series “Bridgerton.”