Debbie Bourne, author of The High-Heeled Gardener

THEY are an eccentric bunch of Belsize Park gardening volunteers who work all hours and at the end of the day imagine downing a glass or two of Chateau Camden Town.

It’s not often I find myself laughing out loud while reviewing a new book, but Kentish Town-based Debbie Bourne’s The High-Heeled Gardener really tickled me.

Described as an eco romance, or a “Growmance”, the book wants us all to be more environmentally friendly but doesn’t take itself too seriously.

The novel’s plot, so to speak, is a large semi-derelict forgotten site in Belsize Park. There are plans to turn it into a fruit, vegetable and wildlife garden.

Step forward leading volunteer Debbie, a fashion designer, who insists on wearing high heels for digging, even in the mud. She takes a shine to the man organising the big dig, Camden councillor for sustainability, Toby Knight, who likes to live up to his surname, has golden hair and is “movie-star gorgeous”.

And guess who is covering the eco story? A local paper called the Camden New Journal.

Right, here’s a quick question for new volunteers. Let’s see how well you, the reader, does. How do you make apple puff? Answer, chase it round the garden.

Events begin with the gardening group removing ancient rubble and rubbish from an old former allotment opposite Debbie’s home in Belsize Park. The rubbish includes old gents’ trousers buckled with barbed wire, a rusted bathtub, corroded saucepans and all manner of discarded “used” plastic items.

Before they start digging, Debbie, obviously new to the eco world, suggests using herbicide. Cllr Knight thinks – and he hopes – she’s joking.

Elderly volunteer Dora remembers that as a child the site was used as an allotment during the Second World War. She manages to use her zimmer frame not just for balance but also to help with digging. She says there was “a lot of propagating” there during the war. Another volunteer, Natalie, replies: “I always wondered what went on in those air raid shelters.”

Dora would like to grow cauliflowers but admits they can be temperamental. She quotes American novelist Mark Twain, who wrote: “Cauliflowers are nothing but a cabbage with a college education.”

Debbie is worried about bees after being stung as a child.

Bee expert Bernie warns that although the creatures are needed to pollinate flowers and fruit there’s been a drastic decline in the bee population, “We don’t know why,” he says. “Possible agricultural, chemical or loss of habitat.”

The work is hard, especially for people like Debbie, who is not used to it. She’s exhausted after several hours of digging. She is resting at home while her young son James cooks what he grandly describes as a “gourmet” meal – beans on toast.

With her husband Stu away, Debbie is planning to take James to a “Seedy Sunday” green event in Stoke Newington, where growers talk mainly about plant sowing.

James is not looking forward to it. Debbie says: “I have bribed James with two extra hours of computer time if he escorts me. And there’s a bonus hour if he pretends to be interested at the event.”

Debbie and son James should, of course, use public transport to reach the hall. Instead, she decides to drive. And when they arrive the car is hidden around a corner.

Inside the Seedy hall, James, ever determined to help boost his mum’s cause, suggests they adopt an unfortunately named crapaudine beetroot. No doubt James likes to emphasise the first four letters of the plant.

Later in the book we join a party at the wildlife site to celebrate its first year. It is a dimly lit event with turnips filled with tea lights perched on wonky bamboo canes.

One of the main games at the event is the Pumpkin Pip Spitting Contest. “The night sky abounds with streaks of violet and rose, charcoal and cornflower blue. There are peals of laughter as the contest begins…”

Bourne is herself a local environmentalist who co-founded and works as a volunteer for green group, Think&Do Camden.

“My aim is to make climate action fun. That way we will get more people involved,” she said.

The book has already inspired a scheme to plant 82 new fruit trees on the Mortimer and Abbey estates in Kilburn. This scheme is sponsored by the local Koko nightclub, organised by Camden based Communi-trees, and begins later this month.

“We are already doing much of the work that my book has dreamed up,” says Bourne. “There is so much going on in Camden on the environment, and it’s wonderful.”

I had to ask Bourne what were the chances of wine drinkers ever really enjoying a glass of Chateau Camden Town.

“Let’s wait and see,” she says. “If the climate gets any warmer everything is possible.”

• The High-Heeled Gardener. By Debbie Bourne, Malchik Media, £12.77. Illustrations by Deborah Jackson-Brown from Primrose Hill.