Bunny in the Garden with..‪.‬ Bunny Guinness

This week Bunny chats to Plum Sykes in her garden, in Gloucestershire. 

Christened Victoria but nicknamed Plum, she grew up with parents who had an extravagant lifestyle, mixing in high society circles, but with little money. Graduating from Oxford, Plum went to work for Vogue in the States. 

A successful novelist Plum is about to launch her latest book ‘Wives Like Us’ a satire based on the Chipping Norton set. Even before the release of the book, locals are guessing who exactly the main characters portrayed are based on! The hugely popular character, Shelby Fairfax is a Landscape Architect and Plum explains why she made this choice. 

Plum’s own garden is stylishly simple, and she talks about why it suits her, her favourite plants, whether she is a socialite and how she developed her fashion style on arriving in the Vogue offices.

Today Bunny Guinness is in the gardens of Badminton House, with Her Grace, The Duchess of Beaufort. In this episode Bunny talks to Georgia, Duchess of Beaufort, about the gardens. Hear about the stunning tulip planting Georgia has been in charge of, to give the garden more spring appeal.

Georgia Somerset, Duchess of Beaufort, married Henry Somerset, 12th Duke of Beaufort in 2018. Georgia is the grand daughter of the novelist Anthony Powell, she studied classics at Oxford University, before becoming a columnist and obituarist for The Daily Telegraph. 

Georgia, a keen gardener, is cataloguing the plants in the amazing gardens of Badminton House. There are many as Mary, Duchess of Beaufort, was one of Britain’s earliest distinguished women gardeners. Mary got into horticulture as she was trying to find a plant to ease her melancholy. She then began seriously collecting plants from many countries in the 1690’s, introducing more than 1500 plants, including Pelargonium zonale. Mary Somerset commissioned Everad Kickius to illustrate her choice exotics, and these are in her two volume florilegium which is still in the library at Badminton. Georgia is arranging for high quality prints to be made of a selection of these, so that they can be more widely appreciated. 


These fine gardens have been enhanced by a range of designers, including Charles Bridgeman, Capability Brown, Russell Page, and François Goffinet. Georgia’s husband’s mother, Caroline, was a keen and knowledgeable gardener, as is his step mother, Miranda, both who have put their stamp on the stunning gardens. 

In addition, the Badminton Estate are now working with the Royal Horticultural Society to create a new flower show in the historic grounds of the house in 2026, alternating with RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival which will become a biennial event in two years. 

To see what the garden looks like, Bunny Guinness’s YouTube ‘How the new Duchess of Beaufort is shining a light on the gardens of Badminton House.’ Is up now… 

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Today Bunny Guinness is in the garden with Jimmy and Michaela Doherty, who set up Jimmy’s Farm & Wildlife Park, some 20 years ago. 

Jimmy and Michaela took on an almost derelict farm that had laid empty for 50 years, and it is now a humming, go to place with an ever increasing range of animals from Polar bears (in the worlds largest polar bear enclosure), to wolves, and rare breed pigs, cattle and sheep. 

Michaela’s grandmother was one of the first female students at Wisley. Her father was in the Ghurkas, and made beautiful gardens where ever he was sent. These influences are entrenched in Michaela’s DNA. She has created gorgeous gardens, and a beautiful natural looking landscape that surround and shelter the old Suffolk farm, bedding in the animals and buildings to the countryside in an idyllic fashion.

Bunny took Michaela and Jimmy a huge decorative outdoor thermometer - from The Worm that Turned - that is a thoroughly useful guide for any gardener.  https://www.worm.co.uk

In this episode Bunny Guinness is chatting to Nicky Haslam, the celebrated interior designer, in his garden.

Nicky has led a rich life from breeding and showing Arabian horses in Arizona,  to being a photographer, gossip columnist, author and a contributor to Tatler and working on British Vogue. He also ran his Nicholas Haslam shop in London. The ‘Nicky Haslam Tea towel’, which he regularly produces lists things Nicky finds ‘common’ and always causes a stir! 

Nicky has also collaborated on many garden designs and describes his approach to garden design and where he sources items and how he adores making things for his designs. 

Julia is a well known psychotherapist, author of the best seller ‘Grief Works’, and she has a podcast ‘Therapy Works’.  She is Godmother to Prince George, and was a close friend of the Late Princess Diana. Julia discusses her upbringing and how she got into psychotherapy via Interior Design.

In this episode Julia discusses her upbringing and how she got into psychotherapy via Interior Design.  She talks about her garden, which was originally laid out by Lutyens and Jekyll, and how she enjoys it at every season of the year. Additionally, she explains the importance of outside spaces especially when you are affected by trauma and grief. 

Bunny took Julia a gift box of beautiful products from Bertioli by Thyme, containing their hand & body lotion, hand & body wash, their 3-in-1 shampoo bar, a large double wick candle, and best of all their breathing balm. All of which are in their comforting Water Meadow fragrance, inspired by their water meadows at home in Southrop. Bertioli.co.uk.

Robert Pavlis is a chemist and biochemist by training but in his ‘semi-retirement’ he has researched many garden topics approaching them from a scientific point of view and as a result has written two books on ‘Garden Myths’ where he debunks common misconceptions that gardeners adopt.  


He lives in Guelph, Ontario, and gardens at his six-acre home called Aspen Grove Gardens. 


He has published a handful of books and maintains two websites, gardenmyths.com and gardenfundamentals.com. 


His latest book comes out in Autumn (Fall) 2024 ‘Food science for Gardeners - Grow Harvest and Prepare Nutrient Dense Food’, the first book on this subject. Bunny chats to Robert about his garden, how he researches for his books and the exciting new information he has found for his new book. 


Robert is an award winning author of several books, Building Natural Ponds, Soil Science for Gardeners, Plant Science for Gardeners, Compost Science for Gardeners, Microbe Science for Gardeners and Garden Myths and publishes the popular gardening blog; GardenMyths.com and a YouTube Channel; Garden Fundamentals.