Episodes
Gardens, weeds and words podcast, S03E10 show notes A blend of slow radio, gardening advice and conversation, and readings from the best garden and wildlife writing. These notes may contain affiliate links.  Garden soundtrack February; the natural world waking up; the bossiness of raised beds 2:00 Reading from I was right all along, on my Substack, Bramble & Briar 3:41 the resilience of the purple sage   4:45 Interview with Maya Thomas Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Diploma in...
Published 02/08/24
Published 02/08/24
Gardens for Good Causes, with Hattie Ghaui   A blend of slow radio, gardening advice and conversation, and readings from the best garden and wildlife writing.   These notes may contain affiliate links.      Garden soundtrack   The glory of October   3:25 Reading from Kew Gardens, by Virginia Woolf. Written in 1919, available in hardback from Kew Publications, 2018 Read by Milli Proust   8:19 Interview with Hattie Ghaui   9:00 A summary of Project Giving Back’s work...  ...
Published 10/10/23
Designing with flowers. With Hazel Gardiner   A blend of slow radio, gardening advice and conversation, and readings from the best garden and wildlife writing.   These notes may contain affiliate links.      Garden soundtrack   Over the hump of the year   1:56 Vita Sackville west struggling with summer   Readings from In Your Garden, Vita Sackville West. Oxenwood Press, 1996 Read by Andrew Timothy O'Brien   5:30 Interview with Hazel Gardiner 5:55 Creating in...
Published 08/08/23
A blend of slow radio, gardening advice and conversation, and readings from the best garden and wildlife writing.   These notes may contain affiliate links.      Garden soundtrack   Cracking ice while walking through the fields – is it too soon to say, or is winter beginning to think about handing over to spring?   A great time for mulching.     Reading from To stand and stare 3:02 Read by Andrew Timothy O'Brien   To stand and stare: how to garden while doing next to nothing,...
Published 02/16/23
A blend of slow radio, gardening advice and conversation, and readings from the best garden and wildlife writing.   These notes may contain affiliate links.        Garden soundtrack   Winter bringing new and rare experiences – December snow in Kent, and recording the audio version of my new book.     Reading from To stand and stare 2:10 Read by Andrew Timothy O'Brien   To stand and stare: how to garden while doing next to nothing, by Andrew Timothy O'Brien. DK Life, 2023. ...
Published 12/17/22
A blend of slow radio, gardening advice and conversation, and readings from the best garden and wildlife writing.   These notes may contain affiliate links.        Garden soundtrack   The joys of October in the garden.     Reading from A breath from elsewhere, by Mirabel Osler 4:28 Read by Jemma Cooper   A breath from elsewhere, by Mirabel Osler. Bloomsbury, 1997. https://amzn.to/3Stlvr9     06:52 Gardening in the shade       08:10 Interview with Susanna Grant   08:20...
Published 10/26/22
I chat to Hannah about her nature inspired illustration practice from her home and studio in Amsterdam, how life there compares to life in London, and whether the Dutch or the English are better at coping with what the weather has to throw at them. Work/life balance, slow living, and having a garden room on the Dutch equivalent of an allotment are all covered, together with how Hannah decides exactly what to draw, and the character of her own particular lines and dots.
Published 11/29/21
I'm joined by Jackee Holder to discuss her work as a creative consultant, her deep relationship with nature and, especially, trees, and her mission to introduce people to the urban forest. With a micro review of Roger Deakin's Wildwood; A Journey Through Trees
Published 01/31/21
Containing hot fried potatoes on cold winter days, a catch-up with Almanac creator Lia Leendertz, the honeyed tones of Milli Proust and long-awaited conversation with Birmingham-based potter Katie Robbins about her plant-inspired creative practice. https://apple.co/2P21VX6
Published 12/04/20
Revisiting the question "why do we build gardens?", and how plants help us to transform a shelter into a home. I'm joined by Jennie Spears to tell me about the work she does with Lemon Tree Trust, helping people to garden in refugee and IDP camps in northern Iraq. Claire Ratinon drops by for a quick chat about her new book, How to grow your dinner without leaving the house.
Published 10/23/20
I'm joined by multi-award-winning designer Ann-Marie Powell to talk about her lockdown project @myrealgarden, her approach to garden design and making restorative green spaces for children's hopsices with the charity Greenfingers.
Published 07/31/20
Lockdown has brought with it an explosion in garden interest – but it's not always easy to know where to start. Garden writer Laetitia Maklouf has always had a knack for breaking the subject down, and she joins me to explain how she does just that in her new book, The Five Minute Garden.
Published 05/21/20
A blend of slow radio, gardening advice and conversation, and readings from the best garden and wildlife writing.   These notes may contain affiliate links.        Garden soundtrack   Birdsong, and gardening in the new normal.   Gardening in one place over time.    Reading 04:00 Extract from The Garden Log Podcast, episode 74, read by the host, Ben Dark. https://thegardenlog.libsyn.com/       Interview with the Katie Rushworth 05:51    06:21 Not the only Yorkshire-born...
Published 04/23/20
A fascinating chat with fabulous organic grower Claire Ratinon about urban food growing in New York and London, the delectability of veg, and being a grower of colour.
Published 03/27/20
The Skinnyjean Gardener Lee Connelly joins me to talk about his new book, How to Get Kids Gardening, and we ponder what's so special about those early formative memories of plants and gardens.
Published 02/28/20
Plants or people – few things really enjoy the restrictions of being forced to conform. Journalist and author Alice Vincent joins me to discuss her second book, Rootbound. Rewilding a Life, and how nature helped to knit back together the unravelled strands of her life.
Published 01/31/20
Garden writer and broadcaster Alys Fowler joins to me to discuss our relationship with nature through plants and gardens, how nature can heal us and how, as the calendar ticks over to a new decade, we need urgently to start paying it back.
Published 01/03/20
Queen of Instagram Sara Tasker (aka @meandorla) joins me to discuss how her relationship with nature influences the work she creates in a virtual space.
Published 11/30/19
In an episode about weeds, garden designer Jack Wallington joins me to talk to me about his approach to gardening as outlined in his new book, Wild about Weeds.
Published 11/14/19
Terra Incognita used to be written on maps over areas of uncharted territory. Berlin based photographer Grant Simon Rogers talks to me about how well we know the ground under our feet.
Published 10/24/19
Welcoming in autumn and talking about plants at work and in the home with Caro Langton, one half of botanical design and plant installation consultancy RoCo.
Published 09/26/19
In an episode dedicated to newbie gardeners, I talk to writer and podcaster Lucy Lucraft about her experiences of being a new garden owner, the mysteries of weeding, gardening with a toddler and growing your own food as a vegan.
Published 08/22/19
Considering the affirmation that comes from reading a passage written by one of your gardening heroes who agrees with you, until they go and spoil it by banging on about a flower you can’t stand! With a reading from Vita Sackville-West, a trail of the next full episode and, as ever, featuring the angry squirrel and startled pheasant.
Published 07/28/19
In conversation with Jo Thompson about her BBC Springwatch garden at this year's RHS Hampton Court Flower Show, which demonstrates how neighbours can work together to encourage wildlife into their gardens.
Published 07/03/19