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546 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud
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What's That Weed?
7 december 2023 · 30 min
Weeds have many faces. They feed birds, butterflies, bees, and the like. They spread like wildfire, but are resilient. They compete with crops, yet can add colour and beauty at times when our gardens feel lacklustre. They’re complicated – and the way we regard them, even more so. So, in today's show, we’re taking a holistic look at the weeds in our gardens – discussing what constitutes a weed, how to deal with them safely, and how we can see them as more than the enemy. Chief horticulturist Guy Barter chats about this upcoming book What’s That Weed?, the students who brought together Wisley’s ‘What is a Weed?’ exhibition share their perspectives on these rapid spreaders, and finally, author Ann Treneman gives her advice on creating weed containers. Lees meer
Presenter: Gareth Richards
Contributors: Guy Barter, Ann Treneman, Students from St John the Baptist SchoolLinks:
RHS Weeds: The beauty and uses of 50 vagabond plants
Identify common weeds
Controlling Weeds
Exhibition: What is a weed?
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The Winter Garden
30 november 2023 · 31 min
With the first cold snap hitting the UK this past week, it’s really starting to feel like winter. It’s a time of structural beauty, of evergreen supremacy, of frosty seedheads, and of low but magical light. So this week, we’re focusing in on all the mystery and enchantment of a winter garden. We’re chatting with author Naomi Slade about designing and revamping gardens in the colder months, leaning into year-round grow-your-own with garden manager Sheila Das, and exploring how to bring a bit of the winter charm inside with what’s available now to pick. Lees meer
Presenter: Guy Barter
Contributors: Naomi Slade, Sheila Das, Gareth Richards, Hazel Gardiner, and Shane ConnollyLinks:
RHS The Winter Garden
Vegetables: growing for winter
Winter Flowers Week
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The Best Gardening Books of 2023!
23 november 2023 · 32 min
It’s that time of year again… Our annual book special is here! Today, Helen Griffin, RHS Book Publishing Manager, chats with Fiona Davidson, Guy Barter, and Arthur Parkinson about their top gardening book picks of 2023. Tune in for a discussion on the future of GYO and resilient planting, the relevance of gardening history, and wildcard topics like cut flowers, winter gardening, and yes, even murder. Lees meer
Presenter: Helen Griffin
Contributors: Fiona Davidson, Guy Barter, Arthur Parkinson, and Matt PottageBooks Discussed:
Botany of the Kitchen Garden by Helena Dove
Rekha’s Kitchen Garden: Seasonal Produce and Home-Grown Wisdom from One Gardener’s Allotment Year by Rekha Mistry
RHS The Winter Garden by Naomi Slade
England’s Gardens: A Modern History by Stephen Parker
Gardening can be Murder: How Poisonous Poppies, Sinister Shovels, and Grim gardens Have Inspired Mystery Writers by Marta McDowell
Not Another Jungle: Comprehensive Care for Extraordinary Houseplants by Tony Le Britton
Chatsworth: The gardens and the people who made them by Alan Titchmarsh
A Year Full of Veg: A Harvest for All Seasons by Sarah Raven
The Cut Flower Sourcebook by Rachel Siegfried
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Crazy About Houseplants: Top picks & tips and the stories behind our obsession
16 november 2023 · 32 min
As the surrounding world starts looking a little bleaker, we’ve decided to explore how to best turn our homes into verdant oases. RHS Digital Editor Jenny Laville chats with Gareth Richards about the best low-maintenance houseplants, fun climbers for indoors, and underrated care tips and tricks. Social historian Catherine Horwood regales us with the history of ever-changing houseplant trends. And finally, author and podcaster Alice Vincent reveals the role houseplants played in her own gardening journey. Lees meer
Presenters: Gareth Richards and Jenny Laville
Contributors: Catherine Horwood and Alice VincentLinks:
Picking the right houseplant
Houseplants for different locations
Houseplants for students
Potted History: How Houseplants Took Over Our Homes
Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival
Rootbound: Rewilding a Life
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Travelling Back in Time
9 november 2023 · 33 min
This week, we’re journeying back through time, taking stock of a few significant moments in botanical history. We’re unravelling their mysteries, considering their reverberations, and imagining what this all might mean for the future. We're starting with a tale on the first flowering of the giant waterlily in cultivation, then discovering how ‘Midwinter Fire’ gave Cornus sanguinea a whole new reputation, and finally, we're taking a look at the life and legacy of Arthur Bulley, founder of Ness Botanic Gardens. Each of these stories draws inspiration from articles in the December issue of The Plant Review. Lees meer
The Plant Review
RHS A Plant for Every Day of the Year
Foggy Bottom: A Garden to Share
Ness Botanic Gardens
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Winter Preparation & The Case for No-Dig
2 november 2023 · 30 min
This week, we journey through RHS Garden Wisley, capturing some of its autumnal beauty while also looking ahead as winter edges ever closer. Garden Manager Sheila Das chats with us about her no-dig journey, entomologist Dr. Seirian Sumner fills us in on wasps’ winter preparation, and finally, Wisley advisors provide a seasonal Q&A. Lees meer
Links:
How to grow a No-Dig Garden
How to improve your soil with the ‘No Dig’ technique
Endless Forms: Why We Should Love Wasps
Leafmould
Mulches and mulching
Preventing winter damage
Autumn-interest shrubs
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Hidden Roots: Extraordinary Tales from Black Women Gardeners
26 oktober 2023 · 39 min
This month – October – is UK Black History Month – and the theme for 2023 is “Saluting our Sisters,” highlighting the influence Black women have had in shaping history and inspiring change. So for today’s show, we’re exploring a few of the extraordinary stories of Black women gardeners who’ve made and continue to make a difference in the world of horticulture — all while looking ahead to what we can do to create a more equitable future. Award-winning garden designer Juliet Sargeant is sharing the stories behind her designs. We’re getting a look at the life and work of Mrs Annie Vann Reid – an American nurserywoman who built a plant empire almost 100 years ago. And, finally, we’re chatting with floral artist Hazel Gardiner about making an impact through plants. Lees meer
Links:
The history of Black British gardeners is one of resistance
The Garden History Podcast
A Short History of Flowers
Juliet Sargeant: Gardens & Landscapes
Hazel Gardiner Design
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Entangled Wonder: An Autumnal Survey on Trees
19 oktober 2023 · 31 min
This week, with all the glorious leaf colour on display, we’re exploring the entangled wonder of the arboreal world, getting a behind the scenes look at what trees are up to now and chatting about how best to incorporate them within our gardens. Renowned nurseryman Nick Dunn is back on the podcast to talk crab apples. Silvologist and author Dr Gabriel Hemery is lifting the veil on what exactly is happening with trees at this time of year. And finally, garden designer Arit Anderson and scientist Dr Henrik Sjoman discuss what to keep in mind when choosing what to plant. Lees meer
Links:
RHS guide to trees
RHS The Garden Magazine
The Tree Almanac 2024
The Essential Tree Selection Guide
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Maximising Minimal Space
12 oktober 2023 · 32 min
It’s no secret our living spaces are getting smaller. As more and more of us move to urban areas, we’re often having to put up with tight quarters – living in tiny flats with limited outdoor space. So in this episode, we want to explore how to maximise the space you do have – getting the best out of whatever garden, patio, porch, or windowbox you can access. Award-winning garden designer Tony Woods gives us a front garden masterclass. We’re then chatting with journalist and gardener Ann Treneman about creating fetching winter containers. And finally, Fiona Davison, our head of Libraries and Exhibitions, is back to tell the story of an early city gardener – and what we can learn from his 18th century ideas. Lees meer
Links:
RHS Big Ideas, Small Spaces
Garden Club London
RHS Urban Show
Growing plants in containers
Thomas Fairchild: The first city gardener?
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A Fun Guide to Fungi
5 oktober 2023 · 33 min
This Saturday – 7 October – is UK Fungus Day. And so for this week’s show, we’re exploring the fascinating faces of fungi. We’re taking a tour of the Fungus Garden at RHS Wisley, journeying back in time with biologist Merlin Sheldrake to investigate our historical uses of these organisms, chatting about 3 easy ways you can grow your own edible mushrooms, and finally, we’re returning to Wisley to get an update on the science team’s honey fungus research. Lees meer
The music you hear at the very beginning of the show was created by Cosmo Sheldrake. The sounds you hear -- apart from the accompanying piano -- are from recordings of oyster mushrooms devouring a copy of Merlin Sheldrake's Entangled Life. You can listen to the entire song here.
Links:
Saprotrophic fungi
Mycorrhizal fungi
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures
Rebel Gardening: A Beginner’s Handbook to Creating an Organic Urban Garden
Honey Fungus: identifying mushrooms
10 fun facts about fungi
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Harvest Reflections and The Future of Grow-Your-Own
28 september 2023 · 30 min
We’ve passed the autumn equinox and officially entered harvest season. It’s time to pick apples, pears, and autumn-fruiting raspberries, harvest squashes, beetroot, aubergines, leeks, and much, much more. And, of course, what we can grow and how crops perform is changing. As our climate becomes more unpredictable and more extreme, some of our go-to classics are no longer shoe-in wins. So, this week, we want to honour the harvest season, while also exploring what it means to grow food resiliently – and in a way that benefits both our gardens and our stomachs. We’re stopping by RHS Garden Wisley’s impressive pumpkin patch, discussing the connection between our soil and gut microbiome with Garden Manager Sheila Das, and exploring unusual but sustainable crops that could be staples in the years to come*. Lees meer
Links:
Pumpkins and winter squashes: storing
Festival of Flavours
Vegetables: growing for winter
Edible: 70 Sustainable Plants That Are Changing How We Eat
*Please note, when foraging, never eat a plant if you aren’t 100% certain of its identification, and check before harvesting that doing so is legal where you are. Follow the Countryside Code and only pick as much as you will use.
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Boosting Your Soil Health
21 september 2023 · 28 min
Soil is the backbone of our gardens. A healthy soil means happier plants, higher crop yields, and greater biodiversity. So, this week, as we begin laying out our deliciously rich compost with fervour, we’ve decided to dive deep into what makes for top-notch, productive soil. We’re starting with a masterclass on composting in colder months. Then, we’re turning to the science of eco-acoustics – and how the sounds worms and other invertebrates make can give us insight into the state of our soil health. And finally, we’re myth-busting! Electroculture gardening is everywhere on social media these days, but is it actually worth your while? Lees meer
Links:
How to care for your soil
Composting through the winter
Earthworms
Soil types
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The Radical Lives of Britain's Women Gardeners
14 september 2023 · 37 min
With the release of Fiona Davison’s new book – An Almost Impossible Thing: The Radical Lives of Britain’s Pioneering Women Gardeners – we decided to dedicate this week’s show week’s show to women in the garden. And in that vein, we’re exploring the potential for gardens to be empowering, educational, equalising, and radical spaces. Fiona shares a story from her book about two women from over 100 years ago who show that the roots of ecological gardening run further back then we may realise. Psychotherapist, writer, and gardener Marchelle Farrell reveals how her English country garden helped her get to the core of a question that had troubled her throughout her life: What is home? And finally, garden historian Twigs Way joins us again to give the inside scoop on an early and influential gardening school for women. But, If you’re looking for more advice-oriented content – fear not! Throughout the programme, we’re giving story-specific gardening tips. Lees meer
An Almost Impossible Thing: The Radical Lives of Britain’s Pioneering Women Gardeners
Uprooting: From the Caribbean to the Countryside – Finding Home in an English Country Garden
Vine Weevils
Autumn-interest shrubs
Study & Learn at the RHS
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A Host of Golden Daffodils (And Other Bulbs!)
7 september 2023 · 33 min
Now that it’s September, we’ve officially entered bulb-planting season. It’s time to get things like daffodils, alliums, crocuses and hyacinths into the ground. So, with that in mind, we’ve put together a bulb deep dive – with a strong emphasis on those golden classics, narcissi. In the episode, we travel to Lindley Library to get the backstory of daffodils’ long history of cultivation, chat with TV horticulturist and daff-lover Camilla Bassett-Smith about her favourite varieties, catch a tutorial on naturalising narcissi in the landscape, and then finally, check in with Michael Perry (aka Mr Plant Geek) on all that’s trending with bulbs this year. Lees meer
Links:
Visit the RHS Lindley Library
A Host of Golden Daffodils: The story of a springtime favourite
How to grow daffodils
Bulbs: naturalising
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In Life and Death
31 augustus 2023 · 31 min
Perhaps nowhere do we face the realities of life and death more frequently and intimately than we do within the garden. We witness a cycle of growth, dieback, and rebirth on a seasonal, weekly, and even daily basis. And so, as we once again inch closer to a new season – to autumn, a time of abundance, growth, but also, let’s face it, decay – we’ve decided to take a deeper look at what gardens and our beloved flora can reveal about both life and death. We’ll hear from Dr. Ross Cameron about his 2023 release How Plants Can Save Your Life, get a behind-the-scenes peek at the field of forensic botany, travel to The Poison Garden in Alnwick to learn about their pernicious new addition, and finally, take a second look at the life cycle of wasps. Lees meer
Warning: This episode contains a story about police investigations into death, murder and suicide. Listener discretion is advised.
Links:
Gardening for Health and Wellbeing
How Plants Can Save Your Life
Murder Most Florid: Inside the Mind of a Forensic Botanist
Mark Spencer's Lindley Late Lecture
The Alnwick Garden
Endless Forms: Why We Should Love Wasps
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Late Summer Gardening
24 augustus 2023 · 32 min
With autumn drawing closer and closer, we’re exploring late summer gardens – with all their lushness, colour, and vibrancy — and considering what we can get up to in the garden now to set us up well for the next year. We visit RHS Garden Wisley to take a look at their seed collection process – and get their tips for how to replicate this all at home. We chat with kitchen gardener and food writer Kathy Slack about how we can get the best out of the fruit and veg we’ve grown this summer. And finally, garden historian Twigs Way joins us again to share the second part of her allotment series all about their history from the early 1900s until today. Lees meer
Links:
RHS Members’ Seed Scheme
RHS Grow Your Own
From the Veg Patch
Tales from the Veg Patch Newsletter
Festival of Flavours
Allotments
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Rewilding Small Spaces
17 augustus 2023 · 31 min
Today’s show focuses on specific ways we can rewild gardens. We’re exploring how we can intervene in space spaces to create dynamic habitats – without using herds of free-roaming animals. Isabella Tree, co-author of The Book of Wilding and one of the foremost rewilding experts in the UK, chats about her own experiences rewilding her estate and her top tips for getting into a wilder mindset. We’re then shifting gears a bit – turning away from specific practices, to look at some of the fauna pivotal to our natural ecosystems. We visit RHS Garden Wisley to hear the curious case of the roman snail colony there. And finally, we catch up with Lloyd of the Flies Creator Matt Walker and RHS Entomologist Andy Salisbury to learn about the new family-friendly insect trails across all of our gardens. Lees meer
Links:
The Book of Wilding
Roman Snails at Wisley
Summer holiday fun at RHS Gardens
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Back on the Allotment
10 augustus 2023 · 33 min
It’s National Allotment Week – a time to celebrate our country’s vast network of allotment plots and re-invest in our own dedication to growing fruit and veg. So for this week’s show, we’re taking a wander through a variety of allotments, getting a behind-the-scenes look at the techniques growers use to get the best out of their crops and examining the ways allotments help us better connect to the food we eat. We return to RHS Chief Horticulturist Guy Barter’s allotment in Surrey, where he shares this season’s successes and failures. We stop by RHS Garden Wisley’s Student and Community allotments to have a look at the different approaches taken there. And finally, we get the history of how allotments became commonplace here in the UK from garden historian and writer Twigs Way. Lees meer
Links:
Allotment: getting started
Grow Your Own Advice
Tomato blight
Allotments by Twigs Way
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Orchid Special
3 augustus 2023 · 32 min
With the grand opening of Wisley’s Orchid House this past month and the publication of The Orchid Review – our annual orchid yearbook – within reach, we thought it the perfect time for another Orchid Special. In this week’s show, we chat with Julian Shaw, who heads the International Orchid Register, Reshma Lobo, a London-based jewel orchid grower, Art Chadwick who breeds the cattleyas named for American First Ladies, and Kevin Wigley, who’s transformed a room in his house into an orchid sanctuary. Lees meer
Links:
The Orchid Review
The International Orchid Register
Ugly Plantling
Chadwick & Sons
The Orchid Committee
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Growing Up in the Garden
27 juli 2023 · 32 min
Now that it’s late July and the whole family’s around, we thought it the perfect time to explore gardening with kids and to reflect on our own memories of growing up in gardens, allotments, and parks. We visit the Hitchin Youth Allotment – Paul Dee, the founder, will share the story of the project as well as his top tips for growing fruit and veg with kids. Afterwards Fiona Davison, RHS Head of Libraries and Exhibitions, recounts the constantly evolving history of the role that children have played in our gardens – and how this relates to societal and cultural shifts. And finally Roy Lancaster, renowned plantsman and broadcaster, divulges the tale of the epic plant discovery he made as a young boy in Lancashire. A discovery that propelled him into the world of horticulture. Lees meer
Links:
RHS Campaign for School Gardening
The Garden Magazine
Hitchin Youth Allotment
Growing Up in the Garden Exhibition
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Trending at Tatton
21 juli 2023 · 32 min
RHS Flower Show Tatton Park is finally here! And we’re taking you on a tour of some of the highlights. We’re speaking with young designers like Camellia Hayes and Nathan Webster, exploring the new Sensory Long Border displays, and taking in the extraordinary RHS Nocturnal Pollinator Experience. But that’s not all! Because it’s the final flower show we’re covering on the podcast this summer, we’re putting all the emerging trends we’ve noticed at Tatton in context with themes from the other shows we’ve covered this year. Lees meer
Links:
Discover RHS Flower Show Tatton ParkSeeking Resilience Garden
Sensory Long Borders
RHS Nocturnal Pollinator Experience
Off the Grid Garden
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Refashioning the Unfashionable
13 juli 2023 · 34 min
This week, we’ll be exploring a few of our cultivated genera and species that, for a variety of reasons, have gone out of style. We’ll hear about Plant Heritage’s Threatened Plant of the Year competition, take you to the beautiful garden of horticultural legend Roy Lancaster to get a tour of his most-cherished aucubas, chat with Wisley curator Matthew Pottage on why we should give Parthenocissus a chance, and finally, take a trip down memory lane with author Naomi Slade. Naomi will be telling us all about the history of the lilac’s bumpy ride in the popularity stakes. Lees meer
Links:
The Plant ReviewPlant Heritage
RHS’s National Plant Collections
Lilacs: Beautiful Varieties for Home and Garden
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RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2023
6 juli 2023 · 35 min
It’s the 30th anniversary of the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival and it’s looking better than ever. There’s a magnificent Floral Marquee filled with displays from over 80 nurseries, a Festival of Roses boasting several exciting new cultivars, models of allotment growing, creative show gardens, and star-studded talks all week long – to name but a few of the features that make this festival an annual favourite among gardeners. For this week’s episode, we’re bringing you the highlights. We’re chatting with imaginative designers like Zoe Claymore and Jo Thompson, and we’re taking you inside the Floral Marquee and Festival of Roses to get advice from the UK’s best nurseries. Lees meer
Links:
RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival
RHS Wildlife Garden
The Wildlife Trusts: Renters’ Retreat
David Austin Roses
The Harkness Rose Company
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Fabulous Florals: Lilies, Verbena bonariensis, and Flowering Dogwoods
29 juni 2023 · 29 min
It’s peak summer – a time when many of our flowers are flourishing, adorning our gardens with bright colours and sweet, rich fragrances. We’ve gone from nurturing our gardens to flipping the switch – sitting back and letting them fill us with joy. So, this week we’ve decided to celebrate that with an episode dedicated to flowers. Author and gardener Ben Dark will be explaining why Verbena bonariensis is our horticultural salt, writer and lily-lover Naomi Slade will be sharing her favourite Lilium varieties, and finally, botanist Barry Clarke will make the case for including flowering dogwoods in our gardens. Lees meer
Links:
The Grove: A Nature Odyssey in 19 ½ Front Gardens
Lilies: beautiful varieties for home and garden
The Garden magazine
Sir Harold Hillier Gardens
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Ungardening
22 juni 2023 · 30 min
Ungardening isn’t the antithesis of gardening – instead, it’s about taking a new perspective on what tending to the earth can look like. And that’s a fitting theme for today’s show, as it’s chock full of stories that force us to look at things with fresh eyes. We’re getting handy and slightly unusual tips from RHS advisors on June grow-your-own problems. Then, we’re heading to RHS Garden Wisley’s orchard to hear the latest on their brand new fast-growing habitats. And finally, we’re chatting with Garden Museum curator Emma House about how artist Jean Cooke explored the concept of “ungardening” through her paintings. Lees meer
Links:
Jobs to do in June
Trees! What are they good for?
Jean Cooke: Ungardening
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Summer Scents
15 juni 2023 · 32 min
As we get closer and closer to the official start of summer, the fragrances of our favourite flora are reaching a fever pitch. So for today’s show, we decided to focus on the many smells of our June gardens. In this aromatic deep dive, we’ll chat with renowned garden designer Isabel Bannerman on crafting a balanced but sweet-smelling summer plot, we’ll hear about the favourite Lathyrus cultivars of sweet pea supremo Roger Parsons, and finally, we’ll end with a mystery. Urban naturalist and author Bob Gilbert is back on the show to discuss the curious story of how a favourite scented flower of the Victorians lost its hallmark smell. Lees meer
Links:
Scent Magic
Lathyrus: The Complete Guide
The Missing Musk: A Casebook of Mysteries from the Natural World
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June Garden Reset: GYO Chillies, Protect Your Soil, and Wonderful Wasps
8 juni 2023 · 29 min
It’s June and our gardens are now in full swing. It’s a wonderful time of year – that perfect sweet spot where we can start to take in the fruits of our spring labour, while still looking ahead to the wonders yet to come. And so this week, we’ll be focusing on what you can keep on doing to ensure your garden flourishes all summer long. We’ll be chatting with Alessandro Vitale about the plant that inspired him to grow – chillies, hearing from entomologist Seirian Sumner on the surprising benefits of wasps in June, and checking in with Caroline Williamson at RHS Garden Bridgewater on how we can keep our soil happy and healthy this summer. Lees meer
Links:
Rebel Gardening: A Beginner’s Handbook to Organic Gardening
Endless Forms: The Secret World of Wasps
How to care for your soil
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The Art of Our Gardens
1 juni 2023 · 35 min
In this special episode, we’re branching off from the regular content of the show to zero in on what we can make when using flora as both our inspiration and our medium. It’s about art – where the greenery of our landscape is the lens through which we create. We’ll be travelling to RHS Lindley Library to get some expert insights into the secrets of the world’s finest botanical art, getting the inside scoop on what to grow to produce natural dyes ahead of the WOVEN festival in Kirklees, and finally, chatting with academic and author Elizabeth-Jane Burnett about writing poetry about moss. Plus, you’ll get a rundown from RHS Chief Horticulturist Guy Barter on what you can do in your garden this week. Lees meer
Links:
RHS Botanical Art and Photography Show
WOVEN 2023
Twelve Words for Moss
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It's Chelsea, Baby!
24 mei 2023 · 43 min
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023 is finally upon us! And this week, we’ve brought you an episode recorded amongst the hustle and bustle of designer gardens, best in class floral displays, traders, talks and exhibitions, and more. We’ll catch up with a few of the big designers – including Tom Massey, Cleve West, Charlotte Harris & Hugo Bugg – explore the RHS Chelsea Plant of the Year Competition, and get a behind-the-scenes look at what goes on at the show. Lees meer
Links:
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023The Royal Entomological Society Garden
The Centrepoint Garden
Horatio’s Garden
Project Giving Back
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Greening the Grey: Wisteria, Vertical Gardening, and the Sounds of London’s Trees
18 mei 2023 · 32 min
For this week’s show, we’re delving into the natural world of cities – looking at how best to grow our favourite plants with limited space and to treasure the diverse flora and fauna of our cityscapes. Author Ben Dark shares his love for the wisteria embellishing urban front gardens. Urban farmer Alessandro Vitale – you might know him as Spicy Moustache — takes us through all his tips and tricks for growing vertically in whatever space you’ve got. And, author and amateur urban naturalist, Bob Gilbert, gives his thoughts on the sounds of London’s trees. But that’s not all – we’re ending the show with a touching tribute from Daisy Payne on what she’s doing in honour of Celebration Day on 28 May. Lees meer
Links:
Rebel Gardening: A Beginner’s Handbook To Organic Urban GardeningThe Grove: A Nature Odyssey in 19 ½ Front Gardens
Ghost Trees: Nature and People in a London Parish
“The Susurration of Trees” BBC Radio 4 programme
Make the most of your urban garden
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Grown Here From Elsewhere
11 mei 2023 · 32 min
As the UK becomes more and more diverse, the flora we grow is changing – and we want to honour that. So, this week, we’re spotlighting the plants grown here from elsewhere. First up, we’ll take a trip to an allotment site in Southall. Here, award-winning garden designer Manoj Malde will chat with us about the fruit and veg from around the world that he’s including in his garden at the Chelsea Flower Show. We’re then delving into the history of plant collectors. Fiona Davison, Head of Libraries and Exhibitions at the RHS, will take us through the often overlooked legacy of how some of our garden favourites made it to Britain from far-off lands. Finally, we’ll head to RHS Bridgewater’s Chinese Streamside Garden – and explore how international horticultural partnerships have changed over the years. Lees meer
The RHS and Eastern Eye Garden of Unity
The Chinese Streamside Garden
Rare and Familiar Friends: The story of Chinese plants in our gardens
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Gardens Fit for a King
4 mei 2023 · 29 min
The coronation of His Majesty King Charles III is just two days away. As a royal society, we thought it was only fitting to celebrate our new monarch with a royal-themed episode. First, we’ll check in with three of the Prince’s Foundation estates – Highgrove, The Castle of Mey, and Dumfries House – to get the inside scoop on how they manage their vast gardens while still considering the environment. Then we’ll visit Arundel Castle for their Tulip Festival, leading you on a tour of their over 130,000 tulip blooms, before giving you a tutorial on how to build a coronation container in time for National Gardening Week. Lees meer
Links:
The Prince’s Foundation
Dumfries House
Highgrove House and Gardens
The Castle of Mey
Arundel Castle
National Gardening Week 2023
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Dig for Dopamine
27 april 2023 · 31 min
It’s almost May, which is Mental Health Awareness Month. So for this week’s show, we’re getting into growing for wellbeing, and the many ways you can enjoy the sounds, sights, smells and experiences of gardening this spring. RHS Advisors discuss their go-to wellness tips in the thick of the growing season, artist MoYah reveals the unexpected links between gardening and hip hop, and RHS Advisor Becky Mealey takes us back to the mediaeval times, explaining how monks created productive but calming gardens of their own. Lees meer
Links:
Gardening for health and wellbeing
May Project Gardens
A Gentle of Plea for Chaos
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Earth Day 2023: A Flora & Fauna Love Affair
20 april 2023 · 34 min
At the RHS, we try to think critically about the ways we cultivate the earth and interact with the wildlife that inhabit our green spaces everyday. But this week, in honour of Earth Day, we wanted to take extra time to really celebrate our gardens – and to share our love for the many plants and animals that bring them to life. Gardener and writer Ben Dark shares a history of the tulip that stretches back 1,000 years, RHS Senior Ecologist Gemma Golding chats with us about her exciting wildlife research, and artist and author James Bridle takes us through his exploration of the intelligence of plants. Plus, throughout the show we’ve sprinkled in plant love letters from Alice Vincent, Victoria Bennett, and Sue Mabberley. Lees meer
Links:
The Grove: A Nature Odyssey in 19 ½ Front Gardens
iNaturalist
Ways of Being: Animals, Plants, Machines: The Search for a Planetary Intelligence
RHS Sustainability Strategy
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Healthy Garden, Healthy Gardener
13 april 2023 · 29 min
This week, we’ll be checking in on the health of our gardens, taking a look at the various diseases on the rise here in the UK and what we can do to stave off their encroachment. But that’s not all! With the return of allergy season, we’re also going to explore the many ways we can garden with not just the health of our plants in mind, but with that of our own bodies, as well. Plant Pathologist Dr. Liz Beal chats with us about the RHS annual disease rankings, Dr. Shubha Allard and Dr. Patrick Yong take us through the allergies to watch out for this spring, and finally virologist Dr. Tim Wreghitt shares his advice on building a low-allergy garden. Lees meer
Links:
RHS Disease Ranking
Hilltop Live: “Plants and Allergy” on 21 April
Low Allergy Gardening: The Why and Where of Plant Allergies and Plants to Choose for Your Low Allergy Garden
Pollen forecast
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Designing a Resilient Garden
6 april 2023 · 30 min
Today, we’re looking to the future – exploring how we can create resilient gardens that can flourish in the changing climate while also serving their local ecosystems. Renowned Garden Designer Tom Massey shares his blueprint for designing sustainable gardens that persevere, Peter Jones, the Garden Manager of Hardy Ornamental at Wisley, gives us a tour of the plants that survived through this past winter, and finally, RHS Advisor Esther Wolff chats with us about her tips on what you can do now to build up your garden’s resilience. Lees meer
Links:
RHS Resilient Garden: Sustainable Gardening for a Change Climate
Plants for wet and dry soils
What can I do about climate change in my garden?
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Spring To Do's
30 maart 2023 · 29 min
April is just around the corner, and you know what that means: The hectic growing season is finally upon us. So, with that in mind, today’s episode will be exploring some of the big spring to-do’s. RHS Chief Horticulturist Guy Barter takes us to his allotment in Surrey, giving us a tour of his current grow-your-own projects, Flower Farmer and Author Rachel Siegfried chats with us about creating the perfect spring bouquet, and finally, Fiona Davison, Head of Libraries and Exhibitions, walks us through the influence certain royals have had on gardening trends throughout history. Lees meer
Links:
Allotments
Allotment: getting started
The Cut Flower Sourcebook
The Old Laboratory at Wisley
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Reimagining Our Lawns
23 maart 2023 · 31 min
In today’s episode, we’re exploring the many, many ways we can all get wilder with our lawns. It’s part of a larger RHS campaign with The Wildlife Trusts to celebrate how we can Bring Our Lawns To Life by gardening with nature, rather than against it. Mark Schofield from conservation charity Plantlife takes us through the whys and hows of creating wildlife-friendly lawns, Sue Mabberley from Nant y Bedd garden in Wales chats with us about her grassland and meadow care, and Janet Crouch from Maryland, USA tells us the story of her legal battle to keep her biodiverse front yard. Lees meer
Links:
Plantlife
Nant y Bedd Garden Workshops
Wild About Gardens Campaign
Lawn and mini-meadow habitats
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Blossoms Special
16 maart 2023 · 31 min
With spring just around the corner, we thought we’d devote an entire episode to blossoming trees. We’ll get into selection and planting advice, and journey across time and space to discover their history and current status. Tree Nurseryman Nick Dunn walks us through how to select the perfect cherry tree for an English garden, Journalist Naoko Abe takes us back in time to explore the work and legacy of cherry-tree fanatic Collingwood Ingram, and Richard Baines, Curator at Logan Botanic Garden in Scotland, gives us an inside look at his efforts to conserve endangered evergreen magnolias. Plus, RHS Advisor Lenka Cooke shares a dynamic tutorial on planting flowering apple trees this March. Lees meer
Links:
Flowering cherry trees for small gardens
‘Cherry’ Ingram: The Englishman Who Saved Japan’s Blossoms
Plant Explorer: A Plantsman’s travels in Northern Vietnam
How to grow apples: RHS advice
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A Root of One's Own
9 maart 2023 · 31 min
This week, in honour of International Women’s Day, we’re giving space to a few of the women who’ve found meaning and fulfilment in the gardens they’ve created. We’re exploring the power that exists in our own connection with the rich environments we inhabit, and the myriad of ways we can care for and cultivate it. Writer and gardener Alice Vincent opens up about her quest to find out why exactly women grow, RHS edible grower Suzie Kelly shares her top tips for growing her favourite vegetable (tomatoes!), and author Victoria Bennett gives us an honest look at the apothecary garden she built in the midst of deep grief. Lees meer
Links:
Why Women Grow
Why Women Grow Podcast
All My Wild Mothers
Tomatoes – growing your own
Fast tomatoes – the quickest way to grow your own
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The Afterlife of Plants
2 maart 2023 · 31 min
This week, we’re exploring the afterlife of plants. We’re looking at what happens when we remove different plant material from our gardens – either parts of flora still growing or others long dead – and preserve or display them as they were then, frozen at a particular stage of their life cycle. Flower farmer and author Rachel Siegfried shares her secrets on growing perennials and woody plants for cut flowers, Tivvy Harvey and Lydia Walles take us into the inner sanctum of Wisley’s herbarium, and then horticulturist Mark Tuson shows us the ornamental structures he’s made from pine cones and dried flowers. Finally, Fiona Davison, Head of Libraries and Exhibitions at the RHS, takes us away from dead plants and into the world of dead insects. She’ll help uncover a piece of the RHS’s rich history, giving us an inside look at the life and legacy of entomologist George Fox Wilson. Lees meer
Links:
The Cut Flower Sourcebook
RHS Herbarium
How to dry flowers and foliage
The Old Laboratory
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Sustainable Alternatives
23 februari 2023 · 31 min
Our gardens don’t exist in a vacuum, just for us. They are part of a much larger ecosystem. They provide habitats that are crucial for supporting biodiversity and can offer scores of additional environmental benefits. So today, we’ll be looking at straightforward and eco-friendly alternatives we can take up to transform our gardens into the sustainable havens our world deserves. Chris Baines, a leading environmentalist, will delve into how wildlife gardening has changed over the past 50 years, RHS Advisor Nikki Barker will share her top tips for growing seeds and cuttings in peat-free compost, and finally, Jenny Bowden, another advisor and long-time friend of the show, will give us an inside look at her research into box alternatives. Lees meer
Links:
RHS Companion for Wildlife Gardening
How to use peat-free compost: for seeds and cuttings
Box Alternatives Survey
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Gardening on a Small Scale
16 februari 2023 · 30 min
In this week’s show, we’re zooming in on how to garden in small spaces. Whether you’ve got a neglected corner of your garden that you need to fill – or you’ve no garden at all – we’ve got you covered. We’ll be exploring a host of techniques for turning odd nooks and crannies into little green oases. John Dower, a long-time member of the Alpine Garden Society, will start us off with a master-class on constructing mesmerising gardens in miniature. Connor Smith, head of the Rock Garden at Utrecht Botanic Gardens, will share his tried and tested advice for using recycled materials to make compact crevice gardens. And finally, Alpine Horticulturists Amy Smethurst & Bertie Swainston will share their love for dainty dionysias. Lees meer
Links:
Alpine Garden Society
Harlow Carr Alpine House
Rock gardening
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Let's Eat!
9 februari 2023 · 29 min
While it’s not quite planting season, fear not – there are still creative ways you can grow and harvest food today, and, of course, it’s never too early to start planning ahead for spring. So this week, in our food special, we explore the many ways you can enjoy the different tastes and flavours of a winter garden. Woodland Ecologist and author Artur Cisar-Erlach delves into the many unusual and delicious ways of using trees in the kitchen, RHS Chief Horticulturist Guy Barter takes us to a supermarket to share all the cheap and easy ways we can grow fruit and veg from food scraps, and Paul Oswick closes out the show with a tour of the nearly 100 seed potato varieties sold at Clockhouse Nursery in North London. Lees meer
Links:
The Flavor of Wood: In Search of the Wild Taste of Trees From Smoke and Sap to Root and BarkGrow your own fruit, vegetables, and herbs
Clockhouse Nursery
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Our Plants' Roots
2 februari 2023 · 31 min
This week, we’re journeying back in time to explore plants of yore. Otherlands author Thomas Halliday tells us the story of the United Kingdom’s ecological origins, Kew Botanist Rafael Govaerts describes how garden plants can go extinct, and Karen Clarke gives us the scoop on the RHS’s Digital Dig project – an effort to digitise the many, many thousands of old plant nursery catalogues in our collections. But that’s not all, Mr. Plant Geek, aka Michael Perry, will close out the show by bringing us into the present with a love letter to an exciting hyacinth he helped roll out. It’s an episode chock-full of deep-rooted flora stories! Lees meer
Links:
Otherlands: A World in the Making
The Plant Review
Digital Dig
Volunteer with the RHS -
Deep Winter Gardening
26 januari 2023 · 29 min
This week, we explore some of the most eye-catching parts of deep winter gardening, all while providing advice on what you can do in your garden as January draws to a close. Dawn Smith from Walberton Nursery shares her love of hellebores, RHS Team Leader Mark Tuson teaches us how to build ornamental habitat structures to attract wildlife, and RHS Advisors respond to pressing winter questions and concerns. Lees meer
Links:
How to grow hellebores
Plan your visit to Wisley
Dead wood and compost heap habitats
Advice -
Make a splash with aquatics!
19 januari 2023 · 25 min
This week we’re diving into the world of aquatic and semi aquatic plants. Sarah Gerrard-Jones, also known as The Plant Rescuer, gives a dynamic tutorial on making mini water features for the home, Dr. John David, Head of Horticultural Taxonomy, describes the invasive nature of many aquatic plant varieties, and then, Dr. Elisabeth Larsen, RHS Ecosystems Services Fellow, takes us away from ponds and waterways, giving us an exclusive tour of her research on how trees capture water. Lees meer
Links:
The Plant Rescuer: The book your house plants want you to read
How to grow aquatic and bog plants
Aquatic Weeds
Climate Change & Trees -
An Ode to the Hedge
12 januari 2023 · 31 min
Get ready – today’s episode is all about hedges. RHS scientist Tijana Blanusa delves into the environmental benefits different hedges provide, grower and self-proclaimed “plant nerd” Kevin Hobbs fills us in on unconventional plants that end up making great garden barriers, and RHS advisor and longtime friend of the show Leigh Hunt teaches us how to plant deciduous hedges in January. Plus, several RHS experts share hedge “love letters,” letting us in on their favourite variety.
Links:
Hedges: choices with environmental benefits
Hedges: planting
The Story of Trees: And How They Changed the Way We Live Lees meer -
A Toolbox for a Sustainable 2023
5 januari 2023 · 30 min
We thought there was no better way to start off the new year than with an episode entirely focused on sustainable gardening. In this week’s show, RHS Sustainability Fellow Chloe Sutcliffe gives you an inside look at her research measuring the environmental footprint of our horticultural practices, a handful of RHS experts share their go-to tips for cultivating a greener garden, and finally, we delve into our podcast archives to revisit two of our favourite permaculture stories. Lees meer
Links:
Gardening for the Environment
Planet-friendly gardening tips
3 ways to connect to nature
RHS Sustainability Strategy
10 ways to be more sustainable in your garden -
Reflections on the Year
29 december 2022 · 25 min
This week, we’re looking back on our garden highlights (and lows) of 2022 while also taking stock of the current state of our winter green patches. We’ll hear from Wisley horticulturalists on their reflections of the year, learn all about colonised fungi log piles from plant pathologist Jassy Drakulic, and get the inside scoop on why Wisley doesn’t cut back their herbaceous perennials until early spring. Lees meer
Useful links:
Dead wood and compost heap habitats
The Glasshouse at Wisley
Visiting Wisley
RHS Allotment Handbook