Chef, grower, teacher, herbologist – it’s always hard to categorise my guests on the Gardens, Weeds & Words podcast and Maya Thomas is no exception. Suffice to say that a love of plants or people – and usually both – infuses everything she does, and so where better to focus our conversation for this episode than on the subject of herbs…
Read moreThe Gardens, Weeds & Words podcast, Series 3 Episode 9
Love it or hate it (and why would you hate it?), the RHS Chelsea Flower Show offers a fantastic platform for charities to promote their work. In this episode, I’m joined by Hattie Ghaui, CEO of Project Giving Back, whose Gardens for Good Causes initiative brings together designers, landscapers and charitable organisations, creating headline-grabbing show gardens with the power to bring change where it’s most needed.
Read moreThe Gardens, Weeds & Words podcast, Series 3 Episode 8
There’s an intricacy and generosity of spirit to the work of floral artist and broadcaster Hazel Gardiner that betrays her love of story telling, as well as hinting at her ability not just to absorb energy from the creatives she works along side, but to amplify that vibrancy and share it back around. In this episode she joins me to talk about her varied career path, the roots of her artistic approach and, of course, her garden
Read moreThe Gardens, Weeds & Words podcast, Series 3 Episode 7
To celebrate the publication of my first book, To Stand and Stare: how to garden while doing next to nothing, I’m having the tables turned on me. For this episode, I find myself on the other side of the mic as friend of the podcast Alice Vincent drops by to interview me about how the book came about, how it relates to my wider work, and why a title that’s very much not a ‘how to garden’ manual still manages to have so many ‘how to...’ sections in it.
Read moreThe Gardens, Weeds & Words podcast, Series 3 Episode 6
I’m so delighted to have florist and grower Milli Proust on the podcast for the last episode of 2022. Her book From Seed to Bloom was one of the highlights of the year for me, as it has been for many others, and the images of her floral arrangements and beautiful growing space in West Sussex continue to provide a gorgeous backdrop to pleasant reveries. We discuss her emphasis upon the seasons and the land, on story and theatre, and the impact that becoming a mother has had on her work. And laugh, a lot.
Read moreThe Gardens, Weeds & Words podcast, Series 3 Episode 5
Susanna Grant’s mission seems to be to make gardening easy for people; particularly people who live in the city, where space is at a premium and buildings huddle together to crowd out the light. From behind an unassuming garden gate in Hackney, her courtyard store Linda glows, filled with the kind of lush, green growth that thrives in these conditions. We talk of shade and weeds, community gardens and cake, perennial window boxes and sending worms through the post.
Read moreThe Gardens, Weeds & Words podcast, Series 3 Episode 4
“Something I believe is missing from conversations about the climate crisis is the need for us to build a stronger emotional connection to our planet and each other”, writes Hannah McDonald in the wake of COP26. In this episode, we consider how our readiness to engage with the great outdoors not only benefits our own sense of wellbeing, but lies at the heart of necessary and urgent change.
Read moreStihl cordless hedgetrimmers: HSA 86 & HLA 85
It’s more than two years since I first looked at Stihl’s cordless hedge trimmers for the blog, and in that time the range has grown and consolidated its position at the head of a crowded field of battery powered garden equipment. More to the point, these machines have become part of my everyday toolkit, none more useful to me than the two reviewed here.
Read moreThe Crumble Garden
Everything in the garden reminds me of food, but never more so than now.
Read moreHow to grow your dinner
Lockdown happened, and interest in growing your own food exploded. No-one’s going to become self-sufficient over night, but being less reliant on vulnerable systems seems more attractive by the day. Which is all very well if you have acres, but what if you garden is a balcony, or a window ledge? With this book published today, Claire Ratinon shows us how to grow fresh, exciting vegetables in the smallest of spaces.
Read moreStihl RMA 443 TC cordless lawn mower
Lawn mowing season is well and truly here and this year, for reasons we’re all too familiar with, most of us are spending a lot more time in the company of the green stuff than would normally be the case. Having a reliable, quiet, and efficient mower is one of those things that makes the less glamorous aspects of being a garden owner less of a chore, and Stihl’s range of cordless electric machines delivers on all counts. I’ve been putting the RMA 443 TC through its paces.
Read morePeat free
With growing signs of the environmental damage caused by peat extraction on both a local and global scale, the quality and availability of peat-free growing mediums for both domestic gardeners and professional growers is on the up. At the same time, general awareness around the issue of peat in gardening products remains low. So why’s it taking so long?
Read moreTea refuser
As a self employed gardener, you quickly learn to avoid two types of client. Firstly, those who evidently believe that paying for your services is discretionary. And secondly, those who never offer you tea.
Read moreSun catcher
It’s me. I am the sun catcher. I catch the sun. The minute the clouds part and those yearned-for, warming rays illuminate the scene and banish the gloom with the sun’s presence, I’m there. Catching it.
Read moreWind and smoke
I have an oddly conflicted relationship with the wind. At once stimulating, annoying and frightening, occasionally helpful and sometimes strangely comforting. We might learn that a body of air will move from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure, but that’s hardly an explanation that satisfies our enquiry. Why is the wind, we wonder, and where is it going?
Read moreWhat must our gardens think?
Five o’clock and it’s still light. Just. This is encouraging. This is... inspiring! If the weather hadn’t been so filthy today, I’d’ve been out there till the dark dropped, beavering away, tidying away, Getting Things Ready. But the thing is, I haven’t been, and the garden waits patiently for me to get back into the swing…
Read moreRootbound. Rewilding a Life
Sometimes, good things have to fall apart, so that better things can fall together. Whether or not we can confidently attribute this insight to Marilyn Monroe, it’s particularly apt for this, the second book from Alice Vincent. Over the course of Rootbound, the life of the author unravels and then – to the rhythms of the natural world – knits back together, entirely stronger, stranger, and more wild.
Read morePushing through
I’ve been stuck in bed with the lurgy for several days, so getting back out into the garden this weekend has been a tonic. The long running saga of the Elusive Wheelbarrow Inner Tube Puncture having now been drawn to a satisfying resolution…
Read moreThe Naturecraft Garden
At this years RHS Hampton Court Flower Show, I resolved to do things a little differently. No galloping all over trying to see everything, but a more measured pace, and a closer look at a smaller selection. One garden that I’ve been looking forward to seeing for months was Pollyanna Wilkinson’s Naturecraft Garden.
Read moreThe Wild Remedy; How Nature Mends Us
Lavishly illustrated with Emma Mitchell’s instantly recognisable sketches, paintings and flatlays of found objects, The Wild Remedy offers a whole year of hedgerow observations, walks among rockpools and country rambles, while demonstrating how the author turns to nature to assist in navigating her mental health.
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