Rosemary for remembrance
with Maya Thomas
This post contains affiliate links
February’s here, bringing with it that special combination of gloom with hope and promise for the future that only the final month of winter could possibly carry off. I’m making changes in the garden, dismantling structures that haven’t worked so well for me and marvelling at the resilience of one particularly stubborn plant of purple sage, which insists on staying put. It’s a good sign – I want more herbs this year, not just for their ability to flavour our food and maintain our physical bodies, but for their ability to raise our spirits the moment we come into contact with them. It’s this sensory side of the plants we grow for the kitchen and the medicine cabinet that makes them so appealing, and while many of us will go out of our way to make a place for them in the garden, few go to quite such great lengths to build our working life around them as this episode’s guest, the herbologist Maya Thomas. But it hasn’t always been a life of plants for Maya, and we begin our conversation – once I’ve gotten myself past the fanboy stage – by finding out how she spent the first part of her career.
There’s a reading from Bramble & Briar, the corner of Substack where I get to write (and speak) about my own garden, in a more candid fashion than I do elsewhere. And my first book, To Stand and Stare: How to Garden While Doing Next to Nothing turns one year old. Thanks as always to you all for your support, not only of the book, but the podcast, and now the Substack too!
Please do continue to share the podcast on social media, and if you’d really like to brighten my day, leave a review on iTunes or your podcast app of choice. Or drop me a note in the comments section below, having listened on the embedded player on this page.
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 Herbology
Ballymaloe Cookery School at Ballymaloe House in Cork, Ireland
Elisabeth Luard, author, journalist and broadcaster
Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, Kandy, Sri Lanka, where Maya’s great uncle used to work
Rewilding the Kitchen, Toast 2021, Maya Thomas
Returning to the Urban Wilderness, Toast 2021, Maya Thomas
Grow Easy: Organic crops for pots and small plots, Anna Greeland, Mitchell Beazley 2021
57:01 To Stand and Stare turns one year old
***
Thank you to Maya Thomas for joining me on this episode of the Gardens, Weeds & Words podcast.
You can find Maya on Instagram, and also on the web at The Modern Herbal
My own book, To Stand and Stare; how to garden by doing next to nothing, is published by DK Life, and is available here
I’m ever appreciative of all my listeners for your continued support and reviews, I really do appreciate them. You can support the podcast by buying its producer a virtual cup of coffee for three quid, at https://ko-fi.com/andrewtimothyOB. Proceeds will go towards equipment, software and the monthly podcast hosting fees.
website: gardensweedsandwords.com
email: gardensweedsandwords@gmail.com
Instagram: instagram.com/AndrewTimothyOB
Twitter: twitter.com/AndrewTimothyOB
You can hear find the podcast trailer and the first four episodes here, either on iTunes or on Switcher.
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Hello! I’m Andrew, gardener, writer, photographer, and owner of a too-loud laugh, and I’m so pleased you’ve found your way to Gardens, weeds & words. You can read a more in-depth profile of me on the About page, or by clicking this image.
