The 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.

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Day 227: ban urban pesticides

A petition has been doing the rounds; created by Professor Dave Goulson, it aims to put an end to the indiscriminate spraying of chemical pesticides in urban areas…

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Day 219: horseweed

Canadian fleabane, or horseweed (Erigeron canadensis), seems to be the poor relation to its Mexican counterpart…

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Day 206: wild teasel

I think I’d almost grow the teasel for its botanical name alone – there’s something very satisfying about intoning ‘Dipsacus fullonum!’, loudly, as if it were some kind of Potterish incantation…

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Day 198: purple toadflax

The notion of the uninvited guest carries with it an air of something annoying, even perhaps sinister; the character who turns up looking to subvert events to their own agenda…

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Day 193: gardening opinions

We can often find ourselves frustrated with the crowds at plant shows or gardens; so many people, getting in the way of our photographs…

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Day 181: bellbind

Aren’t we pretty, though? Delicate white trumpets upturned with a coquettish gaze, innocently knowing, butter-wouldn’t-melt. You’re not kidding me…

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Day 174: car park plants

I park the car badly. Since the switch for the door mirrors broke off, I’m having to hang out of the driver’s door as I back up…

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Day 110: the weirdness of weeding

Running my eye across the borders now, I’m reminded of what irks me most about our approach to gardening – our attitude to the plants we call ‘weeds’…

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Day 107: dandelion time

Time is a tricksy character. We measure it in all situations by the appearance of regular markers and, in the garden, we use plants; the first snowdrop, the first blossom…

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Day 58: winning the war

I am winning the war against couch grass. Scourge of many an allotment plot, it once romped unchallenged across the vegetable garden here, but no longer cuts quite such an impressive figure…

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Day 3: Belonging

Winter presents the ideal opportunity for getting to grips with the brambles, but who really belongs more in the garden – the weeds, or the gardener?

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Day 350: creeping woodsorrel

Thank heaven for creeping woodsorrel (Oxalis corniculata). Not really for any intrinsic value the plant possesses – it’s not particularly ornamental, though I do quite like the variety with the deep maroon foliage…

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Day 328: winter weedlings

Almost winter. The garden is drawing itself inward, but nobody seems to have told the weeds. Fine crops of juvenile foliage are appearing on perennial nettles…

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The Gardens, weeds & words podcast, Series 2 Episode 3

Weeds are generally shunned in the garden, entire sections of industry dedicated to their eradication. But what makes a weed, and who gets to decide? Garden designer Jack Wallington thinks we should not only be looking with a more kindly eye on these maligned plants, but using them with purpose in our gardens. We discuss his new book, Wild About Weeds, and discuss the practicalities of getting his message out there.

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Day 256: ragwort

Ragwort gets a bad rap for being poisonous to horses, which it is, but that’s hardly the fault of the wildflower, and rather more of a system that manages to package it up in feed for domesticated beasts…

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Day 217: bindweed

Perhaps it’s cruel of me to expect you to start your Monday morning with a weed, but I figured if we could come to terms with bindweed over breakfast, we’d be nicely set up for the week…

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Day 137: wonderful weeds

The garden is frothing over just now – the hedgerows all about too, for May is the month when the cow parsley comes into flower…

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Day 97: groundsel

I try to make a habit of being on the side of weeds, but it’s hard to love groundsel (Senecio vulgaris) …

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Day 76: ground elder

The emerging leaves of this humble relative of the carrot are enough to strike fear into the heart of many a gardener. Ground elder, or goutweed (Aegopodium podagraria) has a reputation as a tricky, invasive customer…

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