Tracy Wilson, MBE from the Animal and Plant Health Agency, the government department on the frontline of protecting our plants from pests and diseases, discusses what biosecurity means and what we can do as gardeners to help stop threats before they spread to keep our gardens and countryside safe and thriving. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
There's something genuinely magical about heading out into your garden or local woodland on a crisp winter morning, secateurs in hand, gathering armfuls of evergreen foliage. It connects us to those ancient midwinter traditions which go back thousands of years to when our ancestors celebrated the winter solstice. They understood that bringing evergreen branches indoors was a promise that spring would return. And don’t we all still find ourselves wishing for the same in the depths of winter? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Discover Adam's early gardening influences and the people who have helped him throughout his career - from his younger years with Scruffy Nan in the garden, to his informative years in Devon and with landscape gardener Geoff Hamilton. This podcast was recorded at Gardeners’ World Live with Nicki Chapman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Lydia Millen has amassed millions of devoted followers across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, showcasing her idyllic life in the countryside and her gorgeous garden. Yet such fame is not without its price. Lydia shares her experience of the darker side of social media, how gardening and nature have transformed her outlook on life, and helped her be her best self. And why she has swapped designer Hermès handbags for pottering in her greenhouse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Now is a great time to mulch. It's a chance to get out in the garden and do something practical when everything seems to be on the wane and dying down. It's also a good physical workout, a nice way to use a chilly but sunny day. You might think mulching is just about feeding the plants, but it's really about looking after the soil itself, the life beneath our feet, and it's easy to overlook. When you mulch, you’re adding nutrients and feeding the soil life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Gardening can provide us with many benefits, from being in fresh air, surrounded by nature, exposing us to sunlight and increased levels of vitamin D, bringing enjoyment from a colourful flower border, and dietary benefits too from the food we grow, to name a few. Being in the garden and in outdoor spaces can also be a fantastic way to stay fit and healthy. Jacqueline Hooton’s garden gym helps women in their 50s and 60s to become strong and fit and stay healthy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The Amazon may feel far away, but what happens there affects all of us. It's a storehouse of biodiversity and natural climate regulator and home to countless species that we've barely begun to study. Dr. Rosa Vasquez, Espinoza takes us into the amazing world of life beneath the rainforest canopy to explore what's at stake, what's still being discovered, and why the Amazon matters more than ever. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The time from November to March is ideal for planting bare root plants - whether trees, shrubs or hedging - and who doesn’t want more plants in their garden? Whether you’re planning to plant trees to your gardening space, adding some native mixed hedging or looking to increase your border with shrubs, choosing bare root plants is a great option. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Allotments offer the opportunity to have an ongoing relationship with nature and the land for nurturing and growing, building communities, sharing knowledge, seeds and plants. Each allotment plot is as unique as its location. Poet, nature writer, social anthropologist and allotment historian JC Niala, explores the connections between community, nature, and culture and how allotment sites can be utopias. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
If your garden is looking tired or you've moved into a new home and inherited a scruffy or unloved plot, turning it into a garden you love can seem like a daunting task. What do you do with shrubs that have grown wild or a patio that's crumbling under your feet? Join plantsman, author, designer, and TV presenter, Nick Bailey, who's recently renovated his own garden and discover how to give your garden a new lease of life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
It may not be sexy and it certainly isn’t about instant gratification, but it is free and easy: leaf mould. One of the easiest, most effective, and completely free soil improvers you can make at home, made from a mix of green and brown garden waste and kitchen scraps. Leaf mould iis rich in nutrients and created entirely from decomposed leaves. It doesn’t feed your plants directly, as it’s low in nutrients, but it’s like magic for the structure of your soil. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Peat bogs can store twice as much carbon as forests, are among the most carbon rich ecosystems on earth, and provide a home to many mammals, birds, insects, and amphibians. Presenter, writer and horticulturalist Alys Fowler, known for her botanical passion and ecological awareness, urges us to sink deep into the dark earths of these rugged places to appreciate the value of peatlands natural resources, beauty and richness. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Front gardens are often different from back gardens and tend to be a little bit smaller. They have to be functional and are usually quite visible too. They offer the added advantage of environmental benefits, such as improved air quality, and can also provide habitats for wildlife. So, how do you make your front garden appealing while also making it work for you too? Arit Anderson has some recommendations. Recorded at the Gardeners' World Autumn Fair. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Is there anything more cheerful than coming home on a cold spring day and being greeted by a pot full of colourful tulips? Spring may seem a while off but now’s the time to rip open some bags of bulbs and get planting and November is the ideal time to get them in the ground or in your pots. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Getting older doesn't have to mean that we stop doing the things we love. Gardening can be physically demanding, but it can also be hugely beneficial in keeping our minds and bodies active. Carol has been gardening for decades. At an age when many might have long retired and be slowing down, discover how she has adapted her garden and the way she gardens over the years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Monty reveals the biggest gardening lessons he’s learned during his career, including how to use colour and light in the garden throughout the year. Discover his love of visiting gardens for their stories and life, how important it is to connect with the natural world and the joy of creating something that connects people and plants. Recorded at Gardeners' World Live in June. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
When people think of protecting tender plants, the first thing that springs to mind is usually frost. And yes, frost can be devastating, but what’s less often talked about is the combination of cold and wet. So, let’s look at some ways to give your tender plants the best chance of surviving until spring. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Utilising garden design skills can make a huge difference in terms of process, budget, and the all-important end result. Garden designer and BBC Gardeners World presenter Adam Frost discusses the basics of garden design from soft and hard landscaping to the helpful tips and tricks that create harmony, rhythm, biodiversity, and balance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Rachel de Thample reveals how cheap honey is really made, and the impact that has on its nutritional value. Plus find out how London ended up with 'too many' bees! She also shares delicious ways to use honey and how best to help bees in your garden, whether you want to keep your own bees or support other bees, and the different bee-keeping methods they use at Hugh Fearnley's Whittingstall's River Cottage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
A good job to do this time of year is to give your gardening pots, and greenhouse too if you have one, a thorough deep clean. It’s a job that’s easily neglected, but if you take the time now in autumn, you’ll reap the benefits in spring when the growing season starts again in earnest. And, apart from the satisfaction you’ll get from seeing gleaming pots and shiny greenhouse windows, it’s important to get rid of any pests, diseases and mould that can overwinter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
There's plenty of evidence that connecting with nature is good for you, but for many people who live in an urban setting, it's not always possible or easy to access green space. Thankfully there is a growing movement made more visible via the digital world that seeks to address the imbalance and ensure that access to nature is not only available to all, but can be enjoyed to its most inspiring, uplifting, educating, and empowering extent, including the many in varied habitats that are often just a stones throwaway. Discover how urban wildlife ranger Lira Valencia helps others commune and benefit from nature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Planting bulbs in the autumn and winter gives hope that spring will greet you with bursts of colour. Starting with snow drops and crocus, and then daffodils, bluebells and more, by the time you’re in summer there are many different colours in the garden. Discover why bulbs represent a transition and a life life to Frances Tophill. This podcast was recorded at BBC Gardeners' World Autumn Fair. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Sowing next year’s broad beans is a great way to deal with the sad fact that summer is over, and its up there with planting next year’s garlic cloves as an antidote to the autumn blues. There’s also a really good horticultural reason to sow your broad beans now, enabling the plants to get off to a much better start when they’re sown now, rather than in spring. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Not so long ago, the alleyway behind Yasmine El Gabry's street in Manchester was home to flytipping, anti-social behaviour and worse. Now, it's a thriving community garden, and these things are banished to the past. How did she and her neighbours do it – and can it work elsewhere for the rest of us? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
A tree can make or break a garden. The right tree in the right spot can add structure, year-round interest, shelter, and food for wildlife. Trees do a lot of good in a garden too, particularly in urban areas, providing shade and helping to reduce local heat as well as mitigating against the effects of climate change such as flooding. So, should we all be planting trees in our gardens, especially in cities and other urban areas? And, if so, which trees should we plant for not and for the future? Award-wining wildlife writer Kate Bradbury talks to RHS Ecosystem Services Fellow Dr Elisabeth Karlstad Larsen to discover more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
A satisfyingly physical job, dividing perennials is just about the easiest way of making new plants. Lifting and dividing is simply the process of digging up herbaceous plants, splitting them into smaller, healthy sections, and replanting them, giving your plants a new lease of life. It's also a brilliant opportunity to move plants or, even better, spread them around your garden for free. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Healthy soil is the foundation of every thriving garden, but how well do we really understand what's going on beneath our feet? Award-winning garden designer Juliet Sargent explores how we can all care for and make the most of this precious resource, incudling what soil needs, the damage we might unknowingly be doing, and how every gardener can work with nature to create a more sustainable garden. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Discover practical tips for nurturing and enjoying home-grown produce with Gardeners' World presenter Adam Frost. Listen as he gives advice for what to grow throughout the year, what he has enjoyed in the veg patch this year and how he looks after his plot. From his early influences in the garden and in the kitchen, Adam also reveals a tasty recipe for how to cook marrows! This podcast was recorded at the BBC Gardeners' Word Autumn Fair. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Planting onion sets and garlic cloves in autumn is a great way to get a head start on next year’s harvest. By planting now, the bulbs will establish earlier than spring planted crops, and garlic benefits from colder temperatures so they can burst into growth in spring. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Murder, intrigue, betrayal. It's all in a day's work for award-winning actress Indira Varma, best known for roles in Game of Thrones, Luther and Obiwan Kenobi, as well as many stage roles. But away from the bright lights Indira is a keen gardener. In this episode she tells us about her London garden, what inspires her and why there are faces hiding amongst her plants. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
