Gareth Richards, Jenny Laville and Guy Barter bring a jam packed show of highlights from the inaugural RHS Urban Show in Manchester - a festival of ideas focussed on greening up small spaces, looking after houseplants, and opening discussion about better urban planning. Amanda Grimes talks us through her easy-to-replicate designs for small (often concrete) spaces, including a Punk Rockery! Jason Williams aka The Cloud Gardener showcases seven innovative gardens designed with local communities that take on the challenges of urban gardening and development. Jacob James from Grow Tropicals talks us through his amazing display of rare and intriguing houseplants, with tips for different growing environments. And award-winning young designer Nathan Webster gives us a tour of his Urban Forest design, created to provoke conversation around the importance of woodland management in built up areas.
Presenter: Gareth Richards, Jenny Laville, Guy Barter
Contributors: Amanda Grimes, Tom Massey, Tinie, Jason Williams, Nathan Webster, Jacob James
Contact: podcasts@rhs.org.uk
Links:
The RHS Urban Show 2024
Pop Culture Planting: Punk Rockery
RHS City Spaces: Cloudspaces
Happy Houseplants with Grow Tropicals
RHS Urban Forest
Chase presents: Inspired by the wild with Tom Massey and Tinie
Apr 25
41 min
In the stunning Colour Gardens at The Newt In Somerset, Joe Dransfield explains how a monochrome approach to flowers can deliver dazzling impact. Liz Mooney shares grow your own tips from the World Food Garden at RHS Garden Wisley, including peas, radishes and cardoons. And we hear the inspirational and unconventional story of Roka Brings Flowers – a grower and florist who started a wonderful cut flower business from a narrowboat with a floating greenhouse in tow.
Presenter: Gareth Richards
Contributors: Liz Mooney, Joe Dransfield, Roka Brings Flowers
Contact: podcasts@rhs.org.uk
Links:
How to grow peas
How to grow radishes
Cynara cardunculus Cardoon
The Newt in Somerset – an RHS Partner Garden
Roka Brings Flowers
RHS Urban Show
Apr 18
37 min
Desert roadcuts, abandoned pasture, heathland and marshy thickets inspire naturalistic planting ideas from Kevin Philip Williams and Michel Guidi, whose new book Shrouded in Light draws from wild shrubscapes. We also visit RHS Garden Rosemoor in North Devon, where Peter Adams gives us a tour of the extensive fruit and vegetable gardens with top tips for growing parsnips, shallots, cloching potatoes and protecting peas. Jenny Laville and James Armitage return to the podcast to debunk more plant terminology – this time talking about “hybrids” – what they are, how they occur and how they can be used to your advantage.
Presenter: Gareth Richards
Contributors: Peter Adams, Jenny Laville, James Armitage, Michael Guidi and Kevin Philip Williams
Contact: podcasts@rhs.org.uk
Links:
RHS Garden Rosemoor
How to grow parsnips
How to grow shallots
How to grow potatoes
F1 Hybrids
Shrouded in Light
Apr 11
37 min
Do you ever fall in love with a plant, buy it, but then not know what to pair it with? Principal Horticultural Advisor James Lawrence introduces his guide to creating planting combinations that don’t just look good, but have a sustainability impact too. Guy Barter shares seasonal tips for establishing tomatoes, beetroot, and winter pumpkins and squash – helping you to set up for the Grow Your Own season. And Jack Aldridge, a horticulturist who looks after Oakwood at RHS Garden Wisley, will be singing an ode to his favourite flowering shrub, the Stachyurus.
Presenter: Guy Barter
Contributors: James Lawrence, Jack Aldridge
Links:
Oakwood at RHS Garden Wisley
How to grow tomatoes
How to grow beetroot
How to grow pumpkins
Stachyurus praecox
Stachyurus chinensis
RHS Gardening advice / ChatBotanist
Apr 4
28 min
Often referred to as “the greatest living landscape designer” and a leading figure of the New Perennial movement – Piet Oudolf joins curator Matthew Pottage to talk about his new landscape at RHS Garden Wisley. Helen Bostock also introduces the new Bumbles on Blooms project, and the plants you should choose to help support over 250 species of bees in the UK - some with rather particular tastes. Plus, Sam Gallivan, Leader of the Nursery and Propagation team at Wisley talks about propagating plants at scale.
Presenter: Gareth Richards
Contributors: Matthew Pottage, Piet Oudolf, Helen Bostock, Sam Gallivan
Contact: podcasts@rhs.org.uk
Links:
Bumbles on Blooms
iNaturalist
Oudolf Landscape
Dividing perennials
Mar 28
38 min
Garden designer and writer Ann Treneman shares ideas from her new book RHS Greener Gardening: Containers, explaining how you can create sustainable ecosystems whatever size your space. Jenny Laville speaks with RHS botanist James Armitage to untangle taxonomy, and discuss why plant names keep changing. And Gareth Richards meets David Ford, the holder of the National Plant Collection of Chaenomeles in Surrey, to talk about his love affair with the plant and why they’re due a mainstream revival.
Presenter: Guy Barter
Contributors: Ann Treneman, Jenny Laville, James Armitage, Gareth Richards, David Ford
Contact: podcasts@rhs.org.uk
Links:
Greener Gardening Containers
RHS Plant Finder
Plant Heritage: National Plant Collections
Mar 21
38 min
This week Guy Barter and RHS Sustainability Fellow Chloe Sutcliffe react to a recent study published in the journal Nature Cities that claims that urban agriculture has a carbon footprint up to 6 times bigger than conventional agriculture – discussing what this means for allotmenteers and community gardeners, and how we should be thinking about our environmental impact. Entomologist and wasp defender Serian Sumner explains why spring is the perfect time to make peace with yellowjackets, as the queens emerge from hibernation. And the RHS’s Adrian Thorne gives us a practical guide to pruning shrubby hydrangeas.
Presenter: Gareth Richards
Contributors: Guy Barter, Chloe Sutcliffe, Serian Sumner, Adrian Thorne
Contact: podcasts@rhs.org.uk
Links:
Nature Cities: Comparing the carbon footprints of urban and conventional agriculture
Endless Forms by Serian Sumner
Shrubby Hydrangeas
The Garden Magazine
Mar 14
30 min
This week, we’re trying to honour March in all its glory. We’re delving into tasty and blight-resistant tomato varieties. We’re exploring how to build and renovate harmonious and colourful borders. And finally, to celebrate International Women’s Day and the 220th anniversary of the RHS, we’re turning back the clock to honour a few of the women who’ve shaped the organisation.
Presenter: Guy Barter
Contributors: Simon Crawford, Susie Pasley-Tyler, Fiona Davison
Contact: podcasts@rhs.org.uk
Links:
How to grow tomatoes
Tomato blight
Gardening with Colour at Coton Manor
An Almost Impossible Thing
Mar 7
29 min
This week we’re exploring small but useful nuggets of information that have the potential to change the way we interact with our surroundings this growing season. We’re getting seasonal tips on GYO – things like training and pruning apple trees and preparing allotments for the busiest time of year. And, we’re delving into plant names – and the system behind our classifications.
Presenter: Guy Barter
Contributors: Andy Lewis, Jenny Laville, James Armitage
Contact: podcasts@rhs.org.uk
Links:
Apples and pears: winter gardening
The Newt in Somerset – an RHS Partner Garden
Allotments: getting started
RHS Practical Latin for Gardeners
Untangling Latin Names
Feb 29
28 min
This week, we’re investigating what exactly makes a plant hardy, how tropical plants survive British winters, and the ways in which what thrives here may be changing – especially in urban environments like London. Presenter Gareth Richards and RHS botanist James Armitage take a tour of weird and wacky tender trees that have survived here against all odds. And, Hillary Collins of Grafton Nursery gives us a behind the scenes look at what you can do to help your eucalyptus withstand British winters.
Presenter: Gareth Richards
Contributors: James Armitage and Hilary Collins
Contact: podcasts@rhs.org.uk
Links:
Mediterranean garden plants
RHS hardiness ratings
Hardy Eucalyptus (Grafton Nursery)
Feb 22
31 min
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