BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Podcast

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Listen to gardening inspiration from some of the UK’s most loved and well-respected gardening experts in the award-winning BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine podcast.  Enjoy growing advice throughout the year with our Conversations series. Join Monty Don, Frances Tophill, Adam Frost, Arit Anderson, Carol Klein and more for friendly gardening chat and informative discussion with the magazine team, perfect for everyone who enjoys gardening.  Hear Alan Titchmarsh solve your gardening problems in Ask Alan, find advice for what to do in the garden in our What To Do Now series, and travel the globe with the BBC Gardeners’ World magazine team in Travel Tales: Gardens of the World. With new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday and bonus episodes every Saturday, subscribe now, wherever you get your podcasts, and never miss an episode. Find out more at GardenersWorld.com/podcast
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Episodes

Show Garden season is nearing, and BBC Gardeners’ World presenter and designer Arit Anderson takes us behind the scenes of creating a RHS Chelsea Flower Show garden that blends innovation, teamwork and deeply personal storytelling. From the early idea to the intense 18‑day build, she reveals the pressure, passion and people behind a purpose‑led garden inspired by Parkinson’s UK, and what it really takes to bring a show garden to life.

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Discover the joy in growing, whatever space you have. With beginner‑friendly gardening advice, small‑space growing ideas, and nature‑led projects for every season, gardener and author Amy Chapman shows how gardening can boost wellbeing, reduce anxiety, and reconnect you with nature. Perfect for new gardeners, urban growers, and anyone who believes joy is a gardening skill.

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Flower farmer and florist Georgie Newbery explores the beauty and impact of growing seasonal, British-grown flowers, sharing practical advice, personal stories, and a powerful philosophy around sustainability, seed sovereignty, and gardening in harmony with nature. Whether you’re a seasoned grower or just flower-curious, enjoy an inspiring conversation about cultivating flowers that nourish both people and the planet.

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Grower and author Anna Greenland explores how even the smallest spaces can produce beautiful, flavour packed food through thoughtful plant choices, healthy soil, and a deeper understanding of nature. Drawing on her experience working with chefs and gardens of all scales, she shares practical advice on growing edibles, nurturing living soil, and reconnecting with the rhythms of the seasons; reflecting on resilience, wellbeing, and how gardening can ground and nourish us in uncertain times.

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 Heavy clay, deep shade, a sun scorched patch of ground where nothing seems to flourish. It's easy to see these as problems, but sometimes the very thing you are battling is the key to a garden that feels distinctive, resilient, and entirely your own. Gardener, TV presenter and author Toby Buckland, explores how to unlock the potential of your plot by embracing its character and all its flaws. From reading your space properly, spotting opportunities where others see obstacles, and choosing plants that celebrate your conditions rather than suffering through them, discover how to create the garden that works for you.

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BBC Newsround presenter De Graft Mensah reflects on his “baptism of fire” into allotment growing, sharing honest lessons from successes, failures and the joy of community gardening. He discusses how small, imperfect spaces can reconnect us with food, nature and biodiversity, and explains why the Make a Metre Matter campaign proves that even a single square metre can make a meaningful difference for people and the planet.

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Join Dr Hayley Jones, principal entomologist at RHS Wisley, to find out more about why insects and other invertebrates are vital to ecosystems. Discover the garden-focused collection, how it is stored, how it has evolved since it was started in 1911 and the importance of tracking and reporting new or regulated pests. A UK-wide 2020 Slugs Count project created a preserved slug collection and informed advice on slug identification, non-chemical control, and the beneficial roles they play in our gardens.

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 Discover how a two-acre former service area in central London has been reimagined into a new, tranquil, richly planted climate-resilient garden in memory of the late Queen Elizabeth II. Through thoughtful design, royal associations and a commitment to long-term sustainability and biodiversity, Head of Horticulture and Landscape Strategies at the Royal Parks Matthew Pottage reveals the horticultural vision of the planting scheme and innovative design.

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 Whether you are starting from scratch or rethinking the gardening space you already have, what garden design principles can help you on your way to creating the garden you've always wanted, and what should you avoid? Award-winning garden designer Pollyanna Wilkinson will discuss the dos and don'ts of garden design from mistakes people make time and time again to the fundamentals of garden design that can really make a garden work.

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Discover Down House in Kent where Charles Darwin lived for 40 years and carried out world-changing research in his domestic family garden. This re-created Victorian garden includes an historic glasshouse of carnivorous plants, kitchen garden and surrounding meadows that supported Darwin’s accessible experiments connecting the site today to biodiversity, native planting, organic gardening and wildlife-friendly habitats. Visit the Down House in the BBC Gardeners' World 2-4-1 gardens scheme.

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Join plantsman and BBC Gardeners’ World presenter Jamie Butterworth to discover how to create inspiring, accessible plant combinations that add structure, seasonal interest, and biodiversity Using his “plant recipe” approach to keep designs straightforward with repeated plants and including trees or clipped shrubs for structure, Jamie's key advice for beginners is to get the soil right by adding organic matter and keep gardening joyful.

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Frances Tophill breaks down how beginners can start gardening anywhere by building healthy soil, choosing the right pots and compost blends, and keeping container plants well-fed. Discover best practice seed‑sowing techniques, easy bulbs, essential tools, and the best places to find trustworthy gardening guidance.

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Pots and containers add interest, height, colour, and even that ‘wow’ factor, no matter what size your garden or growing space. Join gardener and author Arthur Parkinson who reveals tips and advice for how to start, what to plant, and how to maintain your garden pots to create gorgeous year-round interest and encourage pollinators too.

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 Tomatoes, they tempt us. Every spring we pour over seed packets, debate varieties, and picture in our minds trusses of fruit so heavy, they practically bow the stems. Author Holly Farrell reveals what really matters when it comes to tomatoes, the choices and pitfalls, and the surprising bit of know-how behind every fantastic crop of tomatoes.

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Adam Frost lets you know how to keep your garden colourful year-round despite unpredictable weather. He shares why plant diversity is key and they explore: how climate change is reshaping the way we garden, why good soil matters more than predictable weather, and how leaving seed heads and untidy borders can attract wildlife and extend seasonal interest. Adam also hints at plans for his next garden — one built to last for generations.

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Published 2026-03-17

Grow your own Hamnet-inspired herb garden

35 min
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Step into the mystical forest of Hamnet to explore the plants chosen for the film and the powerful meanings they hold with Dr Kim Walker, medical herbalist, director of Betonica School of Herbal Medicine. As herbal consultant, Kim worked closely with director Chloe Zhao and actor Jessie Buckley, where a deep connection to land and plant lore creates a distinctive atmosphere, blending folklore, medicine, and emotional symbolism. And discover how you can grow your own Hamnet-inspired herb garden.

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Published 2026-03-10

Dame Mary Berry: my gardening life

33 min
Open

Known to many for her love of baking, Dame Mary Berry claims in another life she ‘may have been a gardener’. From spending time in the garden as a child to enjoying gardens she’s created over the years, Mary shares her love of gardening through the seasons, and the importance of connecting to nature for wellbeing. With top gardening tips, we’ll also discover her favourite plants, the people and gardens that have influenced her and how some energetic weeding is good for the soul.

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From how to begin gardening, growing with the seasons, creating months of floral colour in borders and pots, and discovering successful plant combinations, we’ll also give your garden year-round interest, unlock the potential of your plot, give advice for what to grow in small spaces, plant for pollinators, nurture the land we grow on, find the joy in gardening, and more.

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Published 2026-03-05

Spring Conversations Trailer

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Start your gardening year with growing inspiration in the Spring Conversations podcast from BBC Gardeners' World Magazine and hear from the UK’s most loved and well-respected gardening experts.From how to begin gardening, growing with the seasons, creating months of floral colour in borders and pots, and discovering successful plant combinations, we’ll also give your garden year-round interest, unlock the potential of your plot, give advice for what to grow in small spaces, plant for pollinators, nurture the land we grow on, find the joy in gardening, and more.Enjoy friendly gardening chat and informative discussion with the magazine team, perfect for everyone who loves gardening. With new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe now, wherever you get your podcasts, and never miss an episode.

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This time of year, the last thing many of us think about doing is immersing in cold water outside, but cold, open water can calm the mind, strengthen the body, and reconnect us with nature, boosting mental clarity, mood and resilience. No stranger to wild swimming is cold water swimming expert, open water coach, and wild swimming author Alice Goodridge, based in the Scottish Highlands.

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Pioneering scheme transforms mental health care in Bradford. The NHS Trust is using projects including allotment visits, canal-side walks and VR headsets showing footage of the local moors, as part of its treatment for patients suffering from a range of mental health problems. Practionioner Cathy Schofield shares how this could become the future of NHS mental health care.

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 Connecting with nature and gardening are proven ways to benefit our health and wellbeing. Support for people to engage in nature-based interventions is also on the rise, highlighting the vital work that a burgeoning collective of community gardens and community gardeners are doing. Therapeutic gardener at RHS Bridgewater, Salford, Ozichi Brewster talks about the healing power of nature and gardening, and how a rise in social prescribing is helping a range of health and wellbeing issues.

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Published 2026-02-20

Sowalong - Ratibida, with Claire Vennis

7 min
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If you haven’t heard of Ratibida before, it’s also known as the Prairie coneflower. A plant that thrives in dry conditions, it's happy growing in many planting locations from a cottage or informal garden to a gravel garden, in prairie planting, and in flower borders and beds, as well as to grow for a cut flower.

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Creating green spaces for our cities and community gardens for residents are ways to bring pockets of nature into our urban landscapes. By strengthening social ties, they bring neighbours together, foster a sense of belonging, and create supportive, multicultural networks, transforming neighbourhoods and empowering residents to reshape the way cities think about green space. Naveep Deol, trustee of the National Park City Foundation and chair of the London National Park City, is a passionate advocate for greener cities, the community gardening movement, and how these shared green spaces can act as small sanctuaries that nurture both personal and community health.

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As we look for ways to spend more time in nature, how can we build a deeper and more meaningful relationship with the natural world? What does it mean to connect with nature, why does it matter and how have we drifted away from it? Chair of Natural England, Tony Juniper is one of the UK’s most influential environmental thinkers and campaigners. Combining scientific insight, policy expertise, and a passion for the natural world, he'll discuss how reconnecting can change not just the way we live, but the world we’re shaping for generations to come.

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Published 2026-02-13

Sowalong - Chilis, with Claire Vennis

8 min
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If you wish to grow chillis this year, it’s important to get started early in the season and sow in the first few months of the year. Chillis need a long and warm growing season, and by starting them early - from January to March - you’ll give them the time they need to grow, flower, and ripen their fruits fully.

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Two-year study reveals the startling impact that playing in nature has on children's immune systems, and their likelihood of developing allergies and diseases such as asthma and diabetes. Researcher Marja Roslund talks about the dramatic changes they measured in children's ability to fight off illnesses and the reduction in harmful bacteria found in their gut, after they rewilded the children's daycare centres, bringing in soil, plants and even a section of forest floor. She also explains the causal link between the explosion in allergies and conditions such as asthma and diabetes, and the changes we can make to make a difference.

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 We all know deep in our bones that gardening is good for us, but increasingly this is no longer a thing we just have to have faith in. The scientific evidence is mounting up that gardening can have transformative effects for our minds and bodies, helping us to make us fitter, less stressed and happier to boot. GP, Therapeutic Horticulture Advocate and Chief Executive of the National Garden Scheme Dr. Richard Claxton is at the forefront of this new scientific approach to gardening and health.

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Published 2026-02-05

King Charles's philosophy of harmony

42 min
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In this episode, we speak to Melissa Simpson, Head of Horticulture for The King’s Foundation, His Majesty’s nature and sustainability charity. She reveals how they implement His Majesty’s Harmony philosophy at his gardens at Highgrove, Dumfries House and the Castle of Mey. Melissa shares how his ideals inform how the gardens and wildlife are managed, and how it impacts the people who work at and visit the gardens. Plus, she shares clever organic tricks we can all adopt.

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 We talk a lot about healthy soil, mulching it, feeding it, protecting it, but what if the health of our soil isn't just about thriving soil organisms and thriving plants, but thriving people too? Nutritionist Sam Ratanji delves into the remarkable parallels between the soil microbiome and our own bodies.Exploring how soil life affects flavour nutrition and even elements of our own wellbeing and uncover the small changes that every gardener can make to support richer soil and richer health too.

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Menopause expert Dr Nadira Awal shares how to alleviate menopause symptoms such as brain fog, sleepless nights, joint pain and anxiety, using gardening. She also reveals why daily exposure to daylight is so crucial for menopausal women and avoiding broken bones later in life. Plus how handling soil can act as a natural antidepressant.

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The world we live in can be fast paced, high-pressured and full of deadlines. The constant hustle and stress can take its toll and if we’re not careful it can lead to exhaustion and disconnection with the life we’ve worked so hard to build. Award winning food writer and author Kathy Slack overcame burnout to embrace a slower, more intentional way of living through growing her own food.

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Explore the fascinating connection between our gardens, natural light, and the quality of our sleep with leading sleep scientist Dr. Christine Blume. Based at the Centre for Chronobiology at the University of Basel in Switzerland, Christine's groundbreaking research explores how the natural world around us - from daylight to ambient temperature - affects our circadian rhythms and sleep patterns.

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Gardens and landscapes can deliver a wealth of shared benefits to wildlife and people but when was the last time you paused to consider the effect that nature-generated sound is having as part of that? Dr Natalia Zielonka has been researching just that, especially the impact of birdsong and how it can actively boost positivity and combat stress. RSPB Great British Bird Watch tie in?

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Adam discusses how the feel of a garden is as important as how it looks and the strong connection we can have to plants. How scent can aid health and wellbeing and the importance of soil health for our gut health and that creating a garden is beneficial for our health and wellbeing, as well as the health and wellbeing of our planet and wildlife. Adam shares that gardens should be about moments, taking the time to enjoy being in the garden, and finding the magic of being in that space.

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This series is a love letter to the underloved the misunderstood and the birds humans get wrong every single day. These are not the glamorous documentary species filmed on the far side of the planet. These are the birds you see on estates rooftops school playgrounds seaside towns motorway edges and scruffy riverbanks. The everyday birds people overlook complain about or call pests. But these species are the ones that tell the real story of how wildlife and people live together. Discover more in a new podcast series of Bird Watching with Nadeem Perera, every Saturday in January.

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How can a living library conserve and preserve gardening history and shape our understanding of nature? Step inside the quiet and fascinating world of the Herbarium at RHS Wisley to uncover a combination of beauty and science pressed between thousands of pages, along with ancient flowers, dried leaves and stories of where they came from with Yvette Harvey, the Keeper of the Herbarium.

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Published 2025-12-23

Monty Don's Christmas at Longmeadow

35 min
Open

 With the festive season fast approaching, Christmas can be a busy time with no end of tasks to keep us busy on the run up to the big day, but what role can our gardens play in all of this? Whether it's homegrown veg for the festive table or garden gathered greenery and berries for a homemade door reef, our gardens can be a source of great bounty and a place to escape to, of course. Monty Don describes Christmas at Longmeadow and tell us why it's a time for all of us to take a breather.

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Published 2025-12-17

Festive traditions, with Frances Tophill

35 min
Open

For a lot of people, this time of year is all about cosying up indoors, but out in the garden there's still so much fun to be had from making natural wreaths and decorating with evergreens, to feeding the birds, sewing onions, and even bringing in a little magic indoors with some festive foliage. Join Frances for Christmassy folklore and the little seasonal rituals and cheerful jobs that make festive gardening feel special.

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 It's the time of year when we start thinking about how to make our homes feel festive and, instead of reaching for tinsel and glitter, why not look to the garden for inspiration? Arit reveals how to decorate for a stylish and natural Christmas, combining sustainability with beauty, and explores what to gather from the garden, how to design with natural colour and texture, and ways to make your decorations last throughout the festive season.

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Published 2025-12-12

Christmas gift ideas from the GW team

12 min
Open

With Christmas fast approaching and the desire to find the right gardening present for the right person, why not look to source sustainable gardening gifts for your friends and family. Even if the recipients aren’t green-fingered, the Gardeners’ World magazine team have you covered with a selection of our favourite gifts.

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Published 2025-12-11

Gardening memories, with Carol Klein

43 min
Open

Carol Klein has had an interesting, illustrious, and often surprising life and career from jobs as varied as a bus conductor cleaner and art teacher to gardener and TV presenter. She's travelled, got herself into and out of many precarious situations often, but not always in search of plants, and she's met fascinating people along the way. Join us as Carol unearths some of the fascinating stories that have got her to where she is today.

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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?

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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.

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Published 2025-12-02

In my garden, with Lydia Millen

44 min
Open

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.

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Published 2025-11-28

What To Do Now - Mulch

8 min
Open

 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.

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 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.

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 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.

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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.

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 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.

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Published 2025-11-17

Renovating a garden, with Nick Bailey

37 min
Open

 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.

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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.

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Published 2025-11-12

Precious peatlands, with Alys Fowler

39 min
Open

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.

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Published 2025-11-10

Front garden appeal, with Arit Anderson

25 min
Open

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.

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Published 2025-11-08

What To Do Now - Plant tulip bulbs

9 min
Open

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.

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Published 2025-11-06

How to garden as you age, with Carol Klein

36 min
Open

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.

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Published 2025-11-04

Monty Don's Greatest Gardening Lessons

26 min
Open

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.

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Published 2025-11-03

What To Do Now - Protect tender plants

8 min
Open

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.

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Published 2025-10-29

Garden design, with Adam Frost

41 min
Open

 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.

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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.

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Published 2025-10-24

What To Do Now - Greenhouse and pots tidy

8 min
Open

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.

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 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.

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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.

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Published 2025-10-17

What To Do Now - Sow autumn broad beans

7 min
Open

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.

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 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.

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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.

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Published 2025-10-08

Caring for our soil, with Juliet Sargeant

42 min
Open

 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.

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Published 2025-10-06

Adam Frost on growing, cooking and eating

21 min
Open

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.

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 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.

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Frances takes the overwhelm out of the gardening jobs in autumn and discusses what you can be doing in the garden at this time of year. From planting new plants, improving your soil, dividing plants and propagating by taking cuttings, it's also a good time of year to consider and rejig your flower beds and, of course, to plant spring bulbs. This podcast was recorded at the BBC Gardeners' World Autumn Fair.

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Published 2025-09-26

What To Do Now - Autumn Lawn Care

6 min
Open

Our lawns go through a lot, they get trampled on, sat on, cut down short and most of us allow them to dry out over summer. Now that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but if we want them to be able to withstand that treatment every summer, it’s a good idea to give them a bit of attention now and a few simple actions in autumn will ensure your lawn survives winter in good shape and is healthy and raring to grow next spring.

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With a passion for growing vegetables and fruit, in particular rare and endangered vegetables from around the world, seed saver, filmmaker and writer Adam Alexander, discusses the social and cultural relationship we have with what we grow and eat. Known as the Seed Detective, Adam Alexander uncovers little known stories of people who've helped to preserve the world's edible diversity. With a library of over 500 rare, endangered and heirloom vegetable varieties, he emphasises the importance of saving seeds for biodiversity and food security.

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Published 2025-09-22

Raymond Blanc's kitchen garden

56 min
Open

 Connecting the bounty of the vegetable patch with the delights created in the kitchen, Raymont Blanc has embraced the plot to plate principle for over 40 years, growing and cooking at his two-Michelin-starred Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in Oxfordshire. The grounds cover 27 acres, including a Japanese tea garden, the incredible potager and an orchard. Join Raymond for a walk around the gardens where he enthuses about his passion for organic growing and cooking with the seasons and shares some recipes too.


RB photo credit: Chris Terry and Imogen Cander

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Published 2025-09-19

What To Do Now - Enjoy the Harvest

8 min
Open

 September is a wonderful month to enjoy your homegrown vegetables, fruit, herbs, and flowers, whether from your garden, vegetable plot or allotment. There’s something special about picking, preparing and eating produce you’ve grown and nurtured over the summer months, plus, home-grown tastes so much better.

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With over 89 cultivars of daffodil, the Backhouse Rossie Estate in Fife, Scotland, holds the only scientific collection of Narcissus in the world. The family’s work revolutionised daffodil breeding in the 19th and early 20th century and inspired the Backhouse Heritage Daffodil Collection. Continuing to preserve and celebrate daffodils at the estate, including a registered collection of spring flowering Narcissus with Plant Heritage, direct descendent of the Backhouse family, Caroline Thomson brings to light the history of the Backhouse daffodils.

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Explore the gardens at Highclere Castle with Alan Titchmarsh and Lady Fiona Carnarvon as they take you on an exclusive garden tour. The castle and gardens, known for where the filming of Downton Abbey was undertaken for both the TV series and the feature films, were originally landscaped by Capability Brown and include the Secret Garden, the Monks Garden, the celebrated white border, and much more.

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 Known for presenting BBC Radio Three's flagship programme In Tune, for being the face of BBC Proms and winning the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special in 2017, Katie Derham spends a lot of time as a broadcast journalist, but her passion for classical music spills into the gardening space too. Discover Katie's gorgeous garden and how music informs the spaces within it. Katie presents the Last Night of the Proms live on BBC Two from 6.55pm, and then on BBC One from 8.30pm on Saturday 13 September.

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Chelsea garden designer and BBC Gardeners' World TV presenter Nick Bailey shares expert advice for creating a garden that's easy to care for. From resilient plants to plants that require minimal input, to plants that can cope with extremes in temperature and don't succumb to pests and diseases. Get ready to make a list of fabulous plant suggestions for your garden.

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Published 2025-09-05

What To Do Now - Sow Winter Greens

7 min
Open

To keep your vegetable plot productive in the colder months - and if you’re keen to extend the sowing and growing season – why not grow winter greens for a supply of fresh and nutritious food. Winter greens are just that – green vegetables that can grow and thrive in cooler conditions. Plus, you’ll reap the benefit of the added vitamins which can be welcome in the bleaker, colder months.

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Make sure none of your homegrow harvests goes to waste, and that you can enjoy them for longer.  Frances Tophill shares top tips for dealing with gluts and ways to preserve your bounty. She also reveals how she makes her produce go further. After months of growing and nurturing, and saving from all manner of pests and diseases, join Frances as she shares how she enjoys her home-grown crops.

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 A fair amount of cutting back and pruning takes places at Longmeadow. Monty Don explains when it all happens and why, and clarifies when plants should be cut back and when to leave them. Along with making sure you have the correct tool for the job, he also discusses the importance of using the right gardening kit and techniques - and reassures that if mistakes are made, the plant will probably recover quicker than you think.

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Published 2025-09-01

Autumn Trailer

0 min
Open

As we head into autumn, enjoy a new series of the BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine podcast for gardening inspiration and motivation. Join me and some of the UK’s most loved and respected gardening experts as we discuss whether to ‘cut back or not’, how to enjoy the harvest, gather seeds, and look after your soil. We also uncover how to bridge the gap between urban communities and nature. Plus, we’ll take you inside celebrity gardens and much more.

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Published 2025-08-29

Travel Tales - Madrid

9 min
Open

Madrid is a beautiful place to explore. Located in the Tajuña Valley, there are many viewpoints where you can look for miles across the landscape and Madrid is home to many Judas trees. The parks are full of them, and they line the sides of many streets. Their beautiful hot pink blooms and almost haunting dark bean pods were everywhere. It was truly so special.

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Embracing the multi-functionality of a small gardening space, Frances Tophill offers design ideas for your gardening area to reach it's full potential. With tips and advice for how to utlise tiny plots through clever design, including recycling ideas and how to use the space for all growing possibilities. Recorded live at BBC Gardeners' World Live in June.

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Published 2025-08-20

Monty Don's favourite summer flowers

26 min
Open

Late summer bridges the lushness of summer and the early signs of autumn. Plants have grown and filled out, the borders are bursting and the garden is relaxed and full-grown. Monty Don discusses his flower borders at Longmeadow and how the Jewel Garden was created. Recorded live at BBC Gardeners' World Live in June.

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 For some people living in the city means a private house and private space to grow plants and flowers of choice, but for many, especially those who live in flats on a budget and rented accommodation, access to a garden can be a real issue. East London based community gardener and nature educator, Hafsah Hafeji talks about her experience of growing in urban spaces, campaigning for access to nature for all, and encouraging young people, especially teenagers, to get outside and get involved.

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Published 2025-08-15

Travel Tales - Nantes

13 min
Open

The former capital of Brittany with medieval roots and a maritime past – and where American ragtime jazz first came to Europe – Nantes has transformed from 19th century industrial trading port to adapt its urban environment in a modern way, embracing art, culture and nature, bringing a vibrancy and fresh approach to city life, along with a side helping of quirkiness.

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Published 2025-08-13

Delightful dahlias, with Josie Lewis

48 min
Open

Loved for many reasons, dahlias bloom late into the season, often from midsummer to the first frost, and come in a fabulous range of shapes, sizes, and colours. With varieties ranging from small 2-inch blooms to outrageous dinner-plate-sized flowers that can span over 10 inches wide, dahlias can steal the show in any garden or bouquet. Perch Hill head gardener Josie Lewis loves them and even has a dahlia named after her!

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Published 2025-08-11

Gardening for wildlife, with Adam Frost

42 min
Open

 Discover how to create thriving, resilient environments that offer food, shelter, and habitats for countless species of wildlife, from bees and butterflies, to birds, hedgehogs, and even the hidden life in our soil with BBC Gardeners' World presenter Adam Frost.  Diving into the fascinating world of gardening for wildlife and how to support biodiversity that can transform not only our gardens, but the ecosystems around us.

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Published 2025-08-08

Travel Tales - Philadelphia, USA

9 min
Open

 Did you know that Philadelphia is America's Garden Capital? The Philadelphia Flower Show is  highlight of the North American horticultural calendar in March and the largest and oldest flower show in the world, with the area also offering  inspiring gardens for biodiversity and encouraging wildlife. This podcast was recorded by Kay Mcguire. Pics are lucid://creative2.immediatemedia/file/1469:64321/3 ART

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 Many of us grow our own produce for sustainability and self-sufficiency, reducing reliance on store, brought items, and minimizing food waste, as well as to enjoy fresh homegrown produce. Author, podcast host, actress, and television presenter, Giovanna Fletcher, reveals her love of growing her own veg and the joy it brings to her and her family.

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Charity Wakefield is an actress known for her roles in steamy period romp The Great. But she is also a passionate environmentalist and a keen gardener. She tells us about her love for her small London garden, her passion for woodlands and why she took to the streets dressed as a tree. She shares the steps she's taking to protect nature and how and why she wants more people to act.

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Buckingham Palace has been home to our kings and queens since 1837 and is one of the most famous buildings in the world, but behind that grand facade lies a hidden paradise. At 39 acres, it is the largest private garden in London and less formal than you might imagine. Alan Titchmarsh explains how the garden has evolved through centuries of royal tastes in a royal garden tour.

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 Discover money-saving tricks for growing a beautiful, productive garden without breaking the bank, and how you can save money on your household shopping. Money-saving gardening expert, Anya Lautenbach, gives her top tips on everything from repurposing or upcycling everyday items, to choosing cost-effective crops, and the ins and outs of propagating plants.

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Published 2025-07-25

Travel Tales - South Africa

10 min
Open

 Learn more about the plants of the world and see them in their natural habitats on a trip to South Africa. From the edge of the desert to its neatly ordered vineyards, South Africa was a plant-lover’s dream and a country with fascinating lessons about its unique and beautiful flora.

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A surprising amount of flowers are not only edible, but also delicious and packed with nutrients. Edible flower and herb farmer Sinead Fenton shares how you can grow these delights in your garden. And she shares how she brings a positive narative to farming for the future through preserving natural resources and increasing pollinators.

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Published 2025-07-18

Travel Tales - Sicily, Italy

7 min
Open

 A combination of rich history and archeological attractions all nestled within striking natural landscapes is what makes Sicily so special.  The ancient temples are surrounded by centuries old olive trees, and in spring would be covered in blossoming almond trees.   A wonderful place to spot native, tropical and sub-tropical species, the gardens reflect the island's diverse cultural heritage.

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Published 2025-07-11

Travel Tales - Morocco

10 min
Open

 Combine a sunshine break with a visit to some of the world's most beautiful gardens in Morocco and, under four hours away from the UK by plane, it's an ideal location for a weekend break or a longer retreat. Visit iconic gardens and discover  drought tolerant planting, while also taking in the nature and wildlife.

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 Shane Connolly, reveals what it's like to arrange the flowers for a royal wedding and how to create a bouquet that's worthy of a princess. Shane created the floral installations for two royal weddings, including Prince William and Catherine, and the Coronation of King Charles. He shares the secrets behind his spectacular designs and how he manages without floral foam.

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Published 2025-07-07

My Desert Island plants, with Carol Klein

49 min
Open

In Carol Klein's illustrious career, she's come across more plants than most and is bursting with fascinating facts and entertaining anecdotes about almost all of them. In this special episode, Carol reveals the plants she'd take with her to a desert island and what makes them so special, and what her luxury item of choice would be too.

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Published 2025-07-04

Travel Tales - Nevada, USA

10 min
Open

Enjoy botanical and cultivated gardens in the desert state of Nevada, where it's not  all about gambling and cacti. With breathtaking scenery and spectacular views,  the area is also known for its stargazing. Full of adventure,  history, culture, and community there's plenty to  satisfy the appetite of a garden and nature lover.

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Gardener and veg-grower Amy Chapman shares everything you need to know if you want to grow your own food but aren't sure how to get started, including the easiest vegetables to grow, organic problem-solving tips, and why ducks are the ultimate pest control. Amy talks us through the highs and lows of growing your own food and how we can all have a few more successes.

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Award-winning garden designer and presenter Arit Anderson discusses how you can get the best from growing plants in pots. She shares tips to help your container displays look beautiful and the secret to keeping your plants healthy. Growing in containers is a lovely way to introduce colour, scent and seasonal interest into your plot no matter what size your garden. From patios and doorways to windowsills and tabletops, there are lots of places where containers can bring colour and joy.

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With increasing climate uncertainties and global environmental challenges, what changes can we make to the way we garden and grow food that can have a positive impact on our local environment, its ecosystems and indeed the health of our planet.  Join ecological horticulturalist and conservationist Jamie Walton to discover how to garden and grow our own food in a holistic and ecological way.

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 Is there a more beautiful thing than a garden in summertime with flowers at their peak, wonderful light evenings, plenty of good weather, and a chance to spend lots of time outdoors. Our gardens really do come into their own in the summer months. Frances Tophill discusses how we use outdoor spaces, and what summer means to her.

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Published 2025-06-05

Make a metre matter, with Nick Bailey

36 min
Open

 This year, at BBC Gardener's World magazine, we've spearheaded a campaign called Make a Metre Matter, which is all about transforming just one metre of outdoor space for the good of the planet. Garden designer and Gardeners’ World presenter Nick Bailey has lots of inspiration as he reveals plans for his Plant Based Garden at this year’s Gardeners’ World Live show.

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 Jo and Andi Butler entered the BBC Gardeners' World Magazine Gardens of the Year competition last year. Find out about their experience of entering the competition, winning the coveted People's Choice Award, opening their garden to the public, and what their gardening plans are for the future.

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 Would you believe that your garden, however big or small, could do some good in the face of the climate crisis? That it could help combat habitat and biodiversity loss, and also be a beautiful and personal sanctuary? Well, it's true. And the secret to all this and more lies in taking a regenerative approach to your outside space as  leading landscape architect and horticulturalist Marian Boswall explains.

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As gardeners, we all know the environmental impact of peat, and why we need to stop using it. The challenge is how to garden successfully without using peat. Peat-free composts can be variable and more expensive than peat-based options. But award-winning garden designer and long-time sustainability advocate Arit Anderson has some top tips to help us all grow better without peat.

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Do you know the secret to creating show-stopping planting combinations? Combining plants in ways that means they look good and grow well together. Plantswoman Carol Klein has spent decades growing and exhibiting plants at over 200 RHS shows, winning a slew of gold medals. Her encyclopaedic plant knowledge combined with her artistic flair makes her a master of the art and science of combing plants successfully. Carol reveals how we can all add a little of her planting flair to our gardens.

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 This year's flower show season is well and truly upon us, and one of the highlights is, of course, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Multi-award winning garden designer and plants woman, Jo Thompson, describes her Chelsea show garden and the story behind it  celebrating the transformative effect of second chances through horticulture. Hear Jo's  experience of designing show gardens and how her innovative, diverse, compassionate, and romantic approach to garden design has helped her forge an inspiring career.

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Published 2025-05-08

In my garden with Jasper Conran

35 min
Open

Famous for designing clothes and home furnishings, discover how Jasper Conran brings his famous design style to his Dorset garden. He also shares his inspiration for creative planting, engaging in the surrounding landscape for a wider garden picture, and his passion for nature and connecting to the countryside.

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Do you like the idea of becoming more self-sufficient, living more in harmony with nature and in a way that is more environmentally sustainable? Poppy Okotcha gave up a glamorous modelling career, and moved to Devon where she’s creating a wild garden, following regenerative gardening principles. Poppy shares what regenerative gardening and permaculture are, how it all works and how we can all bring a bit more wildness and joy into our lives.

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Adding colour can transform a garden or outdoor space – and it can be a way of expressing personality and creativity, but how do we make sure our colour choices work well in the garden for year-round interest and enjoyment? And that our potentially flamboyant designs don’t end up a chaotic mess. Ann-Marie Powell, award-winning garden designer, discusses how to bring gorgeous colour into the garden.

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With the joint challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss looming, how can we gardeners make a difference? To find out, we spoke to Dr Harry Watkins, Director of St Andrews Botanic Garden (a participating garden for this year's GW 2-for-1 Gardens scheme) where he's heading up a novel approach to gardening in the face of these two big challenges, and making some very bold decisions indeed.

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Published 2025-04-21

In My Garden with Sarah Beeny

42 min
Open

Enjoying her Somerset estate with her family, Sarah Beeny discusses managing the farmland as well as the garden space. As custodians of the land for now and future generations, Sarah is inspired to encourage wildlife, plant trees and hedgerows and improve soil health. She also delights in time spent in her greenhouse and discloses plans she has for the coming gardening year.

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Do you know the secrets to getting a good deal at the garden centre? When you’re presented with rows of plants for sale, can you pick out the healthy plants that are bursting with life, and avoid the plants that are not going to last. Designer and Gardeners' Question Time-regular Matthew Wilson previously ran London’s oldest nursery, and he going to help us choose the best plants on our next trip to the garden centre.

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Do you know the secrets to getting a good deal at the garden centre? When you’re presented with rows of plants for sale, can you pick out the healthy plants that are bursting with life, and avoid the plants that are not going to last. Designer and Gardeners' Question Time-regular Matthew Wilson previously ran London’s oldest nursery, and he going to help us choose the best plants on our next trip to the garden centre.

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 Do you want to grow your own veg but have limited space? Perhaps you've got room for a window box or a few containers and don't know where to start. Maybe you're dreaming of fresh, homegrown fruit but don't quite know how to fit it into your plot. Gardeners' World presenter Adam Frost reveals how you can grow your own harvests, no matter how small your growing space.

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Published 2025-04-07

Avoid Gardening Injuries, with Sue Kent

41 min
Open

 Many of us are itching to get out in the garden when spring finally arrives and the weather allows. It feels fantastic to be out in the garden once again, but with much to do and prepare for the coming gardening season, how can we make sure our gardening enthusiasm doesn't get the better of us and we end up with aches and pains or even incur an injury? Gardeners' World presenter and remedial massage therapist Sue Kent offers gardener care advice.

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April showers, longer lighter days, sunshine and birdsong are all signs that spring is here. There’s an energy that’s awoken and we’re all raring to get out in the garden once again. Plantsperson, author and BBC Gardeners’ World presenter, Frances Tophill, shares what we should be doing in the garden in Spring and how to get started for the year.

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Published 2025-03-31

Spring Trailer

1 min
Open

Start your gardening year with growing inspiration in the Spring Conversations podcast from BBC Gardeners' World Magazine. Discover garden design ideas, the best plants to buy, how to bring colour to the garden, veg growing advice, gardening in urban spaces and ways to engage in the natural world, and more. Tune in every Tuesday and Thursday for all your gardening needs this Spring.


Also join us every Saturday as our Sowalong series continues. Sowalong with the magazine team as they sow the seeds supplied in the magazine, along with additional seasonal seeds to try too.


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Published 2025-03-26

Ask Alan - House Plants

34 min
Open

In this episode of Ask Alan, Alan Titchmarsh gives watering and feeding advice for house plants, discusses the ideal situation including light levels and how to combat bugs, provides help for non-flowering orchids, and more. Don’t forget to listen for the Wild Card question to see if it's your's!

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Published 2025-03-24

Ask Alan - Hydrangeas

25 min
Open

How to reduce in size, when to prune, which variety to choose, how can you stop it drying out and can you change it's colour are a few of the Ask Alan questions Alan Titchmarsh answers in this episode on hydrangeas. Don’t forget to listen for the Wild Card question to see if it's your's!

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Published 2025-03-19

Ask Alan - Pests and Diseases

29 min
Open

In this episode of Ask Alan, Alan Titchmarsh offers organic help for tackling various plant ailments and pests in the garden and the greenhouse, in addition to  how we can exist alongside wildlife. Don’t forget to listen for the Wild Card question to see if it's your's!

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Alan Titchmarsh discusses why we need to find the right plants for our garden in this Ask Alan episode. With questions answered on how to grow fragrant flowering shrubs in clay soil, establishing plants on thin sandy soil, tackling gardens with different soil types, and ways to improve your soil. Don’t forget to listen for the Wild Card question to see if it's your's!

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Published 2025-03-12

Ask Alan - Roses

34 min
Open

 Roses are a stalwart of the garden, but can come with their challenges. In this episode of Ask Alan, Alan Titchmarsh covers how to care for roses from black spot to mildew and rust, how to feed and keep roses healthy, when and how to plant and prune roses, along with recommendations for his favourite varieties. Don’t forget to listen for the Wild Card question to see if it's your's!

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Published 2025-03-11

Ask Alan - Lawn Care

27 min
Open

With advice for tackling weeds on the lawn, creating a wildlife lawn, how to feed a lawn and when to cut a lawn and, of course, adding stripes to the lawn, Alan Titchmarsh loves a lawn and there's plenty of advice on caring for your lawn in this episode of Ask Alan. Don’t forget to listen for the Wild Card question to see if it's yours!

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Published 2025-03-05

Ask Alan - Summer Blooms

25 min
Open

Alan Titchmarsh offers advice for gorgeous summer colour in this episode of Ask Alan, including plants that have long flowering periods, adding interest and height to the border, how to propagate summer plants for even more summer blooms, what to plant in a new bed for summer colour, peony and dahlia advice and more. Don’t forget to listen for the Wild Card question to see if it's your's!

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Published 2025-03-03

Ask Alan - Garden Design

35 min
Open

Garden design pointers and how to garden on a budget are discussed in this episode of Ask Alan. Alan Titchmarsh also gives help for drought-resistance and maintenance-free gardens, how to create privacy from neighbours and the use of hedges, trees and topiary in a garden design. Don’t forget to listen for the Wild Card question to see if it's your's!

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Published 2025-02-26

Ask Alan - Weeds

37 min
Open

Weeds and how to cope with them in the garden or plot are discussed in this episode of Ask Alan. Hear Alan Titchmarsh offer advice for tackling bindweed, creeping cinquefoil, Japanese knotweed, ground elder and more and poses the question, is the definition of a weed really any plant growing where it's not wanted or growing out of place? Don’t forget to listen for the Wild Card question to see if it's your's!

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Published 2025-02-24

Ask Alan - Fruit Trees

33 min
Open

With fruit tree care and advice, Alan Titchmarsh covers how to care for splitting bark, apple scab, rust spots on leaves, unripe fruit, looking after grape vines and encouraging a lemon tree to fruit. Is your fruit tree question answered in this episode of Ask Alan? Don’t forget to listen for the Wild Card question to see if it's your's!

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Published 2025-02-19

Ask Alan - Plants for Tricky Places

32 min
Open

Almost every garden has a tricky spot and in this episode of Alan Titchmarsh gives advice for growing in small, residential gardens and in pots, discusses plants for different situations in the garden, what to plant in windy, coastal gardens and where to find inspiration for growing a new garden. Don’t forget to listen for the Wild Card question to see if it's your's!

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Published 2025-02-12

Ask Alan - Pruning

32 min
Open

With advice for pruning magnolia and wisteria, how to take cuttings and root pruning, Alan Titchmarsh also discusses the right tools to use for different pruning jobs in this episode of Ask Alan. Don’t forget to listen for the Wild Card question to see if it's your's!

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Published 2025-02-05

Ask Alan - Seed Sowing

30 min
Open

It's a great time of year to start sowing seeds but how many seeds should you sow, how can you make sure your seeds will germinate, when and how to plant them out and can you store seeds for future growing? Alan Titchmarsh will answer these questions and more in this episode of Ask Alan. Don't forget to listen for the Wild Card question to see if it's your's!

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Published 2025-02-04

Ask Alan - Growing Veg

35 min
Open

Growing vegetables can be hugely rewarding, but what happens when your lovingly tendered veg doesn't thrive? In this episode of Ask Alan, Alan Titchmarsh will answer questions on growing successful root vegetables, stopping vegetables from bolting, finding the ideal tomato and the best growing medium in raised beds. Don't forget to listen for the Wild Card question to see if it's your's!

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Published 2025-02-02

Ask Alan Trailer

1 min
Open

Hear Alan Titchmarsh solve your gardening problems in a new podcast series Ask Alan, where he’ll answer questions on plants for tricky places, offer solutions for unhappy plants, give garden design ideas, examine how to cope with weeds, pests and diseases, give tips on pruning, roses and more. New episodes every Tuesday and Thursday through February and March. If you’ve got a gardening question you’d like to Ask Alan, then please leave it in the comments below or go to gardenersworld.com/podcast/questions

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What role does nature play in our mental and emotional wellbeing? Beth Collier, a Nature Allied Psychotherapist and ethnographer, teaches woodland living skills and natural history and helps people connect with the natural world to support their mental health. Beth shares how nature can nurture during therapy, the barriers people of colour face in accessing outdoor spaces and how we can create more inclusive natural environments.

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Community gardens play a vital role in making green space accessible to everyone, particularly those in inner city areas where gardens are at a minimum. Such spaces are also a great source of wellbeing through gardening and volunteering opportunities, gatherings and events, places to grow food and help combat climate change, and most importantly connect with nature. In this episode, Stephen Mason, gardener at The Hoxton Trust Community Garden in East London, and a pioneer in growing green spaces for everyone, shares his thoughts about the power of community gardens, the many benefits they provide, and how to set one up.

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Significantly reduce your stress levels, improve your ability to concentrate, and alleviate depression, using plants. Kathy Willis, professor of biodiversity at the University of Oxford, explains the dramatic impact plants have on our mental and physical health, and shares the wealth of scientific evidence from around the world that proves the power of nature.

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Published 2025-01-20

Grow a healthier diet with Daphne Lambert

35 min
Open

How does the food we eat shape our health, wellbeing and connection to the planet? Daphne Lambert is a medicinal chef, nutritionist and founding member of the Greencuisine Trust and has spent decades exploring the profound links between food, health and sustainability. From running an award-winning organic restaurant to teaching about soil, gut health and the food matrix, she shares how gardeners can nourish themselves through their harvests the emotional and social power of food.

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A winter woodland walk – there’s nothing like it to boost your mood. But did you know the wellbeing benefits of a woodland walk actually go much deeper, with real physical health benefits? So in this episode we’re talking to Sally Bavin of the Woodland Trust to unveil the surprising science behind our relationship with these magical places.

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The winter months can be challenging for our health and, while we wait for spring days to nourish us once again, what can we do to support and boost our immune system? Medical herbalist Jo Dunbar’s knowledge on how to use herbs, plants, and spices from the kitchen and garden could help keep us healthy over the cold winter months until Spring’s bounty emerges once again.

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We all feel instinctively that house plants are good for us. But is it all in the mind, or is there something real and tangible going on? Can house plants really scrub the air around us, and if so how on earth do they do it? And what difference can one little plant on a shelf really make in our lives? In this episode we delve deep into the amazing world of house plants and their health benefits, with the expert help of Dr Tijana Blanusa, Principal Horticultural Scientist at the RHS.

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It's the heart of winter, light levels are low and we've got weeks of cold still to come. There's no getting away from the fact that winter can feel like a slog and there's every chance you could be feeling overwhelmed by it all. But it's not all bad news and, as we begin a fresh new year, we explore how gardening can help us feel better, the role gardening can play in our mental health and the positive impact of getting outdoors as often as possible.

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Published 2024-12-31

Wellness and Sowalong Trailer

1 min
Open

Give your mental and physical health a boost this January, with the new Wellness podcast series from BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine. You’ll discover ways to improve your mental wellbeing through gardening, herbal remedies for winter illnesses, advice on using your garden to keep your body strong, the difference that growing your own can make to the nutritional value of your food, the impact of house plants on our health and many more ways that gardens and nature can help our mind, body, and soul.

And join our Sowalong series too. These friendly, bite-size podcasts offer advice on how to grow vegetables, flowers, and herbs from seed for healthy crops and impressive blooms this year.

Start your gardening year with inspiration and motivation from some of the UK’s most loved and well-respected experts. With new Wellness episodes every Tuesday and Thursday in January, and Sowalongs every Saturday until the end of June, subscribe now, wherever you get your podcasts, and never miss an episode.

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Published 2024-12-30

Carol Klein talks Gardening's Great Women

40 min
Open

Eminent gardener and plantswoman Carol Klein celebrates the wonderful women who have played a central role in horticulture for centuries, from early plant hunters such as Marianne North to designers like Gertrude Jekyll, gardeners such as Margery Fish and Beth Chatto, to this year’s Chelsea best in show designer Ula Maria. And yet, the industry remains rather male dominated. She shares her opinions on the grass ceiling, how the industry needs to change, and the women who have inspired her.

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When you’re inside the serene surroundings of Shinjuku Gyoen, it’s hard to believe you are in one of the most populated cities in the world. Shinjuku Gyoen features three distinct garden styles: Japanese traditional, English landscape, and French formal, each with its own unique vibe. During cherry blossom season from late March to April, the park’s 1,500 cherry trees make it one of Tokyo’s most popular hanami spots.

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Published 2024-12-25

Growing for Animals at the Edinburgh Zoo

31 min
Open

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a gardener at a zoo? Rab Harden, head gardener at Edinburgh Zoo, explains how they grow specific plants to feed the zoo animals as well as choosing the right plants for their enclosures. No two days are the same for a zoo gardener and the team’s work is as varied as it is vital.

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Published 2024-12-23

Adam Frost on Leaving a Garden

41 min
Open

Moving home and thinking about the practical and emotional aspects of leaving your garden? Or perhaps you’re about to garden a new plot. Join BBC Gardeners' World presenter and landscape designer Adam Frost as he shares the ins and out of leaving his garden following a recent move to a smaller space nearby. Listen in as Adam advises on everything from which plants to take and which plants to leave, how to bed things in when you get there, making memories before you leave and whether we ever really have ownership of a garden or are just custodians of the nature within.

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Discover the hidden gem that is the Conservatory Gardens, within the world- famous Central Park. Nestled in the northeastern corner of Central Park, the Conservatory Gardens is a lush, six-acre oasis that offers a stark yet welcome contrast to the bustling cityscape. The gardens are divided into three distinct sections: the Italian Garden, the French Garden, and the English Garden, each offering its own unique charm.

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Join Shirlie Kemp to discover how she brings the outside inside from her garden for natural Christmas decorations. From an early age, Shirlie was drawn to nature and, after a successful career in the music industry in the 1980s with the band Wham, she has switched her microphone for a pair of secateurs as she takes on the task of renovating her large garden in Hertfordshire. With a desire for creating an enchanting garden space, Shirlie also shares her love of roses, her joy of renovating the old pig shed affectionately known as ‘Piglet’ and her spectacular Spring garden plans.

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Winston Churchill resided in his country home, Chartwell, from 1924 until his death in 1965. From its valley setting, with views of the Weald of Kent, much was made of the terraced gardens which overlook a lake and a brick wall, built by Churchill himself, but what role did the gardens play in the lead up to World War Two? Advolly Richmond talks to Chartwell’s curator and author Katherine Carter to reveal meetings that took place in the gardens that might have changed the course of history.

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Published 2024-12-13

Travel Tales - Ashridge House, UK

8 min
Open

Ashridge House in Hertfordshire is a bit off the beaten track but for those who prefer a more natural setting, the woodland walks around Ashridge House are a must. These paths wind through ancient trees and wildflower meadows, offering a peaceful retreat from the more formal parts of the garden. In spring, the bluebells carpet the forest floor in a sea of blue, and in autumn, the oaks, maples, and sweet chestnuts turn vibrant shades of red, orange, and yellow.

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In this episode, Lara Cowan, Founder of Botanic Shed and the School of Nature, shares how the power of gardening and nature connection has massively transformed her life in terms of managing the everyday experience of thinking differently and the fallout of a series of life-changing events. And how she now uses gardening, garden design, and garden therapy – gathering together the expertise of a range of horticultural and health experts – to enhance the lives of others, including those with conditions such as ADHD, autism, and PTSD. She is inspired by and works closely with her 24-year-old daughter.

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Published 2024-12-06

Happy Houseplants with Anne Swithinbank

46 min
Open

Tending to houseplants through the winter months is a great way to carry on gardening when there’s less to do outside. Some indoor plants even flourish at this time of year showcasing colourful flowers or uplifting foliage. To find out more about all things houseplants – how to choose them, where to place them, and that all-important care – tune into this week’s episode with former BBC Gardeners' World presenter and indoor plant expert Anne Swithinbank. With a houseplant collection of over 70 plants or more, including some winter favourites, she has lots of insightful tips and advice to share.


Do you have a gardening question you'd like Alan Titchmarsh's help with?


Submit your question in the comments below or go to www.gardenersworld.com/podcast/questions/

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What can we do to ensure next year’s growing season is the best yet? With the frenzy of the growing season now behind us, lost to the memory of warm, summer days and bountiful harvests, and while our vegetable patches and flower beds lay bare, ecologist and botanist Becky Searle shares advice and tips for how to care for our soil over the winter months.


Do you have a gardening question you'd like Alan Titchmarsh's help with? Submit your question in the comments below or go to www.gardenersworld.com/podcast/questions/


Alan will answer a selection in the Ask Alan podcast series from BBC Gardeners' World Magazine in February and March.

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Published 2024-11-29

Travel Tales - Frogner Park, Norway

8 min
Open

Imagine discovering a garden oasis while seeking out world-famous sculptures. This expansive park is famous for the Vigeland Sculpture Park, featuring over 200 of Gustav Vigeland’s works. Frogner Park has expansive lawns, majestic oaks, maples and lindens and seasonal flower beds. The garden layout invites leisurely wandering, with benches for relaxation and offers plenty of inspiration, blending formal garden elements with naturalistic plantings.

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Imagine you’re in danger. Your home has become a warzone – bombs and bullets are a daily occurrence. What would you do? Astonishingly, the answer for many people is to create a garden. War correspondent Lalage Snow has travelled to Israel, Gaza, Ukraine and Afghanistan to document the gardens that people create to provide peace and respite from the wars around them. She shares how gardening can be an act of hope and defiance.


Do you have a gardening question you'd like Alan Titchmarsh's help with? Submit your question in the comments below or go to www.gardenersworld.com/podcast/questions/


Alan will answer a selection in the Ask Alan podcast series from BBC Gardeners' World Magazine in February and March.

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Published 2024-11-27

Trees and their Future with Tony Kirkham

44 min
Open

Trees are ever-present in our lives and have enabled us to connect to the natural world. But should we be concerned for our trees with our changing climate and what trees can we plant in our gardens for the future?Tony Kirkham, MBE, British botanist and former Head of Arboretum, Gardens and Horticulture at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, discusses how trees are adapting around the world to climate change and what we can expect to see as our future tree-lined horizon takes on a different shape.


Do you have a gardening question you'd like Alan Titchmarsh's help with? Submit your question in the comments below or go to www.gardenersworld.com/podcast/questions/


Alan will answer a selection in the Ask Alan podcast series from BBC Gardeners' World Magazine in February and March.

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Fungi are some of the most important organisms in our gardens, partnering with plant roots to help them access nutrients, processing dead material and nurturing countless vital processes – but most of the time they are completely invisible to the naked eye. In this episode we meet fungi expert and author of the bestselling book Entangled Life, Merlin Sheldrake, to find out more about these extraordinary organisms.


Do you have a gardening question you'd like Alan Titchmarsh's help with? Submit your question in the comments below or go to www.gardenersworld.com/podcast/questions/


Alan will answer a selection in the Ask Alan podcast series from BBC Gardeners' World Magazine in February and March.

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Established in 1863, the gardens cover 21 hectares and feature a diverse collection of plants from around the world. As well as a Rose Garden and Herb Garden, the botanic garden is home to majestic trees, including the giant sequoia. Standing beneath these giants is a humbling experience. The New Zealand Garden showcases native flora like the silver fern and Pohutukawa tree, creating lush, natural landscape.

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Hedgerows may be human-made, but there are few better habitats for wildlife – and they could play a major role in helping to reverse worrying biodiversity declines. Find out more about the amazing world of the hedgerow as we meet expert and author Christopher Hart.


Do you have a gardening question you'd like Alan Titchmarsh's help with? Submit your question in the comments below or go to www.gardenersworld.com/podcast/questions/


Alan will answer a selection in the Ask Alan podcast series from BBC Gardeners' World Magazine in February and March.

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For years, gardeners have been told to provide supplementary food for garden birds. Reasons for this include helping to compensate for a lack of food during a hard winter, increase competition for food at fledging time, and help to get adults into good breeding condition in spring. But is feeding birds all it's cracked up to be? And if not, how else can we support our feathered friends? Join award-winning author and wildlife gardening expert Kate Bradbury as she talks to naturalist, conservationist and author, Nick Atchison.


Do you have a gardening question you'd like Alan Titchmarsh's help with? Submit your question in the comments below or go to www.gardenersworld.com/podcast/questions/


Alan will answer a selection in the Ask Alan podcast series from BBC Gardeners' World Magazine in February and March.

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Published 2024-11-15

Travel Tales - OEDO Botania, South Korea

8 min
Open

The anticipation builds as you approach Oedo Botanica – a botanical garden island. It’s like stepping into a different world—seriously, it’s that beautiful. Oedo Botanica feels like it’s been plucked straight out of a fairytale and the story behind it is just as enchanting. Oedo Island is a

popular tourist destination, requiring a boat ride, over 10,000 visitors arrive daily, amazed by this human-made miracle.

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The death of someone we love can be devastating. Leaving us grieving and feeling that life will never be the same again. When she was 7 months pregnant, Victoria Bennet lost her sister, suddenly. For her, building and tending a garden, was an act of hope that helped her during some of the darkest times of her bereavement. She talks about how gardening helped her manage her grief and anxiety and what she learnt about gardening and our resilience in the face of seemingly overwhelming challenges.


Do you have a gardening question you'd like Alan Titchmarsh's help with? Submit your question in the comments below or go to www.gardenersworld.com/podcast/questions/


Alan will answer a selection in the Ask Alan podcast series from BBC Gardeners' World Magazine in February and March.

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Published 2024-11-11

The Art of Composting with Charles Dowding

44 min
Open

Why do gardens need compost? What exactly is compost and what are the benefits compost brings to our gardening spaces? Charles Dowdling, gardener, author and champion of the modern 'no dig' gardening method, brings ways you can transfer your garden through the use of compost.


Do you have a gardening question you'd like Alan Titchmarsh's help with? Submit your question in the comments below or go to www.gardenersworld.com/podcast/questions/


Alan will answer a selection in the Ask Alan podcast series from BBC Gardeners' World Magazine in February and March.

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Published 2024-11-08

Travel Tales - Kew Gardens, UK

8 min
Open

Kew Gardens, officially known as the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, is a sprawling 326 acre paradise located in southwest London, home to one of the largest and most diverse plant collections in the world. Whether you're marvelling at the glasshouses or enjoying a leisurely picnic with friends, there's always something magical to discover.

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Published 2024-11-06

The Joy of Tulips with Polly Nicholson

43 min
Open

There’s so much more to growing tulips than planting a few bulbs in autumn and hoping for a bright display next spring. Expert grower, Polly Nicholson, shares her appreciation for the beauty and diversity of tulips and how to help them deliver vibrant flowers over several years in tune with nature. As a National Collection holder, Polly outlines how she continues a tradition of exhibiting some of the most beautiful varieties. Learn from her tulip growing tips and get the best from your bulbs whether growing for vases, container displays, naturalised or simply for spring beauty in your borders.


Do you have a gardening question you'd like Alan Titchmarsh's help with? Submit your question in the comments below or go to www.gardenersworld.com/podcast/questions/


Alan will answer a selection in the Ask Alan podcast series from BBC Gardeners' World Magazine in February and March.

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Published 2024-11-04

Monty Don Prepares the Garden for Winter

37 min
Open

Monty Don explains how he puts Long Meadow to bed for winter and how his winter preparations have changed over the years due to the climate. From coping with wet soil, protecting plants, mulching late winter and early spring, greenhouse heating - or not. There are gardening changes we need to adapt to and embrace.

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Published 2024-11-03

Winter Conversations Trailer

0 min
Open

Welcome to the Winter series of the BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine podcast – packed with friendly and informative conversations with some of the UK’s favourite gardening experts.

You'll find advice on how to care for your garden over winter, support wildlife, boost wellbeing, and improve soil health. We’ll also unearth the fascinating world of fungi, discover the secrets to healthy house plants and spectacular tulips, and much more. Enjoy lively gardening chat and illuminating discussion, brought to you by the BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine team. With new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday, subscribe now, wherever you get your podcasts, and never miss an episode.


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A witch’s garden has been portrayed as an intimidating, scary and other-worldly place, full of folklore fascination and superstition. Plants grown and used by witches and their herbal remedies have been much maligned. Practicing witch Rebecca Beattie discusses the plants that have been used for herbalism and healing over time and what would be in a ‘witch’s toolkit’?

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Psychoactive plants have hallucinogenic properties. They have been used by mankind for thousands of years and still play important roles in culture and religion today. In this episode of Dangerous Plants, Frances Tophill talks to Tom Pattinson from the Alnwick Poison Garden to discover some of the common toxic, intoxicating and narcotic plants that may lurk in our flowerbeds.

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Gardens by the Bay is more than just a garden. It's a futuristic, innovative space where technology and nature seamlessly blend together, creating an awe inspiring experience for visitors. One of the highlights is the changing floral displays in the flower field. Each season brings a new theme, from tulip mania to daily dreams, it's always exciting to see what's next. Gardens by the Bay isn't just about the iconic domes though, the outdoor gardens are just as amazing.

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Deadly potions, poison, murder and intrigue – dangerous plants were used in many of Agatha Christie’s novels. In this episode of Dangerous Plants, Frances Tophill discusses the plants that Christie exploited to great effect in her fictitious murder mysteries and why poisoning is a more feminine method of committing a crime with Ali Marshall, Head Gardener at Torre Abbey and the Potent Plants Garden.

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Toxic plants, deadly fungi and mistaken identity in the hedgerows can all lead to unpleasant consequences. In this episode of Dangerous Plants, horticulturist Frances Tophill talks to UK forager James Wood to discuss how to enjoy nature’s bounty throughout the year, tips for how to clarify what is edible and what’s not and encourage us to forage wilder and deeper, safely.

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Tucked away in the heart of the Scottish Highlands is a gardening masterpiece: the Gordon Castle Walled Garden. This eight-acre walled garden is one of the largest in Britain and a stunning example of modern horticulture blended with historic charm. The garden is divided into various sections, each with its own unique character. Be captivated by this stunning walled garden— evoking images of secret, enchanting spaces filled with vibrant blooms and rich history.

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How has cotton, a soft staple fibre, been dangerous for centuries - and continues to be so? Threatening human life, natural resources and biodiversity, the cotton plant has wreaked havoc over the years in the slave trade, farming and industry. Joining Frances are Dr Cassandra Gooptar, Lecturer in Legacies of Slavery at the University of Hull, and Environmental Sustainability expert Inemesit Ukpanah

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The Alhambra is a magnificent fortress-palace complex perched on a hilltop, celebrated for its

awe-inspiring architecture and exquisite gardens. If you’re a garden enthusiast or someone who appreciates natural beauty, the Alhambra is a must-see. Originally a fortress before becoming a royal palace, the gardens are prime examples of Islamic design, characterized by intricate water features, lush greenery, and serene courtyards.

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The healing power of plants has been used by humans for thousands of years, and many dangerous plants can also help us. In this episode of Dangerous Plants, Frances Tophill is joined by Dr Sarah Edwards, Plant Records Officer at the University of Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum and Ethnobotanist to reveal the mystifying properties of plants that can kill us and heal us.

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Published 2024-09-30

Dangerous Plants Trailer

0 min
Open

Murder mysteries… poisonous potions… mind altering… wily witchcraft… crime-solving… hedgerow pleasures… perilous industries… plant pursuing. Plants have the capacity to hold secrets, kill, enchant, thrill, heal, harm, entice and nourish. Join British horticulturist, conservationist, author and television presenter Frances Tophill to discover the diverse world of dangerous plants in a new podcast series, starting in October.

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Published 2024-09-27

Travel Tales Trailer

0 min
Open

Visit some of the most beautiful gardens around the world with the BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Podcast. In our new series, Travel Tales: Gardens of the World, we’ll transport you to tropical paradises, spectacular botanic gardens, scenic nature parks, traditional landscape gardens, historical walled estates and hidden city gems.


Join travel presenter and journalist Carmen Roberts to travel around the globe and delve into the delights of spectacular and inspirational green spaces.

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Published 2024-08-23

Tea-Break Tutorials - Deadheading

12 min
Open

Join Alan Titchmarsh in a new Tea Break Tutorial series as he explores key gardening issues from combatting slugs and snails, to pond care, summer pruning, feeding and dividing plants, deadheading flowers and growing vegetables for winter. Here's your handy expert guide to gardening.

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Published 2024-08-14

Plants for problem places with Carol Klein

42 min
Open

One of the most simplest and effective ways to ensure our plants thrive is to choose the right plant and the right place to plant them in, but how do you know what plants should grow where? Carol Klein brings her extensive plant knowledge and enthusiasm to show you how to find the right plant for even the trickiest of garden spots.

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Gardens come in all shapes and sizes and with green space at a premium many of us are now gardening in a more bijou setting. So how do you design a garden in a tiny space to create a perfect pocket of horticultural delight? BBC Gardeners’ World presenter and award-winning garden designer Arit Anderson discusses space saving tips, how to create privacy, right plants right place, the use of colour and lighting, structural planting and how to include practical items too.

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Published 2024-08-09

Tea-Break Tutorials - Summer Pruning

12 min
Open

Join Alan Titchmarsh in a new Tea Break Tutorial series as he explores key gardening issues from combatting slugs and snails, to pond care, summer pruning, feeding and dividing plants, deadheading flowers and growing vegetables for winter. Here's your handy expert guide to gardening.

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Published 2024-08-07

Companion plants with Nick Bailey

36 min
Open

Plants in the wild rarely grow in isolation – from the fungal network beneath the soil to the layers of the jungle canopy, plants rely on their neighbours to form dynamic communities. And the same is true in your own garden – just think about growing leeks besides carrots to deter carrot fly. But how this companiable growing system really works and how you can use it to your own advantage can seem a bit of a mystery. Here to help demystify the concept is plantsman, author, designer and TV presenter Nick Bailey.

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Published 2024-07-31

Gardening with cancer with Matt Biggs

46 min
Open

In much the same way as gardeners nurture their growing space, it seems increasingly that we've come to understand how our plants and gardens nurture us in return. We never know quite what life is going to throw our way, and gardening can help us maintain the status quo and provide hope on some of those darkest days. When plantsman, author and regular favourite on BBC Radio 4’s Gardener’s Question Time Matt Biggs was faced with a shock cancer diagnosis he turned to horticulture to help him through. Join garden journalist and RHS judge David Hurrion as he talks about the power of plants to heal with Matt.

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Published 2024-07-29

Adam Frost on gardening as a Career

33 min
Open

Turning your love of gardening into a profession is an increasingly viable option as a first job or a change in career, offering the possibility of working in public or private spaces in the UK or overseas, and potentially paving the way for related opportunities such as landscaping, garden design or garden presenting as Adam Frost explains.

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Published 2024-07-24

Gardening with Trees with Arit Anderson

33 min
Open

What are the benefits of trees in the garden and how can trees help combat climate change? Trees play important roles in our lives, symbolising meaningful moments such as birthdays, anniversaries, deaths, childhood memories if one had a swing on it or was a favourite to climb, trees signify longevity and a sense of time. We mark the seasons by them and mourn them when they die. Award-winning garden designer and passionate advocate for the environment Arit Anderson discusses the future of gardening in our changing climate and how trees can play a part.

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Gardening is well known for having a positive effect on both mental and physical health. It’s also a fantastic activity for bringing people together, helping to strengthen bonds within families, for example, from gardening with children to unifying a marriage or multi-generational relationship by sowing and growing side by side or using gardening to take time out. Join Adam Frost as he talks about how gardening has helped many relationships in his life.

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Plant Kween's Brooklyn apartment is filled with over 200 house plants, and they’ve found a way to make caring for these plants therapeutic rather than a chore. Plant Kween reveals the secrets of their lush indoor plant oasis, some of the challenges they have faced and why it's so important that people from diverse backgrounds are represented in the horticultural community. Plus, they share their top indoor gardening tips, and the best house plants for beginners. And they debunk the myth that some people are naturally good or bad at growing house plants.

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Hate getting lost in the great outdoors? Then meet Tristan Gooley, the Natural Navigator. Adventurer Tristan is a world-renowned expert in the art of ‘reading’ trees, plants and more – looking at tiny details that, once you see them, are staring you right in the face. And, one day, they may even save your life, guiding you home to safety. Join us as we chat trees, navigation, adventures and – of course – gardens.

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We all know that eating fruit and veg is good for us. But how much impact can switching to a more plant-based diet really have on our health? Do plants have the power to keep us healthy and even cure ailments. Ella Mills, founder of Deliciously Ella, experienced for herself the dramatic difference a plant-based diet can make, and has since been on a mission to make it easier for the rest of us to eat more plants. Find out how we can all use plants, whether homegrown or shop-bought, to boost our health. Plus she shares quick and easy ways to squeeze more plants into meals, and make it easier for us all to eat more healthily.

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Published 2024-07-08

Making a new garden with Frances Tophill

34 min
Open

How do you create a new garden that works best for you and what steps should you take, even before the spade first hits the ground? How do you decide what to grow, where is the best place to grow it and can you fit in everything that you’d like to grow? Horticulturist, author and presenter, Frances Tophill has spent a year in her new garden incorporating ideas and lessons she’s learned in her gardening career to create a space, just as she likes it. Frances discusses the approach she took to creating her new garden and provides practical take-aways for when starting a new garden.

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Actress and comedian Caroline Quentin is best known for her roles in TV shows such as Men Behaving Badly and Jonathan Creek. What is less well known is that she is an incredibly keen gardener, and continues to garden and grow plants even when she is away on location filming. She created a large garden from scratch at her home in Devon, including a highly productive fruit and vegetable garden, a greenhouse which she has called the love of her life, a large pond, ornamental borders and more. She recently sold her home with the large garden and reveals why she has taken the decision to downsize now, and how it feels to leave behind a garden that holds to many precious memories.

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Sheila Das, garden manager at RHS Garden Wisley responsible for edible growing and training programmes, looks at a new way of growing vegetables. Moving away from the conventional veg plot and into our next era of veg growing with less control and manipulation. With advice for minimizing input and encouraging nature to work with nature, Sheila discusses how biodiversity fits within a working kitchen garden and how taking a long-term view for the future of growing our own vegetables will establish a good balanced system.

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Gardens and green spaces can be a sanctuary for our health, physically, mentally and spiritually, and can be places to nurture people, as well as plants. Award-winning garden designer, writer and presenter Arit Anderson explores how gardening can have a positive impact on our health and spirituality. In this episode, we discuss why thinking about health, including our mental health, is an important foundation for any garden, how being in gardens and the act of gardening can help restore our natural balance and how taking inspiration from nature can increase our wellbeing.

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There are so many garden designs, styles and trends to choose from. How do you create the designer look for your garden, no matter what the size? Garden designer, RHS Chelsea Show judge and regular BBC Gardeners’ World magazine contributor James Alexander Sinclair shares his garden design secrets for how to get your desired garden look, key elements for designing a garden, cost-effective gardening, gardening for nature and gardening for the location, as well as some tricks of the trade for making your garden look amazing.

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Published 2024-06-19

Plants for Free with Carol Klein

49 min
Open

There’s little that’s more satisfying than making new plants for free! And it’s easier than you might think to make scores of your favourite plants for nothing through propagation. Carol Klein is an absolute master of propagation, able to make masses of new plants through cuttings of all kinds, dividing plants, layering, and growing from seeds – something she has demonstrated many times on TV on Gardeners’ World and in the pages of our magazine. In this episode she shares her propagation prowess, so we can all make more plants for free.

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Published 2024-06-17

Colour in the Garden

31 min
Open

A garden full of colour all year round: it’s what most of us want from our outdoor spaces. But how realistic is the dream of having non-stop colour in your garden? Plantsman, author, designer and TV presenter Nick Bailey has written a book on the subject – 365 Days of Colour in Your Garden. He’s also written a series for BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine called Secrets of a Colourful Garden – so he’s the perfect guide to take you on a journey of colour inspiration as he shares the perfect plants to choose and the theory behind creating year-round colour.

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French beans – there’s nothing quite like them. And there’s still time to get yours started for lovely fresh crops all through late summer. So join keen bean gardener and GW magazine sub editor Oliver Parsons as he shares his success and failures with these majestic towering crops – and learn his top tips for a bumper harvest this summer.

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Published 2024-06-12

Allotment Life with Terry Walton

36 min
Open

Terry Walton has been growing vegetables, fruit and flowers on his Rhondda Valley allotments in South Wales from a young age. With 50 years’ experience, Terry brings a wealth of allotment growing advice, practical gardening knowledge and tips learned over the years. Examining how gardening practises have changed and how climate, location and soil health effects gardening, the benefits of crop rotation and no dig practices, alongside what to grow every year for reliable crops. There are also allotment fails, lively stories and a colourful glimpse inside the world of allotment life. You can hear more from Terry and his allotment antics on his BBC Sounds Plocast podcast.

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Published 2024-06-10

Gardening for Wellbeing

38 min
Open

There are many ways to enjoy nature around us, but how can working in harmony with nature boost our wellbeing? Art and horticultural psychotherapist, artist and gardener Errol Reuben Fernandes discusses why it’s important to take a more holistic approach to gardening. How do you work in the garden and what approaches do you take in the design? How do you choose which plants to include, does nature influence your choices and why do these choices affect our wellbeing? Errol approaches these questions and suggests what we can do to continue our connection with nature for wellbeing now and in the future.

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D-Day 80th Anniversary Special: Can you imagine being responsible as a gardener for thousands of important sites across six continents? That’s the inspiring challenge that Commonwealth War Graves Commission Head of Horticulture David Richardson takes on every day. Join us on this 80th Anniversary of D-Day we meet him to discuss his exciting work across the world, helping to make these vital sites cleaner, greener – and just a little bit wilder, too.

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Published 2024-06-03

Veg Growing for Time-Poor Gardeners

40 min
Open

How do you plan, grow and enjoy produce from your plot throughout the year? What low-maintenance gardening tips can produce luscious legumes, robust roots and celebratory cucurbits? Plants-person, author and Gardeners’ World presenter, Frances Tophill discusses how to create a productive vegetable garden while juggling a busy life. With tips for what, where and how to grow, keeping on top of gardening jobs such as weeding, watering and pest control, advice for how to work with nature and if it’s okay to be messy. Also, find out what perennial vegetables Frances recommends for sustainable growing and healthy eating.

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Published 2024-05-29

Inside Griff Rhy's Jones' Formal Garden

44 min
Open

Comedian and writer Griff Rhys Jones is best known for starring in TV comedy series such as Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones. But Griff is also a keen gardener and has a gorgeous garden, full of carefully clipped topiary, at his home in East Anglia. Discover how he created this garden, how he is tackling box moth, and what his biggest gardening fear is. Plus he reveals the tribulations of having a public footpath running through your garden and what he thinks his greatest legacy will be.

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Published 2024-05-27

Adam Frost talks Making a Show Garden

33 min
Open

Join Gardeners’ World presenter and designer Adam Frost for a behind-the-scenes tour of show gardens at home and abroad, including gold medal-winning creations at RHS Chelsea Flower Show and exciting plans for a pot to plate garden at this year’s BBC Gardener’s World Live. Plus find top tips on how to best experience show gardens for ideas and inspiration to try out at home, and advice on how to create your own show garden if you’re a budding designer and thinking about giving it a go. Could another Chelsea show garden be in the mix? Tune in to find out.

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Cornwall is famous for having a near sub-tropical climate with average temperatures staying above 10c for much of the year. One gardener who is taking advantage of these milder but changeable growing conditions is Patrick Gale, a passionate gardener and the best-selling author of Notes from an Exhibition, A place called Winter and Mother’s Boy, among a substantial list of other novels. Patrick’s garden is thought to be the most westerly walled rose garden in the UK and is open to the public by appointment and via the National Garden Scheme.

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Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show? How the elaborate gardens are created and how on earth the judges compare a recreated quarry with a cottage garden? Eminent garden designer and Chelsea Flower Show judge James Alexander Sinclair is here to draw back the floral curtain and reveal the secrets of the judging process, how the spectacular show gardens are created and what it takes to win Best in Show! Plus discover what happens to the gardens after the show has finished, and what the future holds for Chelsea.

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Published 2024-05-15

Challenging Garden Sites

32 min
Open

What do you do when you don't have a garden at home but still want to create a relaxing retreat? For Vicky ward and Maxine Stringer the answer came when they discovered a Bramble choked allotment style plot right by the sea where they live in Cornwall over the past 10 years they've worked hard to clear the land and create a garden that expresses their creativity and love for local plants and found objects. In 2022 they felt the time was right to enter the BBC gardeners world magazine gardens of the year competition they were chosen as a finalist and went on to win the People's Choice award. Enter your garden in the 2024 Gardens of the Year Competition at: GardenersWorld.com/garden-competition

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Published 2024-05-13

Bridgerton's Floral Feasts

49 min
Open

Join us as we talk all things Bridgerton, and step into a world of Regency romps and floral feasts. We’ll catch up with star of the show Adjoa Andoh, to hear about what it was like filming in some of the UK’s great stately homes and gardens, her own love of gardening and how she finds ‘solace in the soil’. We talk to production designer Alison Gartshore about bringing this fantastical world to our screens, before chatting to garden designer Holly Johnston about what it was like to bring that world to life at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

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Nothing shouts summer in the garden more than beautiful colourful borders. Daniel Hale, Head Gardener at Brodworth Hall and Gardens, gives advice for how to create sensational summer borders. With plants that provide flowers all summer long, add height to the border, are wildlife friendly and have the ‘wow’ factor too, there’s plenty of inspiration for that ‘summer kiss’ border this year and for future years too.Brodsworth’s borders have been restored to their Victorian grandeur and include topiary, ferns and over 100 varieties of roses. Brodsworth is also part of our 2 for 1 Gardens Guide, which is on sale now – pick up a copy and enjoy 2for1 entry to over 400 gardens, including Brodsworth, packed full of inspiration for your garden. Buy in stores or online: https://bit.ly/3wgR9mV

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Published 2024-05-01

Monty Don on Beginner Gardening

51 min
Open

Monty Don shares his expert advice for beginner gardeners. From plants to grow and the tools to use, plus ways to make the most of time and money, Monty explains how to get started. Monty also reveals why we should all grow chemical-free, along with his first steps to start your gardening journey. So, whether you want to grow beautiful blooms, delicious crops or do your bit for garden wildlife, follow Monty’s advice and begin your gardening adventure right now.

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Published 2024-04-29

Summer Conversations Trailer

0 min
Open

Join us for a new gardening series of summer conversations with the BBC Gardeners’ World magazine team. Listen to gardening inspiration from some of the UK’s most loved and well-respected gardening experts. With advice for adding colour to your garden, working with nature, thrifty gardening, veg growing and allotment life. We’ll also take you on a royal tour, go behind the scenes at Chelsea, share garden designer secrets and much more. Enjoy friendly gardening chat and informative discussion, perfect for everyone who loves gardening. With new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe now, wherever you get your podcasts, and never miss an episode.

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Published 2024-04-22

Sowalong - Carrot with Kevin Smith

12 min
Open

There's so much more to carrots than just the ones you buy in the supermarket - grow your own for a host of colours, shapes and maximum flavour. Discover more in this short podcast. Plus get free seeds with our March, April and May issues. May also includes our 2 for 1 Gardens guide. Buy the magazine here: https://bit.ly/BuyGWMagSowalong

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Published 2024-04-15

Sowalong - Parsley with Kay Maguire

8 min
Open

Bursting with fresh flavour and health benefits, parsley will give you months of tasty pickings. Discover more in this short podcast. Plus get free seeds with our March, April and May issues. May also includes our 2 for 1 Gardens guide. Buy the magazine here: https://bit.ly/BuyGWMagSowalong

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Published 2024-03-18

Sowalong - Verbascum with Adam Frost

6 min
Open

These beautiful flowers are loved by garden designers, and are regulars at Chelsea Flower Show. Discover more in this short podcast. Plus get free seeds with our March, April and May issues. May also includes our 2 for 1 Gardens guide. Buy the magazine here: https://bit.ly/BuyGWMagSowalong

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Published 2024-03-04

Sowalong - Tomato with Kevin Smith

11 min
Open

Delicious homegrown tomatoes are a world away from soggy supermarket varieties. Discover more in this short podcast. Plus get free seeds with our March, April and May issues. May also includes our 2 for 1 Gardens guide. Buy the magazine here: https://bit.ly/BuyGWMagSowalong

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Published 2024-02-28

Alan's Favourites: Trailer

1 min
Open

Listen up as Alan Titchmarsh shares some of his garden favourites. From picking his favourite spring plants to sharing his wildlife wish list, Alan takes you through not just his top picks but also the wonderful stories behind why they mean so much to him.

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Published 2024-02-26

Sowalong - Basil with Blake Roberts

7 min
Open

Perfect for the kitchen windowsill or the veg plot, basil is a must-have herb you can grow in even the smallest space. Discover more in this short podcast. Plus subscribe to BBC Gardeners' World Magazine, and get 2 free packs of seeds with every issue until our June issue: https://bit.ly/subscribeGWMagSowalong

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This week Adam Frost explains how to grow fresh carrots in the garden, when to sow, when to harvest, health benefits and delicious recipe ideas. If you've enjoyed listening to Adam Frost, why not join him for a three-night break in Somerset, on one of our exclusive Gardeners' World weekends. Find out more: https://bit.ly/3UnRCxg

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This week Adam Frost explains how to grow fresh, delicious spinach, and easy recipe ideas from Cassie Best of BBC Good Food magazine. If you've enjoyed listening to Adam Frost, why not join him for a three-night break in Somerset, on one of our exclusive Gardeners' World weekends. Find out more: https://bit.ly/3UnRCxg

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This week Adam Frost shares how to grow pumpkins, their health benefits, advice on growing squashes and tasty recipe ideas from BBC Good Food magazine's Cassie Best. If you've enjoyed listening to Adam Frost, why not join him for a three-night break in Somerset, on one of our exclusive Gardeners' World weekends. Find out more: https://bit.ly/3UnRCxg

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Published 2024-02-05

Sowalong - Zinnia with Oliver Parsons

6 min
Open

Zinnias will fill your garden with vibrant flowers all summer long, and they make great cut flowers. Discover more in this short podcast. Plus subscribe to BBC Gardeners' World Magazine, and get 2 free packs of seeds with every issue until our June issue: https://bit.ly/subscribeGWMagSowalong

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Published 2023-12-27

Adam Frost: Grow and Cook Series Trailer

1 min
Open

Adam Frost is always happiest in his veg garden, enjoying the thrill of harvesting his own fresh homegrown veg. But what he loves even more is cooking this homegrown bounty – creating delicious meals with produce taken straight from plot to plate. In this series he talks to Cassie Best, food director of BBC Good Food for inspirational recipes

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Do you love winter? Well, over the next 40 minutes we’re going to help you find the beauty in the season and in your garden at this time of year. In his monthly column for our magazine, We Love, esteemed garden designer and writer James Alexander-Sinclair, has been extolling the virtues of each season and its plants for 15 years now, finding amusing and evocative ways to describe the highlights of the month. So if there’s anyone who can help us learn to love winter, it’s James.

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Making a garden that looks good for a few short weeks in summer, is relatively easy. But making a garden that looks good, and is an enjoyable place to spend time, all year round, is much more of a challenge. And that challenge is made even harder in a small garden, where finding space for all the summer-flowering plants we love is hard enough, let alone fitting in plants for winter interest. Plantsman, garden designer and Gardeners’ World presenter Nick Bailey shares his tips for creating a garden that looks good all year round, no matter what size your space.

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You can grow veg year round! We catch up with Rekha who is growing her veg this winter for the first time in her new garden up north. She reveals what you can start growing as well as the benefits of getting growing now. She also shares what she will be doing to protect her crops in weather colder than she has previously grown in.

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Visiting the world's most beautiful gardens to make a TV series might seem like a dream job for most of us, and in this episode Monty Don shares the practical realities of life 'on the road'. Discover why he takes along whole sets of identical clothing, his favourite overseas gardens, and the characters he's met along the way

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Gardening books make the ideal Christmas gift for green-fingered friends and family, and who better to nominate a good read than acclaimed author, Alan Titchmarsh? He picks his favourite tomes from his bookshelf - from glossy coffee table books on design to historic wildflower ID and even works of gardening fiction - there's something for everyone!

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Published 2023-11-02

Growing Greener - Rewilding, with Knepp

43 min
Open

Rewilding has become one of the hottest topics in the gardening world. Rewilding approaches are appearing at flower shows, on TV gardening programmes, and in the pages of magazines. But can we use the approaches of large-scale rewilding to make our domestic gardens more sustainable? Can the success that has transformed the wildlife and biodiversity in huge estates, also work in an urban window box? The garden team from Knepp: Charlie Harpur, Moy Fierheller and Suzi Turner think they can. They join Arit to discuss the inspirational rewilding project at Knepp, and how these techniques can transform a domestic plot.

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Published 2023-10-31

Gardeners' Favourites: Trailer

0 min
Open

Welcome to Gardeners' Favourites, a new podcast series featuring Alan Titchmarsh, Kate Bradbury and the team here at Gardeners World Magazine. We reveal our favourites and share why we love them. So join us for Gardeners' favourites, perhaps you'll discover your new gardening favourite. Episodes every Tuesday.

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Compost is amazing for your plants, your soil, and the biodiversity in your garden. Pus making your own saves you money. So why do only one third of gardeners make their own? Many think that compost is: “Hard work, prone to failure, smelly and full of rats.”, not so, Ken Thompson, author of ‘Compost’ argues. Ken joins Arit to discuss and dispel the myths and misunderstandings of composting, and to convince listeners that compost is environmental black gold, not a load of old rot.

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Flowers play a central part in our gardens, art, books, and many significant ceremonies around the world. Colourful, full of scent and architectural, flowers help us mark the big events in our lives. But the environmental price of our bouquets can be very high. Cel Robertson is a passionate eco-conscious, flower farmer, she shares practical solutions to growing flowers that look fabulous, smell gorgeous but have a small environmental footprint.

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Get your gardening gloves on and gather your tools to do some invigorating winter pruning of shrubs and climbers. Winter pruning stimulates new growth so listen to Alan’s guide to which plants to prune and which to leave. With a few clear rules to follow you’ll be pruning with confidence to improve the shape, health and even flowering of climbers, shrubs, fruit trees and roses.

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Garden designer John Little joins Arit to discuss the biodiversity possibilities of often overlooked and undervalued urban spaces. They discuss the vital role that low-quality soil, dead trees and recycled building rubble can play in creating wildlife habitats. Plus, how green roofs can promote biodiversity in small spaces. whilst also helping to save energy by cooling overheating buildings in the hotter months. 

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Can you have a lawn that doesn’t cost the earth? In years gone by, a flat, moss free striped green lawn was considered the hallmark of the ideal garden. Now lawns can be a contentious subject. Lawn consultant, David Hedges Gower, shares tips and techniques for creating grass areas which provide habitats for nature, and places for picnics and ballgames. Arit and David discuss how to reduce water consumption and increase biodiversity, plus, the surprising pros and cons of ‘no mow May’.

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The countdown to peat-free has begun, is this the end of gardening as we know it? Professor Alistair Griffiths, Director of Science and Collections at the RHS, and Nick Hamilton, from Barnsdale Gardens, think not. They discuss with Arit why preserving our peat bogs is so vital, sharing their in-depth knowledge of peat, as well as the upcoming changes to UK legislation.

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Published 2023-09-25

Tea-Break Tutorials - Choosing a Tree

12 min
Open

Choose the right tree for your garden without fear of too much shade or root invasion. Alan says ‘no garden is too small for a tree’ so let him help you add stature and enrich your garden with wildlife. Discover how trees can provide fruit, nuts and even garden stakes. With Alan’s extra tips on planting you’ll be able to establish a strong, long lasting tree.

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Fergus Garrett, Head Gardener of Great Dixter launches the series with a discussion of how you can garden for good: how you can use both environmentally sound gardening techniques and have a stunning garden. You don’t have to choose one or the other! The Dixter team has created a beautiful oasis of biodiversity with a low carbon footprint. Great Dixter is a garden that not only respects the nature that surrounds it, but, in an unexpected reversal, actually preserves and replenishes plants and insects that have died out in the natural areas of Sussex that surround it.

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Host Arit Anderson, garden designer and BBC Gardeners’ World programme presenter, is insatiably curious about exploring ways to garden to protect and preserve our environment. Spending time gardening or enjoying others’ gardens opens our eyes to the environment around us and the realities of climate change. But can individuals make a difference by gardening more sustainably, when the problems (and solutions) seem so huge? In this second series, Arit delves deeper into key subjects including rewilding, peat-free gardening, making your own compost, and the surprising rich range of habitats created by poor soils, ex-industrial areas, and derelict buildings. She also speaks to experts challenging claims that some areas of horticulture (e.g., lawns and cut flowers) can never be environmentally sound. You can have green swards and wedding bouquets, they argue, that do not cost the earth. Full of surprising stories and practical tips, this series will inspire everyone to grow greener.


The producer is Lucy Dichmont.

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Published 2023-08-17

Adam Frost – A Year in my Garden

22 min
Open

Join us for an exclusive conversation with garden designer and Gardeners’ World TV presenter, Adam Frost. Recorded at BBC Gardeners’ World Live, and Hosted by presenter and broadcaster, Nicki Chapman, the audience listened in in as Adam discussed how his own garden has developed over the past year.

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A garden that looks gorgeous with zero effort sounds too good to be true, and it probably is. But it’s certainly possible to create a fabulous, flower-filled garden that’s fuss-free and easy to look after. Eminent garden designer and writer James Alexander-Sinclair has designed gardens across the length and breadth of the UK, and in many other countries besides. Here, he shares some of his trade secrets, for creating gardens that are low-maintenance and lovely.

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Published 2023-07-27

How gardening makes learning fun for kids

37 min
Open

Want to get kids outside this summer? Forest school teacher Jaime Johnson explains why gardening is so beneficial and shares activities to get kids involved, as well as provide opportunities for learning. We visit her own garden to join Rowan (4) and Amelie (12) as they grow plants and explore wildlife.

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Published 2023-07-10

Tea-Break Tutorials -Growing Soft Fruit

12 min
Open

Add tasty soft fruits to the harvest with Alan’s guide to growing soft fruit, even in the smallest space. Alan will help you with choosing and growing berries and currants in all their forms. Learn to prune them properly, keep the birds off them and look forward to picking plenty of juicy fruits for delicious desserts, berries to add to your breakfast cereal, or preserve as jam.

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Small growing space? No problem. We are joined by Ingrid Chiu, who with a bit of planning, grows a wide variety of tasty crops in just a few raised beds. Alongside sharing advice on choosing and building raised beds for a patio, she reveals seed sowing advice, compost saving tips, reveals some of her favourite crops to grow, and how to ensure that the produce keeps coming.

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Fill your garden with a sumptuous, scented display of roses, with Alan’s essential guide to growing roses. Get help with choosing which kind of rose to buy, where to plant them and how to prepare the perfect soil. Alan has plenty of useful tips on looking after this iconic flower, and he’ll make sure you know exactly what to do should any problems arise

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Published 2023-06-28

Ray Mears on British woodlands

42 min
Open

Do trees make you happy? Ray Mears shares his love of British woodlands with us. He reveals how we can best enjoy them and inspire our own planting choices to capture some of that woodland magic in our own gardens. Get ready for a guide on plant history, foraging, wildlife spotting and using nature to guide yourself home.

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Struggling to keep your house plants looking healthy? Or just keen to buy heavily discounted house plants, confident that you can bring them back from the brink? Sarah Gerrard-Jones, AKA Instagram’s The Plant Rescuer joins us to explain everything you need to know to successfully care for and revive your favourite indoor plants.

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Published 2023-06-07

Sue Kent on using colour in the garden

47 min
Open

Sue Kent burst onto our TV screens in 2020, with her exuberant home videos from her Swansea garden. Her vivacious, can-do attitude has shown that having physical differences need not prevent you gardening, and has ensured she has become a regular fixture on Gardeners’ World. Sue shares her most reliable plants for bringing colour to her windswept Welsh garden, how she plans her garden's colour scheme, and what she's planning for her border at BBC Gardeners' World Live.

Get tickets: https://www.bbcgardenersworldlive.com/

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For a gourmet veg patch, grow veg you'ill really enjoy eating and serving up for guests. Discover how to grow and harvest pak choi in this sowalong podcast with BBC Gardeners' World Magazine senior content creator Miranda Janatka.


Get free pak choi seeds with our June issue, buy it here: https://bit.ly/BuyGWMagSowalong

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Most of us can get our gardens looking their best in summer, but the professionals really know how to get plants working extra hard, with colourful flowers continually blooming their socks off. West Dean’s head gardener, Tom Brown joins us to help you add some 'umph' to your outdoor space – with his deluge of tips and tricks. He spills the beans on how to get your garden looking top notch, as well as your gardening up to scratch.

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With their distinctive burgundy colour, Cornflower ‘Black Ball’ is the perfect addition to any pollinator friendly patch. Find out how these no-nonsense, easy-to-grow flowers helped a beginner gardener to catch the ‘gardening bug’ in this sowalong podcast with BBC Gardeners' World Magazine Editorial Assistant James Jessel.

Get free cornflower seeds with our June issue, buy it here: https://bit.ly/BuyGWMagSowalong

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It’s the week of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show – arguably the most famous flower show in the world. Bringing together the very best growers, nurseries and of course, garden designers, no other horticultural event compares. For many the show gardens are the highlight of Chelsea, with their big budgets and big ideas. But just what does go into these headline-making creations? What’s it like to design a garden for Chelsea? We chat to multi gold-medal winning Chelsea designer, Sarah Price. Sarah’s designing a show garden this year, and when we recorded final plans were beginning to slot into place with the event creeping up fast.

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Published 2023-05-22

Sowalong – Foxgloves with Adam Frost

6 min
Open

Adam explains why the beauty and simplicity of foxgloves makes them his favourite flowers. He also shares how he collects the seeds, enabling him to keep growing more year after year.


Get more seed sowing advice, delivered direct to your inbox, by signing up to our free newsletter: https://bit.ly/GWpodNewsletter

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When Lizzie Schofield entered the Gardens of the Year competition, back in 2020, she had no expectation of being shortlisted, let alone winning. Her tricky garden was on a steep, coastal plot right on the North East coast of Scotland, and she saw herself as an amateur gardener. Even Lizzie's partner Malcolm told her it wasn’t worth entering, but much to Lizzie’s surprise, she won – and in addition, secured the People’s Choice award too. Since then, her gardening adventures have bloomed along with her own confidence as a gardener. In this podcast, she shares how her life, and her gardening, has changed since winning the competition.

Enter your garden in the Gardens of the Year Competition at: gardenersworld.com/garden-competition

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Our weather is changing, with extremes in heat, cold, wind and rain all becoming more common. The summer of 2022 saw extreme drought and blistering temperatures in many areas of the UK, which was followed by a very wet autumn and a winter with freezing temperatures like we’ve not seen in decades. The weather is becoming unpredictable and, if you’re a gardener, extremely challenging to cope with. We chat to the nation’s head gardener, Monty Don, about how weather extremes are changing the way we garden. Just how is the weather impacting Monty’s own garden, Longmeadow, and what is he going to need to do differently in years to come?

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Published 2023-05-03

Summer Gardening Series 2023 Trailer

3 min
Open

Join the team from BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine as we share lively conversation about all things gardening. We’ll be exploring how to grow veg in small spaces, revive houseplants and create beautiful summer borders. There will also be appearances from some of your favourite presenters, helping you make a thriving garden for you and your family to enjoy.

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Last year's hot, dry conditions may have been hard on a lot of plants but they were fantastic for the laid-back California poppy. Find out how to grow these wonderful, low-effort flowers in this sowalong podcast with BBC Gardeners' World Magazine horticultural sub-editor, Oliver Parsons.

Get free oregano seeds with our May issue, buy it here: https://bit.ly/BuyGWMagSowalong

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Published 2023-04-26

Alan's Favourites - Shed Essentials

19 min
Open

It’s easy to amass a battalion-worth of ironmongery in your shed, but some Alan Titchmarsh would never be without. In this podcast, Alan creates a fantasy toolkit.


Get more advice from Alan, and all your favourite gardening experts, delivered direct to your inbox, by signing up to our free newsletter: https://bit.ly/GWpodNewsletter

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It’s funny how certain tastes or smells can transport us back to a particular moment in life. As gardeners we get this a lot. Find out how to grow Greek Oregano, with its unmistakeable aroma, in this sowalong podcast with BBC Gardeners' World Magazine Editorial Assistant James Jessel.

Get free oregano seeds with our May issue, buy it here: https://bit.ly/BuyGWMagSowalong

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For a fast growing climber that produces beautiful blooms, Morning Glory 'Heavenly Blue' is the perfect choice. Find out how to grow it from seed in this sowalong podcast with BBC Gardeners' World Magazine content creator Lily Middleton. Get free morning glory seeds with our May issue, buy it here: https://bit.ly/BuyGWMagSowalong

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Easy to sow, and one of the keenest yet most manageable self-seeders around, nasturtiums fill your garden with lush foliage and rich colour year after year. Find out how to grow them in this sowalong podcast with BBC Gardeners' World Magazine horticultural sub-editor, Oliver Parsons. Get more seed sowing advice, delivered direct to your inbox, by signing up to our free newsletter:

https://bit.ly/GWpodNewsletter

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Published 2023-02-22

Healthy kids with Matt Willer

52 min
Open

Are the kids of today healthy? It’s hard to tell when our young people seem so addicted to phones and screens. But could gardening, of all things, hold the key to better mental and physical health and an improved diet for the next generation. Adam Frost chats to Matt Willer founder of the Papillon Project, a charity that works with secondary schools and pupil referral units to increase environmental awareness. A key area of Matt’s work involves creating school allotments and encouraging healthy eating, so he knows first-hand the positive impact gardening can have on children.

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Published 2023-02-15

Combatting loneliness with Andrew Kingston

45 min
Open

Do you ever feel isolated or alone? Can you go for days without seeing anyone or talking to another person? Loneliness is a big problem that can impact all areas of our mental health – but could gardening go some way to connect isolated people with others?Adam Frost chats to Andrew Kingston from Camden and Islington’s NHS Community Recover Service. Andrew works with the elderly to help prevent loneliness and he’s seen first-hand how gardening can make a difference.

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Published 2023-02-08

Building relationships with Karin Blak

45 min
Open
Do you garden with your partner? Is your outside space somewhere you nurture together, having an equal say on what you grow and how everything looks? Or is gardening something that causes argument and conflict in your relationship? Are you constantly at odds with your partner about what happens just outside your back door? Adam Frost chats to relationship therapist and writer, Karin Blak to explore how gardening together can be the key to a happy relationship.

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Published 2023-02-01

Breathing clear with Prof Jennifer Gabrys

47 min
Open

Having clean air to breath is vital to our very existence, but pollution is a problem and many parts of the world, cities in particular, are choking. Is there a solution? Could gardening, plants and trees be the answer to solving this serious crisis? Adam Frost chats to Professor Jennifer Gabrys the Chair in Media, Culture and Environment at the University of Cambridge, about the role plants can play in addressing air pollution.

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Hospitals can be frightening and emotional places, so anything we can do to make visiting one easier has to be a good thing. I’ve seen first-hand how a hospital garden can really help alleviate stress for patients, visitors and staff, so should all hospitals have one? Adam Frost chats to Dr Maria Leong and Alice Cornwell, Community Development Officer for the RHS. They’re both involved in a garden Adam designed for University Hospital Lewisham, so the three of them appreciate the importance of creating green spaces where hospital staff and patients can reflect and recharge.

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Published 2023-01-18

Keeping fit with Tyler Lowe

38 min
Open

Can a session in the garden do as much good as an hour in the gym or a run round the park? Is gardening the key to keeping us fit, healthy and physically active? Or is it overdoing it outside dangerous and likely to cause injury in the long run? Adam Frost chats to to physical therapist, Tyler Lowe to discover how gardening can improve all aspects of our physical health, along with ways to avoid ending up with an injury in the process.

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Published 2023-01-11

A happy head with Prof Harriet Gross

54 min
Open

If you garden regularly, you’ll know that time spent tending your plot makes you feel good. When we're feeling stressed, anxious or overwhelmed a bit of time pottering about outside helps us feel better? But why? What is it about gardening that boosts our mood so positively? Adam Frost talks to Professor Harriet Gross, author of The Psychology of Gardening, to understand exactly why gardening is so beneficial for our mental health and wellbeing.

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Published 2023-01-04

Eating healthily with Sonal Shah

45 min
Open

We all know that eating a fresh, balanced diet is a key part of staying fit and healthy, but could you do more to improve what you consume every day? And would you be surprised to hear that gardening could be the place to start? Adam Frost talks to nutritional therapist, Sonal Shah. Sonal believes there are lots of benefits to eating homegrown food

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Would you believe that gardening can improve your physical and mental health? And that it could be the key to eating healthily, combatting loneliness and improving your relationship with your partner? Well it’s true – gardening really can help all of these things and Adam Frost, of BBC Gardeners’ World, wants to take you on a journey to find out why. Join Adam as he chats to doctors, community workers, nutritional therapists and more about the undeniable health benefits of gardening.

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Published 2022-11-23

Tales from Titchmarsh: Trailer

4 min
Open

Listen up as Alan Titchmarsh regales us with tales from the fireside as Christmas approaches. Tales from Titchmarsh, a 10-part series, takes a wry look over the garden fence, with plenty of anecdote, humour and fun along the way. Hear from Alan on battling with the weather, being patient, buying Christmas gifts for the gardeners in your life and more – the perfect opportunity to take a breather and get in the festive mood.

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Her Majesty the Queen had a life-long fascination for plants and gardens, from her earliest years to one of her final public engagements, at the 2022 Chelsea Flower Show. Alan Titchmarsh, who enjoyed many gardening moments with the Queen, shares his memories of those encounters and reflects her place in a long line of royal gardeners, right up to today, with to the new King and his children.

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Would you like to start prioritising gardening for wellbeing? Today on the podcast we’re chatting to someone who did just that. Social media celebrity Joe Sugg began posting videos on YouTube as something to do with his friends as a teenager in rural Wiltshire. Now his channel has over seven million subscribers.

 

Here he shares how he became addicted to scrolling social media and how stepping away from the digital world and the screen, and into the garden, is now a now a big part of his daily routine. From the flowers popping up to the birds and pollinators visiting, in his new book, Grow by Joe Sugg (Penguin Books, £20), Joe tells us how tending to and maintaining his garden takes him to a place of mental calm.

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Published 2022-09-20

Sow Along - Adam Frost Rocket

6 min
Open

This time on Sowalong, Gardeners’ World presenter, Adam Frost, shares his love of growing rocket from seed. Discover how Adam first discovered this peppery herb, along with his expert advice on how and when to sow it for best results. Adam also reveals how he likes to use rocket with ‘almost everything’ when it comes to harvesting for the kitchen.

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Published 2022-09-15

Bats with Amy Schwartz

36 min
Open

Bats are often overlooked in the garden. Being nocturnal, we don’t see them much. But did you know there are 18 species of bats in the UK, which by night, eat a range of our common garden pests? Today, Dr Amy Schwartz, ecologist and bat carer is in conversation with Kate Bradbury as they explore these interesting flying mammals.

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Published 2022-09-08

Bees with Brigit Strawbridge

53 min
Open

We’ve long known that bees and other pollinators are in decline. But did you know how many types of bees there are, and the wonderful ways they live their lives? Today, author and committed wildlife gardener Brigit Strawbridge and Kate Bradbury discuss their passion for bees.

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Published 2022-09-06

Sowalong - Parsley with Emma Crawforth

8 min
Open
This time on Sowalong, BBC Gardeners’ World magazine Gardening Editor, Emma Crawforth, shares why she likes to grow parsley from seed. One sowing of this tasty herb can produce pickings for up to a year, and here Emma explains her tricks for a great crop packed with fresh leaves and flavour.

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Published 2022-08-23

Sowalong - Valerian withJack Wallington

5 min
Open
Today on Sowalong, landscape garden designer and writer Jack Wallington shares his passion for growing valerian. This perennial wildflower loves part-shady, woodland spots and is easy to grow from seed once you know how. With tall spikes and a cloud of white flowers on top, Jack talks you through his tips for autumn sowing, how he likes to use it in his schemes and the wildlife it attracts to the garden too.

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Today on Sowalong, chef, passionate gardener and popular Bake Off judge Dame Prue Leith reveals her love for nasturtium – as not just a beautiful flower but an edible one, too. Discover delicious ways to use not just the flowers but also the seed pods in fresh summer salads – plus what other edible flowers are on Prue’s menus.

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Published 2022-08-05

Hedgehogs with Hugh Warwick

55 min
Open

Voted one of the UK’s favourite mammals, the hedgehog holds a special place in the nation’s hearts – and particularly the hearts of gardeners. With hedgehogs in significant decline, many of us who have regular hedgehog visitors in our gardens know how lucky we are, continuing to invest in hedgehog houses, providing food and setting up cameras to watch them at night.


Today in the podcast, GW Magazine Wildlife Editor Kate Bradbury talks to ecologist, author and spokesperson for the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, Hugh Warwick, about his passion for hedgehogs, exploring why we all love these prickly creatures so much.


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Published 2022-08-02

Sowalong: Courgettes with Oliver Parsons

9 min
Open

Today on Sowalong, Oliver Parsons, sub-editor of Gardeners’ World Magazine, harks back to his childhood with a lifelong love of courgettes, sparked by his Mum’s love of French cooking.


Discover from Oliver the fundamentals of growing courgettes from seed, a hungry plant that demands rich soil and warm conditions to really thrive. There’s always the promise of a glut with courgettes, so he shares his favourite ways you could enjoy your harvest, for months of meals the family will love.


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Published 2022-07-28

NEW! Wildlife Series Trailer

3 min
Open
Kate Bradbury is delighted to be hosting the brand new Gardeners World Wildlife Series here on the podcast. Join us over the next few weeks, As Kate speaks to all the experts about all the creatures visiting our gardens. We'll be giving you practical advice for things you can do at home to help improve the chances for wildlife in your area. And we'll also be sharing our favourite stories about our experiences with the insects, birds, and all the critters in our lives. So tune in every Thursday and never miss an episode.

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Published 2022-07-26

Sowalong: Cosmos with Dame Prue Leith

6 min
Open

Today on Sowalong, chef, gardener and formidable Bake Off judge Dame Prue Leith reveals her love for cosmos, a favourite flower in her Cotswolds garden. She shares her earliest memories of cosmos, dating back to her South African childhood when it was a plant her mother knew and grew.


Prue continues to grow it for the colours it offers, from rich purples for a richly hued flower arrangement, to cool whites that she uses in a refreshing blue and white container display on her sun-drenched balcony. For brightening a border, packing out pots or using as a cut flower, this versatile plant is Prue’s go-to flower from seed.




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Published 2022-07-21

Monty Don on the story of Longmeadow

59 min
Open

Monty’s garden at Longmeadow is among the most famous gardens in Britain, thanks to its starring role every Friday evening on Gardeners’ World. But it’s been the private garden – and passion – of Monty and his wife Sarah for 30 years, created from a bare field of rough grass with a lot of energy and imagination.


In this podcast, Monty takes us back to its beginnings and shares how much has changed in the time – even though today’s garden layout remains as he imagined it back in 1992. And he reveals, for all his travels around the gardens of the world, that it remains his private refuge – and there’s nowhere else he’d rather be.


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Today on Sowalong, designer, writer and gardener Jack Wallington shares his favourite veg to grow from seed – purple-sprouting broccoli. He has tips on how to get the most from this early and easy spring crop, that requires little attention once it’s in the ground and growing away. Producing heads for harvesting in the spring months known as ‘the hungry gap’, it’s a delicious and valuable addition to every veg plot, says Jack.

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Published 2022-07-14

Herbs for healing - with Jekka McVicar

55 min
Open

Herbs have the power to ease our pain, fight infections, lift our mood – and add delicious flavours to our food. But they’re so often treated as a throwaway plant from the supermarket. ‘Queen of Herbs’ Jekka McVicar believes it is not just easy to grow herbs all year round but that, with their health-giving properties, herbs are our future.


She discusses how to grow your herbs for better flavour and health, the essentials everyone should grow for every season, and shares easy recipes to try now, including her failsafe winter health tonic from a homegrown staple of the veg garden.


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Published 2022-07-12

Sowalong: Sweetcorn with Frances Tophill

6 min
Open

Today on Sowalong, Gardeners’ World presenter and seed sowing expert Frances Tophill guides you through growing sweetcorn from seed. She shares her tips for sowing and planting out, plus how to store seeds for winter.


Frances has loved sweetcorn ever since she was a kid, enjoying using 1970’s prong forks to eat boiled corn on the cob with melted butter. First growing it as an apprentice gardener, she discusses why it’s a favourite for its sensory benefits too – a plant which rushes and whispers to her in the wind.




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Published 2022-07-07

Making a new garden - with Dame Prue Leith

54 min
Open

Dame Prue Leith is a chef and pioneering businesswoman, creator of a world-leading cookery school, author of so many inspiring recipe books, a prolific novelist, a campaigner, broadcaster - and formidable judge on Great British Bake Off and now lead judge of the B&Q Gardener of the Year competition. And of course, she is a true gardener.


She’s not only opened her beautiful Cotswolds garden for charity over many years, she has now embarked in her 80s on creating a brand-new garden for herself and husband John to enjoy. With nearly 200 trees already planted in their new patch, we joined her at home to discover why she is always looking ahead.


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In this week’s Sowalong, world-renowned chef and convert to growing his own food, Marcus Wareing, tells us all about his passion for elephant garlic. He first discovered it when his gardener Anatoli introduced it into his kitchen garden and now considers the mild garlic-meets-onion flavour a delicacy and go-to in his dishes.


Sown from bulbs kept back from the previous year, Marcus chats though planting cloves, ensuring plenty of growing space


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Do you wish the children in your life had a better understanding of the natural world? Would you rather they were outside, in the fresh air and at one with nature, rather than addicted to television or a computer screen?


Kevin chats to celebrated children’s writer, Michael Morpurgo to discover if our gardens can fuel children’s creativity and play a part in connecting them with nature.


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Published 2022-06-28

Sowalong: Tomatoes with Adam Duxbury

11 min
Open

Today on Sowalong, we’re celebrating the delights of sowing and growing tomatoes from seed. Fast and with reliable germination, BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine’s Features Editor Adam Duxbury, tells us why tomatoes are a brilliant way in for those new to growing food at home.


Shooting up quickly and with delicious end results, the hardest part is choosing from the hundreds of tomato varieties on offer, from old heirloom types to an array of new disease-resistant and super sweet cultivars. Whether growing in the greenhouse or outside, he covers getting tomato seedlings off to a good start and how to ensure strong and vigorous plants – with those all-important jewel-like trusses of shiny fruit. Listen now, for growing tips and advice on everything from pinching out side shoots, to turning a glut into bottles of delicious slow-roasted, herby tomato and garlic sauce.


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Published 2022-06-23

Summer on the veg plot – with Monty Don

65 min
Open

We all love the idea of picking healthy, homegrown food from our own gardens. But the reality doesn’t always match the dream – with gluts of crops when we can least manage them, or plants that just don’t perform and pesky pests that get to our harvests before we do. So, what steps can we all take to enjoy good eating this summer?


For this food-focused episode, we turn to Monty Don to share his tips for success. He’s also the author, with his wife Sarah, of cookbooks including The Home Cookbook and Fork to Fork.


Listen now, as he shares with us his favourite food, how he ensures the best harvests, and what to sow now for good pickings in the months ahead.


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Published 2022-06-21

Sowalong: Sunflowers with Lily Middleton

8 min
Open

This time on Sowalong, BBC GardenersWorld.com’s Content Creator Lily Middleton shares why growing sunflowers from seed, on a balcony in West London, brings her so much joy. Injecting brightness into an urban environment, Lily initially started growing long-lasting Helianthus annuus during the first lockdown, letting their cheery, daisy heads peer over the balcony for passers-by to spot on their daily walks. 


Easy to start, this season Lily is growing sunflower ‘Red Sun’, making a change from the yellow ray florets she usually leans towards. With limited pots to fill and even less propagation space, Lily explains that while it’s often challenging deciding what to grow, sunflowers always make the cut, providing guaranteed, speedy and beautiful results. 


Listen now, for tips on seed sowing, raising seedlings, watering, feeding and how to provide support with bamboo cane stakes as they grow. Lily covers seed saving and leaving the central discs of the flowers heads out, for wildlife to feast on. Plus, why sunflowers are the ultimate plant to encourage children to catch the gardening bug early on.


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Published 2022-06-16

New ways to garden - with Frances Tophill

63 min
Open

Would you like to make simple changes in the garden and be one step closer to becoming a sustainable gardener? Do you consider your garden as an essential part of the ecosystem, as well as a place of beauty, productivity and respite?   


This time on the podcast, gardener, author, environmentalist, and Gardeners’ World presenter Frances Tophill, shares her vision of modern gardening. Whether it’s living seasonally, using the garden as a resource for home makes, or landscaping with wildlife in mind, in her new book, The Modern Gardener, Frances urges us all to start seeing our gardens as valuable patches of wilderness. 


It's something Frances carries through to her show garden as this year’s Gardeners’ World Live, too. With sustainability at the core, Frances brings her passion for upcycle gardening, with a post-industrial show garden for a modern world. Think naturalistic planting and rewilded areas to support wildlife. 


Here, Frances chats to BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine’s Content Coordinator, Lucy Felton, about delicious hedgerow recipes, edible houseplants, agroforestry, vegan gardening and why it’s important to question the provenance of the things we bring into the garden. Listen on, for advice on growing herbs and weeds for medicinal purposes, ways to save space when growing veg and why no-dig gardening is not only beneficial to the structure of your soil, but important for the wildlife that lives within it, too. 


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Published 2022-06-14

Sowalong: Fennel with Monty Don

7 min
Open

Today on Sowalong, BBC Gardeners’ World’s Monty Don shares his favourite vegetable to grow from seed – Florence fennel. Bringing you his best advice and know-how, Monty makes mastering this tricky-to-grow, tasty veg bed addition, a breeze.   


Here to answer all of your fennel conundrums, Monty covers everything from spotting peak harvesting times, to watering regimes and tricks for a good crop. Monty also offers his tips on when to sow fennel, as well as pricking out seedlings, potting on and planting out. 


Plus, Monty explains why the intense flavour of homegrown fennel in the kitchen is unbeatable. Whether raw in a salad, sliced up with tomatoes and avocado, or halved and roasted in a baking dish with a dash of white wine, thyme and lemon juice. A pure taste of summer. Listen on to learn why everyone should add Florence fennel to their vegetable line-up, now. 


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Published 2022-06-09

Greener gardening - with Jack Wallington

50 min
Open

Are you concerned by climate change, but feel powerless in the face of such a global problem? Our podcast guest Jack Wallington believes that gardening could be a powerful answer, giving us all a way to make a genuine difference in our own gardens – however small. Jack is an author, influencer, designer and advocate for sustainable gardening. He was first discovered through the Monty Don TV series Big Dreams, Small Spaces – where Monty helped him to turn a drab London patio into a plant-packed, city oasis. It was a life-changing moment, says Jack – who has gone on to turn a hobby into a career as a designer, focused on greener ways to garden.




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Published 2022-06-07

Sowalong: Ricinus with Kevin Smith

11 min
Open

This week on Sowalong, BBC Gardeners’ World magazine’s Deputy Editor, Kevin Smith, shares his much-loved ritual of sowing ricinus. With striking, architectural foliage and tropical jungle appeal, ricinus suits Kevin’s planting style perfectly and he tells us why he sows this seed every year without fail.   

 

Starting as jumbo, shiny, speckled seeds ricinus, or castor oil plant, can be slow to germinate, but once it does will spring to life shooting through the soil at speed. When you eventually plant it out for the summer, it’ll reach lofty heights quickly. First discovering ricinus in northern France, Kevin quickly found this versatile, low-fuss annual great for filling gaps in borders and creating a focal point in the centre of a pot, here in the UK. Really reliable for making an impact, find out how to plant up summer bedding plants around a central castor oil plant in your containers.   


Listen on for advice on how to get started with ricinus seeds, watering and feeding routines, plus harvesting and seed saving tips too. Just wait until you see those beautiful spherical, spiky seed pods for the first time. Making such a statement in the summer garden, ricinus really is one to try. 



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Published 2022-06-02

No dig gardening – with Charles Dowding

34 min
Open

Would you like to enjoy a bigger harvest and boost your wellbeing by doing less, rather than more, gardening? Have you been considering switching to the no-dig method for growing your own vegetables? Or are you simply curious to find out more about how it all works? Here, organic veg guru Charles Dowding tells GardenersWorld.com writer and enthusiastic grower, Blake Roberts, how.


Author and champion of no-dig gardening, Charles Dowding, has been a leading authority on all-things no-dig since 1983 and now uses his time, and decades of experience, to teach others his growing techniques. It sounds like the Holy Grail for gardeners – to achieve better results and improve our health, all while doing a little less hard graft in the garden. 


We hear all about the science behind why it works, as well as how to get started, whatever the size of your plot. With years of observation from growing veg commercially on his West Country smallholding, Charles’ advice draws directly from real-world experiences and hard-won results. 


From a new way to look at soil improvement, to throwing out the rule book on crop rotation, Charles debunks plenty of gardening myths as he sets out a simple way to grow more, dig less, reap the rewards.


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Published 2022-05-31

Sowalong: Kale with Lucy Felton

10 min
Open

This week on Sowalong, BBC Gardeners’ World magazine Content Coordinator and keen kitchen garden grower, Lucy Felton, shares one of her go-to crops to grow from seed, Kale ‘Black Magic’. 


With lush, dramatic dark green leaves delivering a plentiful harvest, the compact nature of this easy veg patch addition makes it suitable for containers and ideal for squeezing into edges of beds. Not only does kale look great in any pot or border, but it is packed with nutrients and goodness, too.


Listen now for Lucy’s simple sowing tips, whether undercover, directly into beds or in containers. With advice on how to crop this hardy annual, using the flowers in salads and seed saving too. Plus, a trick for quickly removing those tough central stems and slicing up leaves for a delicious side dish or raw superfood salad.


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Published 2022-05-26

Gardening for kids’ wellbeing

33 min
Open

Would you support gardening being commonplace in our schools if you knew it would improve your child’s mental wellbeing? With one in eight young people suffering with a mental health condition, could gardening be the answer to the healthy heads of a generation? 

 

We chatted to children’s gardening author and NHS patient advisor, Annabelle Padwick, about how gardening helps young people overcome mental health challenges. After struggling with her own mental health during her teenage years and into adulthood, Annabelle Padwick found that gardening was the one thing that made a difference. She now uses gardening to help primary and secondary age children overcome mental health and behaviour challenges. 

 

Listen now, as Annabelle shares how she makes gardening interesting and relatable to young people. From digging, weeding and sowing seeds, to extracting plant oils for homemade lip balm and garden design.


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Published 2022-05-24

Sowalong: Zinnia with Kay Maguire

5 min
Open

This time on Sowalong, BBC Gardeners’ World magazine Reviews Editor, Kay Maguire, shares her favourite flower to grow from seed. In a frilly mix of pinks, yellows, oranges and reds, Kay talks you through planting Zinnia. 


Find out where Kay first discovered these bright annuals and how she likes to sow them in rows in the veg plot, amongst other crops, ready for picking. With vivid colours that instantly lift a room, Zinnias last well in the vase as cut flowers. They’re brilliant border fillers, a great addition to containers and by picking them regularly through the season, you’ll encourage more and more of those daisy-like flowers. 

 

Listen now, as Kay runs through her growing tips, whether sowing straight into drills in the ground, or earlier indoors. Plus, advice on staking, watering and harvesting, too. Best of all, how to leave the last flowers on the plant at the end of the season, ready for seed saving and preparing for next year’s blooms.


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Do you strive to do more for wildlife in your garden? Are you cheered by the birds visiting your feeders or the frogs that spawn in your pond? Here, BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Wildlife Editor Kate Bradbury, is in conversation with entrepreneur and star of BBC’s Dragons’ Den, Deborah Meaden, about why the rhythm of the garden and nature is so important to her.


As well as supporting climate-friendly businesses, Deborah has been slowly returning her countryside garden and surrounding land back to its former glory, encouraging nature in at every turn. Now, swallows, swifts, barn owls and badgers are just some of the creatures visiting and there’s even an otter regularly stopping in to eat the fish in her pond.


She confesses she’s not green-fingered, but will have a go, and is a great believer of ‘right plant, right place’. Plus, Deborah shares her love of weeding, and tells us why she starts every day - rain, snow or shine - wandering around the garden, cup of tea in hand.

From being self-sufficient by growing her own organic vegetables, to the rescue and rerelease into the wild of Pebble, the baby hare, listen now as Deborah and Kate discuss why everyone should be inviting wildlife into their gardens.


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This time on Sowalong, BBC Gardeners’ World magazine Gardening Editor, Emma Crawforth, shares her favourite flower to grow from seed. With all the advice and guidance you need to start sowing and growing Nigella damascena, including how to use it in a flower border to fill gaps and why it’s perfect for the vase. 

 

A hardy annual with beautiful, upright flowers and a wave of feathery foliage, here, Emma walks your through her love of Nigella damascena. Popular with honey and bumble bees too, love-in-a-mist, as it’s more commonly known, comes in many different cultivars. There’s everything from sky blue ‘Miss Jekyll’ to the multi-coloured hues of ‘Persian Jewels’, so it’s easy to find one to suit every garden style. 


Listen now, as Emma covers sowing instructions, growing tips and how, after a year, this cottage garden favourite rewards you, shedding seeds that’ll grow into more flowers the next summer. Not forgetting those utterly irresistible, decorative seed heads. Here’s why Nigella damascena is one to add to the must-sow list now. 

 


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Beautiful trees and the UK landscape go hand-in-hand, but did you know that many of our beloved trees are under threat, becoming ravaged by pests and diseases? As part of National Plant Health Week, here, Gardeners’ World presenter Adam Frost chats to former Head of Arboretum at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Tony Kirkham, and Head Forester for the Duchy of Cornwall, Geraint Richards, about the state of our nation’s trees.


Delving into which UK trees are currently under threat, from the caterpillar attacking popular parkland horse chestnuts, to ash dieback and acute oak decline, just how bad is it? Are we gardeners on the front line and more importantly, what, if anything, can we do to steer some of our most important native trees away from a possible point of extinction?


Whether ancient specimens in native woodlands, or prize examples in our parks and gardens, trees have always been adored and celebrated by gardeners and nature lovers alike. So, listen now, as Adam, Tony and Geraint explain why we need to start taking tree health seriously and how to ensure we don’t see some of them disappearing from our treescapes entirely.


Plus, advice on what you should be planting into your garden, what to look for when buying a tree, how to spot a healthy one and best gardening hygiene practice for tackling biosecurity.


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Published 2022-05-10

Sowalong: Salad Leaves with Kevin Smith

13 min
Open

Having something fresh on your plate, that you’ve grown yourself from seed, is magic. From speedy mixes and little gem lettuces to mustards and pak choi, this low-fuss lunchbox and dinner table staple will quickly reward you with a delicious crop, filled with variety.


Salad leaves are easy to grow in veg beds, balcony containers, or even into a couple of handy pots kept by the kitchen doorstep. Nothing beats having access to beautiful fresh leaves that can be snipped, cut and washed before being added straight to the plate.


So, listen on for everything you need to know about growing an array of cut and come again salad leaves from seed. Including Kevin’s tips for successional sowing and harvesting. Why not have a go at growing some this season? Once you’ve picked that first leafy medley for the table, there’ll be no going back.


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How does your garden make you feel? We gardeners know the huge benefits gardening has on our mental health and wellbeing. Here, BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Wildlife Editor Kate Bradbury, talks to Dr Amir Khan, NHS GP, TV doctor and devoted gardener, about the wonderful ways gardens and gardening can heal us. 

 

Whether we notice our blood pressure lowering or not, we all have those moments when the strains of the day, including anger and stress, melt away after an hour or two, digging the soil, sowing seeds, or even weeding. In fact, the moment Amir returns from a shift at the surgery, he heads straight into the garden. Gardening is so good for us, that doctors are now prescribing it to some patients as part of their journey to feeling better.  

 

From encouraging frogs, hedgehogs and wildlife into the garden, to the physiological changes going on inside of us when we’re outdoors nurturing our plants, listen now as Kate and Amir dive into all things feel-good gardening. 


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Published 2022-05-03

Sowalong: Tithonia with Monty Don

9 min
Open

Step inside the Gardeners’ World presenter’s seed library, as he shares his passion for Tithonia flowers, and how to grow them from seed. Monty is here with heaps of advice, to ensure healthy plants and a bounty of blooms, every time.

 

Plus, the seed-sowing champion lets us all know why he grows Tithonia, the Mexican Sunflower, every year, without fail. As well as, how to ensure successful germination and plush petals, all season long.    

 

Let Monty Don persuade you to give Tithonia a try, with a few pointers along the way, as we Sowalong together.


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Is growing and cooking fresh food from the garden high on your wish list? Do you want to whip up dishes using homegrown ingredients but don’t know which fruits, vegetables and herbs to try first? We chat to Michelin-starred chef Marcus Wareing, about why he’s swapped his chef’s whites for life in the kitchen garden. As he spends more time expanding his smallholding in the East Sussex countryside, Marcus is the first to admit getting to grips with growing food has been one heck of a learning curve.

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The joys of spring are here, our gardens are bursting into life and the brand-new season of the BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine podcast is back, full or inspiration and lively conversation – what better way to start the gardening year? From wildlife lovers to foodie growers, don’t miss that nation’s favourite gardeners as they share their love, advice and expert wisdom for all things gardening.

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Published 2022-04-14

Gardening for health

46 min
Open

Arit explores ways to garden that will help restore our natural balance – with leading psychiatrist and psychologist, Dr Sue Stuart-Smith. Sue believes that tending to our gardens is a good way to tend to our minds, and reveals how a dose of nature is good medecine for us all. LONGER DESCRIPTION: Our heart rate slows, our mood enhancing hormones rise, and our blood pressure lowers.


These are just some of the scientific facts that tell us being in nature is good for our health. So Arit explores ways to garden that will help restore our natural balance – with leading psychiatrist and psychologist Dr Sue Stuart-Smith, who is also a great gardener. She shares a fascinating insight into how therapeutic horticulture has helped war veterans, prisoners, patients and herself – and how a dose of nature is good medicine for all of us.


Dr Sue Stuart-Smith is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist, and author of the Sunday Times best-seller, The Well-Gardened Mind (2020) about the wellbeing and psychological significance of gardening. Partly inspired by working alongside her landscape designer husband, Tom Stuart-Smith, in creating their Barn Garden in Hertfordshire, she has been exploring the benefits of nature in creating a positive frame of mind.


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Published 2022-04-07

Trees for gardens

45 min
Open

Trees are the life givers on planet earth, providing the oxygen we breathe, habitats to thousands of species, while creating beauty in our landscapes too. Yet these giants of nature are at risk. Arit talks to world-renowned tree expert Tony Kirkham, to discover why there’s a tree crisis and why we cannot – and must not – live without them.


What role do trees play in helping to improve our gardens and the environment? How do trees support wildlife and biodiversity? Just how important is it to balance increased tree planting with the environmental risks? Today’s guest started as a forestry apprentice aged 16, before embarking on a 40-year career as Kew’s Head of Arboretum, Gardens and Horticultural Services. Managing 14,000 trees and sharing his passion with his team and visitors, here, he explores how trees can help everything from our mental wellbeing to noise pollution. Plus, how to choose the right trees for our gardens, whatever the size, and the vital changes we should all make now in our approach to trees.


Dr Tony Kirkham was the Head of Arboretum, Gardens & Horticultural Services at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew until his retirement in 2021. He is the author of many award-winning and popular books on trees, including pruning and training guides and his celebration of their glory in Remarkable Trees (Thames & Hudson).


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Published 2022-03-31

Growing in the city

46 min
Open

We investigate how plants can give city-dwellers vital protection against future climate change including extreme weather conditions and declining air quality, with our guest, scientist Dr Tijana Blanusa


With fluctuating weather systems and increasing populations, our towns and cities are on the frontline of rising temperatures, flash flooding and degraded air quality. So just how can some of our common garden plants help?

Arit is joined by Dr Tijana Blanusa, RHS environmental scientist and specialist in plant physiology, whose extensive research into the benefits of greening our cities reveals how plant function could give us vital protection against the future of a changing climate – and how you can use this information to make the right choices in your garden


Dr Tijana Blanusa leads the RHS Ecosystem Services Research Programme, identifying the structural and functional traits of plants that can be isolated, optimised and employed to benefit the wider environment


She tells us: “Most of the UK population nowadays lives in towns and cities. Domestic gardens form a large proportion of UK urban areas (up to 30%!) so what we grow in them and how we manage them can have a significant environmental impact. My research contributes to the understanding what structural and functional traits plants need to provide environmental benefits (like cooling, rainfall capture and air quality improvement) well. In my role as a scientist for the RHS I am able to pass this knowledge on so that our gardeners can make planting choices that not only look and feel good but which benefit the environment.


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Published 2022-03-24

Sustainable garden design

53 min
Open

What are the key elements of a sustainable garden? Can any landscaping materials really be considered sustainable and what essentials help to make a small space sustainable? Today’s guest explores how we can all move towards designing and building sustainably and how to adapt your existing garden with sustainability - and the planet - in mind.


She believes that thoughtful design creates kindness – to our surroundings, to the wildlife we share our gardens with, and to each other.

In this episode, she shares with Arit her belief that we must listen to the land on which we garden – however small that space. Taking time to sit, look around and listen – is there life in the soil, birdsong in the air? And she offers a practical approach to this that everyone can try.


She also shares ways to ensure the materials and plants you select for your garden are the kindest for the planet. But above all, she says, your choices must start with the biggest question of all: how do you want to live?


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Published 2022-03-17

Water-wise gardening

38 min
Open

Could you garden without an outdoor tap – and keep your plants healthy and thriving? That’s the challenge set by today’s podcast guest – as she shares HOW we need to all learn to live without water always on demand.


In the UK one of the topics we talk about the most is the weather – and we feel like we get our fair share of rain. But our rainfall patterns are changing, bringing either a heavy deluge that we can’t cope with, or a struggle with drought. But what we do expect is water to pour from our outdoor taps whenever we need it. With global water shortages and demands, is it time to rethink our reliance on this increasingly precious resource? Our guest in this episode thinks so – Janet Manning is a water expert, scientist and experienced gardener who has answers that could challenge us all…


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Published 2022-03-10

Harnessing the Power of Plants

50 min
Open
Diversity is a hot topic for us all right now – as we figure out how to create a more diverse society for 21st century living. And it’s clear, says today’s guest, that diversity also holds the key to how we should garden in the future – because diversity lies at the heart of the healthiest plant communities. Professor Nigel Dunnett has been studying plants and creating landscapes for decades and is convinced that the future of gardening is not just about us working with nature, rather than against it, but that observation of the plant world points the way.

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Published 2022-02-24

Growing food sustainably

44 min
Open
From cutting air miles to boosting biodiversity and soil health, nurturing our own fruit and veg garden gives us so much more than just a tasty harvest – so we talk to food policy guru Professor Tim Lang, who’s also a gardener, President of Garden Organic and a one-time hill farmer, and has experienced food growing from all sides. He’s passionate about the contribution gardeners can make to a better future for food, our soil and our health.

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Spending time gardening or enjoying others’ gardens opens our eyes to the environment around us and the realities of climate change. But can individuals make a difference by gardening more sustainably, when the solutions seem so huge? In this new podcast series, we’ll be talking to the experts in planet-friendly gardening, to share practical solutions that anyone can try and reveal how to make a genuine impact when we all act together. From growing food and pollution-busting plants at our back door, or finding alternatives to tap water, peat and plastics, tune into the podcast series to hear us reveal how even small steps can bring big results. None of us can do everything, but all of us can do something.

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Published 2021-12-14

Growing Veg in a small space

43 min
Open
Gardener, author and You Tube content creator, Huw Richards reveals how small space veg growing doesn’t need to be restrictive. He shares how to get around the challenges of growing in a tight space as well as some of the opportunities it offers. He shares which plants will do best, how to make you own feed, as well as some less traditional approaches to gardening.

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Frances Tophill, Gardeners’ World presenter and horticulturist, is passionate about growing delicious vegetables and herbs in an organic, sustainable way, but that also saves her time and produces maximum harvests. Alongside the everyday varieties, she also grows unusual and perennial vegetables for easy results – and even makes the most of the weeds that grow on her plot.


Whether you’re taking on an allotment, or just have a few pots at home, you’ll discover her advice on how to make your own organic plant feed, deal with pests and diseases, manage your time if you can’t tend the plot daily – and all you need to know to achieve success with veg, growing in a modern, sustainable way.


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Published 2021-11-30

Gardening for wellbeing with JJ Chalmers

33 min
Open

JJ Chalmers, former Royal Marine, multi-medal-winning Invictus Games athlete and Strictly Come Dancing contestant, reveals how gardening has been part of his healing process after life-changing injuries, suffered while on patrol in Afghanistan in 2011.


He shares how it helps him and his family connect with nature, how he overcomes physical challenges that are the lasting legacy of his injuries, and why he thinks gardening can benefit us all. JJ discusses the mental health benefits of gardening and how, after working as a teacher in some deprived areas, he’s observed that it could help more young men and women through their own tough times. Above all, he shares the joy that his garden gives him, sharing it with his young family and passing on to them his lifelong love of being outdoors.


This podcast touches on mental health issues, so if you are affected by any of the content, you can find good resources to support you at NHS Every Mind Matters (www.nhs.uk/every-mind-matters/). And you can contact the Samaritans on 0116 123 for free in the UK, or visit www.samaritans.org


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Published 2021-11-24

Wreath-making made easy

38 min
Open

A traditional Christmas door wreath is just the thing to give visitors a hearty festive welcome. And even better if it’s homemade with materials foraged from the garden – it’s the perfect way to keep costs down, while making something totally individual to you.


Hello, I’m Kevin and I’m joined by florist and gardener, Shilpa Reddy. Shilpa created the beautiful Christmas wreath that features on the front cover of our December issue, and we’re going to recreate it in the studio right now as we record this podcast. Apparently it’s simple and easy enough for even me to have a go at


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Published 2021-11-09

Wildlife gardening at Great Dixter

56 min
Open

How do you create a wildlife garden? Fergus Garrett takes me on a walk around Great Dixter, where we discuss the habitats he and his team have created to help wild species.


As we walk around the gardens he points out various habitats that work for different species, including the pond in the Barn Garden where great crested live, the wonderful meadows home to rare orchids and even rarer long-horned bees, and the giant piles of garden waste that serve as nesting and hibernation habitats for all sorts of species, from birds to hedgehogs to snakes.


We discuss the trials and tribulations of wildlife gardening, what it means as a wildlife gardener to open your garden to the public, and how we can all take a piece of Great Dixter home with us, and recreate these habitats in our own spaces.


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Trevor Nelson MBE, BBC Radio 2 DJ reveals how he unsuspectingly became a gardener. He shares his first steps in the gardening world and advice for those looking into getting started themselves. He explains how a garden can be designed for wildlife, as well as entertaining family and friends – plus why short of a holiday (or playing golf), he wouldn’t now want to be anywhere else.

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Published 2021-10-26

Growing your own food - with Monty Don

55 min
Open

What’s the secret to success with veg growing? Monty Don shares his tips for great tasting, healthy fruit and veg – and why your best-ever veg year starts not in the new year, but here in autumn. With just a little planning, you can look forward to year-round fresh and healthy harvests


We caught up with Monty as he was in peak harvest season at Longmeadow – and heard how his veg plot is at the heart of family cooking.

He shares why growing food gives him so much pleasure, the tricks he uses to ensure a steady flow of harvests, and why his sowing choices start at the kitchen table.


He also reveals why things still go wrong on his plot – and how learning from mistakes rather than striving for perfection are often the best way to improve your veg growing, and tackles the common mistakes that most beginner gardeners make when starting out growing veg.


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Hilton Carter – author, interior stylist, house plant expert and Instagram star reveals what you need to know to start a house plant collection or take your’s to the next level. He shares the fundamentals of plant care alongside some styling tips to make your house a calmer, greener home.

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Published 2021-10-11

Family gardening - with Alan Titchmarsh

32 min
Open
Alan Titchmarsh reflects on gardening as a child, how it shaped his life to come and the impact it’s had on his own children and grandchildren. Discover why he believes all children should be given the chance to connect with the natural world – even if that is just a small patch outside a back door – and why it’s the responsibility of schools and parents to make gardening exciting for our young people

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Published 2021-09-28

Adam Frost – welcome to my garden

55 min
Open
We visit Gardeners’ World presenter, Adam Frost, at home to take a private tour of his garden. Soak up the atmosphere as he guides Kevin Smith around the place we’ve become so used to seeing on TV and in BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine. From the veg and gravel gardens to the woodland, meadow and more…

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Published 2021-09-27

The BBC Gardeners' World Season 3 Trailer

3 min
Open
Are you looking for ways to get your gardening fixed this autumn? Don't miss the BBC Garden as World magazine podcast. Perfect for everyone who's got the gardening bug. We'll be sharing lively conversation and expert tips as we explore all things gardening from simple ways to benefit your health as your garden to the wildlife that's visiting your plot. So join us on the podcast as we help you tune into gardening and discover the power of nature at your back door. Subscribe now on iTunes, Spotify or Acast to never miss an episode.

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Can any one of us really make a difference in a world where climate change is reaching into every part of our lives? Arit Anderson, designer and Gardeners' World presenter, passionately believes that sustainable gardening is a force for good – and that if each of gardens with the planet in mind, we can change the world for the better

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Published 2021-06-03

Making a garden – with Alan Titchmarsh

45 min
Open

What’s the secret to making a beautiful garden? How do you turn the patch at your backdoor into a space that’s not just a collection of plants but one that suits your personality – and makes you happy?

Alan Titchmarsh, who’s made more gardens than most from his time as presenter of Gardeners’ World, Groundforce and Love Your Garden, reveals the steps that everyone can take to turn dreams into reality.

Discover the key steps he always takes when creating a garden, however small, plus how to know when it’s time for change, and the mistakes he’s made along the way. And through it all, he reveals how he has created his own private sanctuary away from the TV cameras, shared with family and wildlife, where he’s turned a lifetime of ideas into his own piece of paradise


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Published 2021-05-20

Raymond Blanc on growing for flavour

33 min
Open
Food is at the heart of chef Raymond Blanc's world – and it's never fresher, healthier nor more flavoursome than when grown and picked just moments from the kitchens at his Michelin-starred restaurant, Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons. He recalls his earliest gardening memories – and reveals the secrets to growing for flavour.

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Unsure how to turn the dream of a perfect garden into reality in your back garden? We turn to one of the most creative designers at work today, Ann-Marie Powell, to demystify garden design and share the steps we can all take to making our gardens beautiful and personal.

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Published 2021-04-29

Success with cacti

34 min
Open
The plant that's launched a million Instagram posts is a must-have accessory on every well-dressed shelf – but cacti aren't always as easy to grow as you think. Our expert Gynelle Leon shares her flair for cacti and houseplant hacks so you'll have picture-perfect plants every time.

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Are you looking for ways to get your gardening fix this spring? Do you love to escape into the garden? Don't miss the BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine podcast - perfect for everyone who's got the gardening bug.


We’ll be sharing lively conversation and expert tips as we explore all things gardening – from simple ways to benefit your health as you garden to the wildlife that’s visiting your plot.

  

So join us on the podcast – as we help you tune in to gardening AND discover the power of nature at your back door. 


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Published 2021-01-28

Growing your own food

40 min
Open
Claire Ratinon, food grower and author of How to Grow Dinner Without Leaving the House, shares her tips for raising your own veg, with plenty of tips for those with just a limited space. She reveals how volunteering on a roof top farm in New York got her hooked on veg growing and changed her life for the better. She examines the effect of growing veg on our wellbeing and why it matters that we play a part in managing where our food comes from.  

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Published 2021-01-21

Gardening in schools

24 min
Open
Wicor Primary School puts gardening at the heart of everything it does – lessons happen outside, natural history is discovered for real on-site and homegrown produce is sold to boost school profits. But exactly how does all this work with the National Curriculum, and how could your kids benefit from the joys of gardening in their school? Louise Moreton has run the teaching gardens at Wicor for more than 12 years and explains all…

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Published 2021-01-14

Mark Lane on gardening with a disability

38 min
Open
Mark Lane, BBC Gardeners’ World first presenter in a wheelchair looks back at how a car accident changed his life, forcing him into using a wheelchair. He reveals how he has overcome the difficulties this has given him, and finds ways to adapt gardening techniques and tools so he can keep on doing what he loves. He shares what he’s learned about gardening with a disability and the practical solutions that have enabled him to create not only a lovely garden but also a thriving career.

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Published 2021-01-07

Gardening against the odds

39 min
Open

Sue Kent has delighted viewers of Gardeners’ World during lockdown, as she demonstrated creative ways to overcome the challenges of gardening with an upper limb difference. She reveals how she created her Welsh coastal garden using, mostly, her feet and – following her appearance on the TV show – the questions most frequently asked by viewers.

Sonal Sumaria has found ways to garden with hearing and visual impairment. She shares how she uses her other senses to help her identify what’s around her in the garden – and what she would like to see improve in colleges and workplaces to encourage more young people with disabilities become professional gardeners


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Dr Rangan Chatterjee, best-selling author and BBC One’s Doctor in the house talks about the many health benefits of gardening; how it affects our sleep, the nutrition we get, and how it can help us lose those extra pounds. He reveals how those with busy schedules can build healthy habits like gardening into their daily routine and why there is no substitute for getting outside and being surrounded by nature for better health.

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Published 2020-12-24

Monty Don on gardening for wildlife

48 min
Open
As natural habitats disappear, gardens have become vital for the future survival of much of our wildlife, from unseen soil-dwelling creatures to hedgehogs and house sparrows. Monty Don has been observing the wildlife that visits his garden at Longmeadow for decades – and how his gardening has encouraged those creatures to not only visit but stay and contribute to a place that’s full of life. As he publishes his discoveries in a new book about the garden wildlife year, we catch up with him to hear his advice on creating a rewarding space that’s as good for wildlife as it is for you.

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Published 2020-12-10

Gardening as therapy

30 min
Open
Whether it’s improving your physical health, or helping your mental well-being, gardening is good for you. Kathryn Rossiter, chief executive of the garden health charity Thrive, shares why doing just a little in the garden can help a lot in so many ways. Plus she explains why social and therapeutic horticulture programmes are vital in helping people from all walks of life as they battle wide and varied health conditions. We also chat to Imogen, who’s been helped by Thrive, to hear first-hand how gardening has changed her life for the better. 

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Published 2020-12-03

Growing your own food with Alan Titchmarsh

39 min
Open
Growing food has been the lockdown activity for so many of us through the pandemic, but can you turn a summer’s interest into a passion for life? We ask Alan Titchmarsh, one of our national gardening treasures, to share his tips for success with fruit and veg – whatever your growing space and conditions. From what to grow in a shady city courtyard to encouraging kids to get gardening, plus sharing harvesting tips and family recipes, Alan will give you the confidence to just have a go – and the appetite to start right now!

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Published 2020-11-26

Monty Don on gardening for health

44 min
Open
Monty Don shares with us how gardening has helped his mental and physical wellbeing throughout his life – that gets him through his darkest days and brings poetry to the happiest times. He reveals how he and Sarah tried to bring a bit of gardening and nature into the glitzy world of 1980s fashion, through their jewellery business, and how when the crash came, it was their garden that saved him. In this revealing conversation, he also shares what he’s learning as he gets older – and why the recent take-up in gardening gives him real hope for the future.

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Join the team from BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine as we share lively conversation about all things gardening. We’ll be exploring growing for health and for wildlife, success with homegrown food and flowers, making a thriving garden for you and your family to enjoy.

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