In this week’s show I chat with cook, writer, Co founder of Wahacca & Master Chef winner Thomasina Miers. Thomasina has just recently published her 8th cook book Meat Free Mexican. We talk about her love affair with Mexico, her journey into the food industry as well as her involvement in Chefs in Schools. Plus we chat about soil, a subject which comes up time and time again in the podcast, underlining it’s impirtance. 🌱Instagram @thomasinamiers www.thomasinamiers.com www.chefs in schools.org.uk 🌱Plus to be in with a chance to win a copy of her new book Meat Free Mexican and access to her online cookery course with Create Academy go to my Instagram page @helen.a.cross and find the details on my grid. 🌱www.createacademy.com 🌱rhs.org.uk 🌱 www.scone-palace.co.uk

In the final instalment of my RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2022 preview series I talk with Juliet Sargeant about life as a doctor before her life as a garden designer as well as the garden she has designed for Chelsea which will be the new Blue Peter Garden. The focus is on soil, the life line of our planet. She wants to excite the next generation and educate them about soil, highlighting that it is much more than dirt. The garden will be moving ti the new RHS Bridgewater Garden in Salford, following the show. 🌱 www.Julietsargeant.com 🌱 www.rhs.org.uk Supported by Caledonian Horticulture.

In part three of my special RHS Chelsea Flower Show preview series, I chat with garden designer Lottie Delamain. The textile garden she has designed is for the charity Fashion Revolution, funded by Project Giving. It will highlight the positive power which plants have on our clothes and make us consider what is actually in our clothes and where do they come from. This is Lottie’s very first garden at Chelsea as well as her first podcast! Go listen! 🌱 www.lottiedelamain.com 🌱 www.fashionrevolution.org 🌱 www.givingback.org.uk 🌱 www.rhs.org.uk 🌱

In the second episode of my RHS Chelsea preview series I speak with award winning gardening designer, Polly Wilkinson. We discuss the garden she is creating for the Charity Mothers for Mothers, supported by Project Giving Back. It is titled This Too Shall Pass, and explores mental health issues and the challenges faced my women during motherhood, challenges magnified over the last two years. 🌱www.pollyannawilkinson.com www.mothersformothers.co.uk www.givingback.org.uk www.mmhla.org www.mind.org.uk www.rhs.org.uk

This is the first episode in an exclusive new four party mini series of the podcast where I will be delving behind the scenes of RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2022 and exploring three special gardens funded by Project Giving Back, which provides funding for charitable organisations to exhibit at the show. But first I caught up with RHS Chelsea Show Manager Gemma Lake, to find out what we can expect from this years show. 🌱 www.rhs.org.uk www.giving back.org.uk Supported by www.caledonianhorticulture.Co.uk

A second bonus episode this week. I chat with Neil Butler from Dandelion about the inspiring project, Unexpected Gardens, which will take place throughout Scotland. Twelve gardens will be created in the most unlikeliest of places, breathing new life into communities.🌱 www.dandelion.Scot Plus I chat all things pumpkins, as we look to get our very own pumpkin patch underway and I share what’s going on in Scotland from the Scone Garden Country Fair 🌱 www.scone-palace.Co.uk & agriculture’s show case the Royal Highland Show is back this year too 🌱 www.royalhighlandshow.org. My book of the week is by Anna Greenland, Grow Easy, 🌱 Instagram; @annagreenland & my podcast of the week is by Kathy Slack & is called Tales From the Veg patch. 🌱 Instagram @gluts_gluttony.

In today’s episode we get get to grips with all things soil and peat free compost as I chat with Tommy Dale, the man behind Caledonian Horticulture. Plus I’ll be looking at what to sow in the garden as well as the benefits of companion plants. And asparagus is in the spotlight in the kitchen this week. It’s a good one! Please remember to subscribe, review and share.

Welcome back. In todays show I interview Kayleigh Love, the young Dairy Farmer who featured on the latest series of the BBC’s This Farming Life. She and her family have taken control of the milk they produce on their farm on the south west coast of Scotland, selling it straight from the farm gates. Doesn’t get much fresher. 🌱 Instagram @the_wee_aird Plus after the glorious weather of March we talk the re-emergence of colder days & snow, what to sow in the coming weeks, and how to grow dahlias. With Easter just around the corner Kilduff Farm have pulled together a fantastic grow your pumpkin box, perfect for mini pumpkin farmers out there 🌱https://www.kilduff.co.uk/shop/ & I take you on an edible treasure hunt for wild garlic. And finally a very happy publication day to Frances Tophill. Her brand new book A Modern Garden is published today and I reveal what’s inside. 🌱 https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-modern-gardener/frances-tophill/9780857839435

On today’s show I talk with Lauren one half of the mother and daughter team behind Days of Dahlia, a flower farm and design studio located in Scotland. We chat about her family’s roots in floristry and her move from working in the arts to growing cut flowers with her mum. If you are looking to create your own cut flower patch this year, Lauren is on hand to share her wisdom as well as some of her favourite varieties. 🌱 https://www.daysofdahlia.com/post/fieldnotes-february-2022 Instagram @days_of_dahlia

We’ve made it into March and we’re sowing caution to the wind and sowing seeds with gusto. Today’s guest is Joanna MacGregor, one half of Farm Ness, who also features on the fifth series of The BBC Show This Farming Life. We talk about her move from the classroom to the farm yard, her farm shop endeavours & much much more. 🌱Instagram @farm_Ness https://🌱www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b094mqlx Plus I chat about what I’m sowing on the window sill now we’ve had five minutes of sunshine in Scotland from tomatoes, aubergines and more sweet peas and I’m cooking with purple sprouting broccoli. 🌱 My book of the week for those looking to make their own compost is Perfect Compost, and it does what it says what it does on the tin. 🌱 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Perfect-Compost-Practical-Simon-Akeroyd/dp/1911358944 And finally I also reveal more information about 12 of unexpected gardens which will be growing across the country as part of Unboxed 2022. 🌱 https://lnk.bio/dandelionscot