In today’s show Helen Interviews Andrew Perry, about his journey from studying history at university to growing herbs and launching the hugely successful online shop, Urban Herbs. 🌱 https://linktr.ee/urban_herbs_ Plus we chat about the limbo month that is February, planning with a little help from Sarah Raven’s Spring/Summer collection, The Scottish Snow Drop Festival 🌱 https://www.discoverscottishgardens.org/the-snowdrop-festival/ and Kate Humble’s new cook book Home Cooked published last week. 🌱 https://kate-humble.myshopify.com/ And if that is not enough Helen also introduces a new segment to show sharing a top tip each week to help us be more sustainable in the garden. This week she talks all about water butts and making the most of rain fall in the garden!

In todays show Helen reminds listeners about the importance of the RSPB’s big bird watch which runs from the 28th January until the 30th January. In the last 50 years the UK skies have lost 35 million birds. 🌱www.rspb.org.uk Olys Helen interviews author, writer, gardener, podcast host & supper club host Kathy Slack. They discuss Kathy’s debut book The Veg Patch and her path from the high pace world of advertising to setting up home and gardening in the Cotswolds countryside. 🌱Instagram @gluts_gluttony https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/112/1120246/from-the-veg-patch/9781529107968.html 🌱Grow Cook Inspire is supported by Caledonian Horticulture www.Caledonian Horticulture.co.uk

In today’s show we welcome The Beardy Gardener back on to the podcast. Leigh Johnstone, who is a mental health advocate and Instagram gardening sensation found solace and hope from his garden during a very difficult period in his life. He now wants to share the joy of gardening with those who don’t have their own green space through the launch of The Giving Garden. 🌱Instagram @thebeardygardener www.crowdfunder.Co.uk/p/the-giving-garden 🌱RHS new community gardening grant https://www.rhs.org.uk/press/releases/RHS-Community-Gardens-In-Home-Nations?type=0&tag= 🌱Grow Cook Inspire is supported by Caledonian Horticulture www.caledonianhorticulture.Co.uk

Welcome to a brand new series of Grow Cook Inspire. To kick of the New Year I am joined by gardener, author & TV presenter Frances Tophill, who’s new book The Modern Gardener is due to be published this spring. We chat about intentions for 2022, perennial veg as well as her new book. We also touch on that all important question what plant or seed would you take to a desert island?! 🌱 Instagram; @francestophill https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-modern-gardener/frances-tophill/9780857839435 Also noted below are the two books we discuss on the show; 🌱 Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmer https://www.amazon.co.uk/Braiding-Sweetgrass-Indigenous-Scientific-Knowledge/dp/1571313567 🌱 Rhapsody in Green by Charlotte Mendelson https://www.waterstones.com/book/rhapsody-in-green-a-writer-an-obsession-a-laughably-small-excuse-for-a-vegetable-garden/charlotte-mendelson/9780857839473

Today I share my highlights from this years RHS Chelsea Flower Show as well as my top things to do in the garden as we slide into autumn. Plus I have a few special guests, including the Prince of gardening, Arthur Parkinson, food writer Kathy Slack and Lucy Calder of Kilduff Farm. And to round things off I have some pumpkin and blackberry recipes.

In this weeks episode we head to Aberdeenshire to visit Rora Dairy, where we speak with Jane Mackie the driving force behind the no nonsense yogurt. Plus there are great ideas for things to do in the garden and I tell you more about Radio 2’s Big Bee Challenge Competition. To round things up we’ll be foraging and cooking with elderflower. {www.roradairy.co.uk, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2qk4dDdJJdsVFmcLhZ7RwmW/how-to-enter}

Kicking off a brand new series I bring you all the latest news in food, farming and horticultural, plus I will share a fantastic conversation with Anna Lamotte, who helps run Guardswell Farm and Guardswell Grows in rural Perthshire. The team in this idyllic hideaway are not only rewilding the countryside but also their guests. You can find out more about Guardswell over www.Guardswell.co.uk or follow their journey over on Instagram @guardswellfarm & @guardswellgrows. Also I’ll be sharing recipes ideas using rhubarb and for more recipe inspiration you can find me over on Instagram @helen.a.cross As ever if you can share, listen, review and subscribe to the podcast that would be brilliant.

In the fourth and final episode of my special mini series of Grow Cook Inspire to coincide with National Gardening Week I chat with Ally Mitchell, the driving force behind Ocean Plastic Pots. The commercial diver turns plastic waste from the sea and turns them in to plant pots! And if you can please do vote for Grow Cook Inspire in the podcast category of the Great British Growing Awards 2021. You can vote by following this link https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/awards Thank you!!

We are half way through National Gardening Week and in today’s episode of this special mini series I will be sharing my third inspirational story. Earlier this week I was fortunate enough to visit the Woodlands Community Gardens in Glasgow and find out how a green oasis in the middle of the city has helped to bring a community together during a very difficult year.