Studies such as that of McCance and Widdowson have revealed dramatic drops in fruit and vegetable mineral content since the 1940s. 

This week's guest on the HortWeek Podcast Jennifer Brodie believes that 'rock dust', a by-product of volcanic rock mined for road construction and rich in minerals trapped since the pre-dinosaur era, could help reverse this by remineralizing the soil and feeding microbes that will re-fortify plants.

Brodie has come full circle in her career and is now returning to her passion project 12 years after she founded REMIN (Scotland), which pioneered the use of rock dust as a top dressing for soil, compost mixer and activator.

Now leading the Pro-Grow rock dust division for resource management company Veolia, she explains the geology behind basalt rock dust, its dual benefits for plant health and carbon capture, and how the industry is shifting toward "ecological transformation".

She details how some of the 400,000 tonnes of green waste they process annually is integrated with rock dust to create a PAS 100-certified compost for the garden retail market. Her goal now is to expand rock dust's use into the organic farming sector.

Quoting Soil Association founder Lady Eve Balfour, Brodie says: "Everything begins to matter when the rate of soil erosion exceeds the rate at which life can invade the mineral rock underlying the soil and convert it into soil." Brodie believes that rock dust has an "unrecognised" role in rectifying the mistakes of the past and helping renew soils for the benefit of all.

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HortWeek editor Matthew Appleby, senior reporter Rachael Forsyth and technical editor Sally Drury share their top horticulture stories of 2025.

00:00:43 - horticulture and peat-free

00:04:10 - developments in Biodiversity Net Gain

00:07:26 - remote mowers, new technology and implications

00:13:13 - loss of horticulture colleges and new learning options

00:17:54 - the impact of drought in 2025 going into 2026

00:21:30 - how horticulture is turning to battery-powered kit

00:26:20 - diversity, inclustion and equity in horticulture

00:30:34 - border inspections - imports, exports and an SPS agreement for 2026

00:36:42 - what are the team looking forward to in 2026?

Do check out our huge archive of HortWeek Podcast interviews with an unrivalled selection of prominent and fascinating figures from all corners of the horticulture sector.

Podcast presenters: Matthew Appleby, Rachael Forsyth and Sally Drury

Podcast producer: Christina Taylor

Make sure you never miss a HortWeek podcast! Subscribe to or Follow HortWeek podcasts via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your preferred podcast platform. 

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The Garden Trust's Linden Groves is campaigning against a proposal to end the organisation's role as a planning statutory consultee.

She robustly contests the proposal to remove the statutory consultee role and disagrees that it would improve the planning system. Instead, precious parks and gardens, hard won over many centuries, would be lost to communities both now and in future.

“We are passionate about the role that the UK’s world-famous historic parks and gardens can play in supporting positive economic growth and healthy cohesive societies, and eager to continue helping this in our role as statutory consultee. We encourage supporters to respond to the consultation and will publish our response as soon as possible.”

In March, the Government decided to ditch planning consultancy from bodies including The Gardens Trust, to speed up the planning system. “We are seeking views on reforming the role of statutory consultees in the planning system in England,” it said. The consultation closes at 11:59pm on 13 January 2026.

• The consultation can be accessed here.

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Tony Kirkham has a mission, one that will resonate with many arborists across the UK: "I'd like to get rid of the term 'tree planting'".

The former Kew arboretum head says: "Our success rate of establishing trees isn't good in this country... I'd sooner see less trees planted and established rather than planting big numbers that fail to establish." 

In his conversation with HortWeek editor Matthew Appleby, Kirkham gives his thoughts on the "exotics" versus "natives" debate and reveals his "top future trees" which include his favourite "hard-working trees".

On pest and disease threats to trees, Kirkham issues a stark warning. Experts say it is a case of "not if but when" Xylella enters the UK, and Kirkham says, with more than 400 host plants identified so far: "I think every woody plant is vulnerable. We really need to crank up our biosecurity."

Other than Xylella, his the top concern is plane wilt, which "is spread by arborists" via tools, machinery, PPE and clothing, and which is "coming towards us pretty quick...we need to keep that out at ALL costs".

He also talks about how arborists can handle the rising frequency and intensity of storms, recalling how he got Kew back up and running in the wake of the storm of 1987 that brought down so many trees that he considered "old friends".

But despite the devastation that took three years to clear, he now says it is "the best thing that could have happened" - getting rid of unsafe trees, giving the Kew team a chance to replant and refresh the arboretum, revolutionising tree-planting practice. 

Make sure you never miss a HortWeek podcast! Subscribe to or Follow HortWeek podcasts via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your preferred podcast platform. 

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This is the second special podcast with an arboriculture focus produced as part of ArbWeek, HortWeek's deep dive into all things arb held from 24 - 30 November.

• Listen to Jeremy Barrell on how 'Failing clients deserve failing trees', plus tree growing, procurement, planting and establishment

This week's guests bring their distinct perspectives on the arb sector - but also bring a holistic perspective having worked together for many years on fascinating and crucial research projects.

Kevin Martin, head of tree collections at RBG Kew and Adam Dunnett, production and amenity director for Hillier Nurseries are thought leaders in their fields and bring fascinating insights and forthright opinions to their discussion with Rachael Forsyth.

They discuss tree planting and establishment, ground breaking research with "remarkable" results that is transforming tree selection and understanding of how to grow and in particular, water, trees.

00:00:49 How Kevin and Adam began their careers in horticulture

00:05:45 Kevin Martin on his research into resiliant trees sourced from around the world

00:09:53 Trees we should be planting to weather the future

00:14:40 Hillier's 'Streetwise' range of trees for urban environments

00:17.39 Peat-free growing and trees

00:20:48 Groundbreaking research into irrigation for trees at Hillier

00:30:13 The importance of grants, continuity in Government support and business certainty

00:40:39 Adam Dunnett on seeing changes in the school curriculum making a difference to hort

00:50:40 The latest on Resistor elms

00:52:43 Kevin and Adam's 'dream' pieces of research topics

On the topic of encouraging young people into horticulture, Adam Dunnett relates a "chink of light" following a visit to a secondary school where as part of their work on the "2050 project" they are looking at what trees will be thriving in 25 year's time. 

"That's just one school, but actually that could be really quite transformational if that's happening in other schools!"

Kevin says: "Horticulture and growing plants is an applied science, and it's one fo the most important applied sciences we do and it's so overlooked...it's always been seen as suitable for someone who's not academic, and that's not the case.

"We need some of the brightest people to solve some of the biggest questions...we need to work on that narrative."

In this episode the Victorians get a couple of name-checks and we also get some top tips on which tree to go to to get unbeatable conkers.

Podcast presenter: Rachael Forsyth

Podcast producer: Christina Taylor

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Chloe Whiteside, ICL’s technical area sales manager covering Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire – has spoken on the HortWeek podcast about the highs and lows of the 2025 spring bedding season and what the strong start and weaker finish mean for the 2026 bedding plant season.

She talks about what bedding growers should be doing in the lead-up to the spring season and gives advice about watering, nutrition and storage regimes for peat-reduced and peat-free growing media.

On nutrition, she talks about using controlled release fertiliser and water solubles, as well as which biocontrol, biopesticide and biostimulant products are at the grower’s disposal and, as a BASIS qualified adviser, what she recommends.

Before joining ICL, Whiteside spent 10 years in horticultural research at ADAS, delivering research projects on a wide range of ornamental and edible crops. She managed the AHDB funded Bedding and Pot Plant Centre trials, as well as the AHDB, Defra and industry-funded project on Transition to Responsibly Sourced Growing

Media Use in UK Horticulture. The project ran for five years and covered all sectors of horticulture, from bedding propagation right through to container grown trees and soft fruit production.

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The HortWeek Podcast has joined ArbWeek to bring HortWeek readers a series of interviews with leading arborists. The first of these is Jeremy Barrell.

A influential figure in the tree care landscape (and HortWeek columnist) Jeremy Barrell is one of the leading authorities on tree care.

A passionate campaigner on street trees in the wake of a number of controversial local authority fellings, in this week's podcast HortWeek editor Matthew Appleby hears Jeremy's uncompromising views on tree safety, tree planting, tree production and local authority procurement.

Barrell says: "The standard of training on some of the people that are planting [trees] - it's not surprising the trees don't survive...if you don't have a specification that is up to scratch, then of course contractors are going circles around you and you deserve to have a load of failures". 

"I deal with more tree failure cases that result in harm than any other expert in Britain...the harsh reality is there are many large duty holders...that don't do anything like the standard of tree checking that should be done".

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HortWeek editor Matt Appleby and senior reporter Rachael Forsyth report on the essential horticulture stories of the week.

HortWeek editor Matthew Appleby and Rachael talk about:

• The "outrageous" ongoing delays and reports of damaged to imported plants
• The latest on the prospective peat ban
• What the garden centre of the future might look like
• 
  

Do check out our huge archive of HortWeek Podcast interviews with an unrivalled selection of prominent and fascinating figures from all corners of the horticulture sector.

Podcast presenters: Matthew Appleby and Rachael Forsyth

Podcast producer: Christina Taylor

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andrew Fisher Tomlin, co-founder and director of the London College of Garden Design talks on the HortWeek podcast about his new book, The Modern Professional Planting Designer, was published by Rizzoli New York in October 2025.

In the podcast he talks about how the book came about and what impact he hopes it will have, what he thinks of Chelsea designs this year, his views on international garden design versus that of the UK, on horticulture education, trends for 2026, AI and what his favourite plant is.

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Garden centre personality Rosie Bone brings her new ideas for garden retail to the HortWeek Podcast this week this week.

Founder of the World's End Garden Centre in 1970 with Len Bone, Rosie puts her success in garden retail down a focus on customer service, looking after your staff and above all "value for money". She argues if you get those three right, other considerations such as location are almost irrelevant.

She discusses her passion, which is sustainable garden retailing.

"Profit isn't a dirty word... but I think in this day and age we have to start to recognise that there is an environmental cost to everything any of us do".

She says that imports from China cannot be avoided in many product areas, but that carbon footprint could be offset by focusing on plant-based options in the restaurant:

"It's not about telling customers what they should and shouldn't eat, but presenting [food] in a way that encourages customers to make [a plant-based] choice for themselves but that can be done with clever marketing, clever menus."

After a period away from the industry Rosie reveals the garden business that revived her interest in and passion for it and what they do so well.

And she reveals some significant gaps in the market that garden centres, with their large footprints and nature-oriented client base, could capitalise on.

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