Hello, and welcome to Tales From The Potting Bench, a planty podcast where you’ll hear all manner of stories from knowledgeable, passionate and invaluable people who love plants as much as you and I.

We’re here at the monumental 7th season of the podcast and thanks to you, the listeners, we’re back with even more guests and this season promises to be even bigger, even better and with even more planty goodness! This season I'm focussing on those people who really know what they're talking about in a series of episodes I'm calling 'Experts In Their Field'.

Along with a brand-new season, is a brand-new sponsor, and I’m thrilled to share that I’m joined for season 7 by the powerhouse of the plant world, Westland Horticulture. Westland are dedicated to empowering everyone with the skills, knowledge, and tools to help every gardener give it their best, season after season. Great gardening starts with great compost, and Westland has a trusted range of composts for your every gardening need, from giving your baskets and containers the best start in life filling your vegetable patch with nutrients ahead of a bountiful season.

Our gardens are all wildly different, from small spaces full to the brim with flowers and edibles, to sprawling acres with lakes and meadows and balconies, courtyards or even just a few pots. But, no matter the size, shape or contents, our gardens all give us such physical and mental benefits in equal measure, and my guest this week is all too aware of the magical properties a garden can hold. Leigh Johnstone, perhaps better known as The Beardy Gardener, is indeed a gardener, but hes also a mental health advocate and now an award winning garden designer too. For the last few years, Leigh has shared the highs and the lows on his popular social media channels and his posts present a refreshing account of all sides of our daily lives, the good, the bad, the rough and the smooth. In this episode, we discuss how The Beardy Gardener came to be and exactly why his garden is his safe space. Enjoy!

If you’d like to see more of Leigh’s and the adventures of beardy himself, then you can follow him on Instagram where you’ll find him as @beardygardener. Leigh is also a regular speaker at garden shows up and down the country so do seek out his website beardygardener.com, for where you may be able to see him next.

Also, why not boost your garden, as well as your mood with Westland’s Boost, All Purpose Liquid Plant Feed. You can achieve four times more blooms, giving you an even more stunning floral display and an abundance of healthy fruit and veg too. Using its unique Plantsense™ technology, Boost will feed all ornamental and ericaceous plants, plus all fruit and vegetables and give you incredible results.