Roots and All - Gardening Podcast

By Sarah Wilson

Do you want to know how to grow plants and get the best out of your outdoor space? Do you find traditional gardening media baffling and/or boring? Then you're in the right place, because the Roots and... more

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The podcast currently has 489 episodes available.

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Number 1: Episode 168: Cottage Gardens with Andrew Sankey
This episode features garden designer, grower, speaker and writer Andrew Sankey. Andrew specialises in English cottage gardens and has meticulously researched the subject for decades, becoming an expert on this style of gardening. He's recently released a book called The English Cottage Garden and in the interview, we talk about what defines a cottage garden, both in the past and now, the plants and features most commonly found in one and tips if you're looking to create your own. Dr Ian Bedford's Bug of the Week: Ivy Mining Bees Please don't forget to rate, review and share the podcast! What we cover What was a cottage garden historically and what is it now? How big is a cottage garden? What hard landscaping elements characterise a cottage garden? Which planting techniques stand out as most cottage garden-like? Where does the winter interest come from in a cottage garden? Using plants as supports for other plants Cottage gardens and wildlife Andrew's 3 essential plants Edibles in a modern cottage garden About Andrew Sankey Andrew left teaching (Head of Graphics/Design) in 1989 to start a Garden Design & Landscaping business in Lincolnshire. He discovered it was very difficult to obtain plants required for designs so started a specialist nursery stocking plants for dry shade/ dry sun. He went on to organise Plant Fairs in Lincolnshire, Cambs and Norfolk & produced a booklet called the Plant Fair Guide for a number of years. Andrew moved to a cottage near Woodhall Spa, Lincs in 1992 and created a cottage garden which was opened twice a year for the NGS and other groups. He became Chairman of the Lincolnshire branch of the Cottage Garden Society and began lecturing on cottage gardens and related subjects (including lecture tours to Minnesota and Wisconsin in the USA). He's written booklets on Companion Planting, Cottage Favourites and Sayings and Superstitions and he continues to design gardens and lecture widely on a range of gardening topics. Links The English Cottage Garden by Andrew Sankey - The Crowood Press Ltd, 2021 Episode 62 - The Living Jigsaw with Val Bourne The Cottage Garden Society
December 06, 202136min
Number 2: Episode 167: Plan, Plant & Maintain Fruit Trees with Wade Muggleton
Hello and thank you for joining me this week, as I talk to Wade Muggleton, permaculturist, tree expert and author of The Orchard Book, a book about incorporating fruit trees into your garden, however big or small your space. Wade is my favourite type of guest in that he's written a book based on 20 years of solid experience and he's busted a few myths along the way, not least the received wisdom around fruit tree pollination. So if you'd like to find out what makes an orchard, when to prune your trees, what types of tree to select, how to underplant your trees, creative tree training, what is a pitcher and what is a chequer, then listen on! Dr Ian Bedford's Bug of the Week: Ear wigglers Please don't forget to rate, review and share the podcast! What we cover What is an orchard? What types of tree might one contain? Underplanting orchard trees Keeping the costs down when establishing an orchard Have you heard of chequers? Grafting and over grafting Pitchers Pollination and the need for multiple trees of the same pollination group Creating step overs and fruit tree arches Pruning in summer instead of winter Top types of tree About Wade Muggleton "Wade Muggleton lives in Shropshire with his partner and two children, where their plot, Station Road Permaculture Garden, is a demonstration site for permaculture and opens under the National Open Gardens Scheme. In 2013, he acquired a field and now has a collection of over 130 fruit trees and was featured on BBC Gardeners' World in 2018." https://www.chelseagreen.com/writer/wade-muggleton/ Links The Orchard Book: Plan, Plant and Maintain Fruit from Garden to Field by Wade Muggleton - 2021, Permanent Publications
November 29, 202128min
Number 3: Episode 169: Darwin's Garden with Dr Jude Piesse
This week's guest is Dr Jude Piesse. Jude's book 'The Ghost in the Garden' is essentially about Charles Darwin's largely forgotten garden in Shrewsbury but the book turned out to be much more than a study of the garden, its history and the man himself. In fact, these aspects are almost incidental to the other characters in the book and this makes it an amazing narrative where many aspects are hung together on the framework of the garden. In the interview, Jude tells us about how the book developed, the characters that animated the garden and how it fed into Charles Darwin's work and life. Dr Ian Bedford's Bug of the Week: Winter Bumblebees Please don't forget to rate, review and share the podcast! What we cover How Jude first came across Charles Darwin's garden and what was it about the garden that interested her Jude says the book is more a collective biography and memoir than just the story of Darwin and it incorporates a whole host of characters. She talks about whether this was intentional. When the garden was built and what the contemporary horticultural world was like How might the change from landscape gardens to the collectors' gardens with their array of exotic species have contributed to scientific discoveries at that time? Whilst he was on The Beagle, the correspondence between Darwin and his family seems to have been set against the backdrop of seasonal events in the garden. Was this merely a common topic of conversation or were these updates of a deeper significance? Who were the Darwins' gardeners and what role did they play in shaping the garden and Darwin's work? How much did the garden feed into his work? Did Darwin love the garden or was it a laboratory? What is the condition of the garden now? Whose ghost is it in the garden? About Dr Jude Piesse Jude Piesse is an academic and writer. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia and a PhD in English Literature from the University of Exeter. She has published widely on nineteenth-century literature and culture, including her book about emigration literature, British Settler Emigration in Print, 1832–1877 (OUP, 2016). Though she grew up in Shropshire, she did not discover Darwin's childhood garden until she moved to Shrewsbury with her young family to take up her first lectureship. She now works as a lecturer in English Literature at Liverpool John Moores University. https://scribepublications.co.uk/books-authors/books/the-ghost-in-the-garden-9781913348052 Links The Ghost in the Garden by Jude Piesse - Scribe Publications, 2021
December 13, 202131min
Number 4: Episode 149: Growing Real Food for Nutrition
In this episode, I'm talking to Dr Elizabeth Westaway and Matthew Adams, founders of Growing Real Food for Nutrition, or Grffn for short. Grffn's vision is for a world where all food is grown for its nutritional qualities using regenerative practices, and made accessible to all. We talk about how the way food is grown can affect its nutritional value and how this can support environmentally sound growing practices. Dr Ian Bedford's Bug of the Week: Conopid flies This episode is sponsored by gardencourses.com. gardencourses.com offers online horticultural training for those looking to develop their own, home gardens. The lasted course to be added is Create Your Garden Sanctuary - you can go to gardencourses.com to find out more. What we cover How Elizabeth and Matthew came to start Growing Real Food for Nutrition Why not all carrots are made equal How you measure the nutrient content of food Why it can vary How we can make sure we're growing nutrient dense food How citizen science helps Brix testing Is organically grown food generally higher in nutrients than non-organically grown? About Growing Real Food for Nutrition Grffn's vision is for a world where all food is grown for its nutritional qualities using regenerative practices, and made accessible to all, creating an abundance of health and harmony, reconnecting humans with Mother Earth. Grffn's mission is to deepen citizens' understanding of how we derive nutrition from natural processes and to realise its impact on human development. Links www.grffn.org
July 26, 202136min
Number 5: Bats in Our Cities & Gardens with Jo Ferguson of the Bat Conservation Trust
This week, I’m speaking to Jo Ferguson and we’re talking about bats. As with most of our wildlife, population trends show a decline in bats in the UK in recent times. Loss of habitat, human activities including nighttime lighting and construction and lack of food are all contributing factors. In this episode, Jo talks about what bats need in order to thrive and how we can make small changes that will make big contributions to our bat populations.
October 29, 201936min