After a short festive break, the Gardener Ben Podcast is back with season three and episode 12. I would like to stress there is absolutely no pressure and no rush to be getting on with tasks in the garden whatsoever at this time of year. The garden is slumbering quietly, and winter is doing its thing, breaking organic matter down and cleansing the garden of harmful fungal spores, pathogens, and disease problems.

There’s no rush to be getting seeds sown, pots washed, or to rush out and start clearing the beds, borders, or doing your winter pruning. I’ll be touring you through my schedule in the weeks to come, so I hope if you take nothing else away from this week’s episode whatsoever, it’s someone else giving you the permission to take things easy, slowly and gently, for the beginning parts of the year.

This week on the podcast, I have the pleasure of talking to Conrad, the name behind @thatbotanicguy, an account I followed on Instagram for a very long time, coveting his large collection of tree ferns and tropical plants he gets to grow outside in his garden. I hope that you enjoy our conversation.

Next week, I’m catching up once again with @buildingafoodforest_scotland. We had so much to talk about on our first episode together that I wanted just to touch base and catch up to see how the growing season of 2025 turned out in the end.

The Gardener Ben Podcast is brought to you in association with @peterbealesroses, winner of 30 Chelsea Gold Medals and creating timeless roses since 1968. Go online and shop at www.peterbealesroses.com.

The Gardener Ben Podcast is edited by @mark_hamilton_anderson.

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