Our guest this week is Matthew Pottage, who became RHS Wisley’s youngest-ever curator aged 29 and is now head of horticulture and landscape strategy at London’s Royal Parks. He reveals his love for Chilean plants and why monkey puzzle trees often struggle in the UK, as well as the controversial return of conifers and pampas grass in our gardens. We discuss why many people are afraid to plant tall trees, and Matthew talks about being challenged as a gardener, how to create a fabulous garden in a rented home, and his own striking houseplant collection. 

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Landscape designer Luciano Giubbilei joins host Steph to reveal all about his dream garden. He describes growing up in Italy, his own landscape inspirations, including Villa Gamberaia in Florence and Rousham in Oxfordshire, and his own new landscape project at The Field in Mallorca.

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This week’s guest is the award-winning garden designer Pollyanna Wilkinson. She reveals her ‘uncool’ love of romantic planting and the literary gardens she’s always admired, and discusses finding space for veg beds, chickens and a football pitch in her small suburban plot. Plus, Polly tells us the one plant she avoids putting in client gardens, and asks: do we actually need our sheds?

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Gardener, designer and TV presenter Adam Frost talks to host Stephanie about growing up with two very different gardening grandmothers, the advice Terence Conran once gave him at Chelsea and how his world fell apart during Covid. Find out about his new dog-friendly garden he is creating with his wife, his favourite multi-purpose gardening tool and the dangerous TV show he’d make if he had his way.

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Talking Gardens is back this spring with Stephanie Mahon, and all-new brilliant guests from the world of gardening. 

We’ve got TV presenter Adam Frost singing Steph happy birthday; and Insta star Pollyanna Wilkinson on loving deeply uncool cottage gardens. Matthew Wilson will be telling us what on earth hydroseeding is and designer Luciano Giubbilei tells us all about how he found his own magical garden; plus there is geranium joy with British designer Cath Kidston and plant perfection with gardeners Matt Pottage and Midori Shintani. 

Discover what they would all like to include in their dream gardens, from people to places, what they can’t stand and anything else along the way.

New episodes drop every Tuesday. Hit follow now so you never miss an episode and don’t miss our extra episodes dropping every day of the Chelsea Flower Show 2026.

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This time, Steph is talking to Tom Coward, head gardener at Gravetye Manor garden in Sussex. Now a luxury hotel, it was once the home of gardener and writer William Robinson, who dominated the Victorian gardening scene with his books The English Flower Garden and The Wild Garden. Tom chooses what he would like in his dream garden, his passion for plants and who he would have at his fantasy dinner party.

Talking Gardens is created by the team at Gardens Illustrated magazine. Find lots more garden inspiration and planting ideas at www.gardensillustrated.com

Enjoyed this episode? Tell a friend, make sure to leave a review, or a comment to let us know who you would like to hear talking about their dream garden next time. Follow now so you never miss an episode.

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Horticulturist, author and garden journalist Alys Fowler joins Steph to discuss her dream garden and her new garden in Wales. She discusses the importance of ‘living with your rubbish’ and gives her perspective on rewilding, as well as revealing why she believes she may come from a long line of bog-dwellers.

Talking Gardens is created by the team at Gardens Illustrated magazine. Find lots more garden inspiration and planting ideas at www.gardensillustrated.com 

Enjoyed this episode? Tell a friend, make sure to leave a review, or a comment to let us know who you would like to hear talking about their dream garden next time. Follow now so you never miss an episode. 

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James Hitchmough, planting maestro and Emeritus Professor of Horticultural Ecology at the University of Sheffield joins Steph to talk about his dream garden, and his own new garden he is creating in Somerset. James discusses all the places he has travelled to to see gardens and plants and the people he has met along the way, plus why he likes growing from seed and what started him on his career path in the first place.

Talking Gardens is created by the team at Gardens Illustrated magazine. Find lots more garden inspiration and planting ideas at www.gardensillustrated.com

Enjoyed this episode? Tell a friend, make sure to leave a review, or a comment to let us know who you would like to hear talking about their dream garden next time. Follow now so you never miss an episode. 

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Jo Thompson, award-winning garden designer, joins Steph to talk about her fantasy garden. From her love of roses to her penchant for romantic gardens and her love of Italy, where she spent a lot of time as a child, in this episode we discover more about how Jo is always juggling so much from her new book to her Substack community and garden designs.

Find out what inspired her to come out of Chelsea Flower Show retirement to do one more show garden this year, for The Glasshouse, and what advice she would give to other women designers who are juggling career goals and families. Plus, why she would want to have Vita Sackville-West and Christopher Lloyd on a job-share as her gardeners and why she’d rather grow a carrot than a cactus.

Talking Gardens is created by the team at Gardens Illustrated magazine. Find more gardening inspiration and planting ideas at www.gardensillustrated.com

Enjoyed this episode? Tell a friend and make sure to leave a review, or a comment to let us know who you would like to hear talking about their dream garden. Follow now so you never miss an episode.

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Designer Tom Massey joins Steph to talk about his Chelsea Flower Show garden that includes mycelium walls and AI that makes trees talk. He reveals the gardens and landscapes that have influenced him most, from the Cornwall hideaway where he spent his childhood holidays to Richmond Park in London and the special Japanese island he will never forget.

Talking Gardens is created by the team at Gardens Illustrated magazine. Find lots more garden inspiration and planting ideas at www.gardensillustrated.com

Enjoyed this episode? Tell a friend, make sure to leave a review, or a comment to let us know who you would like to hear talking about their dream garden next time. Follow now so you never miss an episode.

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