Winter is here in the UK, so while Saul and Lucy hunker down, don layers and fire up the kettle more frequently than usual, what do their minds turn to in the garden? This is the perfect season for clearance of 2025 growth, for establishing new designs and for de-cluttering stores and greenhouses. Any hours that you can put into the garden now, will reward you hugely come spring and summer, when the jobs mount up. Quick - more tea and biscuits!

Rain, rain go away.....it's been a thoroughly wet time to be in the UK, especially in the Westcountry where Saul has been tying down his Bananas to stop them floating away. So Gardening has been a consistent duck under cover ever half hour, or fetching the rods from the cobwebs at the back of the garage to unblock some culvert or twenty! That hasn't stopped Lucy though who has been decorating her dog, Lily, with saw dust and Saul who finally emerged from the Office, ate a Banana and transformed into 'Dr Orchid' for the RHS Rosemoor Houseplant Weekend.

Instagram link:
Saul plantsmansaul

Lucy lucychamberlaingardens

Intro and Outro music from https://filmmusic.io
"Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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Winter is here in the UK, so while Saul and Lucy hunker down, don layers and fire up the kettle more frequently than usual, what do their minds turn to in the garden? This is the perfect season for clearance of 2025 growth, for establishing new designs and for de-cluttering stores and greenhouses. Any hours that you can put into the garden now, will reward you hugely come spring and summer, when the jobs mount up. Quick - more tea and biscuits!

With Saul having indoor mouse problems (three of them!) and Lucy admitting her addiction to homogenous gravel, the duo reveal what really presses a professional gardener's buttons during winter. Thankfully, rose pruning season is also in earnest so Lucy is getting her horticultural fix. Saul has been pressing new buttons, too (see his instagram link, below) and discovering that in social media world, January is the new February for seed sowing. Is this wise, or should seed packets remain closed a little longer? Listen in to find out their thoughts...

Instagram link:
Saul plantsmansaul

Lucy lucychamberlaingardens

LinkedIn link:
Saul Walker

Intro and Outro music from https://filmmusic.io
"Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Support the show

Winter is here in the UK, so while Saul and Lucy hunker down, don layers and fire up the kettle more frequently than usual, what do their minds turn to in the garden? This is the perfect season for clearance of 2025 growth, for establishing new designs and for de-cluttering stores and greenhouses. Any hours that you can put into the garden now, will reward you hugely come spring and summer, when the jobs mount up. Quick - more tea and biscuits!

Finally the #hortiwaffle returns, as Saul has managed to break the surface of his new job and the information overload that is coming his way, and spend some time digesting his first few exciting weeks with Plant Heritage. Lucy, fresh of a false start week, is back into compost turning and topiary pruning. But the pair are really enjoying the winter structure the garden provides at this time of year, the promise of new growth to come and most of all enjoying another year in the wonderful world of horticulture!

Instagram link:
Lucy lucychamberlaingardens

Saul plantsmansaul

LinkedIn link:
Saul Walker

Intro and Outro music from https://filmmusic.io
"Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Support the show

Winter is here in the UK, so while Saul and Lucy hunker down, don layers and fire up the kettle more frequently than usual, what do their minds turn to in the garden? This is the perfect season for clearance of 2025 growth, for establishing new designs and for de-cluttering stores and greenhouses. Any hours that you can put into the garden now, will reward you hugely come spring and summer, when the jobs mount up. Quick - more tea and biscuits!

And they're off! While Saul enjoys his new life in a warm, dry office, Lucy is dodging the weather whilst still attempting to earn a crust (thank goodness for gardening radio and magazines :-). Snowfall and storm Goretti force her to dance the merry winter waltz, as she sidesteps sleet and soggy spells. Her body also reminds her that two weeks of doing very little physically, followed by intense compost hurling then a rapid cooldown, spells a date with Mr Nurophen and Master Wheatbag. Onwards and upwards then, for next week!

LinkedIn link:
Saul Walker

Instagram link:
Lucy lucychamberlaingardens

Intro and Outro music from https://filmmusic.io
"Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Support the show

Winter is arriving in the UK, so while Saul and Lucy hunker down, don layers and fire up the kettle more frequently than usual, what do their minds turn to in the garden? This is the perfect season for clearance of 2025 growth, for establishing new designs and for de-cluttering stores and greenhouses. Any hours that you can put into the garden now, will reward you hugely come spring and summer, when the jobs mount up. Quick - more tea and biscuits!

Will it snow this Christmas? Will Saul ever manage to finally retrieve all his plants from Stonelands? Will Lucy push the John Deere to breaking point this time? Only listening to this final episode of 2025 will answer these burning questions, as we get the ever truly authentic recollections of the professional gardening life. More importantly, though - what do Lucy and Saul think of the predictions for 2026, set by the RHS (luckily, the year of the tomato and the year of the tropicals are both in there). It's unlikely that either podcaster will be piercing their water butt anytime soon, though...

Instagram link:
Lucy lucychamberlaingardens

LinkedIn link:
Saul Walker

Intro and Outro music from https://filmmusic.io
"Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Support the show

Winter is arriving in the UK, so while Saul and Lucy hunker down, don layers and fire up the kettle more frequently than usual, what do their minds turn to in the garden? This is the perfect season for clearance of 2025 growth, for establishing new designs and for de-cluttering stores and greenhouses. Any hours that you can put into the garden now, will reward you hugely come spring and summer, when the jobs mount up. Quick - more tea and biscuits!

Many of our listeners will know Martin Fish from his wonderful podcast Pots and Trowels - a gardener very much anchored in the Northern climes of the UK but also a Senior Show judge, Gardens advisor for the RHS and former nursery man. Martin (along with his wide Gill) has been an ever present fixture at many Flower Shows and always has his finger on the pulse of gardening in this country. So we have a good chat about the state of horticulture especially at the Flower Shows and also a little insight into his new garden too.

LinkedIn link:
Saul Walker

Instagram link:
Lucy lucychamberlaingardens

Intro and Outro music from https://filmmusic.io
"Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Support the show

Winter is arriving in the UK, so while Saul and Lucy hunker down, don layers and fire up the kettle more frequently than usual, what do their minds turn to in the garden? This is the perfect season for clearance of 2025 growth, for establishing new designs and for de-cluttering stores and greenhouses. Any hours that you can put into the garden now, will reward you hugely come spring and summer, when the jobs mount up. Quick - more tea and biscuits!

Podcast listeners have turned Lucy's head from the garden this week, as talk of her favourite biscuit reach a peak. But, she's regained her focus by making Christmas wreaths and playing with her new toy: the Scheppach RS400 compost sieve. Saul, meanwhile has been taking a spin in the Stonelands' 4x4, to source a Christmas tree for the family. He's also been attempting to extract himself physically and emotionally from the Stonelands estate - a process that is taking him longer than anticipated. Wisley glasshouse staff, watch out...

LinkedIn link:
Saul Walker

Instagram link:
Lucy lucychamberlaingardens

Intro and Outro music from https://filmmusic.io
"Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Support the show

Autumn is here on the Talking Heads podcast - as the last vestiges of Summer in the garden dodge the wet and windy weather while trying to give the last hurrah before that inevitable but pleasantly seasonable slide into the hibernation of winter. But gardeners never sleep so Lucy and Saul are still out and about in their plots plying the horticultural trade they both love. So join them both for more horti-waffle and insights into the life of the modern, professional gardener.

Leaves, frost and rain...that's been this Autumn summed up...so not much gardening talk on todays podcast but instead two pieces of huge news in Saul and Lucy's lives. After 10 years of early mornings, tractor breakdowns and the occasional piece of cake Saul is leaving Stonelands to take up a new job role at Plant Heritage, while Lucy becomes a two-time winner of the Garden Media Guilds Practical Journalist of the Year! You would have thought the pair were good at their jobs...well lets find out..

Instagram link:
Lucy lucychamberlaingardens

LinkedIn link:
Saul Walker

Intro and Outro music from https://filmmusic.io
"Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Support the show

Autumn is here on the Talking Heads podcast - as the last vestiges of Summer in the garden dodge the wet and windy weather while trying to give the last hurrah before that inevitable but pleasantly seasonable slide into the hibernation of winter. But gardeners never sleep so Lucy and Saul are still out and about in their plots plying the horticultural trade they both love. So join them both for more horti-waffle and insights into the life of the modern, professional gardener.

Balancing clients, weather, school runs and shifting workloads is all part and parcel of the professional gardener's lifestyle, so Lucy lets us listen in on her teabreaks this week to reveal exactly what her diary involves. Whether she's judging tide times on Mersea Island, dodging rainclouds in her village or dashing across town to help out her smallholder parents, there's never a dull moment and each week poses different challenges. But, of course, there's always time for a much-loved biscuit (or mince pie, or jam doughnut, or slice of lemon drizzle, or....).

Instagram link:
Lucy lucychamberlaingardens

LinkedIn link:
Saul Walker

Intro and Outro music from https://filmmusic.io
"Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Support the show

Autumn is here on the Talking Heads podcast - as the last vestiges of Summer in the garden dodge the wet and windy weather while trying to give the last hurrah before that inevitable but pleasantly seasonable slide into the hibernation of winter. But gardeners never sleep so Lucy and Saul are still out and about in their plots plying the horticultural trade they both love. So join them both for more horti-waffle and insights into the life of the modern, professional gardener.

Wow - who on earth would have thought that from that first episode six years ago we'd now be celebrating our 500,000th download - but here we are! An almighty "thank you!" from Saul and Lucy - we are blown away and have an extra spring in our gardening steps this week. We celebrate in the only way we know how - by talking in depth about leaf mould, of course! Lignin, cellulose, fungi and the passage of time all get placed under the TH spotlight. And are you pruning your clematis earlier and earlier? Lucy and Saul have both observed this phenomenon - a sign of the shifting times.

LinkedIn link:
Saul Walker

Instagram link:
Lucy lucychamberlaingardens

Intro and Outro music from https://filmmusic.io
"Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Support the show