The Gardener Ben Podcast

As we creep towards the beginning of spring, the garden is slowly waking up. I’ve had my flower press out again to encapsulate and capture just a few of the early spring blooms.

At North Lodge, I'm also pressing on with the new winter garden. The digger has been in and removed the stumps from the laurel hedge we cut down, and it’s now time to start mulching and preparing the area for planting.

On today’s episode of the Gardener Ben podcast, I have the absolute honor of talking to Katrina, Clayton’s mum, who shares with us her and Clayton’s journey into gardening, most specifically permaculture, and how the family is now building a food forest in Scotland.

Clayton has autism and is homeschooled by his mum. He developed a keen interest in growing, tending, and harvesting his own food—a story that resonates strongly with my own personal journey and is a testament to how finding the spark that ignites your child’s imagination can really unlock an entirely different world of learning.

Head over to their Instagram channel now and show them some love 💚 @buildingafoodforest_scotland.

We had so much to talk about in a limited time scale, but I’ve already invited Katrina back if she has time to talk to me in season three.

If you grow dogwood for their colorful and vibrant stems, it is now time to cut these back to their permanent framework, which will stimulate strong and vigorous growth and brightly colored stems for next winter. Make sure that you give them a thoroughly good mulch and head to Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube to see my full tutorial.

On next week’s episode, I’ll be talking everything dahlia with Nick, owner and proprietor of Gilbert’s Dahlias near Romsey.

Episode 4 of my podcast is available for you to download and stream now.

Now that March has arrived, it’s time to really start sowing some seeds. I’ve got some tomatoes and the first batch of peas sown in the greenhouse outside. It’s time for some carrots and some beetroot, which I’ll have to keep tightly covered under cloches to save them from the pesky birds.

On today’s episode, I’m joined by Karen @rakeexpectations on Instagram, who shares with us what she grows in her garden in Fife, Scotland.

As well as tales and stories of Trevor and Dorian's garden antics, head to Karen’s profile now and show it some 💚!

As we head towards March, I finally got the time to weigh my way into the last frontier of the garden. Now celebrating just under seven years in this particular cottage, what will be known as the Wintergarden is going to take quite a lot of work.

I’ve started by removing the very strange laurel hedge, which ran along our drive, opening up the space. I’m going to have to get a mini digger to remove the stumps before I can start thinking about planting and adding lots of soil conditioner.

It’s time to start thinking about planting your daily tubers undercover, and on this week's episode, I’m joined by Luay Ghafari, who’s somewhat of a massive inspiration known as @urbanfarmandkitchen on Instagram and TikTok. He also maintains and writes a successful food blog and is a published author. I really don’t know how he finds the time to keep it all in the air.

Specializing in garden-to-table produce, he shares his love for tomatoes and cooking during our brief conversation.

If you don’t follow along already, head over to his Instagram account and show it some love now!

‘My rose has black spot’. What should I do? Is the largest question? I get asked online

The prevention of most pest and disease problems in the rose garden is far better than ever reaching for the cure and with good basic gardening practices you can pretty much avoid most of the issues we face

This video contains many different techniques and nuggets of information regarding to

proper pruning

Deep and focused watering

Organic practices

Mulching and soil conditioning

Incorporating natural habitat into the garden

Disposing of infected waste

And how having a hands off approach can really let nature in and allow the garden to find proper balance

If you have any questions regarding the subject of avoiding pest and disease problems, don’t hesitate to ask

This week’s episode of the Gardener Ben podcast features @cheshire_head_gardener.

I had the most wonderful, relaxed, and enlightening chat with Tristan, exploring his role as Head Gardener @barnston_estate. We talked freely about his gardening style and his passion for repurposing, reusing, and building a garden. Make sure that you head to his Instagram page once you’ve listened, give him a follow, and show his account some love 💚.

This week in my garden, I’ve continued to clear the opulence of last summer. I’ve collected and started working with this year's Hazel supports, getting myself ready for the season ahead.

I’m preparing the ground to plant out the sweet peas, mulching it heavily and constructing the supports that they will need to climb and be successful over the next few months. These need to be at least seven or eight feet tall.

It’s also time to start thinking about chitting potatoes. Starting and growing them in a cool, bright greenhouse or windowsill can get them ahead by a few weeks before going in the ground. You don’t have to buy expensive seed potatoes; ones that have been in the cupboard for a little too long and have naturally started sprouting are just as good and can be a great way of reducing food waste.

#gardenerben #podcast #podcaster #gardener #gardeningpodcast #gaygardener #grow #helpingyougrow #listennow #streamnow #gardenersofinstagram

In this week's episode, I had the pleasure of talking to Sarah, the creator behind @meadowandthyme, who creates some astonishingly beautiful, intricate, and detailed pressed flower art.

Having recently become reinterested and taken up flower pressing as a hobby, I was eager to hear her thoughts on her processes and how she got started with her amazing business.

Take a listen now, and make sure to head over to @meadowandthyme and show the account some love!

If you have a question you’d like answered on the podcast, don’t hesitate to drop a message.

#gardenerben #podcast #podcaster #newepisode #streamnow #gardener #gardenpodcast #helpingyougrow

Season one roundup , Today’s episode concludes season one and I really hope that you’ve enjoyed the podcast so far, I want to extend my sincere thanks to all of you that have listened and I look forward to bringing you season two in February 2025

I’ve been hard at work behind-the-scenes lining up some incredible guests to share with you their gardening and personal journeys

Please head to Instagram and show this seasons contributors some love

sorelle_dorset

misfit_plants

the_boys_at_whiteside

liamroseconsultant of david_austin_roses

And therosedude

I hope that you have a wonderful festive holiday whatever you get up to.

Relax and just let the garden rest,

On this week's episode of the podcast, I’m joined by @liamroseconsultant. Liam is the Senior Rose Consultant at David Austin Roses, and I had the pleasure of catching up with him for a relaxed chat after attending one of their bare root rose courses at the beginning of November.

I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did, and if you want to book yourself onto one of David Austin Roses' pruning workshops, you can book them through the link in my bio, now running from January 7 to the 1st of March

https://tidd.ly/3OtdyCU.

Todays episode is short and sweet, it’s all about letting the garden and its keeper rest, allow the garden to breath, take some weather and the seasons to properly change before starting the winter tidy up,

On next weeks episode I’ll be joined by David Austin’s senior rose consultant Liam - listen in next week to catch our chat

Welcome to episode eight of the Garber Ben podcast! Over the last few months, an Instagram account has really captivated my attention. In all of the noise and hot air on the Internet, that's a difficult thing to do. Today, I’m joined by Carlos and David, who, in a beautiful part of Scotland, have taken on a massive restoration project. Together, they are renovating their dream home and surrounding it with their dream garden.

Having completed a significant restoration ourselves, I wanted to learn more about what motivates them and their long-term goals for their beautiful space.

Head over to their Instagram and show their account some love: @the_boys_at_whiteside.

I hope you enjoy our rambling chat as much as I did!