“Plants are a great equaliser. A geranium is a geranium, no matter where in the world you are, or what you are experiencing”

Lalage Snow is an award-winning freelance photojournalist, writer and filmmaker who has experienced life in some of the most hostile and war-torn places on the planet. Her book, “War Gardens” explores gardens tended to by those caught up in conflict around the world and shows how gardening can bring peace in times of conflict and in the most extreme places.

Lalage, Michael and Ellen chat about how gardening takes you out of the present, puts you in the future and gives you a sense of hope – quite fitting for an episode recorded during the coronavirus pandemic.

In her book, Lalage uses photography and the domesticity of a garden setting to divert from the horrors of a war zone. She believes that gardening can provide common ground in isolation. In this powerful episode of The Plant Based Podcast, she discusses how people garden in different ways, for different reasons, across different conflicts. She explains how in Ukraine people garden for self-sufficiency out of necessity, with imports from China and Russia being cut off and supermarkets shutting; how in Gaza urban density means gardening brings peace and a sense of returning to what previous generations did; and how in Afghanistan having to garden is second nature.

 

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This episode of The Plant Based Podcast is brought to you by our friends at Natural Grower. Launched in 2019, their award-winning liquid fertiliser and soil conditioner is made entirely from maize. Naturally rich in nitrogen, potash, phosphate and other trace elements that plants and vegetables love, it is approved by the Soil Association, Vegan Society and Organic Farmers and Growers.

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