Roots and All - Gardening Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Episode 193: Growing Under Protection Jun 20, 2022

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Episode 192: Garden Roots Jun 13, 2022

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This week I'm speaking to gardener and writer Lulah Ellender about her book Grounding: Finding Home in a Garden. Lulah's book is about tuning into the unceasing rhythms of nature in order to live with uncertainty and how they can help us become more connected to the places in which we live. We talk about how gardens can root us in time and place, even when those roots seem tenuous and liable to break.

Dr Ian Bedford's Bug of the Week: Sentient bugs

What we cover

The premise behind the book and the circumstances in which Lulah came to write it

How Lulah gardened differently when she thought she might lose her garden

Why the potential loss of her garden seemed such a wrench

Custodianship of gardens

Advantages to being a temporary, more tenuous occupier of a space

How do gardens help us cope with our emotions? How do they help us make sense of cycles of life, death, birth, aging?

About Lulah Ellender

Lulah lives in Lewes, East Sussex, with her husband, four children and assorted animals. She has written for the Guardian, the Mail on Sunday's YOU magazine, and Sussex Life among others. She was recently writer in residence at Charleston's Festival of the Garden. Her first book Elisabeth's Lists was published in 2018.

Links

Grounding: Finding Home in a Garden by Lulah Ellender - Granta Books, April 2022

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Episode 191: Connecting with Plants Jun 06, 2022

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Hello and welcome to this week's episode where I'm speaking to Marion Whitehead from the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden in New South Wales, Australia, part of the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney.

I talk with Marion about one of her areas of speciality; the intersection of plants and human feelings, particularly in the context of 3 books as recommended by Marion; Enid Blyton's 'The Magic Faraway Tree', Frances Hodgson Burnett's 'The Secret Garden' and 'The Overstory' by Richard Powers.

Dr Ian Bedford's Bug of the Week: Venom

What we cover

Enid Blyton's 'The Magic Faraway Tree': the tree is the central character, but actually seems pretty inanimate. How does the magic faraway tree provoke emotion?

Is there a suggestion in Blyton's book that wild plants are more emotionally provocative than cultivated plants?

'The Secret Garden': the garden heals but it seems to be healing physically as much as emotionally, is this the case?

Is the garden responding to individuals' needs?

Do people instinctively find or seek out what they need, emotionally, in a garden?

Do we have the language to describe our relationship to plants?

Richard Powers' 'The Overstory': are plants losing their power to connect with us emotionally, or vice versa, given our detachment from nature?

About Marion Whitehead

Marion is Senior Horticulturalist at the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden. She has an extensive background in cool climate plant species, with a specific interest in ephemeral and heathland plants. Marion has many horticultural topics of interest from Australian plant history, to managing plant nurseries, to the emotional connection between human and fellow flowers.

Links

www.bluemountainsbotanicgarden.com

The Overstory by Richard Powers

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

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Episode 190: Show Gardens May 30, 2022

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Episode 189: Crevice Gardens May 23, 2022

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This week's guests are Kenton Seth and Paul Spriggs, co-authors of a book that's just been released called 'The Crevice Garden: How to Make the Perfect Home for Plants from Rocky Places.' This book is immensely detailed and if you've ever had an interest in crevice aka rock gardens, or indeed have not but are curious, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the types of plants suited to growing in this style of garden (there are many), the different looks you can create, how to build and maintain them, famous and successful examples and why they are good from an environmental perspective.

Dr Ian Bedford's Bug of the Week: Flower Crab Spiders

What we cover

What is a crevice garden?

Advantages to putting plants in crevices

The sort of plants suited to growing in crevices

Installing a crevice garden

Sourcing stone you might need?

Planting into a crevice garden

Are they a purely aesthetic addition to a garden or can they be useable too?

Maintenance

About Kenton & Paul

Kenton J. Seth began his career in public horticulture and the nursery trade and is now a garden designer who specializes in crevice gardens, drought-tolerant natives, and meadows. He writes for a variety of local, national and international magazines and lectures to rock garden clubs at home in Colorado and overseas.

Paul Spriggs has been rock gardening for 23 years and building crevice gardens for the last 16. He is a professional gardener and landscaper, and an avid plant explorer. He has a passion for all wild plants, especially miniatures, collecting and cultivating them at home in Victoria, British Columbia.

Links

The Crevice Garden: How to Make the Perfect Home for Plants from Rocky Places by Kenton Seth & Paul Spriggs - Filbert Press, April 2022

Episode 188: Huw Richards on Veg Growing May 16, 2022

Show notes

This week's guest is veg growing expert Huw Richards. Huw grows a vast range of plants in his garden in mid-West Wales and is always trialling and experimenting with new ways of growing. He has an enormously popular YouTube channel and has authored a number of books, the latest of which is 'The Vegetable Grower's Handbook' which draws on his experience as very much a thoughtful and philosophical gardener.

Dr Ian Bedford's Bug of the Week: Flower Crab Spiders

What we cover

Gardening with a mission statement

Being organised in the garden; keeping checklists, batching jobs, planning

Some of the most surprising things Huw's discovered on his gardening journey

Poly culture

Intercropping

Having an odds and ends bed

Harvesting water in the garden

The method of multisowing

New veg Huw's trialling in 2022

On being a philosophical gardener

Links

The Veg Grower's Handbook by Huw Richards - Dorling Kindersley Ltd, March 2022

Episode 187: Irises with Clare Keller May 05, 2022

Show notes

This week's guest is Clare Keller, a fashion designer and stylist who's previously work at Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Pringle, Chloe and Givenchy. Clare is currently a Trustee and spokesperson for the British Iris Society, a society dedicated to promoting and preserving UK irises and providing resources to iris growers. We talk about these picturesque, perpetually popular flowers.

Dr Ian Bedford's Bug of the Week: Organic recyclers

What we cover

How Clare became involved with the British Iris Society and interested in irises

Species of iris

Ideal iris growing conditions

Iris hardiness

Propagation of irises

Easy irises to grow

Links

The British Iris Society

On Facebook

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Episode 186: Climate Cuisine with Clarissa Wei May 04, 2022

Show notes

Hello and welcome to this episode of the podcast where I'm speaking to journalist and host of the Climate Cuisine podcast, Clarissa Wei.

On her podcast, Clarissa shares the stories of the crops grown sustainably around the world. The goal is to highlight climate-centric conversations about crops and the food we eat as they become increasingly important to the resiliency and survival of our food systems.

Dr Ian Bedford's Bug of the Week: Bumbling bees

What we cover

Clarissa's background and the idea behind her Climate Cuisine podcast

What's wrong with the way we currently farm and consume our food?

How individuals can join the growing revolution

The importance of growing food that is specific to your climate region

How this can change the way we grow and use food

How regional food independence helps local communities

Government support (or not!)

The future of the Climate Cuisine podcast

About Clarissa Wei

Clarissa Wei is an American Taiwanese freelance journalist and video producer based in Taipei. Bylines include the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, National Geographic, VICE, among others. She is currently working on her first cookbook, Made In Taiwan (Simon Element).

Links

Climate Cuisine Trailer

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Episode 185: Bonsai with John Hanby Apr 25, 2022

Show notes

This week I'm speaking to Bonsai expert John Hanby. John has decades of experience studying and creating bonsai trees and has just released an incredibly comprehensive guide called the Practical Art of Bonsai. We talk about selecting a plant, how to train it, and artistic methods and we finish with John's thoughts on how bonsai techniques relate to and inform wider gardening practices.

Dr Ian Bedford's Bug of the Week: Large bulb flies

What we cover

What is a bonsai tree?

What can you bonsai?

Indoor and outdoor trees

Overall aims of bonsai

Starting a tree from seed or a cutting

Wiring and directional pruning

Dead wood as an artistic addition to a tree

Watering bonsai trees

Specialist bonsai equipment

About John Hanby

John has been teaching bonsai for over thirty years and is owner of one of the biggest bonsai schools in Europe. He's a long-serving member of the Yorkshire Bonsai Association committee and has previously been the secretary of the Federation of British Bonsai Societies, in addition to being a member of the Belgian Kawabe School. He gives talks and demonstrations in the UK and internationally, and has won multiple awards for his fabulous trees. He provides advice, articles and photographs for podcasts, books and magazines, and has produced a successful DVD.

Links

Practical Art of Bonsai by John Hanby - The Crowood Press, 2022

www.johnhanbybonsai.co.uk

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Episode 184: Forage for Mushrooms Without Dying Apr 18, 2022

Show notes

This week's guest is Frank Hyman, a certified mushroom forager who teaches mushroom identification to chefs, arborists, organic farmers and the general public. Frank's latest book is called 'How to Forage for Mushrooms Without Dying' and contains guidance on mushroom identification, on your suitability for becoming a mushroom forager on which subject he writes "if you have a reputation among your friends and family for exercising poor judgement…you may not be a very good candidate", about the sniffy attitude of the English to mushrooms versus that of mainland Europeans and a whole host of other myco-related topics that should help you in your quest to survive foraging. Despite dealing with a potentially lethal topic, both book and author are laugh out loud funny and I was delighted that Frank agreed to an interview.

Dr Ian Bedford's Bug of the Week: Viruses

What we cover

Can you take a mushroom guide from one country or continent and use it in another?

Frank's three different types of mushrooms

Mycophobia

Should you be careful of the soil mushrooms are growing in?

Nutritional and medicinal values

Cleaning and cooking mushrooms

About Frank Hyman

Frank is a certified mushroom forager who teaches mushroom identification to chefs, arborists, organic farmers and the general public. His writing on foraging has appeared in Forbes, Paleo Magazine and Hobby Farms. He lives in Durham, North Carolina.

Links

How to Forage for Mushrooms Without Dying: An Absolute Beginner's Guide to Identifying 29 Wild, Edible Mushrooms by Frank Hyman

Other episodes you might like:

Edible Mushrooms with Geoff Dann

In Search of Mycotopia with Doug Bierend

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