Merlin Sheldrake // Fungi, Mushrooms, Fermenting, Entangled Life
Release Date: 11/11/2025
Jodi Wilson // A Brain That Breathes, Soft Fascination, The Power of Pottering in the Garden, Books for you to read
Avant Gardeners
Jodi Wilson is a bestselling author of four books, a health journalist and postpartum doula. Several years ago, she and her family packed their lives into a caravan, and set off in search of adventure, and a more simple life. After two years on the road they put down roots in Tasmania. It is here where she’s embraced gardening, and written her most recent book, , out today. Jodi lives, writes and gardens with her partner and their four children on the land of the punnilerpanner people in north western Tasmania Before we get to this thought-provoking chat, Emily and Madeleine are...
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Emma Horswill // Earthenry Flower Farm, Dahlias, Cover Crops, Pulse Watering, Ranunculus
Avant Gardeners
~ This season of Avant Gardeners is proudly supported by new series WorkLife. Launching in November and perfect for gardening. . ~ Emma Horswill was a madkeen gardener with a fine arts degree and a 9-acre block. With plans for a veggie garden and orchard, Emma turned her hand to flower farming in 2019, and since then has gone from strength to strength. This family run farm, called , now grows well over 100 different varieties of seasonal and field-grown blooms, and has cultivated a dedicated community of volunteers and devotees who flock to the farm for events including garden...
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Rachel Ward // Regenerative Farming, Small Farms, Nature and Creativity, Farmthru
Avant Gardeners
~ This season of Avant Gardeners is proudly supported by new series WorkLife. Launching in November and perfect for gardening. . ~ Rachel Ward’s career began on screen, with standout roles in classics like The Thorn Birds before she turned her skills to directing acclaimed works including Beautiful Kate. In her sixties, Rachel's energy and focus shifted to regenerative agriculture, swapping film sets for fence lines and embarking on an ambitious overhaul of the beef farm her and her husband Bryan Brown had owned for thirty-odd years. Her brilliant documentary ...
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Mark Udovitch // Inner City Permaculture, bees, chickens, mushrooms, Permaculture in the Pub
Avant Gardeners
~ This season of Avant Gardeners is proudly supported by new series WorkLife. Launching in November and perfect for gardening. . ~ and his partner Lisa wisely used Covid lockdowns to establish an urban microfarm just south of the Sydney CBD, in the leafy suburb of Bardwell Valley. This steep and productive block is flourishing with veggies, fruit trees and indigenous plants. Mark and Lisa also share the property with European honeybees, a chicken coop, and their two young children. Mark is also a prolific preserver, fermenter and sourdough maker, is a member of the...
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Merlin Sheldrake // Fungi, Mushrooms, Fermenting, Entangled Life
Avant Gardeners
~ This season of Avant Gardeners is proudly supported by new series WorkLife. Launching in November and perfect for gardening. . ~ is a mycologist, biologist, writer, and speaker with a background in plant sciences, microbiology, ecology, and the history and philosophy of science. He received a Ph.D. in tropical ecology from Cambridge University for his work on underground fungal networks in tropical forests in Panama. His book, Entangled Life, dives deep into the magical, mysterious and stranger-than-fiction world of fungi, explaining how they can show us lessons in...
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Tim Pilgrim // Naturalistic Design, The Winter Decay, Apartment plantings,
Avant Gardeners
~ This season of Avant Gardeners is proudly supported by new series WorkLife. Launching in November and perfect for gardening. . ~ Tim Pilgrim has become synonymous with his own naturalistic style of garden design, one that's plant-driven and subscribes to the maximalist aesthetic. With gardening in his blood, and after working at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, he returned home to work on one of the Digger’s Club’s most famous gardens, St Erth. Tim and his wife Hadley started TP Gardens back in 2013, and since then he’s worked on...
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Mindy Woods // Native Ingredients, Karkalla at Home, First Nations Calendar, Foraging, Whisky Sour
Avant Gardeners
~ This season of Avant Gardeners is proudly supported by new series WorkLife. Launching in November and perfect for gardening. . ~ Mindy Woods is a chef, restaurateur and author, and the first female Indigenous chef to become hatted by the Australian Good Food Guide. A proud Bundjalung woman, Mindy was pursuing physiotherapy when she barged onto our screens in on Masterchef in 2012. Since then she’s created an impactful career around food and education with Native ingredients being at the centre of everything she does. Mindy was named a Champion of Change at the 2025...
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Brenna Quinlan // Permaculture Guru, Strawbale Home, Art Activism, Rest
Avant Gardeners
~ This season of Avant Gardeners is proudly supported by new series WorkLife. Launching in November and perfect for gardening. . ~ Brenna Quinlan is an illustrator and educator with a keen focus on permaculture and sustainability. Her special skill is putting her energy, creativity and passion into making the world a better place. She’s not afraid to take hard, uncomfortable or challenging subjects, but she always has humour at the core. Through her art she has collaborated with the likes of Costa, Milkwood Permaculture, David Holmgren and the CSIRO. Brenna lives, creates art...
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Katie Finlay // Grow Great Fruit, Pruning, Grafting, Pest Control, Chamomile & Gin
Avant Gardeners
Katie Finlay is a third-generation orchardist who grew up on the family farm she now calls home. She received a Bachelor of Science from Monash Uni majoring in botany and genetics - which came in very handy when she returned to the farm 15 years later Katie and her partner Hugh are on a mission to help backyard growers and orchardists alike to create the abundant fruit trees of your dreams. Katie and Hugh run , an education hub that combines their decades of fruit growing experience into practical lessons through webinars, online courses, annual subscriptions and in-person...
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Scott Whitaker - Hinterland Bees // Bees, Honey, Varroa, Honey Mead, Hollyhock, Chickens
Avant Gardeners
Scott Whitaker is a visual artist and former art gallery owner who now runs with his wife Allyson Reynolds. They got their first hive back in 1996, and now manage more than 250 of them across orchards and rainforests in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland. Scott produces pure, natural raw honey and has become synonymous with swarm removal. His social videos are mesmerising to watch, opting for no protective gear when handling thousands of them. Scott lives, gardens and bee keeps on Jinibara and Kabi Kabi country in the Sunshine Coast hinterland in Queensland. If you love or loathe...
info_outline~ This season of Avant Gardeners is proudly supported by Blundstone's new series WorkLife. Launching in November and perfect for gardening. Find your local stockist here. ~
Merlin Sheldrake is a mycologist, biologist, writer, and speaker with a background in plant sciences, microbiology, ecology, and the history and philosophy of science. He received a Ph.D. in tropical ecology from Cambridge University for his work on underground fungal networks in tropical forests in Panama.
His book, Entangled Life, dives deep into the magical, mysterious and stranger-than-fiction world of fungi, explaining how they can show us lessons in resilience, cooperation and transformation. Entangled Life has sold more than a million copies worldwide, and what followed is a documentary called Fungi: Web of Life, narrated by Bjork.
If you’re lucky enough, you can catch Merlin across Australia and New Zealand as part of The Secret Life of Fungi. Tickets for this evening of storytelling and science are on sale now.
Before we get to Merlin's chat, we're drinking our mate's Sticky Chai with a dash of Frangelico. Yum yum!
Emily is giving her indoor plants some annual love. She's ticked off three trees on her random list (snowball viburnum, smoke bush and tai haku cherry!).
Emily is continually searching for tube stock, and is loving Phil Dudman's tips on controlling stink bugs with a vaccuum cleaner. Her daughter Phoebe is the reigning queen of carrots.
Emily is recommending Urban Nanna (aka Anna Matilda's) book Everyday Permaculture, illustrated by Brenna Quinlan.
Maddie is up in arms about nurseries selling non-native Pig Face (hear why this is such a disasterous thing in this episode with Mindy Woods), she's creating a spanikopita garden, and has some bull chat - having just agisted a new animal in Quarter Pounder - a big, beefy Belted Galloway who has been tasked with one job.
And she's gushing about Entangled Life (hardcopy or narrated audio version. Both are spectacular.)
Thanks for being here!