Episode 296: Regenerative Design
Roots and All - Gardening Podcast
This episode, my guest is Erik Ohlsen, a US based regenerative designer, permaculturist, landscape contractor, author, farmer, herbalist, storyteller and practitioner of Nordic folk traditions. His approach to regenerative landscaping is rooted in decades of practical experience and a humbleness that allows Erik to be led by what the land has to tell him. Links Other episodes if you liked this one: - This week’s guest is eco gardener, landscape designer, permaculturist, horticultural thinker and garden experimenter, Sid Hill.Sid is concerned with building gardens that can sustain...
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Episode 295: Picture Perfect Gardens
Roots and All - Gardening Podcast
Hello and welcome to this week’s episode where my guest is freelance photographer Mark Bolton. Mark photographs gardens and interiors for editorial and commercial clients and after purchasing a house in Devon, he decided to create his own picture perfect garden. He chose the cottage style of gardening to fit the bill, so listen on to find out how he created his perfect space and tips for how to create your own picturesque paradise. Links n by Mark Bolton About Mark Bolton Mark Bolton (@markboltonphoto) is a freelance photographer who photographs gardens and interiors for editorial and...
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Episode 294: Wood Meadows
Roots and All - Gardening Podcast
Hello and welcome to this week’s episode where I have a returning guest, Jake Rayson. We’re talking about wood meadows, or rather we’re talking around the periphery of wood meadows as a concept. We’re talking about the use of land, gardens, humans and wildlife and generally getting a bit ranty about the absolute state of things. I realise that’s not by much in the way of introduction, but the conversation twists and turns and the best thing to do is just take a listen… Links 2003 , designed by Linden Hawthorne & managed by Plantlife How Buildings Learn, & by Stuart...
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Episode 293: The Rewilding of Molly McFlynn
Roots and All - Gardening Podcast
Hello and welcome to this week’s episode where my guest is Sue Reed. Sue’s background is varied and she’s worn a variety of hats, including teacher, museum guide, upcycler of waste wool knitwear and published author. Her most recent creation is the fictional character Molly McFlynn, a quirky and courageous character who comes to terms with the concept of being an outsider against the backdrop of covid and a rugged Northern landscape. Listen on to find out how nature factors into the rewilding of Molly… About Sue Reed Sue Reed lives in rural Northumberland with her husband, Tim where...
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Episode 292: Spiders
Roots and All - Gardening Podcast
This week, my guest is Meg Skinner. Meg works as an invertebrate ecologist, surveying sites for protected species and volunteers for the British Arachnological Society. We’re talking today about spiders in your garden; how they go about their business, how you can encourage more, to visit your garden, oh and we talk about the much maligned false widow… About Meg Skinner Meg Skinner works as an invertebrate ecologist, surveying sites for protected species. She volunteers for the British Arachnological Society as a Press Officer and recording scheme organiser for harvestmen. Meg grew...
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Episode 291: Inspiration from Nature
Roots and All - Gardening Podcast
This week, my guest is watercolour artist Lisa Gardner. Lisa is inspired by the natural world, the connection between breath and brushwork and rare wild plant species on the edge of extinction - seemingly far flung interests that come together in a beautifully natural and synergistic way in Lisa’s work. About Lisa Gardener Lisa Gardner is a watercolour artist inspired by the natural world, the connection between breath and brushwork and rare wild plant species on the edge of extinction. Passionate about wild plants and the vital role they play in the health of our environment, Lisa’s...
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Episode 290: Saving Song Birds
Roots and All - Gardening Podcast
Sue has been CEO at SongBird Survival for the last three years leading the charity in its ambition to protect the amazingly diverse but sadly declining songbird populations across the UK. With its growing body of scientific research which is fuelling solutions, SongBird Survival is advocating that we can and should take action to protect these ecologically threatened creatures. Campaigns including Gardens for Birds provide accessible and rewarding opportunities to play a part in much needed practical ways to reverse the drastic declines many species are facing. Charlotte has been the research...
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Episode 289: Animal Friendly Fertiliser
Roots and All - Gardening Podcast
This week, my guest is Los Angeles-based landscaper and fertiliser guru Erin Riley. Erin specialises in organic vegetable gardens and native, drought-tolerant landscapes and we’re talking today about her work to create fertilisers that are good for plants, people, animals and the planet. About Erin Riley Erin is stewarding a gardening renaissance: elevating organic fertilizers past their dependance on animal byproducts by founding the vegan fertilizer company. Her mission: to grow plants without killing the planet. Links Other episodes if you liked this one: - This episode, I’m talking...
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Episode 288: Hosting Bees
Roots and All - Gardening Podcast
This week, my guest is bee expert Kevin Hancock. Kevin has invented a honeybee nest box that’s the only self-regulating honey harvesting system in the world, meaning the bees will dictate how much honey you can take dependent on the environment that year. It’s a way of hosting rather than keeping bees and is an intriguing system. About the Eco Beehive “ECO BEEHIVE is the only SELF REGULATING HONEY HARVESTING SYSTEM IN THE WORLD! Wow that is so exciting!! But it is !! no really.. give me a chance and I'll explain. I am on a mission to...
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Episode 287: Heirloom Vegetables
Roots and All - Gardening Podcast
This episode my guest is former jewellery designer to the stars, turned social media veg grower, Lucy Hutchings. Along with music festival organiser, Kate Cotterill, Lucy set up SheGrowsVeg, an heirloom seed company which is bringing the most unusual veg, fruit, and edible flowers to veg patches and plates everywhere. About SheGrowsVeg Would you like to enliven your dishes with homegrown veg that looks and tastes incredible? Jet black tomatoes, stunning pale pink chicory that looks like a rose or salad leaves that taste like wasabi are just a few of the tasty veg that could...
info_outlineThis week my guests are Kevin Philip Williams and Michael Guidi, authors of a new book ‘Shrouded in Light: Naturalistic Planting Inspired by Wild Shrublands’. I’ll let Kevin and Michael say more about the idea behind it but a book about horticulture that compares natural landscapes to graffiti and branch frameworks to sigils catches my attention immediately…
What We Talk About
The premise behind the book
What is a shrub?
Why have shrubs fallen out of fashion?
Which of the global shrublands most inspires and informs their planting design at the garden level
Good examples of designed shrublands
The future of innovative garden design
Shrouded in Light: Naturalistic Planting Inspired by Wild Shrublands by Kevin Philip Williams and Michael Guidi
Other episodes if you liked this one:
The View From Federal Twist - This episode features James Golden, talking about the naturalistic garden he’s built around his home in New Jersey. James’s garden has been created intuitively over time and sits perfectly within the landscape, in fact is a landscape in its own right. Sometimes baffling, sometimes threatening and without utilitarian purpose, the garden is nonetheless life-affirming, vital and dramatically beautiful in different ways from one moment to the next.
Gardening in a Changing World - My guest this episode is garden and landscape designer and writer, Darryl Moore. Darryl is one of the most, if not in my opinion, the most informed voice on gardens and design in the UK and his new book Gardening in A Changing World: People, Plants and the Climate Crisis presents an overarching perspective of the complexity of plant life, and the ways that we can begin to appreciate and work together with plants, rather than against them, in addressing the rapidly changing conditions affecting the planet.