Old roses, strange apples: finding beauty in the bleached bones of an English summer
Release Date: 08/07/2026
Grey sedge, smuggled cuttings, a watering disaster and the new garden at Grosvenor Square
The Garden Log
How will our gardens look in the future? Ben visits the new garden in Grosvenor Square with its Nigel Dunnett planting to find out. Also featuring: tragedy at bathtime; some borrowed seedlings; a 4000 year old stumpery and Tom Stoppard's Arcadia at the Duke of York Theatre. And if you enjoyed any of that then of course you must pre order my book https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/463428/green-kingdom-by-dark-ben/9781847928337
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Old roses, strange apples: finding beauty in the bleached bones of an English summer
The Garden Log
Is Thomas Knight the greatest villain in the history of fruit growing? And how does a Frenchman’s marriage influence the rose gardens of England? These and other very important questions answered in an episode of The Garden Log recorded in the bleached white of a Herefordshire summer. If you enjoyed any of this history, gardening and plants podcast then consider preordering my book here:
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In praise of shadow, featuring Baroque hornbeams and Emily Brontë
The Garden Log
We find ourselves at the mercy of forces beyond our control and hide from the wind and sun under a leafy bowers of the Baroque garden at Gammel Holtegård. A gardening podcast. Here is the mega-discount for Americans Lots of love
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Green Fingers are the Extensions of a Verdant Heart: Russell Page and Redcurrants
The Garden Log
Just after the summer's hinge, Ben eats his neigbours' soft fruit, considers the lily and reads that all-time classic of garden writing The Education of a Gardener. Here's the link to the Garden Collective: Green Kingdom here:
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Green Ghosts and Fading Clones
The Garden Log
Welcome to season 2 of the Garden Log. Ben says goodbye to the Danish garden and prepares to return to London. Featuring, seeds, clones and the horticultural spirits that linger when we leave.
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How to keep plants alive (and other mysteries)
The Garden Log
In this excellent episode Ben finds roses like cats, lawns like dunes and flowers like clothes pegs. Also featuring a few simple tricks to stop things dying.
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Pine riots, wolf-vines and the joy of other people's gardens: A gardening podcast
The Garden Log
Its a sultry spring day on the Garden Log. We muse on the kindness of strangers, advise on planting for a rubble-strewn drive and yearn for romance.
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Underrated shrubs, sweet perfumes and the art of the Garden Room: A petal strewn podcast
The Garden Log
In this recreation of a lost walk Ben visits the garden of G. N Brandt (deceased) who brought the arts and crafts movement to Denmark and whose modest orchard-watergarden-woodland survives in the suburbs north of Copenhagen.
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#100 Perfect mistakes, rhubarb, rollercoasters, tulips and timeslips: A gardening podcast
The Garden Log
Its spring and Ben is gardening hard. In a special dispatch from the flowerbeds he reports on sparrows, cosmos and creeping jenny. Also featuring a trip to the fairground, tabloid libel and a woman named X
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#99 Wildflowers, Tyrants and Sweet Magnolia: A Gardening Podcast
The Garden Log
Ben discusses Ornithogolum, irises, poppies and golden fleece. Also featuring a trip to the Boboli gardens in Florence and a reading from The Grove: A Nature Odyssey in 19 1/2 Front Gardens - recently described by The Daily Telegraph as ‘the best gardening book of 2022’ and available to order from everywhere here:
info_outlineIs Thomas Knight the greatest villain in the history of fruit growing? And how does a Frenchman’s marriage influence the rose gardens of England? These and other very important questions answered in an episode of The Garden Log recorded in the bleached white of a Herefordshire summer.
If you enjoyed any of this history, gardening and plants podcast then consider preordering my book here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/463428/green-kingdom-by-dark-ben/9781847928337