Roots and All - Gardening Podcast

Do you want to know how to grow plants and get the best out of your outdoor space? Do you find traditional gardening media baffling and/or boring? Then you’re in the right place, because the Roots and All podcast is here to dig deep into how to create a successful garden. If you want honest information and insider knowledge about how to get results, join irreverent horticulturist Sarah Wilson as she chats to the best people from the world of plants and gardens. Sarah is on a mission to help you create your own beautiful green environment, with a focus on saving resources and working with nature. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast to make sure you don’t miss an episode.

Episode 160: Crevice Gardens 05/23/2022

Episode 159: Huw Richards on Veg Growing 05/16/2022

Episode158: Irises with Clare Keller 05/05/2022

Episode 157: Climate Cuisine with Clarissa Wei 05/04/2022

Episode 156: Bonsai with John Hanby 04/25/2022

Podcast 155 - Forage for Mushrooms Without Dying 04/18/2022

Episode154 - Food Forest Garden 04/11/2022

Podcast 153 - Lichen 04/04/2022

Podcast 152 - A Therapist’s Garden 03/28/2022

Podcast 152 - A Therapist’s Garden This week I’m chatting with New England-based horticultural therapist and master gardener, Erik Keller, who is also the author of the book A Therapist’s Garden: Using Plants to Revitalise Your Spirit. Over 20 years, Erik has worked with thousands of people of all ages and types, using horticulture and therapeutic techniques to help them deal with physical, emotional and mental challenges. Erik talks about using an outdoor space as a place for therapy and learning and about the downs and ups of bringing horticulture into peoples’ lives as a way to heal. Dr Ian Bedford’s Bug of the Week: Home grown bugs What we cover Erik’s background in therapeutic gardening The most therapeutic and stimulating plant scents for people to work with How plants spark memories Establishing a connection between growing and eating plants Techniques to stop attention wandering whilst completing a task Techniques you use if people are exhibiting undesirable behaviour Lesson planning and being flexible during gardening sessions Using your garden year round How seasonal changes can help garden users deal with their personal issues and relate to the garden About A Therapist’s Garden: Using Plants to Revitalise Your Spirit The Zen of mixing mud with seniors; crafting surprising salads out of weeds; and a hidden rabbit bringing joy to girls in a juvenile detention center. These are a few of the nearly 100 stories that Erik Keller takes readers on through a journey of how interacting with plants and nature can help heal mental, emotional, and physical trauma. Through the lens of January to December in a New England landscape, discover how horticultural therapy improves the lives of those in pain including special-needs children, cancer patients, and disabled seniors. A Therapist’s Garden is unique in portraying how gardening, nature-based arts, plants and horticulture can revitalize the spirit of people. It encompasses over 20 years of experiences seeing the healing power of horticultural therapy. Its themes and subject material are universal in interest as different portions of this book apply to nearly anyone who likes plants or to garden, both booming activities today, as well as therapists who will find the approach interesting and of use to their client bases. About Erik Keller Over the last 20 years, Erik Keller has worked with thousands of people of all ages and types using horticulture and therapeutic techniques to help them deal with physical, cognitive, social and emotional challenges. Venues have ranged from special-needs schools, to prisons, to nursing facilities to private homes. Certifications from the University of Connecticut as a Master Gardener in 2000 and the New York Botanical Garden in Horticultural Therapy in 2009 has given Keller a strong base of knowledge from which he has been able to help his clients. He is a member of the American Horticultural Therapy Association, the Northeast Horticultural Therapy Network as well as the Connecticut Master Gardeners Association. He writes extensively about the healing power of horticultural therapy on a variety of social media platforms and on his website www.grohappy.com. For over a decade, Keller has been running a twice-monthly horticultural therapy (HT) program at Ann’s Place, a not-for-profit facility helping those with cancer located in Danbury, CT. Since the emergence of COVID-19, Keller has developed a wide variety of virtual and hybrid HT sessions for clients. He also manages and maintains the grounds at Ann’s Place, which he designed over a decade ago to accommodate therapeutic needs of the client base. Keller is also a commissioner for the Ridgefield Conservation Commission, which manages and maintains over 5,800 acres of open space in Ridgefield, CT. In the past, he has run horticultural therapy programs at senior living and nursing facilities as well as run programs at Green Chimneys, a school for special-needs children in Brewster, NY. Earlier in Keller’s career, he spent a decade as a journalist and editor for a variety of technology- focused trade publications, a decade as a Research Fellow at Gartner, Stamford, CT (the leading technology advisory firm in the world), and another decade as a management consultant with his own firm. During that time he received many awards for editorial, writing and analytical excellence. He also wrote a well-received book for the technology community called Technology Paradise Lost (Manning Publications) in 2004. Keller graduated from State University of New York at Stony Brook with a Bachelor’s of Engineering degree as well as minored in English and Journalism. While at Stony Brook, he won the University’s Martin Buskin Memorial Scholarship for Journalism. Links /episode/index/show/rootsandall/id/22554227

Podcast 151 - Violas 03/21/2022

Podcast 150 - Welcome to Mintopia 03/14/2022

Podcast 149 - Feeding Your Soil with Humanure 03/07/2022

Podcast 148 - The Plants of Armenia 02/28/2022

Podcast 148 - How to Forage for Mushrooms Without Dying 02/23/2022

Podcast 147 - Beans, beans good for…the planet! 02/21/2022

Podcast 146 - Seeking Rare Plants 02/14/2022

Podcast 145 - Painting the Georgian Garden 02/07/2022

Podcast 145 - Painting the Georgian Garden I’m speaking to Dr Cathryn Spence this week, about Thomas Robins, a painter who documented the country estates of the Georgian gentry in all their Rococo splendour. Robins captured images of this flamboyant age of outdoor design where gardens were laden with symbolism and crammed full of Chinoiserie, follies ruins and the latest imports of exotic animals and plants. Follow the story of Robins as he moves from jobbing fan painter to star of his own paintings, the development of the floral borders around his canvases, for which he’s famed, and the evolution of the Georgian garden and what remains of this style today. Dr Ian Bedford’s Bug of the Week: Fig wasps What we cover The artist Thomas Robins and when and where he worked What gardens looked like at the time Robins was painting What is a Rococo garden? Why Robins painted floral borders around his paintings How exotic species came to be included in these frames In the book, Cathryn references “the Rococo’s requirement of asymmetry”. How did this manifest in Robins’ artworks and in gardens? Political themes in Georgian gardens Robins’ botanical art How contemporary painters painted entire estates on one canvas Remaining examples of rococo gardens About ‘Nature’s Favourite Child – Thomas Robins and the Art of the Georgian Garden’ Thomas Robins the Elder (1716–1770) recorded the country estates of the Georgian gentry—their orchards, Rococo gardens, and potagers—like no other, with both topographical accuracy and delightful artistry, often bordering his gouaches with entrancing tendrils, shells, leaves, and birds. Robins's skill was honed by the delicacy required for his early career as a fan painter and is shown too in his exquisite paintings of butterflies, flowers, and birds. This ravishing and scholarly study emerges from many years’ research by Dr Cathryn Spence, the curator and archivist at Bowood House who has also worked for the V&A, the Bath Preservation Trust, and the National Trust. This is the first full study of Thomas Robins since John Harris’s Gardens of Delight, published in two volumes in 1978; Harris, in fact, made over all his research notes to Spence in 2005 when she embarked on her work. Chinoiserie is everywhere—a wooden bridge over the Thames, delicious kiosks in a garden, a view of Bath with sampans, and Chinese fishermen on the river. There are also fascinating views of Sudeley Castle and other great houses that incorporated more or less ruined monastic structures, destroyed in the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Spence has tracked down many previously unknown paintings by Robins and sets his elusive life and work in the framework of his patrons. More detective story than art historical monograph, this lavish study delights in Robins’s astonishing proficiency as a topographical, botanical, entomological and naturalist artist. About Cathryn Spence Dr Cathryn Spence is a museum professional, lecturer and historic gardens and buildings consultant. After a career in London and Bath museums, including the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Building of Bath Museum, she is now Lord Lansdowne’s consultant Archivist and Curator at Bowood House, Wiltshire. She has published several books on the architectural and social history of Bath, most recently The Story of Bath (2016). Her study of Thomas Robins is the culmination of over fifteen years research. Cathryn has worked with the team at Painswick Rococo Garden, a site restored using Robins’s paintings from 1984, for the last 5 years advising on the continuing heritage and conservation of the garden. Links Nature’s Favourite Child – Thomas Robins and the Art of the Georgian Garden by Cathryn Spence is available from John Sandoe Books or directly from the author. Email (£45 to include p&p to a UK address, for RoW postage contact Cathryn on the above email for quote). /episode/index/show/rootsandall/id/22026497

Podcast 144 - Sharing and Borrowing Gardens 01/31/2022

Podcast 143 - Saving Our Seeds 01/24/2022

Podcast 143 - Saving Our Seeds Hello and welcome to this episode of the podcast, where I’m speaking to Madeline McKeever, owner of Brown Envelope Seeds. Madeline’s company produces organic, open-pollinated seeds, which are harvested from crops grown on site at the Brown Envelope Seeds’ HQ, a farm in Skibbereen in County Cork. Madeline talks about why open-pollinated seeds are essential in the fight to feed people and for greater food biodiversity, the benefits of seed saving and sourcing seeds locally and how you can harvest your own seeds. P.s. for those expecting exotic plants and sunny climes as promised last week, apologies! The course of podcasting never did run smooth - hopefully next week! Dr Ian Bedford’s Bug of the Week: Overwintering moths What we cover Brown Envelope Seeds and how Madeline started the company Why organic seeds? Why open-pollinated? On the Brown Envelope Seeds website, Madeline writes that open pollinated seeds “are naturally pollinated - by insects or wind; not enforced pollination or in-breeding”. She expands on what she means by this. Food plant biodiversity Why you should try to buy seeds from a seed producer in your region or from one who has similar growing conditions Saving our own seeds If we save seeds each year, are the resulting plants are getting better and better? What to look for when saving seed Potential problems with seed crops that can affect the quality of the seed The situation globally with seed production and seed sellers? About Madeline McKeever Madeline began Brown Envelope Seeds in 2004 with 25 varieties. Since then, the company has grown, along with the amount of varieties offered (especially tomatoes!) to a family business supplying organic and open-pollinated vegetable seeds to Irish growers. Madeline’s mission statement is to enable people to grow their own food and she believes producing and saving seeds is a vital part of that. She is doing her part to preserve and safeguard the future of food diversity in Ireland and by sharing her knowledge and expertise, is helping this happen on a global scale. Links Other episodes you might like: /episode/index/show/rootsandall/id/21835379