HortWeek Podcast

Landscape architect, broadcaster and writer Bunny Guinness is one of the best-known names in horticulture. After taking to YouTube to speak out in support of the use of peat as the Government seeks to ban it, she tells the podcast "most people don't understand the proper argument and we must get the facts out there" and offers an alternative solution to the ban. "I do think Monty Don is bad on pea...

Belvoir Castle garden show organiser Andy Tudbury knows a thing or two about garden shows having completed 28 in his career. He set up the Belvoir show four years ago and has been advised by shows expert Stephen Bennett to keep the quality high including, he jokes, running the "garden show with the cleanest toilets in Britain". The 2022 show is on 16-17 July and is the longest continuous garden sh...

Watson talks about his journey from working on the glue that holds Boeing aircraft together to the numerous successes he had as managing director at Ground Control including achieving carbon neutrality four years earlier than they expected to. A personal passion for Watson, he sees the fight against climate change as a logical extension of the work of Ground Control in the environment. He talks ab...

As part of a new series of podcasts for 2022, Sam and ICL's Andrew Wilson are returning to the topic of growing with peat-free compost, probably the hottest topic in the sector. The pair discuss what's available for growers and who is asking for what, the raw materials available, differences in nutrition, and other products which may need to be added to help boost plant quality. They give us...

This week's podcast was recorded at British Sugar Topsoil's plant at WIssington in Norfolk where they prepare topsoil for the landscaping and sports turf markets. Guest Andy Spetch reveals how the British Sugar brand goes beyond just creating 1.5m tonnes of sweetness a year, to produce power for the National Grid and for glasshouses, fuel (bioethanol), animal feed - and, of particular interest to...

TV gardener and podcaster Lee Connolly talks about his Schools Gardening Success Plan which aims to help every primary school in the country run a school gardening programme by 2025. Skinny Jean Gardener Lee puts above the ego-boosting TV work, which includes stints on CBBC and an educational slot on David Attenborough's  Green Planet  series. HortWeek editor Matthew Appleby and Lee disc...

International pheromone systems' Dr Sam Jones is an expert in the use of pheromones for biocontrol in horticulture. Using his knowledge of chemistry and insect behaviour he works to develop new and improved products for the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) market.  In this episode of the Horticulture Week podcast, Dr Jones explains how biocontrols work, the use of pheromones and semiochemical...

In this episode Hortweek editor Matthew Appleby turns the questions on pioneering horticultural podcaster and TV and garden designer Peter Donegan. Donegan presented the Sodshow for years in the days "when podcasting wasn't 'a thing'" and is the series garden designer for RTE television’s DIY SOS The Big Build Ireland.  He gives us his view on garden design trends, reveals how 1980s TV s...

Garden designer, writer and chair of the John Brookes-Denmans Foundation, Van Paasschen is working on a new initiative to perpetuate the legacy of the late John Brookes who, she argues, is probably more influential than ever in garden design circles. She discusses his design legacy and the work to renovate and preserve his work at Denmans Gardens, West Sussex. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privac...

Famous for having been kidnapped in 2000 in Columbia during a plant hunting expedition, Hart Dyke stayed sane by collecting orchids and other jungle plants which later formed part of the design of World Garden in the form of a world map which he and an army of volunteers look after at Lullingstone Castle in Kent.  Tom tells the Horticulture Week Podcast about the challenges of tending his Wor...

Ben Raskin, head of horticulture and agroforestry at the Soil Association, explodes a few myths around woodchip. He tells HortWeek editor Matthew Appleby about the untapped possibilities afforded by woodchip for growers and landscapers at any scale, from farm to garden to greenhouse. After a Horticulture Week survey which found 76% horticulturists want to keep peat, Raskin proposes a realistic way...

Grower, garden retailer, journalist, QVC presenter and founder of the Garden Press Event and horticultural charity, Greenfingers Richard Jackson guests on this episode of the Horticulture Week Podcast. Jackson, of Richard Jackson Garden founded the  Greenfingers Charity and the Garden Press Event and has worked for some of the biggest names in the horticulture industry and a broadcaster for Q...

With more than half a century of plantsman's knowledge and a VMH in 1986, legendary plantsman Adrian Bloom has reissued his book  Bloom's Best Perennials and Grasses  10 years after its first publication. He chooses 400 perennials and grasses and makes 64 timeless selections and 12 top plants, narrowed down to plants including a hellebore, bergenia, miscanthus, brunnera, hosta,...

After working and playing hard in noughties London, Perrywood Garden Centre's communications & HR director Hannah Powell turned to nature to heal after suffering from a "functional neurological disorder". She tells the Horticulture Week podcast how "using nature to fix a faulty brain" and how "getting out into nature" was instrumental in her recovery and can be harnessed by everyone to improve...

We Too Built Britain's Zehra Zaidi and Harkness Roses' David White have launched the John Ystumllyn rose, named after the first well-recorded black Welsh gardener and believed to be the first rose named after an ethnic minority Briton. Horticulture Week  editor Matthew Appleby interviews the pair about the new rose and it's potential impact.  Zaidi’s  Horticulture Wee k article&nbsp...

As demand for sustainable growing media rockets, ICL technical sales manager Sam Rivers discusses peat-free composts and what growing media products are available for production horticulture. They explore who is asking for what, the raw materials available, differences in nutrition, and other products which may need to be added to help boost plant quality, such as biostimulants. Hosted on Acast. S...

The YPHA was founded in 2020 for under 35s in the industry to better facilitate collaboration, education and innovation and to consider how the industry might evolve to appeal to a younger demographic than has previously been the case. Giving their views are YPHA members: Chris Wiley, founder of Sow Successful, Virginia Colquhoun González, nursery supervisor at Allensmore Nurseries, and&...

Horatio’s Garden is a national charity creating and nurturing beautiful gardens in NHS spinal injury centres. Leading landscape designers such as Cleve West, Tom Stuart-Smith, Bunny Guinness and Sarah Price are among those who have lent their talents to design the gardens. In this podcast, Dr Olivia Chapple discusses the mission and value of the charity's gardens, which came into sharp relief duri...

Peat-reduction is a big issue and with Defra's Peat Strategy consultation around the corner, demand for compost higher than ever, horticulture is facing a tricky transition to be peat-free by 2024. Southern Trident's Steve Harper talks about the challenge of creating products fit for the horticultural production market and persuading retail consumers that it is worth paying extra to go peat-free a...

GE Current offers a range of professional LED lighting fixtures and hybrid solutions for indoor and greenhouse horticultural applications, from propagation and microgreens production through to lighting for large indoor farms and commercial greenhouses. Horticulture business development manager Malcolm Yare and commercial operations manager Sally Thomas speak about the benefits of supplemental lig...

Online sales doubled during the pandemic says owner Chris Smith, but changes in regulations are making some imports, such as seed potatoes, onion sets and garlic from France and Holland, impossible and could lead to significant pressures come the autumn. Shifting demographics of nursery owners and customers mean horticultural shows could decline as the market shifts from face-to-face to mail order...

"Our aim ...is to have an apprentice on every contract that we maintain", says Countrywide Grounds Maintenance managing director Paul McKeown. Having worked in horticulture his entire working life, a desire to give back to the 46 local communities where the firm has a presence led to 'community first' - an initiative which aims to train and recruit local talent. McKeown also discusses the firms's...

Adrian Wickham, Glendale corporate development director, and Tessa Johnstone, Johnstones Landscapes' director, give a fascinating insight into their work on promoting greater diversity in the industry for the British Association of Landscape Industries. They discuss routes into the industry, how to break through cultural conservatism in recruitment and how improving diversity could enhance the ind...

A fixture of the turf management sector calendar, and after a year's hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, GMA Saltex show is back. Saltex operations manager Derek "Mr Saltex" Walder and Grounds Management Association CEO Geoff Webb join Horticulture Week technical editor Sally Drury to discuss Saltex's long and eventful past, present and future. They discuss the challenges of health and safety...

Jekka has gone from playing at the first Glastonbury Festival to hosting her own "Herbfest", a celebration of her passion for growing herbs and a major achievement after a year of pandemic trials and Brexit tribulations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.