Not Just a Garden

Sophia Gray from Sophia Grows was on Gardeners’ World 2025 episode 24 where we saw her stunning cut flower allotment. She joins us for A Good Ol’ Chit-Chat and we find out what her dream garden would look like, SPOILER - it’s gorgeous! Sophia dreams of sociable summer evenings in the garden, opulent greenhouses, acres of woodlands, natural swimming ponds, and this is all despite her prev...

The final recap episode of Gardeners' World 2025 and we witness Sweetpea winning £100. We also find out about Adam Frost's pet garden hate, Chit-Chat guest Delia May West's gorgeous new member of the family, more tips on identifying AI on social media, how New Zealand flatworms are managed in New Zealand, the discovery of the first new plant genus found in a US national park since 1976, a robot th...

Tanya Anderson from Lovely Greens was on Gardeners' World in 2019 and joins us for A Good Ol' Chit-Chat. We learn about the benefits of Polycrubs, the issues the Isle of Man has with New Zealand flatworms, using your garden to make skincare products, managing a successful website and YouTube channel, and could Tanya's imminent house move see her dream garden becoming a reality? Some mentions from...

The penultimate episode of Gardeners' World 2025 and we talk identifying AI videos, the return of Vine, radiation eating fungi, lichen and blue-green algae surviving Mars, wool pots, and potty-mouthed parrots. We also have an update on Alla Olkhovska and her family in Kharkiv and how we can help. On Gardeners' World this week we join Ashley Edwards and Ian Ball at Hyde Hall, and Jānis Raubiška sho...

Chris D'Agorne was on Gardeners' World 2025, episode 24 where he showed us his bog garden in his pocket wilderness. On this Chit-Chat, Chris tells us about planting over 600 trees, his 7 ponds, mapping hedgerow from RAF aerial survey images, growing sphagnum moss, childhood memories of Skomer Island, his dream garden full of native plants, surprising and shocking facts about teasel, and how he was...

This week we graduate from Riverdance to Death Valley as we enter phase 2 of Operation Ratatouille. In the meantime, we hear about another troublesome African Grey parrot, the UK honey fungus pandemic, plastic eating mushrooms, another planet-saving use for bamboo, what's special about Scotland's national flower, the cunning of lotus flowers, and the hero homing pigeon. On Gardeners' World we're w...

It's our half century episode and to celebrate we have our very first Gardeners' World presenter!🎉🕺 Nick Macer from Pan Global Plants presented a series of episodes in 2016 and he joins us as we travel back in time to a little schoolboy Nick still finding his feet, through to a big adult Nick owning one of the most celebrated specialist plant nurseries in the UK. We also hear about plant hunting...

In this podcast episode we find out who's been stealing all the walnuts. We also learn about the use of dandelion root extract in medicine, plastic stuffed birds, bluebell glue, cheeky parrots, Advolly's yellow dress, and butt-breathing. And on Gardeners' World, we see a very speedy Monty Don, Carol Klein shows us around RHS Rosemoor in Devon and we meet Andy Farrington and Liz Dalby-Webb at The P...

Liz Zorab was on Gardeners' World last year and joins us for a Chit-Chat about her autumn inspired dream garden. We find out how Liz's dad instilled her initial happy curiosity in nature from a young age, which has taken her from reading books on gardening before she even had a garden, to her incredibly beautiful and productive space at Byther Farm. We also find out about "Horsefly Alley", how to...

This week we find out some good news about Martin Dohrn and some potentially even better news about the availability of his film, My Garden of a Thousand Bees. We also hear about what exists under the Antarctic, cancer-curing honeybees, fig trees turning carbon dioxide into stone, the lesser known yet intrepid plant hunter and botanist Dora B Stafford, and how seagulls are even more evil that we f...

Gokul Asokan was on Gardeners' World 2025 episode 21 - a landscape architect without his own garden but that hasn't stopped him gardening! He joins us for A Good Ol' Chit-Chat where we hear how a classmate first inspired him to venture into the world of plants, battling home sickness, the power of perseverance, how helpful pet bunnies are (on many levels), Gokul's VERY sociable dream greenhouse, a...

This week on our recap we hear how as a result of her appearance on Gardeners' World, Violet Croll is now involved in an exhibition in Paris! We talk about Dan from Dan's Plants' online shop, trees growing gold, the deadly chemical found in our water pipes, what it means if you have an impressive rosemary bush, and the empathy of humpbacks. We also ponder, if we could put all the angry world leade...

Clematis Queen Alla Olkhovska was on Gardeners' World 2025 episode 20 showing us her stunning collection of 140 different clematis which she grows in her garden, despite being at the centre of a war zone in Kharkiv, Ukraine. During this Chit-Chat we hear how Alla is handling relentless drone strikes and blackouts, her incredible family history through world wars, the October Revolution, exile to S...

Rajat Jindal was on Gardeners' World 2025, episode 22 showing us his magnificent Great Dixter inspired garden in Suffolk. On this episode of Chit-Chats we find out about hornbeam topiary, accidental Claire Voies, death row meals, Oxbridge potato wars, and how you can have a greenhouse that authorities may deem "too polite". Some mentions from Rajat, links can be found here: https://notjustagarden....

We risk being cancelled this week by giving the BBC a piece of our minds, but we also talk about micro-hydro units, the ecosystems of belly buttons, edible six-pack rings, the perils of planting parsley if you're a woman, and the huge part snails play in the beauty industry. This week on Gardeners' World, Frances hosts from Damson Farm with Rua Tophill and Alison and Twiggy Jenkins. We meet Ashlei...

Greg Anderton was on Gardeners' World 2025 episode 17 during which he gave a behind-the-scenes look at his preparations for the first RHS Wentworth Woodhouse show - where he won a gold! In this episode of Chit-Chats we find out about the judging of such shows, how he starts preparing for them, and the accommodation challenges involved - especially if you suffer with ovinaphobia! We also hear about...

Two weeks since the last episode of Gardeners' World and we've been experiencing withdrawal symptoms. We have a good ol' chit-chat about the awesome courses at The Sustainability Centre, South Downs National Park, including clay oven building for Sweetpea, building compost toilets for Bear and, previous Chit-Chats guest, Tom Nielsen's Creating Wilder Gardens. We also talk sleep hygiene, the women'...

Is the lack of Gardeners' World causing Sweetpea to spiral into the depths of despair? This week we talk separation anxiety, love stories, imposter syndrome, the bleak reality of all those pandemic masks, how awesome Morgan Freeman is, Layla Robinson's incredible Bird Of Peace flower sculpture, and Ann Makosinksi's revolutionary body-heat powered torch. This week Toby Buckland takes us to the stun...

A little more emotionally stable this week, we learn a bit about Jamie Butterworth's wedding, Adam Frost's tour, Sweden's exemplary recycling, one of Time Magazine’s 10 Girls of the Year and her fantastic invention, and (definitely not more importantly) her Lego figure, record-breaking sunflowers, the risk-taking Scottish botanist David Douglas, and 192 year old Jonathan. This week Monty Don's at...

An emotional week as empty-nest syndrome sets in but we still have time to chit-chat about the benefits of pineapple leather, the lung capacity of the ancient Romans and Asian sea nomads, electric blue pigs in California, honeybee superfoods, and rock swallowing crocs. This week on Gardeners' World, Adam Frost is looking 21 again as he shows us his garden with his co-presenters Buster, Ash and Isl...

Dean Charlton was on Gardeners' World Episode 17 when he was preparing for his exhibit at the first ever RHS Wentworth Woodhouse. In this final episode of series 3 of Chit-Chats, we find out about the history of Hooton's Walled Nursery, Dean's as yet unpatented drystone skip walls, his very happy memories of 6 years at Great Dixter and some of the skills he learned there, power scything, wassails,...

This week we have a bit of a chit-chat about Germany's salt-and-air batteries, the mysterious return of the large copper butterfly to the British countryside, the importance of keystone species such as cassowaries and their E number fluorescent eggs, the bizarre history of when Australia went to war with the local emu population, the world's northern most botanic garden in Tromsø, Norway, and plan...

It was a real pleasure Chit-Chatting with Nate Moss from Goldwell Flowers on episode 43. We saw Nate on Gardeners’ World ep18 a few weeks ago when he showed Arit Anderson around his beautiful flower farm before rustling up the most spectacular flower display. During our chat we hear about isolated cabins in the mountains, Kew Gardens waterlily house style greenhouses, moth trapping, some disappoin...

On our Gardeners' World recap this week we talk about coconut husk pallets, the palm house at Kew Gardens closing, awesome lego sets, what Troublesome Trump has done to the rose garden, Californian super-blooms, and the unique echidna appendage. Back with Monty Don at Longmeadow, on GW this week, Jamie Butterworth has a look at the spectacular RHS Bridgewater and chats to Curator Marcus Chilton-Jo...

George Lowther; presenter, director, head of production, researcher, series editor, dubbing mixer, cameraman, and runner of YouTube channel George’s Jungle Garden, was on Gardeners’ World way back in 2022, ep11 and we were delighted that he joined us for ep42 of Chit-Chats. We find out how his appearance on Gardeners’ World came about, how he planned his tropical garden, the trials and tribul...