The Plodcast

Poppy Okotcha explains how to garden for contentment, health and deeper connection with nature and community. Plodcast host Fergus Collins met the fashion model-turned-horticulturalist at her beautiful spring garden in Devon to learn a simpler way to be. Poppy's new book, A Wilder Way: How gardens grow us, is published by Bloomsbury. And now you can get in touch with the Plodcast team via: The BBC...

It's early evening on a remote sheep farm in Warwickshire. The orange sunset slants through the trees and the lambs are softly bleating. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Lewis Dobbs, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send y...

This week we're heading to a sheep farm in Warwickshire just south of Birmingham. It's lambing time and young farmer Bizza Walters and her family reveal the ups and downs of this crucial, stressful, delightful few weeks in spring. Plus we talk about why farmers need mental health support and discuss other big issues facing the farming community. You can find Bizza on Instagram (@bizza.walters), ot...

In a peaceful Dorset valley, a garden looks onto wide farmland. As a blackbird sings seductively from the hedgerow, a yellowhammer tests out his rising song of summer joy from somewhere out in the open landscape. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by K...

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the opening of Britain's most famous long-distance footpath, Plodcast host Fergus met folk singer Johnny Campbell to walk part of the route. Johnny is spending 19 days walking the entire route from Derbyshire to the Borders of Scotland – gigging almost every evening. His powerful songs are rooted in the landscape and the struggles of ordinary people to gain acc...

We're on the cusp of spring but winter clings on in rasping voices of ravens. As you walk in the cold sunlight of early March across a field to a stand of trees, starling song cascades, while skylarks erupt sporadically, dreaming of warmer days. But you also catch the chack-chack-chack of fieldfares, winter visitors escaping the deep cold of their Scandinavian homeland. BBC Countryfile Magazine's...

This week, join Plodcast host Fergus Collins as he explores a local woodland for the first time in search of a legendary woodpecker – with gorgeous birdsong along the way. Plus, author Kerri Andrews reads from her powerful new book: Pathfinding: On Walking, Motherhood and Freedom, published by Elliott and Thompson And after all that, join the Plodcast team in the studio for a round up of listener...

A muddy farm track separates willow woodland from a wide expanse of marshland. You pause to listen to linnets commuting from wood to water meadow while a chaffinch chortles a joyful tune, laughing at the sunshine. Meanwhile, the first chiffchaff of the year belts out his two-note song. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and t...

This week we're in Leicestershire exploring the beautiful Welland Valley with countryside writer and farming expert Tim Relf. Plodcast host Fergus walks through this stunning, overlooked landscape with Tim and they discuss farming issues such as the controversial proposed changes to inheritance tax and the Sustainable Farming Incentive. To learn more about the Neville family, as mentioned by Tim,...

You've discovered a forgotten valley in the Blackdown Hills. After descending an ancient holloway, you arrive at a bridge over a chuckling stream. Wild daffodils are flowering along the path and emerald strands of water crowfoot sway in the clear, pure water below. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewher...

Head to Lincolnshire in the east of England to explore an exciting new rewilding project. Hannah Dale is an artist and farmer who struggled to make a living from her 300 acres – so has decided to return the land to nature. Hannah has written about her experience in a new book: A Wilding Year (published by Batsford). Plodcast host Fergus visited to meet Hannah and some very special wild guests out...

On a long, lonely walk across the windswept open lands of the Marlborough Downs, you come across a large, oval barrow partially hidden in a stand of trees. It is the Giant's Grave, a Bronze Age burial mound whose secrets are long forgotten. A ghostly breeze disturbs the spinney, a solitary crow calls, but the barrow broods in silence. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio pos...

Do we spend too much time thinking and not enough time simply being? Life coach Dr Giles Croft reveals how being out in nature and learning to not take our thoughts too seriously can lead to deeper contentment and happiness. Plodcast host Fergus met Giles on the Monmouth-Brecon canal South Wales to explore why we overthink our lives... Find out more at www.gilespcroft.com The BBC Countryfile Magaz...

After many days of wet, grey gloom, a hopeful sunny day hints at spring – and draws out the birds in a public garden deep in the Welsh borders. Great tits, nuthatches, goldcrests, robins and treecreepers are among the singers here – with a male chaffinch trying out his new songs, too. On the ground, drooping snowdrops are already giving way to brave crocuses, BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escap...

Walk Hergest Ridge in Herefordshire on the Welsh border in the company of walker and writer Mike Parker who has spent years exploring the unique people, landscape and history of this borderland. With Plodcast host Fergus, Mike talks Offa's Dyke, the Welsh-English divide and the reason why these 'Marcherlands' are so attractive to those looking for somewhere off the beaten track. Mike Parker's book...

The winter calls of tawny owls pierce the night in a Cumbrian woodland. The wind roars through the trees like a stormy sea. This is a special recording made by author Polly Atkin to celebrate her new book, The Company of Owls, which is a record of the nature around her home in Grasmere in the Lake District. Her closest and most vocal neigbours are the owls. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes...

It's a bright, beautiful morning so join Plodcast host Fergus for a wander into the soft chalk hills known as the Marlborough Downs of Wiltshire to hunt for burial mounds. Known as barrows, these strange humps in the landscape are the graves of forgotten chieftains and warriors of ancient times and have a brooding mystery about them. Enjoy a late winter adventure into the Bronze Age – with wildlif...

Swollen by winter rains, a tiny stream, known as a rill, swarms almost vertically down a cleft in the hillside. As you listen from a bridge above, the stream feels alive, its cleansing sound washing away all weariness. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorde...

Enjoy a wander and deep dive into some of the big issues facing our wild world with zoologist and BBC tv presenter Gillian Burke during a beautiful walk along the Cornish coast near Falmouth. Gillian hosts her own podcast If I Ruled the World which explores big ideas and big themes, looking at the challenges facing the modern world and finding potential solutions. Listen on for a fascinating discu...

Early morning on the farm and a song thrush's strident spring call rises above the chatter of starlings and jackdaws. Beautiful and haunting in the cool morning air, the clear notes herald warmer, longer days. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Ferg...

Join intrepid folk duo Ninebarrow (Jon Whitley and Jay Labouchardiere) for a Plodcast wander over Ballard Down to Old Harry Rocks on the coast of Dorset. Along the way, they sing and play some of their song to evoke landscape, nature and old legends. Pure, unmissable magic. See more of Ninebarrow on their Wandering Minstrels YouTube channel – and listen to their music on Spotify, Apple and other s...

It's a bright morning on the Falmouth seafront after a week of rain and wind. The air is still, the sunshine warm, yet the sea is still full of storm energy and crashes on the shore, followed by a seethe of pebbles as the waves retreat. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you hap...

We climb a little-known hill in the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) called Allt yr Esgair to search for a mysterious tower lost in the woods. Who built it and why was it abandoned? Join us for a Plodcast of exploration, with wildlife encounters and signs of spring along the way. The BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and...

After three days of snow and deep cold, a westerly weather front has swept in – a warm breath to thaw the frozen landscape. You stop outdoors among chirruping redwings, transfixed by the steady drip of meltwater and falls of slush from barn roofs and hedgebanks. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere b...

Poorly trained dogs can be a menace to wildlife and livestock – and are a major issue in the UK countryside. This week, host Fergus is joined by friend of the Plodcast James Fair and his dog Dakota to explore the issue. Dakota, James and Fergus spend a day with dog trainer extraordinaire Helen Merrett in the Gloucestershire countryside to discover the most effective methods for understanding and c...