Roots and All - Gardening Podcast

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 thomasrobinselder@gmail.com (£45 to include p&p to a UK address, for RoW postage contact Cathryn on the above email for quote). Painswick Rococo Garden Patreon Membership

This week, I’m talking to Joyce Veheary about her fantastic Lend and Tend project, which aims to match garden owners who perhaps don’t have the time, experience, desire or means to tend their garden with gardenless gardeners keen to employ their green fingers,  pairing up people who are local to each other, then sending them on their merry way in the hopes they will have a long and happy garden sharing relationship. Joyce talks about why she felt the need to begin the project, how it works, what happens when it succeeds and why the idea is of benefit to whole communities, as well as the individuals involved. Dr Ian Bedford’s Bug of the Week: Indoor houseplant bugs What we cover Lend and Tend and how it came about How likely are you to find someone on Lend and Tend who shares the same view of what a garden can and should be?  Some of the keys to having a mutually beneficial relationship between lender and tender What about tools? Practical considerations such as insurance and references The social element of Lend and Tend and how it benefits the community Where to find out more and get involved About Joyce Veheary Joyce is the founder of Lend and Tend and is a self-taught gardener with a passion for sharing skills and experiences. She is particularly interested in growing her own produce to cook with and she’s a keen forager too.  Joyce is always looking for ways to look after the environment and to promote social justice. Her aim with Lend and Tend is to democratise access to growing space, which she rightly views as an act of horticultural rebellion. She’s also a film and TV actor and her latest role is in Zack Snyder’s Justice League where she plays a Gotham cop. Talk about multi-talented! Links www.lendandtend.com Lend and Tend on Facebook  Twitter  Instagram  Patreon Membership

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 www.brownenvelopeseeds.com www.seedie.ie Other episodes you might like: Episode 12 - Esiah Levy’s SeedsShare Project  Patreon Membership

This year’s first guest is organic vegetable grower Anna Greenland. Anna has supplied produce to some of the UK’s top chefs, including Raymond Blanc and Jamie Oliver, has created gardens at Soho Farmhouse, Kew Gardens and the Huntington Botanical Gardens in LA. She is currently establishing a market garden and gardening school in Suffolk and has just released a book called ‘Grow Easy’. Anna talks about working with the best chefs in the best kitchens and catering to their clientele, about producing pristine veg organically, about growing food in different climates and the fundamentals of veg garden success. Dr Ian Bedford’s Bug of the Week: Overwintering fruit & vegetable bugs What we cover Anna’s background How Anna begins to plan a veg garden from scratch What makes a good site The chefs Anna has worked with  Growing food for a professional kitchen Keeping a veg garden in a public space looking good all year round The biggest challenges for new veg gardeners and how they can be overcome About Anna Greenland Anna was working as a model when she moved to Cornwall and began working at Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Cornwall. Bitten by the veg growing bug, she took on a job at The Lost Gardens of Heligan and began supplying produce to Jamie’s restaurant. From there, she moved to LA to study Ecological Horticulture and set up a food growing garden at Huntington Botanical Gardens.  After moving back to the UK, she worked at Soho Farmhouse, Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons for Raymond Blanc and has set up a productive area at Kew Gardens. She won gold and Best in Show for her ‘Herbs and Preserves’ garden at RHS Hampton Court Flower Show in 2018 and has just released a book, ‘Grow Easy’. She now lives in Suffolk where she is setting up a market garden and gardening school. Links www.annagreenland.co.uk Anna on Instagram  Grow Easy: Organic crops for pots and small plots - October 2021, Octopus Publishing Patreon Membership

Welcome to this pre-Christmas episode of the podcast, the final one of 2021. And what a year this has been! In this episode, I talk about what’s been happening at Roots and All and look back over some of the favourite episodes from this year.  Thank you for supporting the podcast this year and a Merry Christmas to you! What I cover The redesigned Roots and All website and the bookshop Episode 94 - Wild Gardens with Jo McKerr Episode 99 - Pollinators & Pollination with Prof Jeff Ollerton Episode 108 - Dr Glynn Percival of Bartlett Tree Research Episode 125 - Modern Plant Hunters with Dr Sandy Primrose Episode 136 - The View from Federal Twist with James Golden Patreon Membership

This week’s guest is Dr Jude Piesse. Jude’s book ‘The Ghost in the Garden’ is essentially about Charles Darwin’s largely forgotten garden in Shrewsbury but the book turned out to be much more than a study of the garden, its history and the man himself. In fact, these aspects are almost incidental to the other characters in the book and this makes it an amazing narrative where many aspects are hung together on the framework of the garden. In the interview, Jude tells us about how the book developed, the characters that animated the garden and how it fed into Charles Darwin’s work and life.  Dr Ian Bedford’s Bug of the Week: Winter Bumblebees Please don’t forget to rate, review and share the podcast! What we cover How Jude first came across Charles Darwin’s garden and what was it about the garden that interested her Jude says the book is more a collective biography and memoir than just the story of Darwin and it incorporates a whole host of characters. She talks about whether this was intentional. When the garden was built and what the contemporary horticultural world was like  How might the change from landscape gardens to the collectors’ gardens with their array of exotic species have contributed to scientific discoveries at that time? Whilst he was on The Beagle, the correspondence between Darwin and his family seems to have been set against the backdrop of seasonal events in the garden. Was this merely a common topic of conversation or were these updates of a deeper significance?  Who were the Darwins’ gardeners and what role did they play in shaping the garden and Darwin’s work?  How much did the garden feed into his work?  Did Darwin love the garden or was it a laboratory?  What is the condition of the garden now? Whose ghost is it in the garden?  About Dr Jude Piesse Jude Piesse is an academic and writer. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia and a PhD in English Literature from the University of Exeter. She has published widely on nineteenth-century literature and culture, including her book about emigration literature, British Settler Emigration in Print, 1832–1877 (OUP, 2016). Though she grew up in Shropshire, she did not discover Darwin’s childhood garden until she moved to Shrewsbury with her young family to take up her first lectureship. She now works as a lecturer in English Literature at Liverpool John Moores University. https://scribepublications.co.uk/books-authors/books/the-ghost-in-the-garden-9781913348052 Links The Ghost in the Garden by Jude Piesse - Scribe Publications, 2021 

This episode features garden designer, grower, speaker and writer Andrew Sankey. Andrew specialises in English cottage gardens and has meticulously researched the subject for decades, becoming an expert on this style of gardening. He’s recently released a book called The English Cottage Garden and in the interview, we talk about what defines a cottage garden, both in the past and now, the plants and features most commonly found in one and tips if you’re looking to create your own.  Dr Ian Bedford’s Bug of the Week: Ivy Mining Bees Please don’t forget to rate, review and share the podcast! What we cover What was a cottage garden historically and what is it now? How big is a cottage garden? What hard landscaping elements characterise a cottage garden? Which planting techniques stand out as most cottage garden-like? Where does the winter interest come from in a cottage garden? Using plants as supports for other plants Cottage gardens and wildlife Andrew’s 3 essential plants Edibles in a modern cottage garden About Andrew Sankey Andrew left teaching (Head of Graphics/Design) in 1989 to start a Garden Design & Landscaping business in Lincolnshire. He discovered it was very difficult to obtain plants required for designs so started a specialist nursery stocking plants for dry shade/ dry sun. He went on to organise Plant Fairs in Lincolnshire, Cambs and Norfolk & produced a booklet called the Plant Fair Guide for a number of years. Andrew moved to a cottage near Woodhall Spa, Lincs in 1992 and created a cottage garden which was opened twice a year for the NGS and other groups. He became Chairman of the Lincolnshire branch of the Cottage Garden Society and began lecturing on cottage gardens and related subjects (including lecture tours to Minnesota and Wisconsin in the USA). He’s written booklets on Companion Planting, Cottage Favourites and Sayings and Superstitions and he continues to design gardens and lecture widely on a range of gardening topics. Links The English Cottage Garden by Andrew Sankey - The Crowood Press Ltd, 2021  Episode 62 - The Living Jigsaw with Val Bourne  The Cottage Garden Society 

Hello and thank you for joining me this week, as I talk to Wade Muggleton, permaculturist, tree expert and author of The Orchard Book, a book about incorporating fruit trees into your garden, however big or small your space. Wade is my favourite type of guest in that he’s written a book based on 20 years of solid experience and he’s busted a few myths along the way, not least the received wisdom around fruit tree pollination. So if you’d like to find out what makes an orchard, when to prune your trees, what types of tree to select, how to underplant your trees, creative tree training, what is a pitcher and what is a chequer, then listen on! Dr Ian Bedford’s Bug of the Week: Ear wigglers Please don’t forget to rate, review and share the podcast! What we cover What is an orchard?  What types of tree might one contain? Underplanting orchard trees Keeping the costs down when establishing an orchard Have you heard of chequers? Grafting and over grafting Pitchers Pollination and the need for multiple trees of the same pollination group Creating step overs and fruit tree arches Pruning in summer instead of winter Top types of tree About Wade Muggleton “Wade Muggleton lives in Shropshire with his partner and two children, where their plot, Station Road Permaculture Garden, is a demonstration site for permaculture and opens under the National Open Gardens Scheme. In 2013, he acquired a field and now has a collection of over 130 fruit trees and was featured on BBC Gardeners’ World in 2018.” https://www.chelseagreen.com/writer/wade-muggleton/ Links The Orchard Book: Plan, Plant and Maintain Fruit from Garden to Field by Wade Muggleton - 2021, Permanent Publications  

Welcome to this week’s episode, where I’m talking water-wise gardening with Janet Manning. Janet undertook a three year project with the RHS and Cranfield University where she looked at strategies and techniques currently available to gardeners to help them both conserve and manage water in a way that reduces waste and protects the environment. We talk about why there’s a need to be water-wise in wet countries like the UK, what we can do to help and why gardens are an important part of the bigger environmental picture. Dr Ian Bedford’s Bug of the Week: Harvestmen Please don’t forget to rate, review and share the podcast! What we cover Janet’s work with Cranfield University and the RHS How we gardeners can conserve water in our gardens How we can contribute towards rainwater management Drought tolerant plants  The fabled moist, well-drained soil! Using swales and hugelkultur beds Long term meteorological predictions About Janet Manning Janet has just completed a three year water management knowledge transfer partnership between Cranfield University and the RHS. As a graduate of Cranfield with an MSc in process engineering, and after a 17 year career as a scientist in the water industry, she followed her passion for the natural environment into horticulture where she worked on a production nursery producing hardy ornamentals. Having worked 'both ends of the hose' she was well placed to take up the role at the RHS as the first garden water scientist. She has contributed to the water neutral targets set within the RHS's new sustainability strategy and has written the first water road map for Wisley as a plan implement the strategy. A gardener since she was big enough to pick up a trowel, the combination of practical gardening experience and scientific knowledge, she has recently left the Environmental Horticulture Team at Wisley but with a legacy that will continue through the sustainability strategy. Links www.mains2rains.co.uk RHS advice for water management  RHS Neutral Water Targets 

This week’s episode features James Golden, talking about the naturalistic garden he’s built around his home in New Jersey. James’s garden has been created intuitively over time and sits perfectly within the landscape, in fact is a landscape in its own right. Sometimes baffling, sometimes threatening and without utilitarian purpose, the garden is nonetheless life-affirming, vital and dramatically beautiful in different ways from one moment to the next. Dr Ian Bedford’s Bug of the Week: Harlequins Please don’t forget to rate, review and share the podcast! What we cover About the garden at Federal Twist Would the garden be as successful from a horticultural and aesthetic standpoint if James had plotted the garden on paper, particularly the planting? Visitors often seem to get lost in the space and can’t find a route through it - so who did James design the garden for, himself or was it always meant to be shared with visitors?  James’s stone circle, which serves no purpose other than an aesthetic one James on being a fearless and philosophical gardener How long is long enough to make a garden? How do you create a garden which varies so dramatically from one season to the next? What inspired the garden About James Golden  “James Golden’s garden design has been featured in national and international magazines, in The New York Times, and in several books on garden design. He has been the recipient of national awards and is widely known in the gardening world through his garden blog View from Federal Twist (www.federaltwist.com). James’ Federal Twist garden regularly appears on tours of the Garden Conservancy, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, the Hardy Plant Society, and on numerous private tours. Recently retired, he has started a garden design practice.” https://federaltwistdesign.org/about Links The View from Federal Twist: A New Way of Thinking About Gardens, Nature and Ourselves by James Golden - Filbert Press, 2021  The View From Federal Twist  Federal Twist on Instagram