BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Podcast

This week on Sowalong, BBC Gardeners’ World magazine Content Coordinator and keen kitchen garden grower, Lucy Felton, shares one of her go-to crops to grow from seed, Kale ‘Black Magic’. With lush, dramatic dark green leaves delivering a plentiful harvest, the compact nature of this easy veg patch addition makes it suitable for containers and ideal for squeezing into edges of beds. Not only does kale look great in any pot or border, but it is packed with nutrients and goodness, too.Listen now for Lucy’s simple sowing tips, whether undercover, directly into beds or in containers. With advice on how to crop this hardy annual, using the flowers in salads and seed saving too. Plus, a trick for quickly removing those tough central stems and slicing up leaves for a delicious side dish or raw superfood salad. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Would you support gardening being commonplace in our schools if you knew it would improve your child’s mental wellbeing? With one in eight young people suffering with a mental health condition, could gardening be the answer to the healthy heads of a generation?  We chatted to children’s gardening author and NHS patient advisor, Annabelle Padwick, about how gardening helps young people overcome mental health challenges. After struggling with her own mental health during her teenage years and into adulthood, Annabelle Padwick found that gardening was the one thing that made a difference. She now uses gardening to help primary and secondary age children overcome mental health and behaviour challenges.  Listen now, as Annabelle shares how she makes gardening interesting and relatable to young people. From digging, weeding and sowing seeds, to extracting plant oils for homemade lip balm and garden design. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This time on Sowalong, BBC Gardeners’ World magazine Reviews Editor, Kay Maguire, shares her favourite flower to grow from seed. In a frilly mix of pinks, yellows, oranges and reds, Kay talks you through planting Zinnia. Find out where Kay first discovered these bright annuals and how she likes to sow them in rows in the veg plot, amongst other crops, ready for picking. With vivid colours that instantly lift a room, Zinnias last well in the vase as cut flowers. They’re brilliant border fillers, a great addition to containers and by picking them regularly through the season, you’ll encourage more and more of those daisy-like flowers.  Listen now, as Kay runs through her growing tips, whether sowing straight into drills in the ground, or earlier indoors. Plus, advice on staking, watering and harvesting, too. Best of all, how to leave the last flowers on the plant at the end of the season, ready for seed saving and preparing for next year’s blooms. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Do you strive to do more for wildlife in your garden? Are you cheered by the birds visiting your feeders or the frogs that spawn in your pond? Here, BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Wildlife Editor Kate Bradbury, is in conversation with entrepreneur and star of BBC’s Dragons’ Den, Deborah Meaden, about why the rhythm of the garden and nature is so important to her.As well as supporting climate-friendly businesses, Deborah has been slowly returning her countryside garden and surrounding land back to its former glory, encouraging nature in at every turn. Now, swallows, swifts, barn owls and badgers are just some of the creatures visiting and there’s even an otter regularly stopping in to eat the fish in her pond. She confesses she’s not green-fingered, but will have a go, and is a great believer of ‘right plant, right place’. Plus, Deborah shares her love of weeding, and tells us why she starts every day - rain, snow or shine - wandering around the garden, cup of tea in hand. From being self-sufficient by growing her own organic vegetables, to the rescue and rerelease into the wild of Pebble, the baby hare, listen now as Deborah and Kate discuss why everyone should be inviting wildlife into their gardens. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This time on Sowalong, BBC Gardeners’ World magazine Gardening Editor, Emma Crawforth, shares her favourite flower to grow from seed. With all the advice and guidance you need to start sowing and growing Nigella damascena, including how to use it in a flower border to fill gaps and why it’s perfect for the vase.  A hardy annual with beautiful, upright flowers and a wave of feathery foliage, here, Emma walks your through her love of Nigella damascena. Popular with honey and bumble bees too, love-in-a-mist, as it’s more commonly known, comes in many different cultivars. There’s everything from sky blue ‘Miss Jekyll’ to the multi-coloured hues of ‘Persian Jewels’, so it’s easy to find one to suit every garden style. Listen now, as Emma covers sowing instructions, growing tips and how, after a year, this cottage garden favourite rewards you, shedding seeds that’ll grow into more flowers the next summer. Not forgetting those utterly irresistible, decorative seed heads. Here’s why Nigella damascena is one to add to the must-sow list now.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Beautiful trees and the UK landscape go hand-in-hand, but did you know that many of our beloved trees are under threat, becoming ravaged by pests and diseases? As part of National Plant Health Week, here, Gardeners’ World presenter Adam Frost chats to former Head of Arboretum at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Tony Kirkham, and Head Forester for the Duchy of Cornwall, Geraint Richards, about the state of our nation’s trees.Delving into which UK trees are currently under threat, from the caterpillar attacking popular parkland horse chestnuts, to ash dieback and acute oak decline, just how bad is it? Are we gardeners on the front line and more importantly, what, if anything, can we do to steer some of our most important native trees away from a possible point of extinction?Whether ancient specimens in native woodlands, or prize examples in our parks and gardens, trees have always been adored and celebrated by gardeners and nature lovers alike. So, listen now, as Adam, Tony and Geraint explain why we need to start taking tree health seriously and how to ensure we don’t see some of them disappearing from our treescapes entirely.Plus, advice on what you should be planting into your garden, what to look for when buying a tree, how to spot a healthy one and best gardening hygiene practice for tackling biosecurity. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Having something fresh on your plate, that you’ve grown yourself from seed, is magic. From speedy mixes and little gem lettuces to mustards and pak choi, this low-fuss lunchbox and dinner table staple will quickly reward you with a delicious crop, filled with variety.Salad leaves are easy to grow in veg beds, balcony containers, or even into a couple of handy pots kept by the kitchen doorstep. Nothing beats having access to beautiful fresh leaves that can be snipped, cut and washed before being added straight to the plate.So, listen on for everything you need to know about growing an array of cut and come again salad leaves from seed. Including Kevin’s tips for successional sowing and harvesting. Why not have a go at growing some this season? Once you’ve picked that first leafy medley for the table, there’ll be no going back. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How does your garden make you feel? We gardeners know the huge benefits gardening has on our mental health and wellbeing. Here, BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Wildlife Editor Kate Bradbury, talks to Dr Amir Khan, NHS GP, TV doctor and devoted gardener, about the wonderful ways gardens and gardening can heal us.  Whether we notice our blood pressure lowering or not, we all have those moments when the strains of the day, including anger and stress, melt away after an hour or two, digging the soil, sowing seeds, or even weeding. In fact, the moment Amir returns from a shift at the surgery, he heads straight into the garden. Gardening is so good for us, that doctors are now prescribing it to some patients as part of their journey to feeling better.   From encouraging frogs, hedgehogs and wildlife into the garden, to the physiological changes going on inside of us when we’re outdoors nurturing our plants, listen now as Kate and Amir dive into all things feel-good gardening.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Step inside the Gardeners’ World presenter’s seed library, as he shares his passion for Tithonia flowers, and how to grow them from seed. Monty is here with heaps of advice, to ensure healthy plants and a bounty of blooms, every time. Plus, the seed-sowing champion lets us all know why he grows Tithonia, the Mexican Sunflower, every year, without fail. As well as, how to ensure successful germination and plush petals, all season long.     Let Monty Don persuade you to give Tithonia a try, with a few pointers along the way, as we Sowalong together. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Is growing and cooking fresh food from the garden high on your wish list? Do you want to whip up dishes using homegrown ingredients but don’t know which fruits, vegetables and herbs to try first? We chat to Michelin-starred chef Marcus Wareing, about why he’s swapped his chef’s whites for life in the kitchen garden. As he spends more time expanding his smallholding in the East Sussex countryside, Marcus is the first to admit getting to grips with growing food has been one heck of a learning curve. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices