Roots and All - Gardening Podcast – Détails, épisodes et analyse

I'm joined by Chris Whitelock, author of Growing Fruit, to explore how modern varieties are reshaping the way we grow fruit at home. We discuss everything from choosing space-saving or container-friendly trees to tackling pests, diseases, and even the challenge of keeping birds off your harvest.

Links

Growing Fruit: A Practical Guide to Growing Top and Soft Fruit 

Chris Whitelock - Learning with Experts 

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I'm speaking with Karen Hall, Program Director of Ecological Education at the Institute for Applied Ecology, about an inspiring initiative that connects conservation with social rehabilitation. We explore what ecological education involves, the features of the landscape and ecology of the region where Karen works and how changes to funding have affected these conservation in the efforts. 

Links

Staff profile at IAE: Karen Hall – Institute for Applied Ecology — her bio, role description and contact information. 

Curriculum materials she oversaw: Ecological Education Curriculum – Institute for Applied Ecology — downloadable education-units with her listed as Program Director. 

Article on the prison-conservation work mentioning her: "When Gardening is a Lifeline and Game-Changer" (in Pacific Horticulture) — includes direct quotes from her about the prison-based conservation programme. Pacific Horticulture

A podcast featuring her and the prison conservation programme: Seeds for Change: An Institute for Applied Ecology Podcast — she appears discussing the "Sagebrush in Prisons" / conservation-in-prisons initiative. 

Other episodes if you liked this one:

Episode 333: Designing for Habitat & Biodiversity

Ecological designer and waterway whisperer Emmaline Bowman talks about her mission to heal landscapes through nature-led design at her practice Stem Landscape Architecture & Design. 

Episode 247: Botanical Education 

I speak with Seb Stroud (Leeds University) about the state of botanical education, its implications for biodiversity & climate, and what is being done to revive it.

Please support the podcast on Patreon

And follow Roots and All

On Instagram @rootsandallpod

On Facebook @rootsandalluk

On LinkedIn @rootsandall

Ali Morse is the Water Policy Manager at The Wildlife Trusts and together we talk the truth about peat: how much is still being extracted, why government promises have fallen short, and the role horticulture plays in the story. We also look ahead to the solutions—both practical and political—that could finally protect these precious habitats.

Links

The Wildlife Trusts – Main Website

Nic Wilson's Peat Free Nurseries List

Other episodes if you liked this one:

Episode 47: Going Peat Free with John Walker
In this episode, I speak with John Walker, the "Earth Friendly Gardener," about the use of peat in gardening, why it's so harmful, and what's being done to end its use. He reflects on whether we can realistically eradicate peat from horticultural products. Roots and All

Episode 144: The State of Horticulture with Matthew Appleby
I chat with Matthew Appleby, Editor of Horticulture Week, about broader industry dynamics—such as Brexit, supply chain changes, and how the push to go peat-free is impacting both gardeners and the horticultural trade. Roots and All

Please support the podcast on Patreon

And follow Roots and All:

On Instagram @rootsandallpod

On Facebook @rootsandalluk

On LinkedIn @rootsandall

My guest this episode is New Zealand based landscape designer Jo Wakelin. Jo creates low impact and environmentally conscious spaces and her own garden is a masterclass in water-wise planting that sits lightly within the landscape - beautiful but in keeping with its surroundings both aesthetically and ecologically. We talk about her extensive research and the lessons she's learnt along the way.

Dr Ian Bedford's Bug of the Week: Black Vine Weevils

What We Talk About 

Jo's work and what she does in her own garden

Jo's thoughts on native versus non-native plants in a garden setting

How gardens can and should work with their surrounding landscape

Current schools of thought in NZ garden design 

Links

Jo Wakelin on Instagram 

Other episodes if you liked this one:

Design Experts - Xanthe White

Ecologically Integrated Gardens

Patreon

This week's episode, my guest is Clive Farrell. Clive is a butterfly expert who established The London Butterfly House at Syon House and has dedicated his life to breeding and studying the butterflies of Britain and the world. His latest project has been to develop the 100 or so acres around his home in Dorset into a haven for insects, that features unusual, even magical elements such as a giant fibreglass dragon, a replica of a Saxon longhouse that is home to a huge bog oak sculpture, a temple dedicated to ravens and a giant's chair. Clive's garden is the stuff of dreams to adult and child visitors, but also to the invertebrates which makes their homes amongst this garden which is built for them.

Dr Ian Bedford's Bug of the Week: Overwintering Butterflies

What We Talk About 

I'm not telling you, just listen ;-)

Other episodes if you liked this one:

Butterflies with Peter Eeles

Bugs in Your Garden with Dr Ian Bedford

Patreon

This episode my guest is Jarema Osofsky, founder of the design studio Dirt Queen NYC and author of Moon Garden: A Guide to Creating An Evening Oasis. Moon gardening is an enchanting way to slow down in the evenings, immerse yourself in nature and cultivate a relationship with your plants and the moon and I'm talking with Jarema about how you can create your own.

Dr Ian Bedford's Bug of the Week: Large Hairy House Spiders

What We Talk About 

What is a moon garden?

Do they have to contain all white flowers?

Should you plant for year round interest? 

Should the garden be visible from the house? 

Apart from colour, what else is important in a moon garden?

Can you create a moon garden indoors?

Can moon gardens benefit wildlife?

Night blooming and night fragrant plants

How best to enjoy your moon garden

About the book

MOON GARDEN: A Guide to Creating an Evening Oasis (Chronicle 10/3/23) is a guide to creating a garden that comes alive at night, with night-blooming plants and night fragrant flowers. The book is full of design and horticultural wisdom; planting tips for outdoor, indoor, and container gardeners; and soothing rituals such as journaling and meditations. With beautiful botanical illustrations, Moon Garden encourages readers to approach gardening as a grounding, spiritual practice.

Spending time outdoors, and bringing nature into one's home, is both joyful and healing. MOON GARDEN is part of Jarema's mission to design beautiful garden spaces that help people cultivate meaningful connections to the natural world, while also benefiting local ecosystems in the process.

About Jarema Osofsky

Brooklyn-based landscape and interior plant designer, Jarema Osofsky is the founder of Dirt Queen NYC, a garden design and plant care business. Her debut book, MOON GARDEN: A Guide to Creating an Evening Oasis (Chronicle 10/3/23), invites readers to dive into the world of moon gardens and all that they offer. MOON GARDEN is a guide to creating a garden that comes alive at night, with night-blooming plants and night fragrant flowers. The book is full of design and horticultural wisdom; planting tips for outdoor, indoor, and container gardeners; and soothing rituals such as journaling and meditations. 

With beautiful botanical illustrations, MOON GARDEN encourages readers to approach gardening as a grounding, spiritual practice.

Jarema grew up in New York's Hudson Valley, the daughter of an avid gardener. Throughout Jarema's life, visiting family in Hong Kong and Arizona sparked Jarema's love affair with tropical plants, the desert landscape, and unusual cactuses. What started out as a hobby and a "fresh start" after a bad break-up, Jarema began growing plants and sold them in vintage pots in her neighbourhood. She earned her BA in East Asian studies and fine art from Oberlin College and worked as an artist assistant in New York and Los

Angeles, where she struggled to find her own form of expression. It was a pivotal moment when she realised that plants were the medium she had been searching for. After developing a strong customer base and advising plant owners, she decided to pour all her energy and passion into starting her own business. 

Jarema's design studio, Dirt Queen NYC, works closely with clients to create verdant gardens that offer meaningful and ecologically sustainable connections to the natural world. Jarema's work has been featured in Architectural Digest, T Magazine, Elle Decor, Apartment Therapy, and others.

Jarema currently resides in Brooklyn, New York with her partner Adam, and their pup, Esme. A day in the life includes a trip to the local farmers market, walks in the park with her dog, qi gong and evening journaling. Always watering, pruning or propagating in her garden, Jarema also loves to travel and immerse herself in other cultures, landscapes, botanical gardens, art and architecture. 

Links

Moon Garden:A Guide to Creating an Evening Oasis

Jarema on Instagram @dirtqueennyc

Other episodes if you liked this one:

Botanical Styling

Houseplant Legends

Patreon

This episode I'm speaking with Kevin Hobbs & Artur Cesar-Erlach, authors of EDIBLE: 70 Sustainable Plants That Are Changing How We Eat which is a beautifully illustrated book looking at edible plants from around the world that are revolutionising how we grow, eat and appreciate food. It tackles important questions like what do we eat when our usual diets are no longer sustainable, how do we future proof food and how can we be more mindful about what we eat and considers what the future of global food production might look like.

Dr Ian Bedford's Bug of the Week: Harvestmen

What We Talk About 

The idea behind the book 

Traditional staple crops

Hopniss

Great Burdock

Cornelian cherry

Ebbing's Silverberry

Sea buckthorn

Kevin & Artur's vote for the most under-utilised crop

About the authors

Kevin Hobbs is a UK-based professional grower and plantsman with over thirty years' experience in the horticulture industry. He is the author of The Story of Trees and Herbaceous Perennials, Hillier's Gardener's Guide.

Artur Cisar-Erlach is an ecologist and food expert based in Vienna, whose work spans the fields of food and ecotourism. He is the author of The Flavor of Wood.

Katie Kulla is an illustrator, writer and farmer based in Oregon in the United States.

Links

Edible: 70 Sustainable Plants That Are Changing How We Eathttps://www.summerfieldbooks.com/product/edible-70-sustainable-plants-that-are-changing-how-we-eat/

Lucinda Weldon Coaching

Other episodes if you liked this one:

Wild Food Tasting Session

Edimentals with Stephen Barstow

Patreon

This episode, my guest is Susan Poizner. Susan is the author of the award-winning fruit tree care book Growing Urban Orchards and her new book, which is now an Amazon Number One Bestseller, Grow Fruit Trees Fast. Susan trains thousands of new growers worldwide through her award-winning fruit tree care training program and is the host of The Urban Forestry Radio Show and Podcast and an ISA Certified Arborist. She founded the Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard in Toronto in 2009, helps others establish and maintain community orchards and food forests in Toronto and beyond and has won multiple awards for her work.

Dr Ian Bedford's Bug of the Week: Ivy Mining Bees

What We Talk About 

Selecting trees for disease resistance and planning for a staggered harvest if you grow multiple trees

Choosing a spot for your tree 

Tree roots as the tree matures

Feeding your fruit trees

Mulching

Success in a community orchard 

Summer and winter pruning 

About Susan Poizner

Susan is the author of the award-winning fruit tree care book Growing Urban Orchards and her second book Grow Fruit Trees Fast. Susan trains thousands of new growers worldwide through her award-winning fruit tree care training program and is the host of The Urban Forestry Radio Show and Podcast and an ISA Certified Arborist. She founded the Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard in Toronto in 2009, helps others establish and maintain community orchards and food forests in Toronto and beyond and has won multiple awards for her work.

Links

Growing Urban Orchards

Grow Fruit Trees Fast

The Urban Forestry Radio Show

Great Dixter Charitable Trust

Other episodes if you liked this one:

Plan, Plant & Maintain Fruit Trees

Apples

Patreon

This episode, my guest is qualified herbalist Meghan Rhodes. Meghan discusses how we can tap into our gardens for better health, why herbs are good for dealing with conditions that are manifestations of multiple problems, such as stomach issues, the 7 keys tastes you find in herbs and how you can get started on your own journey using herbs for wellbeing.

Dr Ian Bedford's Bug of the Week: Spanish Slug Story

What We Talk About 

How herbalism adds another layer of wellbeing to gardening

Why taste is baked into our biologies, even if you're brand new to working with plants and herbs

How to recalibrate your palette to be able to detect the 7 key tastes of herbs

How understanding tastes helps you make the most of foraged and homegrown herbs

About Meghan Rhodes

Meghan Rhodes is a qualified herbalist who has helped over 80 people start living herbalism, making healthier, safer solutions for themselves and their families a reality. As the founder of Rhodes Roots & Remedies, she has written 10 course books, authored the books Easy Herbal Remedies for Infants and Slow-Infused Self-Care, as well as developed a unique four season sense-based herbalism course and journey, Awaken Herbal Wisdom.

Meghan's practice of herbalism is rooted in the belief that we must remember, reclaim and relearn our knowledge of our bodies, our autonomy and how to work with plant medicine in order to bring control of our own health back into our families and homes for a sustainable future for ourselves and the planet.

Meghan is a member of both the College of Practitioners of Phytotherapy and the Ayurvedic Professionals Association.

Links

• Get on the waiting list for Meghan's intensive herbalism course - Awaken Herbal Wisdom - enrolling annually - or DM Meghan the word ACCESS for the link.  
• Exclusive access to exploring one of the seven tastes 
• Instagram - @rhodesrootsandremedies

GreenBlue Urban

Other episodes if you liked this one:

Sensory Herbalism

The Herb Society

Patreon

Hello and welcome to Roots and All, where my guest this week is urban apiculturist Mark Patterson. Mark founded and runs Apicultural where he work with businesses and communities to invest in natural capital, improving the environment for pollinators and delivering pollinator monitoring surveys for clients. He provides honey bee hive management solutions, beekeeping training and education and also supplies quality urban honey to a select group of establishments. So you'd think Mark would be all for the idea of urban honeybees, right? Listen on…

Dr Ian Bedford's Bug of the Week: Ear Wigglers

What We Talk About 

How many hives are there in London, does anybody have an estimate? Is it a sustainable number? Where are they foraging for floral resources? Are there enough of these?

Are urban conditions more taxing for bees? Do environmental stressors lead to higher incidences of disease, for example? 

Do managed bees outcompete wild bees when it comes to consuming pollen and nectar? 

Are managed bees necessary? Useful? Desirable? Filling a niche left by potentially dwindling numbers of wild bees? A useful pollination and food source for humans? 

Why are commercial beekeeping companies trying to muscle in on the beekeeping tradition in London?

Do honeybees count as an 'environmental credit' in terms of planning and building? 

About Mark Patterson

After completing a National Diploma in Agriculture, Land use and recreation which included a practical Horticultural course Mark went on to study for an Honours Degree in Countryside Management and Ornithology at Kingston Upon Hull University - an ecology based course of study. It was during this time at University that Mark was introduced to bee keeping by a fellow student. 

As senior Consultant Mark has amassed over 26 years of experience in the fields of nature conservation and ecology. His past professional positions include marine biologist/ranger on the Farne islands national nature reserve, Countryside Ranger for a local Authority, Nature reserve manager for Durham Wildlife services, Worked on a bird of prey Reintroduction program with the RSPB , Freelance consultancy and 11 years as a project and program manager for a national Environmental regeneration Charity, Groundwork.

Having assisted others with their beekeeping for several years Mark began bee keeping on his own in 2010 having attended an introduction course and a seasons mentoring. Since then he has volunteered extensively for Bee keeping associations, serving as elected committee official and Trustee to the LBKA, taught courses and organised forage planting activities for the bee keeping community he serves. Mark spent 3 years working for DEFRA as a seasonal Bee Inspector and currently cares for around 30 colonies of honey bees,10 of which are his own.

Mark currently posses the BBKA Bee basic certificate, BBKA Honey bee management certificate, several of the BBKA modular exam certificates and the General Husbandry certificate. Mark has extensive training and experience in notifiable bee diseases diagnosis and management. 

As well as Honey Bees Mark is also highly knowledgeable about Solitary bees and Bumblebees and teaches Bee identification courses for the Field Studies Council as part of the nationwide BioLinks program.

Links

www.apicultural.co.uk 

Mark Patterson on LinkedIn 

www.howgreennursery.co.uk

Other episodes if you liked this one:

The Garden Jungle with Professor Dave Goulson

Pollinators with Professor Jeff Ollerton

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