A Labour of Love

Ann Treneman’s ‘Pick of the gardening podcasts’ in The Times newspaper came out last Friday - just after I had sent you the weekly blog post. What a lovely surprise just before Christmas.

I was alerted to Friday’s piece in the online version of The Times by the writer and garden historian Catherine Horwood. This was rather beautiful because the first person to whom I played clips of audio recorded on my phone, for a potential podcast, was Catherine. (We’d met planting bulbs in Regents Park - but that’s another story!)

The review in The Times read:

“Innovative and fascinating - a deep dive into the stories about all things plant-related. This podcast, which has just finished its third series, is a labour of love for Sally Flatman, who previously worked as a radio producer for 34 years. She gets out and about, doing in-depth interviews on a spectrum of topics. Examples include the life of a daffodil, the tale of Napoleon’s bald cypress and propagating at Kew. I particularly enjoyed the one about the yucca that Fay Ballard brought her father, the novelist JG Ballard, in 1976.”

The article in the newspaper came out on Saturday 20th December. I felt that Ann Treneman had hit the nail on the head when she said this was “a labour of love”. What a privilege it is to be able to labour at such a project. But you can’t do a podcast without listeners so thank you too - all of you who have listened and shared it with fellow gardeners.

I hope you have received some gardening books for Christmas. I have been given Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. The front cover says: Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teaching of plants. It’s a book I have seen referenced on several occasions and I am excited to read it.

I also gave, as a gift, Jason Ingram’s book ‘How to Photograph Gardens’ - so do watch this space over the next 12 months. We may see some photographs, perhaps on these blogposts, taken by the recipient of this gift.

The lead up to Christmas is always so busy, things to do, people to see, places to go - the lists can get quite long. What I always forget is this rather lovely period between now and New Year. Hopefully you too will have some time off, just to relax, read the books you have been given, think about the garden next year, make plans.

Enjoy your weekend

Sally

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In The Garden Mood