Podcasts and Plants

Plant world and podcast world side by side. On Tuesday I spent the day at RHS Chelsea, surrounded by gardens and planty people. On Wednesday I spent the day at the London podcast conference, surrounded by sound and audio people. At one point I found myself musing on what it would be like if you transposed the two very different groups into each others spaces?

podcasts and plants side by side

So my head is buzzing with very different ideas. I had a wonderful conversation in The Glasshouse garden by Jo Thompson. I chatted with one of the founders of The Glasshouse to hear about their social enterprise supporting women leaving prison with horticultural training, employment and resettlement. I met some inspiring independent women podcasters, talking about why they make their podcasts. Astrid Madimba told us how she makes ‘It’s a Continent’ because its the podcast she wishes she had had to listen to when she was growing up. I also loved her top tip, if someone sends you an encouraging comment, ‘file it’ for when its feeling a bit tough.

I met some passionate growers who have encyclopedic knowledge about their plants. The man who holds the National Collection of Cosmos is amazing and I am very excited by the packets of seeds I bought from him. Then there was the lovely woman at the podcast conference who confessed that she kills houseplants. I told her about the how to grow part of the podcast and she told me how to make video content - a fair swap I thought!

This month I had challenged myself to make an episode about the RHS Chelsea flower show and specifically Nigel Dunnett’s sand dune garden. The trip to Arbroath went well and I had recordings with the director of Hospitalfield and the teacher at the primary school which will receive the garden after the show. Then by a stroke of luck I got to record Nigel himself! I was volunteering at Chelsea on Saturday, in my high vis jacket, for Plant Heritage and taking a walk around the outside gardens and there was Nigel standing in his garden. It was too good a chance to miss and luckily he gave me some time. I loved that he felt he had been luckily enough to be introduced to gardens though his parents and that he had a duty to hand that on, so he’s excited that the garden is going to a primary school.

So if you are watching the wall to wall Chelsea coverage on the BBC, do take a listen to this week’s episode because it will explain how the garden and the bothy will be loaded onto lorries and driven 450 miles North to Ladyloan primary school after the show.

Rachel the teacher has promised to keep in touch as they build the sand dune garden in their playground and invited us back and see it when the children are using it. I think she is the most inspiring teacher.

So I am hoping a bit of cross fertilisation between plant world and podcast world this week will lead to exciting things. May has been the most successful month yet in terms of people downloading the podcast and hopefully with the top tips from planty and poddie people that growth can continue.

Have a lovely weekend

Sally

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