Treacle and Twinning

And suddenly we are at the last episode of series 3 and I want to thank all the people who have shared their plant stories with me. I have learned so much and so enjoyed meeting them all. Plants really do link us to people and places. If you haven’t caught all of them, then maybe these winter months (if you are in the Northern hemisphere!) are a chance to catch up - here are all the episodes.

And so to this one…

Photos taken in 2024 of Kate and Simon - today and tomorrow’s highlines.

Thanks to Kate Picker and Simon Pitkeathley for sharing with me the progress over the past 12 months of their respective projects. You can find the original episodes here, just click on the links; Kate works on the Castlefield viaduct in Manchester and Simon is working on the proposed highline in London. You will hear the word ‘treacle’ quite a few times in their 2025 conversation and hence the naming of this episode! I so admire that people like Kate who works for the National Trust and Simon and his team and trustees, keeping working through the complexities of putting people and gardens up alongside trams and trains. These gardens in the sky are very special places where we can escape the cars and buses and the crowded pavements to get a new perspective on our urban environments.

If you are inspired to support either of these projects and that can be financially or by just spreading the word, then here are links to their websites:

Castlefield Viaduct and Camden Highline.

Then to the other part of this title - twinning. I have written before about the serendipity that has accompanied this podcast journey since the very beginning and it has happened again. I came across the website of Claire the Garden Editor who also happens to be a listener. I noticed that she had ‘twinned’ her garden. I was intrigued, our loo has been twinned but never the garden.

A little bit of research and I came across the charity responsible which is called: Ripple Effect. As soon as I found their website, I read that they were formerly called Send a Cow. I was immediately transported back to my days as the BBC’s Radio 4 Appeals producer. I had made several appeals for them, over the years I did that job and I always thought their idea was so clever. They were one of the first, if not the first, to offer a ‘virtual catalogue’ where you could give a donation to send a cow and a variety of other useful things to rural farmers in Africa. And this is a brilliant idea because it also allows the charity to discern where in Rural Africa that cow is most needed, unlike very restrictive funds which can tie you to one country.

They now twin gardens and I thought to those of us who are lucky enough to have a garden, or spend time in a community garden this is a great idea. £60 from an individual will support a rural farmer to get training in sustainable organic farming for 3 years. £120 from a community garden will support two rural farmers to get training for 3 years. And the wonderful thing is that once someone is trained they share their knowledge with their neighbours, their community and that is the Ripple Effect.

So do have a listen, you’ll hear from Lucy, what this means to a family. And Claire the Garden Editor explains why she twinned her garden. And Anne from the charity, lit up, remembering her trip to visit some of the projects.

For me it is wonderful to have found a way to incorporate my love of audio and plants with telling the story of a charity which was my job for many years at the BBC.

And finally thank you for listening to Our Plant Stories for the past 3 years. I will be back with series 4 in February 2026. Also THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who has supported me by buying a virtual coffee or joining Plant Plugs with regular coffees.