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Talking Gardens

If you could create your dream garden from pieces of all of your favourite places, and if you could grow any plants in the world, what would you choose? Who would you have as your imaginary head gardener, or garden designer? In Talking Gardens, the podcast from the team behind Gardens Illustrated, host Stephanie Mahon asks the great and the good of the gardening world to construct their ultimate fantasy growing space. Tune in to hear what Great Dixter’s head gardener Fergus Garrett, world-renowned garden designer Tom Stuart-Smith and garden writer Alice Vincent choose for their dream gardens. Discover why head gardener Troy Scott-Smith is no longer watering the borders at Sissinghurst; why herb expert Jekka McVicar loves a moon gate; and how gardening saved the life of Charlie Harpur, head gardener at Knepp Castle Walled Garden. We also learn what ethnobotanist James Wong’s imaginary Eden would look like, and what garden designer Sarah Price would never allow in her garden. Follow now so you never miss an episode.

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  • Episodes



Harry Holding
00:36:33 2023-05-19
Harry Holding is creating his first-ever show garden at Chelsea this year for School Food Matters in the All About Plants category, and chats to us about how his design is both beautiful and edible, and should encourage children to take an interest in whe...
Chris Beardshaw
00:48:00 2023-05-18
Designer Chris Beardshaw talks about his show garden for Myeloma UK at the 2023 Chelsea Flower Show, which comprises a formal English border and a curated woodland garden of eternal spring with two temples. He reveals some shocking truths about his first-...
Tom Massey
00:39:26 2023-05-17
Designer Tom Massey talks about his 2023 Chelsea show garden for the Royal Entomological Society, which he hopes will show how important people and their gardens are to insects. Tom discusses the design, which will include an outdoor laboratory with curvi...
Charlotte Harris
00:34:58 2023-05-16
Designer Charlotte Harris talks about the garden she and Hugo Bugg are creating at the 2023 RHS Chelsea Flower Show for Horatio’s Garden, the charity that makes gardens at NHS spinal injury centres. It will be the first main avenue show garden to focus ...
Cleve West
00:38:23 2023-05-15
In this episode of the Talking Gardens podcast, Cleve West talks about his design for the Centrepoint Garden at the 2023 RHS Chelsea Flower Show, which will feature a fallen tree and the remains of a demolished house, representing the idea of homelessness...
Sarah Price
00:34:28 2023-05-08
In the final episode of the series, award-winning garden designer and Gardens Illustrated contributing editor Sarah Price constructs her fantasy garden. From the biodiversity of the alpine meadows in northern Spain to the Heem Parks of the Netherlands, Sa...
Charlie Harpur
00:27:47 2023-05-01
In this episode, Charlie Harpur, head gardener of Knepp Castle’s newly rewilded Walled Garden in Sussex, constructs his dream garden. Choosing the nostalgia and sense of exploration from the gardens of his childhood to the feeling of adventure that he f...
Jekka McVicar
00:42:07 2023-04-24
In this episode, renowned nurserywoman and herb grower Jekka McVicar constructs her fantasy garden. She talks about bucking the trend by adopting organic and peat-free early on, and the challenges of growing plants for the Chelsea Flower Show. Jekka expla...
Troy Scott Smith
00:35:05 2023-04-17
In this episode, head gardener Troy Scott Smith talks about his ultimate imaginary garden, drawing inspiration from some of the places he has worked, including Iford Manor Gardens in Wiltshire and Bodnant in North Wales. He chats about the legacy of Sissi...
James Wong
00:42:37 2023-04-10
In this episode, ethnobotanist and self-confessed plant geek James Wong talks us through the immersive, green, tropical garden of his dreams, featuring a James Bond-esque glasshouse/living room with a retractable roof. He discusses watching Gardeners’ W...
Tom Stuart-Smith
00:46:08 2023-04-03
In this episode, Stephanie speaks to world-renowned landscape designer Tom Stuart-Smith, who has created numerous famous gardens and landscape projects, including RHS Garden Bridgewater near Manchester. They talk about his new Plant Library at the Serge H...
Alice Vincent
00:37:46 2023-03-27
Writer and Gardens Illustrated columnist Alice Vincent, author of new book and podcast Why Women Grow, talks to Stephanie about her dream garden, from her fantasy writing studio inspired by Derek Jarman’s Prospect Cottage to a mossy path, naturalistic p...
Fergus Garrett
00:39:57 2023-03-21
In this episode, head gardener Fergus Garrett talks about his fantasy garden, from the borders of Great Dixter, where he has worked since 1992, and the spirit of its creator Christopher Lloyd, to the wild landscapes of Turkey. Fergus picks interesting peo...
Welcome to Talking Gardens
00:03:53 2023-02-24
If you could create your dream garden from pieces of all of your favourite places, and if you could grow any plants in the world, what would you choose? Who would you have as your imaginary head gardener, or garden designer?  In Talking Gardens, the new ...