Gardens, weeds and words

S02 Episode 9: Practical, useful & pretty. With Katie Rushworth

A fascinating chat with fabulous organic grower Claire Ratinon about urban food growing in New York and London, the delectability of veg, and being a grower of colour.

The Skinnyjean Gardener Lee Connelly joins me to talk about his new book, How to Get Kids Gardening, and we ponder what's so special about those early formative memories of plants and gardens.

Plants or people – few things really enjoy the restrictions of being forced to conform. Journalist and author Alice Vincent joins me to discuss her second book, Rootbound. Rewilding a Life, and how nature helped to knit back together the unravelled strands of her life.

Garden writer and broadcaster Alys Fowler joins to me to discuss our relationship with nature through plants and gardens, how nature can heal us and how, as the calendar ticks over to a new decade, we need urgently to start paying it back.

Queen of Instagram Sara Tasker (aka @meandorla) joins me to discuss how her relationship with nature influences the work she creates in a virtual space.

In an episode about weeds, garden designer Jack Wallington joins me to talk to me about his approach to gardening as outlined in his new book, Wild about Weeds.

Terra Incognita used to be written on maps over areas of uncharted territory. Berlin based photographer Grant Simon Rogers talks to me about how well we know the ground under our feet.

Welcoming in autumn and talking about plants at work and in the home with Caro Langton, one half of botanical design and plant installation consultancy RoCo.

In an episode dedicated to newbie gardeners, I talk to writer and podcaster Lucy Lucraft about her experiences of being a new garden owner, the mysteries of weeding, gardening with a toddler and growing your own food as a vegan.

Considering the affirmation that comes from reading a passage written by one of your gardening heroes who agrees with you, until they go and spoil it by banging on about a flower you can’t stand! With a reading from Vita Sackville-West, a trail of the next full episode and, as ever, featuring the angry squirrel and startled pheasant.

In conversation with Jo Thompson about her BBC Springwatch garden at this year's RHS Hampton Court Flower Show, which demonstrates how neighbours can work together to encourage wildlife into their gardens.

The first weedling – a short episode, scattered among the more purposeful plantings. Thoughts on rain in June, the longest day, and writers using weeds.

Food in the garden – growing it, eating it. In discussion with garden designer Victoria Wade about how she likes to make it easy for her clients to cook outside. And chatting to Richard Chivers about growing your own food, and inspiration from the books of Nigel Slater.

What do you do when you realise you’ve been living with someone else’s garden? In discussion with landscape architect Marian Boswall, we discuss intention and purpose in garden design, the place of the landscape, and who the client really is.