Gardening with the RHS

This week we meet renowned lavender expert Simon Charlesworth of Downderry Nurseries, who grows hundreds of varieties of this fragrant favourite. Discover which is the most scented type of all and hear his choice of the easiest ones to grow. Matthew Biggs, author of The Great British Village Show, offers tips on how to grow prizewinning veg; and Guy Barter prepares for a bean feast on his allotment as he shares a cunning tip for abundant autumn harvests.

Useful links

• The Great British Village Show, by Thane Price & Matthew Biggs
• Grow Your Own - RHS veg growing advice
• Lavenders - RHS advice on choosing and cultivating

A gardening wonderland returns to southwest London with the world's biggest annual flower show. Join us on a tour of the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival – bursting with glorious gardens, petite yet productive allotments, fragrant roses and thought-provoking design ideas.

• RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival
• Buy your tickets
• Discover the show gardens
• Fundraising appeal for rebuilding Ukraine's green spaces

It's a creature that has been crawling around the earth's surface since the time of the dinosaurs. There are estimated to be more than a million of them for every human on earth. But what do they actually do? Dr Andy Salisbury, Principal RHS Entomologist delves into the fascinating world of ants and their effect on our gardens. Meanwhile in Hackney, Clair Battaglino welcomes us to Rainbow Grow, an LGBTQ+ community gardening project that brings multiple generations together. Plus professional wildlife gardener and fellow podcaster Ellie Mitchell from The Wildlife Garden Podcast offers tips on how to welcome invertebrates great and small to your plot.

Useful links

• Hilltop Live - scroll to find wildlife talks at RHS Garden Wisley
• Rainbow Grow
• The Wildlife Garden Podcast
• RHS wildlife gardening hub

What have wasps ever done for us? The answer might surprise you, as we meet entomologist Dr Seirian Sumner, author of Endless Forms: The Secret World of Wasps. Food and garden writer Rekha Mistry offers advice on growing turmeric and ginger at home, while RHS Garden Hyde Hall's very own veg growing guru Matthew Oliver gives tips on growing chilli peppers.

Useful links

• Endless Forms: The Secret World of Wasps by Seirian Sumner
• Rekha's Garden & Kitchen
• RHS Garden Hyde Hall
• Fruit and veg growing advice from the RHS

As summer hits its stride we head into the orchards at RHS Garden Wisley to meet Sheila Das and Liz Mooney. They explain how the garden is greening up its act, bringing wildlife and wildflowers into the heart of the productive growing spaces. Then we head to Alresford in Hampshire, to meet watercress grower Tom Amery who shares the secrets of growing this uniquely healthy British favourite. Plus author Sandra Lawrence tells the tale of an unsung hero of horticulture, the mysterious Miss Willmott – a gun-carrying Edwardian plant collector with a complex personal life.

Useful links

• Visit RHS Garden Wisley
• Grow your own fruit and veg
• The Watercress Company
• Miss Willmott's Ghosts: The extraordinary life and gardens of a forgotten genius by Sandra Lawrence

This week we visit the World Food Garden at RHS Wisley to see how new eco-friendly ways of growing are taking shape. Guy Barter gives his expert guide to brassica growing for bumper crops of Brussels sprouts, kale and kalettes next winter. Plus a fond farewell to Sue Biggs CBE, who's been Director General of the RHS for the last 12 years – hear her reminisce about some personal highlights and a close encounter of the royal kind...

Useful links

• Discover the World Food Garden at RHS Garden Wisley
• See our RHS Grow Your Own for advice on growing all kinds of fruit and veg
• Join the RHS for fabulous days out, free gardening advice and more

Are plants passive green things, just waiting for the next passing mouth to munch on them? Or do they sometimes fight back? This week's programme is devoted to the botanical poisoners, the tricksters and the carnivores that turn the tables and seek revenge on the animal kingdom. Featuring Amy Stewart, author of Wicked Plants – The A-Z of Plants That Kill, Maim, Intoxicate and Otherwise Offend; RHS Editor and flytrap fan Gareth Richards; and Dr Chris Thorogood, Deputy Director of Oxford Botanic Garden.

Useful links: ►Wicked Plants [book] ►RHS advice on potentially harmful plants ►Learn more about carnivorous plants ►Oxford Botanic Garden & Arboretum 

The greatest flower show on earth is back in its traditional time and place at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea, in spring. And what a show! Join us as we meet the designers of the Gold medal-winning 'A Rewilding Britain Landscape' garden to explore their portrayal of how the return of a long-lost species, the beaver, can transform landscapes and ecology. BBC Gardeners' World presenter Joe Swift gives a tour of his bee-friendly garden and we meet 'Cloud Gardener' Jason Williams and fellow balcony gardener Bea Tann.

Useful links:

• RHS Chelsea Flower Show
• Meet the designers: A Rewilding Britain Landscape
• RHS Plant of the Year 2022
• The Cloud Gardener, Jason Williams
• The Enchanted Rain Garden by Bea Tann

Did you know that bumblebees have a 75% higher metabolic rate than hummingbirds? These furry insects need a lot of energy! And your neighbourhood could help fuel our native bumblebees to fly 1 million miles. The secret is plants. We speak to RHS wildlife expert Helen Bostock and the pollinator team at RHS Science who have designed three planters that will give bees, and people, a real boost. Podcast hosts Guy Barter and Gareth Richards discuss companion planting, and Lucy Bellamy shares some simple yet fabulous planting combinations from her latest book, Grow 5.

Useful links

Find out more about the RHS bumblebee planters

RHS wildlife gardening hub

Grow your own fruit and veg

Grow 5 by Lucy Bellamy

This week we're heading out into the darkness to meet some surprising garden friends – bats. These furry night fliers are surprising garden helpers, hoovering up all kinds of mosquitos and midges that might otherwise be biting us instead. Shirley Thompson MBE has been at the forefront of UK bat conservation for almost 40 years and she offers advice to gardeners on how we can all play our part in helping keep bat numbers strong.

Did you know that some cacti grow on trees and bloom at night? Meet the spectacular moonflower, Selenicereus wittii, an epiphytic cactus from the Amazonian rainforest. Sally Petitt of Cambridge University Botanic Garden tells the tale of how it bloomed in Britain last year, for the first time ever. Plus expert veg grower Matthew Oliver from RHS Garden Hyde Hall gives some brilliant tomato-growing tips, particularly for the tricky-but-tasty beefsteak varieties.

Useful links

RHS advice on bats in your garden

Stars of the Night (Wild About Gardens pdf all about UK bats)

Secrets of the Moonflower (Cambridge University Botanic Garden)

RHS advice on how to grow tomatoes

Visit RHS Garden Hyde Hall

This week we meet Michael Marriott, one of the UK’s foremost rosarians. Michael shares his expertise from a lifetime of rose growing, which is distilled into his new book, RHS Roses: An Inspirational Guide to Choosing and Growing the Best Roses. Plus troubleshooting tips on rose growing from the RHS Gardening Advice team.

Matthew Oliver, horticulturist and veg grower extraordinaire continues our greenhouse growing mini-series with a piece from the beautiful glasshouse at the heart of RHS Garden Hyde Hall. Hear seasonal GYO advice and first-hand hints on how to grow melons with exceptional flavour.

Useful links: ►RHS Roses: An Inspirational Guide to Choosing and Growing the Best Roses ►RHS advice on how to grow roses ►Global Growth Vegetable Garden ►How to grow melons

Join us as we celebrate 200 years of spreading gardening knowledge with RHS educational programmes. Whether you want to travel the world on botanical adventures for a Master of Horticulture qualification, or for your children to learn how to plant seeds, we are there for you. An RHS course can open the door to a fantastic career in gardening, and we hear from students past and present who share their stories.

Study & learn with the RHS

Out of more than 200 gardens nationwide, only one can take the coveted crown of RHS Partner Garden of the Year. The 2021 winner has just been announced as Larch Cottage Nurseries in Cumbria's Eden Valley – we meet owner Peter Stott to find out the story behind his piece of horticultural heaven. Back at RHS Garden Wisley, horticultural advisors James Lawrence, Nikki Barker and Julie Henderson get together to answer queries on compost-making, wildflower growing and how to get year-round fragrance in your garden. Plus we talk to Sui Searle, curator of the alternative gardening newsletter Radicle, to hear about her journey into gardening and the changes she hopes to inspire within the horticultural world.

Useful links

• RHS Partner Garden of the Year
• Larch Cottage Nurseries
• How to make compost
• Radicle newsletter
• Join the RHS for free access to RHS Partner Gardens at selected times

Scented shrubs mentioned

• Winter honeysuckles (Lonicera fragrantissima and Lonicera x purpusii)
• Osmanthus x burkwoodii and Osmanthus heterophyllus
• Elaeagnus x ebbingei
• Daphnes

Today we're taking a trip back in time with Dr Chris Thorogood, Head of Science at Oxford Botanic Garden. Enter long-forgotten worlds of the weird and wonderful plants which flourished before, during and after the age of dinosaurs, and discover their descendants that still flourish today. Ferns are among these 'living fossils', and RHS Gardening Advisor James Lawrence shares some favourite varieties to grow in the garden* in discussion with colleagues Nikki Barker and Julie Henderson.

Plus, an alternative look at ancient plants with Sarah Gerrard-Jones, aka The Plant Rescuer. She's built a huge online following charting her journey into rescuing abandoned plants and championing houseplant heirlooms passed down through generations.

Useful links:  ►RHS info on ferns  ►RHS info on houseplants ►When Plants Took Over the Planet: The Amazing Story of Plant Evolution by Chris Thorogood ►The Plant Rescuer – The Book Your Houseplants Want You To Read by Sarah Gerrard-Jones

Contributors: Chris Thorogood, Sarah Gerrard-Jones

In the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower disaster Tayshan Hayden-Smith brought a traumatised community together through gardening. In almost exactly 5 years his gardening journey has taken him from neglected London street-side spaces to a garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. It's a tale of resilience, resourcefulness and horticultural heroism – and homage to the bravery of 1970s activists whose legacy lives on today. 

There's bravery in admitting your mistakes too, as BBC Gardeners' World presenter Adam Frost shows as he shares one of his gardening fails. Plus, RHS advisors gather to answer queries on daffodils that won't flower, growing lawns in shady spots and veg growing in raised beds.

Useful links: ►'Hands Off Mangrove' garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show ►Grow2Know CIC ►Search RHS advice online ►Join the RHS for free, personalised gardening advice ►Houseplant care ►Lawns in shade ►Grow your own fruit and veg

To celebrate the publication of his new book, The Creative Gardener, Adam Frost joins us this week to share some of his favourite creative outdoor projects. From simple yet stylish benches to a planted coffee table, there's a host of wonderful features you can make with very little cash. 

Meanwhile at RHS Garden Harlow Carr, horticulturist Aimee-Beth Browning explains how having wet or boggy ground can open up a whole world of planting possibilities. Plus a look at how to up your gardening game with a greenhouse and Guy Barter shares his timely tips for vegetable growing.

Useful links: ►The Creative Gardener by Adam Frost ►Explore RHS gardening design inspiration ►Streamside, RHS Garden Harlow Carr ►Plants for bog gardens ►Further information about bog and aquatic plants ►Choosing a greenhouse ►RHS Grow Your Own

Selected plants mentioned: ►Harlow Car primulas [note spelling] ►Rodgersia ►hostas ►astilbes ►Iris ensata ►RHS Find a plant

Welcome to the contrary and fascinating world of one of the biggest plant families on Earth. 'Orchids are plants of great contradiction but always astonishing beauty' - says James Armitage, botanist and Editor of The Orchid Review magazine, who shares insight into what draws people to these strange and wonderful plants. 

Historian Abra Lee tells the tale of a young enslaved man in Reunion who solved the riddle of how to pollinate vanilla - the only orchid out of 25,000-plus species that's commercially grown as a food crop. Did you know you can grow orchids as garden plants? Jeff Hutchings of Laneside Hardy Orchids gives tips on how to grow them outdoors - why not make an orchid meadow in your garden this year?

Colin Newlands tells the tortuous tale of our rarest native orchid, the lady's slipper orchid (Cypripedium calceolus). Thought extinct in the early 20th century: a chance encounter in the 1930s on an isolated hillside led to decades of botanical intrigue - and even personal protection for the plant. We discover how this exquisite wildflower is faring almost a century after its assumed disappearance.

Useful links

• The Orchid Review
• Tips for growing orchids indoors 
• RHS Orchids (book) 
• Laneside Hardy Orchids 
• Orchid Show at RHS Garden Wisley 
• The Wildlife Trusts 
• BSBI maps (Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland) (for discovering your local native orchid species)

Selected plants mentioned

Hardy orchids: Bletilla, Calanthe, Dactylorhiza, Cypripedium, Pleione

Indoor orchids: Phalaenopsis (moth orchids), Cattleya

Our Chief Horticulturist Guy Barter wanders into Hampton Court Palace's historic yew maze to meet Gardens Manager Graham Dillamore. Once haunt of kings and queens, this 300 year old spread of tortuous topiary now welcomes thousands of visitors and contains valuable lessons for modern-day gardeners too. Guy offers hedge planting and maintenance advice before handing over to Dr Stephanie Bird who shares the latest thinking on box tree moth, a recent arrival to Britain that can devastate plantings of box (Buxus sempervirens).

Did you know that hedges have some powerful environmental benefits? Recent RHS research shows they can reduce pollution levels, help prevent flooding and even provide habitat for wildlife and food for pollinators. RHS scientist Dr Mark Gush explains more, and shares details of the best plants to use.

Useful links

• Hampton Court Palace maze
• Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival
• RHS advice on growing and maintaining hedges
• Box tree moth (includes info on planting alternatives to box)
• Hedges with environmental benefits

Plants mentioned

(to find suppliers please visit RHS Find a Plant or the RHS online plant shop)

Yew (Taxus baccata), western red cedar (Thuja plicata), hawthorn (Crataegus) and cotoneaster (Cotoneaster franchetii and others), beech (Fagus sylvatica), pyracantha, Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii), cherry laurel (Prunus laurocerasus), holly (Ilex aquifolium), hornbeam (Carpinus betulus)

This week’s programme is all about being kinder to the earth and the creatures we share it with. Guy Barter meets the founder of Riverford Organic Farmers, Guy Singh-Watson, to discover how he turned a family dairy farm into a byword for sustainable food. Dave Goulson, author of Silent Earth – Averting the Insect Apocalypse shares his thoughts on how gardeners can be more active in the fight to save our bees, butterflies and all manner of threatened insects. Plus RHS Gardening Advisor Nikki Barker offers advice to gardeners who grow on sandy soil.

Plant names and their pronunciation can be a vexed business. If you’re overwhelmed by long Latin plant names, take heart: botanist and author James Wong comes to the rescue and explains why the botanical names matter and how a little knowledge of them can give us clues as to how plants look and perform.  He explains that since Latin is a dead language, there’s no-one around to correct your pronunciation – so just go ahead and have a go!

When familiar plant names are changed, it can be a source of annoyance for us gardeners. But James Armitage, Editor of The Plant Review, explains there is method behind the apparent madness of this; plus, after the storms, what you need to check in your garden this weekend.

Useful links

The Plant Review

Promoting garden plant diversity (RHS website)

Meet the RHS horticultural taxonomy team

Swifts... their screaming calls are the sound of summer, yet these aerial acrobats are in trouble. Their UK population has declined by almost 60% over the last two decades. This week we meet John Stimpson, the man on a mission to reverse the decline of this much-loved bird. Does garden size matter when it comes to providing food for pollinating insects such as bees and butterflies? New research from the RHS along with the Universities of Bristol, Cardiff and Northumbria shows that even tiny gardens have a valuable role to play – but it all depends on the planting. The paper also produced interesting findings on how certain types of plants and flower shapes were particularly useful to pollinators, as scientist Nick Tew explains. Plus RHS gardening advisor Nikki Barker shares tips on how to garden successfully on clay soil.

Useful links

RHS wildlife gardening hub

The man who built homes for 60,000 swifts (Guardian article)

University of Bristol press release (pollinator research)

RHS advice on gardening on clay soil

This week we visit Yorkshire to talk to allotmenteer and YouTuber Mothin Ali (MyFamilyGarden), to find out how he's preparing for the growing season ahead. Including tips on chillies, tomatoes and green manures (also known as cover crops). RHS Gardening Advisor Nikki Barker shares expert tips on how to garden on chalky soil. Gareth Richards has an ode to an 'allotment workhorse' – a fragrant shrub with abundant crops of healthy berries – the blackcurrant.

Useful links

RHS Grow Your Own pages

Mothin Ali - My Family Garden (YouTube)

Advice on green manures / cover crops

How to grow chillies and tomatoes

Gardening on chalk

How to grow blackcurrants

Wild gardening might be all the rage right now but it's not as new as you might think. In this programme we examine the legacy of pioneering Irish gardener and writer William Robinson. He shook up the horticultural world in the late 1800s, bringing in new approaches to planting that still resonate today. Plus, Guy Barter has a 'love letter' to snowdrops and we speak to Peter Moore, the British plant breeder behind some of the most successful plant introductions of the past few decades.

Useful links

• How to grow snowdrops
• William Robinson - The Wild Garden
• RHS Libraries
• Peter Moore
• How to grow buddleia
• How to grow choisyas

The number of people renting houses has doubled in the past 10 years. But how do you make a garden when you're faced with blank concrete paving or the prospect of having to move home in just a few months?

Luckily we have barrowloads of fantastic advice from Matthew Pottage, Curator of RHS Garden Wisley and long-term renter of a house in southwest London. His new book, 'How to Garden When You Rent' is published today.

Hear him discuss some of the tips and tricks he's learned from a decade turning a grey concrete yard into a lush urban jungle, all without lifting a single slab. Including advice on design, planting ...and dealing with landlords.

Plus we talk to garden designer Sara Edwards, who created an innovative container garden at last year's RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Using IBCs (intermediate bulk containers, widely used in industry and farming) she created miniature forests, ponds and naturalistic planting, to stunning effect. All without breaking into the ground below.

Useful links

RHS How to Garden When You Rent by Matthew Pottage

See Sarah Edwards' 2021 Chelsea garden, The IBC Pocket Forest

Get RHS advice and inspiration on container growing

From Sussex to South Carolina, this week we're exploring what happens when plants take over. What do you get if you mix poor quality farmland, a passion for wildlife and a biodiversity crisis? The answer is a pioneering rewilding project that has stunned ecologists and revolutionised ideas about nature conservation in Britain. We head to Knepp Estate in Sussex to meet Isabella Tree and find out more. 

Bill Finch is a naturalist who grew up in the Deep South of the USA. Here he witnessed a very different form of rewilding from an invasive plant, kudzu (Pueraria montana). It became infamous during the 20th century for swamping roadsides and blanketing everything in its path - becoming known as a scourge and 'the vine that ate the South'. But is it as much of a problem as people think?

And finally, podcast regulars Fiona Davison and Gareth Richards discuss the history of two very wild plants, ivy (Hedera helix) and Japanese knotweed (Reynoutria or Fallopia japonica).

More information

Knepp Wildland

Rewild your garden with tips from Springwatch 

RHS wildlife gardening hub

Learn more about ivy 

Ivy on houses

RHS ivy monograph

Japanese knotweed advice from the RHS 

This week's programme is dedicated to vegetable growing. You can grow veg almost anywhere - as New Yorker Kofi Thomas proves with his inspirational story of how he created The Good Life Garden from a former dumping ground in the heart of Brooklyn. It's a project that has improved the lives of thousands of Long Island residents and has distributed literally tons of fresh homegrown fruit and veg to people in need. Regular presenters Guy Barter and Verity Battyll of RHS Garden Wisley offer seasonal veg growing tips and share their successes and failures growing unusual crops in the UK climate. Plus Kamal Bell, CEO of Sankofa Farms in North Carolina tells us all about a crop that's close to his heart - okra. For more info please see rhs.org.uk/podcast or check out our show notes.

This week we're working with plants through time and across the world. Author and previous guest on the show Jonathan Drori explores more incredible plants from across the globe, including Tillandsia (Spanish moss) from the American Deep South. It's a mysterious relative of the pineapple plant that has almost no roots yet is woven into the history and culture of the southern states. Historian Fiona Davison tells the story of Thomas Fairchild, a London man who made the first ever intentional plant hybrid. Plus Anna Greenland presents the last of our grow-your-own beverages series with a look at elderflower.

Useful links: ► Find out more about tillandsias (also known as Spanish moss or airplant) ► Find suppliers of elder plants

Contributors: ► Fiona Davison, Head of RHS Libraries and Exhibitions ► Jonathan Drori, author of Around the World in 80 Plants ► Anna Greenland, author of Grow Easy

Happy New Year from the RHS podcast team! This week's programme is all about looking forward to a green and pleasant 2022. Wisley’s Guy Barter and Verity Battyll discuss their 5 winter must-have plants, while gardening advisor James Lawrence shares his top 5 seasonal jobs. Plus RHS editor and allotmenteer Gareth Richards offers advice on how to grow fruit and veg in a sustainable way. For links to more information please see our show notes or visit rhs.org.uk/podcast

What a year 2021 has been for gardening! We've had weird weather, an autumn Chelsea Flower Show, a peat ban, RHS Bridgewater opening... the list goes on. This week we're looking back to some of our podcast highlights, including delving into the tiny but terrifying world of parasitic wasps with RHS Wisley scientist Magdalena Boshoff who explains how these insects do an amazing job destroying garden pests. Zehra Zaidi tells the story of how she helped name a rose after a trailblazing black gardener - the first rose to be named after an ethnic minority Briton. Allotmenteer and YouTuber Mothin Ali (@MyFamilyGarden) shares tips on growing the perfect potato and RHS Chief Horticulturist Guy Barter gazes into his crystal ball and gives his predictions for gardening in 2022. Plus garden designers Ann-Marie Powell, Humaira Ikram and Lee Burkhill share their thoughts on what they'll be focusing on next year.

This week's programme is bursting with seasonal greenery. Award-winning writer and RHS blogger Graham Rice explains how to grow a Yuletide favourite and one of our most mysterious native plants – mistletoe. Then we hop 'over the pond' for the latest in our Hidden Horticulturists series to explore the life of one of the 20th century's greatest botanists: holly expert Dr Shiu-Ying Hu. Meanwhile back at RHS Garden Wisley, Verity Batyll describes her favourite plants to brighten up winter gardens, and Devon-based food writer Mark Diacono shares his personal recipe for a delicious homegrown lemon verbena cocktail. For links to more info please see our show notes or visit rhs.org.uk/podcast

When a successful lawyer suffered a debilitating stroke, it turned her life upside down. Meet Bhupinder Sohanpal as she explains how she rebuilt herself through gardening with the help of the Wisley Community Allotments programme. The Horticultural Therapy Trust is a charity which uses gardening to help support people facing long-term mental health issues and brain injuries: its Project Manager Deb Hoskin tells the stories of some of the people who've benefitted. Plus, organic food grower Anna Greenland shares a recipe for a traditional homegrown, home-made winter pick me up – fire cider. For links to more info please check out our programme page or visit rhs.org.uk/podcast

Cold winter nights are the perfect time to get reading, so this week’s podcast is a celebration of gardening books and garden writing. Writer and BAFTA award-winning TV producer Jonathan Drori takes us around the world in 80 plants while RHS authors Fiona Davison and Gareth Richards discuss their favourite books of the year. Plus a look at how gardening newsletters are bringing fresh ideas to the horticultural world. Books mentioned in this programme: Around the World in 80 Plants – Jonathan Drori Flower-Name Fancies – Guy-Pierre Fauconnet RHS Weeds – Gareth Richards The Hidden Horticulturists – Fiona Davison Vegetables: The Definitive Guide for Gardeners – Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix How to Garden the Low-Carbon Way – Sally Nex Spirit of Place – Susan Owens Tropical Plants and How to Love Them – Marianne Willburn For links to more info please see our episode page or visit rhs.org.uk/podcast

Did you know that there are 30 different species of worm in the UK? Or that fungi can actually help create habitats for wildlife? This week we're exploring the roles played these crucial but often overlooked garden residents. Back indoors we meet a hidden hero of horticulture - ‘likely the most prolific botanical explorer of the early 20th century’. Staff from RHS Garden Wisley and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh join forces to tell his story. For links please visit our show notes or rhs.org.uk/podcast

Learn how to grow winter veg staple (and superfood) kale with RHS expert Guy Barter, who recommends the best varieties and explains how to keep problems at bay. There's also great advice on when and how to protect tender plants from the winter cold, and chef Mark Diacono tells us how to make delicious and warming sloe gin from the fruit of the blackthorn bush.

Kuda Chimbudzi is a superstar gardener, growing healthy fruit and veg for the Premier League footballers at Tottenham Hotspur FC. Our resident gardening guru Guy Barter heads to north London to check out his award-winning kitchen garden at the club's grounds. Plus we meet Lucy Vincent of Food Behind Bars – a charity that's trying to improve the lives and diets of prisoners through growing food; and Greig Robertson from Edible Estates in Edinburgh, an organisation creating neighbourhood plots to bring fresh food to disadvantaged communities. **Useful links: ** - Read more about the kitchen garden at Tottenham Hotspur FC https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/health-and-wellbeing/real-life-stories/kuda-chimbudzi - The Garden magazine - https://www.rhs.org.uk/about-the-rhs/publications/the-garden - Food Behind Bars https://foodbehindbars.co.uk - Edible Estates http://www.edibleestates.co.uk - [RHS Flourish Fund](https://www.rhs.org.uk/education-learning/bursaries-grants/rhs-bursaries/flourish-fund)

From smuggled wealth hidden in the pockets of 17th-century refugees to imperial beheadings and long treks up freezing, desolate mountainsides... there's more to the humble tulip than you might think. And as the nights draw in, now is the perfect time to get planting these spring favourites. Garden designer Humaira Ikram shares her favourite varieties and ways of using them, and we head to Cambridge University Botanic Garden to discover a unique collection of species tulips and talk about their origins. Plus historian Fiona Davison tells the tale of how tulip mania shaped the history of Europe and gripped the Ottoman Empire to deadly effect.

You might think of gardening as an intrinsically green activity, but our verdant hedges and lush lawns can cause some very dirty habits. In an eye-opening interview, low-carbon gardening expert Sally Nex gives the lowdown on how ditching petrol power tools is important for the health of both gardeners and our planet. Plus we head to COP26 host city Glasgow to discover a pioneering urban seed library that helps create resilience in local food systems. And in Cornwall we meet artist Dr Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg who's created an inter-species installation using an algorithm to create gardens designed from the perspective of pollinating insects, rather than humans. For links to more information on today's topics please check out our show notes or visit rhs.org.uk/podcast