What would you include in your dream garden? On this season of Talking Gardens, that’s what we asked all new gardening guests, from Alan Titchmarsh to Kate Humble, and Tayshan Hayden-Smith to Nigel Dunnett. Discover who would want a napping tree and a cup of tea that never goes cold; who Ann-Marie Powell has been Insta-stalking; why garden designer Andy Sturgeon would need an entire multiverse to create his dream garden; and how gardener Jimi Blake dodges bears while botanising. That’s the Talking Gardens podcast from Gardens Illustrated magazine, with new episodes dropping every Tuesday. Follow now to make sure you never miss an episode.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode, garden designer and TV presenter Arit Anderson creates her dream garden, choosing the wow factor of Dan Hinkley’s Wyndcliffe garden on the sea and a West Country sunset. Discover what she thinks about in-between planting, her cold and soggy childhood holidays in the Lake District, how she finds being on TV, and what she means by ‘shade-loving’ people. Tune in to find out why Arit would love a bluebell meadow and the reason she would never allow leaf blowers in her fantasy space, or in her own garden. 

Talking Gardens is created by the team at Gardens Illustrated magazine. Find lots more great garden inspiration and planting ideas, and subscribe, at www.gardensillustrated.com 

Enjoy this podcast? Tell a friend, make sure to leave a review or comment, and let us know who you would next like to hear talking about their dream garden. Follow now so you never miss an episode.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode, gardener and garden writer Tamsin Westhorpe talks about her dream garden, from the lived-in atmosphere of an old Arts and Crafts garden to the coastal landscape of The Durrells in Corfu. Find out about the horrible old jumper she keeps pristine in a plastic cover in her wardrobe because of who once complimented it, and why she would have to have an outdoor shower, pots of succulents and a daybed. We hear about Tamsin’s varied career, from art-school drop-out to parks keeper and interior landscaper, and why she thinks gardening is vital for mental health.

Talking Gardens is created by the team at Gardens Illustrated magazine. Find lots more great garden inspiration and planting ideas, and subscribe, at www.gardensillustrated.com 

Enjoy this podcast? Tell a friend, make sure to leave a review or comment, and let us know who you would next like to hear talking about their dream garden. Follow now so you never miss an episode. 

Show notes

Vann Garden

Great Dixter

Outdoor showers

Succulents

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode, designer and gardener Isabel Bannerman - whose projects include the private garden of King Charles at Highgrove, and Arundel Castle - describes what she would have to include in her dream garden, from a woodland stream setting and scented shrubs such as mock orange, to elm trees and rambling roses, a place to sit and a greenhouse. Discover why she thinks naturalistic planting looks like hard work, how she is no good at growing vegetables and where she would go in a time machine.

Talking Gardens is created by the team at Gardens Illustrated magazine. Find lots more great garden inspiration and ideas, including Isabel and husband Julian’s top garden books, and subscribe at www.gardensillustrated.com 

Enjoyed this episode? Tell a friend, make sure to leave a review or comment, and let us know who you would like to hear talking about their dream garden. Follow now so you never miss an episode. 

Show notes:

Ribes odoratum

Mock orange Philadelphus ‘Manteau d'Hermine’ 

Rosa ‘The Garland’

Gravetye Manor garden - William Robinson

Ninfa Gardens

Giverny, Monet’s garden

Louise Dowding’s Yews Tree Farm garden

Highgrove

Keder Greenhouse polytunnel 

Arundel Castle garden

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode, gardener and writer Arthur Parkinson describes his dream of a walled garden with orangery, and all manner of plants and birds. Hear about his fantasy lagoon filled with flamingos, his orchard meadow and why even in his dream space he would have to have practical elements such as a gate for plant and pot deliveries - but would never allow a windchime to pass the threshold. 

Enjoying this podcast? Tell a friend, make sure to leave a review or comment, and let us know who you would like to hear talking about their dream garden. Follow now so you never miss an episode. 

Talking Gardens is created by the team at Gardens Illustrated magazine. Find lots more great garden inspiration and planting ideas, and subscribe, at www.gardensillustrated.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode, world-renowned planting designer Piet Oudolf talks to Stephanie about the projects that have shaped his career and why he has never had time to dream . Discover why he enjoys creating gardens in the public realm more than private spaces, why he closed his nursery and garden and what he has planned for exciting upcoming projects, including the reimagining of his borders at RHS Garden Wisley. 

Talking Gardens is created by the team at Gardens Illustrated magazine. Find lots more great garden inspiration and planting ideas, and subscribe, at www.gardensillustrated.com 

Enjoyed this episode? Tell a friend, make sure to leave a review or comment, and let us know who you would next like to hear talking about their dream garden. Follow now so you never miss an episode. 

Show notes

Piet Oudolf at Work book 

Piet Oudolf and Henk Gerritsen’s book Planting the Natural Garden - read our review here.

Lurie Garden, Chicago

The High Line, New York City

RHS Wisley Glasshouse borders being replanted

Camden Highline, London

Future Plants

New plant selected by Cassian Schmidt and Piet at Hermannshof is Schizachyrium scoparium 'Ha Ha Tonka'

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode, Errol Reuben Fernandes, head of horticulture at the Horniman Museum & Gardens, chooses all the elements he would like in his fantasy garden, from the wonder of Trebah Garden in Cornwall and the sense of discovery exploring a wonderful wasteland near his childhood home, to a swimming pond with jetty and a giant sculpture by Richard Serra. Discover his top picks of shade-loving plants and tips on how to make a microforest, and find out which garden visitors would be banned from his dream space.

Talking Gardens is created by the team at Gardens Illustrated magazine. Find out more about Errol and the Horniman Museum Gardens, as well as more great garden inspiration and planting ideas at www.gardensillustrated.com

Enjoying this podcast? Tell a friend, make sure to like, leave a review or comment, and let us know who you would like to hear talking about their dream garden. You can also follow us so you never miss an episode.

Show notes

Trebah Garden, Cornwall

Brownfield gardens

Plant pick: Hydrangea aspera ‘Koki’ 

Artist Richard Serra

Photographer Juergen Teller 

Artist Joan Mitchell

Fulham Palace Garden

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Landscape designer Marian Boswall constructs her fantasy garden, the first important ingredient of which would be love. Find out why Marian wants to experience the garden from the perspective of a bug and a bird, as well as in slo-mo and fast-mo, and how being ‘invisible’ is helpful when out beaver spotting. Discover what the secret of quick composting is, how she learned to love yellow… and why she wants a pair of wolves in her dream garden.

Talking Gardens is created by the team at Gardens Illustrated magazine. Find lots more great garden inspiration and planting ideas, and subscribe, at www.gardensillustrated.com

Discover Marian Boswall’s top tips on creating a sustainable garden; see a beautiful low-maintenance garden she designed; and learn more about her favourite plants with medicinal qualities.

Enjoying this podcast? Why not tell a friend to listen too? Make sure to leave a review, or a comment to let us know who you would most like to hear talking about their dream garden. Follow now so you never miss an episode.

Show notes

Books

• Terry Pratchett book Reaper Man
• Laline Paull book The Bees
• Merlin Sheldrake book Entangled Life 

People

• 42 Acres, nature reserve and wellbeing centre, founded by Lara and Seth Tabatznik
• Thich Nhat Hanh, dubbed the ‘father of mindfulness’
• Satish Kumar, peace activist
• Dr Elaine Inghams Soil Food Web
• Nicole Masters Integrity Soils

Ideas

• Rewilding (beavers) 
• The Great Dixter Biodiversity Audit 
• Making compost

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode, cook, food writer and passionate home gardener Nigel Slater talks to Stephanie Mahon about what he would include in his dream garden, from the inspirational spaces of Japan to the stars in the sky, and from soft green moss to bright bronze azaleas. Find out how he stole his front garden, how he went to war with foxes and lost, and the reason that fairies and soft serve ice-cream would have to be part of his fantasy garden. Discover how he managed to get Dan Pearson and Monty Don to design his own back garden, and the one gardening trend that really winds him up.

Talking Gardens is created by the team at Gardens Illustrated magazine. Find lots more great garden inspiration and planting ideas, and subscribe, at www.gardensillustrated.com

Enjoyed this episode? Tell a friend, make sure to leave a review or comment, and let us know who you would next like to hear talking about their dream garden.

Follow now so you never miss an episode.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 where their food comes from. We hear how he got his start while still at school himself by launching a food-growing business; we learn what an ‘edimental’ is; and how Harry is losing sleep over the construction and transport of some challenging, curved, rammed-earth walls.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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-ever Chelsea show garden 25 years ago, involving a cloud of whitefly, trusses of tomatoes and the King; reflects on how the show has changed since then; and champions the specialist nurseries behind the scenes who really make everything happen.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices