All right, Sweetpea?

 I’m all right, Mummy Bear. How are you?

 Good. I’m great, thanks. Tell me everything.

 I’m just great.

 Tell me all your woes and worries. How’s life over there?

 Would you like to know about antibiotics?

 Yes, I would. Tell me about antibiotics.

 They’re so interesting. I’ve been doing a lot of lessons about them.

 I mean, just like the whole thing of, and I know that you know this,

 the whole that antibiotics, if you’re taking them constantly, you’re like,

 oh, I’m a little bit ill, whack an antibiotic in the bocadilla.

 Isn’t that a sandwich?

 A sandwich, sorry, in the boca.

 If you’re just constantly consuming antibiotics all the time, you start creating

 your own personal, I mean, it’s very cool if you want to personalise things,

 you’re one of those people who likes to personalise everything,

 but you can personalise your own bacteria into resistant form.

 So you create a strain of personalised resistant bacteria,

 which means you’re going to be really ill, mate.

 Because antibiotics aren’t going to work anymore?

 No, because they’re all resistant.

 Right. So that’s interesting you say it’s personalised bacteria,

 because my understanding was that even though I don’t take antibiotics often,

 in fact, rarely, I can’t think the last time I had any, so I don’t take them.

 But I thought, well, that doesn’t matter.

 It’s because everyone else is taking them.

 So those strains.

 I mean, that also happens as well.

 So that’s a different thing then.

 I think you can have it personalised where it’s just your bacteria.

 So you’re taking the antibiotic, you have bacteria in you,

 or you have a pathogen in you, and part of that pathogen dies,

 and then a resistant strain of that survives because you’re taking it so much,

 and it’s like, haha, so it becomes resistant.

 But then that can also transmit if it’s a transmittable one.

 So then yes.

 To then somebody else.

 To somebody else who is trying really hard to not take antibiotics.

 I see. Yeah. Okay.

 Oh, that’s irritating, isn’t it?

 So the moral of the story is stop taking antibiotics unless absolutely essential.

 Yeah. And then also really cool thing is that antibiotics only work on cells which

 are dividing and multiplying, i.e. a bacteria that is kind of multiplying,

 creating a colony inside of you.

 It would therefore not work if the bacteria has figured out a way to sleep inside of you,

 or to create sleeping spores inside of you.

 As in to lie dormant?

 Yeah, exactly. Lie dormant.

 Right. So then the antibiotic won’t work on those cells because they’re not dividing.

 It doesn’t recognise it.

 But then what happens with…

 Right. But when that bacteria stops being dormant,

 that means by definition it’s going to start dividing again.

 So then you take the antibiotics at that point.

 Yes. I don’t know specifically then what you do to make sure,

 but it’s just interesting how antibiotics only work on multiplying

 systems that are actually kind of metabolically working.

 So they’re kind of active in their life cycle.

 The other thing about antibiotics is how it just messes up the rest of your flora,

 doesn’t it? And just all your good bacteria get screwed by it.

 I’ve then got a whole load of things to clear up after I’ve taken antibiotics.

 It’s often just more trouble than it’s worth.

 Kind of reminds me, I was thinking about mosquitoes,

 because we’ve got a lot of tiger mosquitoes around here.

 Don’t know why. Don’t have any sitting water.

 No clue what’s going on.

 And I was thinking, a lot of them are around the veg garden,

 but you don’t want to wipe out insects in the veg garden.

 You don’t want to wipe out insects anywhere.

 Then I thought, well, of course, the ideal thing is what they’re doing a lot

 across Europe where they’re dumping a whole load of sterile mosquitoes, aren’t they?

 That’s awesome.

 And that’s what we want, because that will target just the mozzie.

 Then the mozzie’s mate can’t reproduce, eventually die out.

 Yeah. I think that’s such an intelligent thing to do.

 It’s using all the lessons that I’m learning about and doing something with it.

 To get rid of tiger mozzie’s.

 To get rid of tiger mozzie’s.

 Because I’ve been on holidays where, sort of in the Caribbean,

 where they’ll spray the resort that I’m staying at.

 So just the whole resort is sprayed on account of the mosquitoes.

 I don’t see how it can possibly just be getting the mozzie’s

 and not all the other lovely bees and insects that are flapping about the place.

 Oh, cool. Blimey.

 On the way to Australia, the cabin is sprayed to get rid of various nasties.

 I can’t be good for you either, frankly, at that point.

 It can’t be great.

 If it’s killing something, then what is it doing to you?

 And what’s it doing to me?

What’s it doing to me?

 Anyway, what else have you been up to?

 Otherwise, I have been extremely stressed.

 Oh, sweetie, why?

 Well, because this semester, I’ve got-

 An important one.

 It’s a very important semester because I’ve got the end of year exam,

 sorry, end of semester exam.

 So it’s only the first semester that counts for the rankings.

 The second semester, you only have to get 50% and that’s fine.

 So it’s only the first one where you have to get the absolute highest mark possible.

 And first of all, the end of semester exams are just before and just after Christmas holidays.

 That’s nice, isn’t it?

 Which means I can’t take those off.

 That’s okay.

 Yeah, it’s fine. It’s fine.

 It’s just one semester.

 And then we have a whole load of mid semester exams dotted around.

 So much so that my first one is starting in two weeks time and that’s only in September.

 You’d think you haven’t learned enough to do an exam already.

 You sure have.

 Yeah, that’s okay.

 Basically, you’re in competition with all these other kids.

 So you’re going to have to treat this semester as if you’re an athlete.

 So you need to get the edge on everybody else.

 So it’s not just good enough to know what you’re doing.

 It’s important that you keep your health up.

 It’s important that you’re sleeping properly.

 It’s important that you’re eating properly.

 It’s important that you’re exercising properly as well.

 It’s important that you have all those elements so that you have the edge on other people who

 might be working really hard but not looking after their health and so they get ill for

 the exams or they’re working really hard but not getting enough sleep.

 So they’re exhausted.

 Their brain, you know, learning capacity, memory, all that is shriveled up.

 So you’re just going to have to think that you’re training for the Olympics.

 Yes.

 It’s short term.

 It’s only between now and January and you’re just going to get those running shoes on.

 You’re going to be considering all of this holistically.

 So you’re looking at every part of you, your whole being from the top of your head

 to the tips of your toes.

 Everything needs to be looked after.

 Yeah, it’s very important because also it’s the whole thing of do as I say, not as I do

 because you’ve got so many med students who will have the worst lifestyle.

 They eat really bad food.

 They don’t do any sport and then they sit behind the desk with the DR in front of their

 name and tell you, eat correctly, five a day keeps me away and do loads of sport.

 Medical students are notorious.

 They have a reputation for being very heavy drinkers, for example, all through

 university and yet obviously we know what we should be doing in terms of alcohol

 and what we shouldn’t be doing.

 So it is do as I say, not as I do.

 That’s such a good point because I checked on the forum of my uni and I thought, oh,

 you know what, just so that I can really manifest getting into dentistry next year.

 So getting my really high marks my first semester and getting into the top 30 or

 whatever it is top 30.

 Yep.

 And I thought, oh, I’m just going to see if anyone’s done a recap of their

 year of their first year of dentistry.

 And I saw this one and it was diabolical.

 It was just, yeah, so the first week you go out to these parties, just loads of parties

 and how everyone is half asleep in the amphitheatres, in the lecture rooms

 because these parties are all about free-flowing alcohol.

 They’re called free flowing alcohol.

 What does that mean?

 Well, just where you can continuously have alcohol that you don’t, there’s no limit.

 Yeah, exactly.

 Who’s paying for all that?

 I have no idea, but these parties seem to be a really big thing.

 And I just read it and I was just like, that’s just so stupid.

 You spent two years of your life trying desperately hard to get the highest

 mark possible and you’re just going to sit there and drink it away.

 Yeah.

 Like it seems so stupid to do that.

 You might feel differently by then.

 Oh, I will not.

 I’m not even slightly interested in that.

 My favourite thing to do.

 You are the oldest woman I know.

 Listen to me, sweetpea.

 You are going hell for leather now to get in.

 When you get to that point, you might go, do you know what?

 I might pop to a party now.

 No.

 Do you know what I’m looking forward to do is going to class.

 Tucked up a bird at your cup of cocoa by 9.30.

 One episode of scrubs and then lights out.

 I shall wake up in the morning to the theme tune of Eye of the Tiger.

 I shall leap out of bed.

 I shall do a hundred skips off the rope.

 Few bicep curls with my dumbbells.

 Out that door ready to seize their day.

 Is that what your generation’s like or just you?

 That was, oh my gosh.

 You just looked into my head.

 That’s what I was imagining.

 I was like, I’m so looking forward to not having to be stressed.

 I could get up at a reasonable time.

 Go to lectures, understand the lectures, come home, have a nice supper,

 go out and get a facial, come back and read my book, put on some music, dance around the room.

 You can do that as well.

 You don’t have to go to the party.

 You might fancy, but if you don’t, that’s all good too.

 It’s all good, sweetie.

 Thanks.

 You know where you’re trying to get in life, so you do it your way.

 Yes.

 Anyway, so that has been me.

 That’s been you.

 We’ve talked a lot there.

 We have, crikey, yes.

 And you?

 Well, I got some more of my magic shampoo and it is amazing.

 This is special menopause magic shampoo.

 You bought me the conditioner for Christmas as a pressie, didn’t you?

 I then bought the shampoo and conditioner.

 It is so expensive.

 That’s why I didn’t get the shampoo.

 Yes, I’m glad you didn’t.

 It’s so expensive that when it came to an end, I thought it’s okay.

 I’m going to get something cheaper.

 And then I’ve been suffering through the last couple of months going,

 oh my gosh, my hair is turning to straw.

 This is awful.

 That I then went and bought some more and it arrived.

 It was an investment.

 And then my hair is luscious and blonde and floaty and thick.

 It’s just great.

 So I can highly recommend, if you’re a woman of a certain age,

 you’re umming and erring about that really expensive shampoo,

 I can recommend.

 You just put a link of it in the bio.

 Yeah, I could do.

 And I’m using it.

 I could do, yeah.

 I would.

 I mean, maybe if anyone’s interested.

 But my point more being that-

 Because I had to research it.

 I now recognise that there is some merit in,

 I’m not saying all expensive shampoos,

 but certainly some expensive shampoos.

 And I’ll use it sparingly.

 I’m not going to use it every time.

 But when I want to feel particularly good,

 I should be popping that on the old bonts

 and letting my bonnet do the talking.

 Very nice.

 Otherwise in the garden, I have,

 I’ve got to say a big thank you to Toby Buckland

 for his amazing top tip of using your hedge trimmer angled

 so you can hold it lower to the ground

 and use it as an electric scythe.

 I scythed through my meadow.

 It was so easy.

 And it’s, as he says, it gives it one cut.

 You don’t, like with a trimmer, get multiple cuts.

 So you then have these lovely long pieces of straw,

 essentially, and rake those all off the meadow.

 So that’s all good to go.

 And I’m going to scarify it at some point

 and put some perennial wildflower seeds in there

 and try and build that up year on year.

 Sweetie, do you want a really nice bit of good news?

 Yes, I do.

 The film, Ghosts, The Possession of Button House

 is out next month in cinemas from the 23rd of October.

 It will no doubt be, because it’s BBC Films

 as part of the production team on it.

 So it will no doubt be on BBC iPlayer

 at some point in the future.

 So if you don’t have time to go to the cinema,

 hang on in there.

 Perhaps at Christmas, we might get to watch it.

 Oh my gosh, that would be fantastic.

 Yeah.

 Oh, I love that.

 All right, look, we’re talking way too much.

 I’ve got a bit of housekeeping from last week.

 Okay.

 I said Kyle’s dog was called Philo, but it is Filo.

 Oh.

 Also, we talked about mountain ranges

 and I was quite a mountainist

 because I only named two in France

 and one in the Himalayas, I think I said as well.

 So I thought you might be interested

 to know some other mountain ranges, sweetie.

 I would.

 Rocky Mountains, of course, North America.

 You’ve got the Andes in South America,

 which makes it talked all about.

 So I don’t know how we could have not come up with that.

 But a few others that you might not have heard of.

 There’s the, well, in the Antarctic,

 there’s the Trans-Antarctic Mountains,

 but also you’ve got the Caucasus Mountains,

 which go across Armenia, Georgia, Russia and Azerbaijan.

 You’ve got the Rwenzori Mountains,

 which are Uganda Democratic Republic of Congo.

 Wow.

 Atlas Mountains, of course, we know Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco.

 Don’t know why they say that.

 There’s the Alborz, which is Iran.

 Scandinavian Mountains, the Scandis,

 which is Finland, Norway, Sweden.

 Randi scandi.

 A few closer to home.

 The Pennines in England.

 There are the imaginatively named

 Ireland Mountains, which are in Ireland.

 Scottish Highlands in Scotland

 and the Brecon Beacons in Wales.

 Really, we let ourselves down on those.

 Big time.

 And then just regarding Monty,

 I thought you might want to know.

 First up, that carrot that Ned loves,

 that’s doing a lot of the heavy lifting

 on social media for Monty at the moment.

 I’m sure.

 And the Gardeners World team.

 They’re calling it, not that Natalie named,

 Carroters World.

 But Monty has also,

 he made a little announcement to say

 thanks so much for all the well wishes,

 well wishing comments that he got on his post.

 And he said, you know,

 I’m not retiring completely.

 I am still going to be around.

 I’m still also going to be posting

 about Longmeadow.

 So there’ll still be some updates

 and how the garden’s going.

 Presumably how Ned’s getting on with his carrot.

 And he said, it’s just Gardeners World

 that I’m leaving, but he does still

 have some other irons in the fire.

 And one of the things that he’s working on

 is he is working with,

 you know, the shoes New Balance.

 He is doing a bit of model work for New Balance.

 Oh my gosh.

 Because apparently New Balance

 have collaborated with Blue Burnham

 and have created the Flimby Gardens,

 which is for all the workers in the factory

 making the New Balance shoes.

 And they’ve created these beautiful gardens for them.

 And so Monty’s been very involved with that.

 I’ll put a little YouTube video of that

 so you can see what he’s been up to.

 But he’ll still be on our screens, basically.

 That’s absolutely amazing.

 That makes me like New Balance even more.

 Yeah.

 I love that.

 Very cool.

 All right, Suzy, shall we have a look

 at this week’s Gardeners’ World?

 Yes, we should.

 This is Gardeners’ World 2026,

 episode 25, recount.

 Off we go.

 This week we’re with Adam in his garden.

 So we’re getting to see that kind of continuous

 cycle of how his garden is evolving.

 It’s good to have a catch up.

 My gosh, isn’t his garden progressing?

 Yes.

 He gets loads done, doesn’t he?

 He’s a real doer.

 A lot of diggers.

 I would love to have had a digger to do our garden.

 Can you imagine?

 Absolutely impossible on a hill.

 But we wouldn’t have the biceps we’ve got, so.

 Yeah, true.

 And the abs.

 The abs.

 Anyway, so he’s showing a very cool watering technique,

 which I’ve never, ever, ever seen before.

 No, that was new to me as well.

 Never heard of it.

 Which were watering bags.

 And so because his trees are multi-stem,

 usually you put the watering bag, I think,

 up around the tree, which I couldn’t understand

 because wouldn’t that rot the trunk?

 I don’t think it stays there that long.

 No.

 Just channels it down.

 Okay, that’s a good point actually.

 Anyway, so because his trees are multi-stem,

 he’s not putting it around the actual tree itself

 because it’s more shrubby.

 So he’s putting a stake just next to it

 and then he’s putting the watering bag around that

 and then filling it up with water.

 Yeah, I think I need to see one actually in the flesh

 because I still can’t entirely figure out how it works,

 how it’s containing the water.

 Yeah, I get you zip it up,

 but how’s it not just all seeping out the bottom?

 And seeping out through the zip?

 Just generally seeping out.

 But anyway, because his issue was

 that he put in 30 new trees, didn’t he?

 And then can you imagine trying to keep those alive

 through this summer?

 Ouch.

 Hard, hard work.

 Yeah, like I remember that being hard work

 when we put in our baby trees,

 which first of all were a million times smaller,

 so easier on that front.

 So they were bare roots, weren’t they?

 They were bare roots,

 but we didn’t have a dry summer.

 Like it was a pretty chill summer.

 Yeah.

 I remember that year.

 Anyway, so we had it easy.

 What time of year did he put his in?

 We put ours in in February

 and that worked really, really well.

 Yeah, he put his in pretty early.

 Was it February, do you think?

 I feel like it was around that time

 when Gardeners World started up again.

 Oh right, yeah, so March.

 Yeah.

 Mid-March.

 Exactly.

 It’s quite late when you think about it.

 It is quite late.

 But maybe he’d already put them,

 he’d put in quite a few, I feel like.

 Before then?

 Yeah, before then.

 Okay, cool.

 He’s a professional.

 He knows what he’s doing.

 Yeah.

 Anyway, so then we go around

 to the front of the house.

 Very different vibe.

 He’s got this a bit kind of more

 under control and finished really

 because he’s got the caution steel

 really quite high thick beds

 which he has a Sichuan pepper in.

 That’s the main statement piece,

 really nice tree and then gives those

 lovely dry berries.

 It does have really big thick thorns

 so do be careful of that

 and it’s very aromatic.

 Yes.

 And then he has sweet woodruff

 around the base to create a carpet.

 That Sichuan pepper,

 do you remember Josh Sparkes talked

 a lot about that on his chit chat

 and about the edibility of the tree?

 Adam was showing with the buds

 you sort of peel off the husk of it,

 don’t you?

 And that’s the bit that you eat,

 not the middle bit

 because he said the middle bit

 would be like an aesthetic in your mouth.

 Which is good to know if ever

 you have to take someone’s tooth out.

 Pull a tooth out.

 In the wild.

 Good to know.

 But also, Josh was saying

 you can eat the leaves as well

 of that tree.

 Yes, that’s cool.

 And also, did you see little Buster

 who doesn’t look like he’s grown

 even a millimetre

 since we saw him as a puppy?

 Oh my gosh, like he’s so cute.

 Anyway, so Adam’s got

 a lot of edible stuff in

 those planters, hasn’t he?

 Yes.

 And then we head over

 to Sue Kent in Swansea.

 Getting an update on her garden.

 Her veg patch has done

 alright this summer.

 They’re in deep beds

 with logs at the bottom.

 So they’ve all handled

 the drought pretty well.

 She’s putting in some winter veg,

 mainly Swiss chard.

 She said the slugs

 and cabbage whites don’t eat it at all.

 She also says how a yoga teacher

 once told her that you can live

 a long and healthy life

 if you eat Swiss chard and prunes.

 As opposed to my rowing coach

 who told me you can live off

 bananas and Guinness alone.

 So two very different

 schools of thought there.

 I like your rowing coach.

 And Sue says she uses those,

 the leaves in salads or smoothies

 and then the stems in a stir fry.

 Yeah, love the stems.

 Her fuchsia has really struggled.

 She describes it as manky.

 Apparently that’s due to gall mite.

 It doesn’t really,

 it doesn’t concern the health

 of the fuchsia.

 It just doesn’t look

 particularly pretty.

 So she’s had this fuchsia

 forever, so she’s always

 quite brutal with it.

 She just is chopping

 the whole lot back.

 Also important to make sure

 that you don’t cross contaminate.

 So clean your tools.

 You might want your clothes

 and come in on your boots

 or that kind of thing.

 I mean, in my mind,

 it’s just that sounds

 impossible to control.

 So I think I would just

 relax about it.

 And if I get it,

 just chop things back that year.

 I think so because also

 I can imagine you just like

 blasting the hose at me

 if I’ve touched it

 to try and decontaminate me.

 Yeah, put in a decontamination chamber

 before you come anywhere

 in the house.

 Yeah, with those masks on,

 you’re coming around

 with the big yellow gloves

 going.

 She walks past

 some huge hydrangeas,

 but we don’t talk about those,

 but they were spectacular.

 We see her hydrangea phobia,

 hydrangea philia.

 Wait, no, hydrangea philia.

 Hydrangea FOMO.

 That’s it.

 Hydrangomo.

 Hydrangomo?

 Hydrangea OMO.

 Hydrangea Of Missing Out.

 She shows us her lemon verbena.

 She’s made that into a standard tree

 using the straightest,

 longest stem.

 Tied that up.

 Yeah, very nice.

 And now she’s just getting

 rid of some basal stems.

 She’s got a nice little gadget

 that seems to be

 a little bit, almost a,

 is there a bit of an

 electric mechanism to it?

 Yeah.

 It was a pretty nifty little unit.

 She uses her lemon verbena

 instead of lemongrass

 in Thai curry pastes.

 Must be nice, actually.

 Is a good idea.

 We have a lemon verbena,

 so that’s something

 I should consider.

 When you, yeah,

 in the winters when you start

 doing your really nice

 aubergine curries.

 That would be good,

 wouldn’t it?

 That would be lovely.

 Did you see her incredible

 hot border?

 Wasn’t that looking

 spectacular?

 I remember the sort of

 birth of this hot border

 way back when,

 a couple of years ago.

 What plants did she have in it?

 She had Penstemon,

 Gaillardias,

 Amaranthus,

 Japanese blood grass,

 and Perilla,

 which apparently

 she puts in tea.

 It’s a really nice kind of

 more open leaf shape

 compared to the

 Japanese blood grass,

 which is more kind of

 sharp edges.

 And she pops that in tea

 directly into hot water

 and it has a kind of

 basil, mint,

 mixed taste to it.

 I really loved

 the juxtaposition

 of that perilla

 with the blood grass,

 the Japanese blood grass

 and the amaranthus.

 All of it just worked

 so well.

 It was just beautiful.

 It was edible.

 Edible.

 Don’t eat it.

 No, don’t eat it.

 But it did look

 like you just wanted

 to gobble it up.

 It was such a thing of beauty.

 She’s done a fantastic

 job with that.

 And I think,

 wasn’t that for her husband?

 I think so, yeah.

 The hot border.

 He really likes

 the hot colours.

 Yeah.

 The dark colours.

 She’s done an amazing job.

 Yeah.

 Adam and me,

 we share a real passion in life

 which is builder’s tea.

 Yes.

 He likes it.

 Good old mug a builders,

 doesn’t he?

 None of this namby pamby stuff.

 Just give me a cup of builders.

 Yes.

 Milk, no sugar.

 All right, love.

 And he’s harvesting water,

 isn’t he?

 I loved seeing this bit.

 This is a good section.

 So he’s got that old tank

 that he’s going to use

 to collect from the downpipe.

 He makes it look so easy.

 He puts in that rain diverter

 into the downpipe,

 just slots it all in.

 And then a little bendy pipe

 that goes from that into the tank.

 He didn’t seem to be sealing anything.

 No, he said he was doing

 that afterwards.

 Did he say he was sealing stuff?

 I thought he was just putting

 that bracket on afterwards.

 Oh, I thought he was just

 generally kind of fixing

 everything firmly together

 properly afterwards.

 Right.

 He wasn’t going to do it

 Yeah, what I do love

 about these sections

 where Adam is putting

 in a water tank

 or he is paving a patio later

 is it’s like when you watch

 someone making a cake

 or something online, a tutorial,

 they’ve prepped everything

 perfectly in advance

 so that when they do it,

 it looks so easy.

 But when you go to do it,

 it is a carnage.

 Well, isn’t the saying

 fail to prepare, prepare to fail?

 Yes.

 Anyway, we then go to Ashburton

 in South Devon to Vital Seeds.

 Yes.

 With Fred and Ronja.

 All right.

 Fred Groom and Ronja Schlumberger.

 Yes.

 And they produce certified

 open pollinated vegetable,

 herb and flower seeds.

 These guys, Sweetpea,

 were actually recommended

 by the wonderful André Tranquilini

 on his chit chat.

 So we’ve got a link to them

 already on our website.

 Oh, that’s cool.

 Highly recommended seed supplier.

 Small world.

 They then explain

 how open pollinated is

 the natural way plants

 pollinate in the wild,

 i.e. insects, wind

 or self-pollination.

 And then the opposite of that

 is F1 hybrids.

 Yes.

 They say that the open pollinated

 seeds over generations,

 they adapt themselves

 to environmental conditions,

 which is why it’s good

 to save your own seeds.

 They’ll adapt.

 And also on their website,

 they say,

 and I’ll quote this directly,

 in the last 100 years,

 we have lost 90% of the diversity

 in our food crops globally,

 mainly due to the industrialization

 of the food system

 and widespread use

 of proprietary F1 hybrid varieties.

 Cool. Blimey.

 Makes you think, doesn’t it?

 Well, they have an acre of space there,

 which they started up in 2018.

 They explain that most seeds

 are produced in hot places.

 So those polytunnels are important

 and they grow 100 varieties.

 Now, also on their website,

 they say that they have five polytunnels

 and that amounts

 to about a quarter of an acre

 of their land.

 Cool. Blimey.

 That’s amazing.

 Fred shows his favourite zinnia.

 I think it was his favourite.

 Tidepool.

 Tidepool.

 Yes. Super spiky,

 actually quite cactus-like.

 Yeah. I’m not a big zinnia fan,

 but I could get on board

 with those ones a bit more,

 I think, than other zinnias.

 But I’ve really gone off them.

 I just find them so…

 Yeah. I was going to say brash,

 but I like brash things,

 but there’s a deadness to them.

 Dullness to their brashness.

 They’re dead inside.

 They’re just dead inside.

 Anyways, moving on very swiftly.

 Come on, what was the carrot?

 The carrot.

 Lila Lu.

 The purple varieties,

 which are the natural varieties.

 That’s what a carrot should be looking like, actually.

 Yep. Beautiful.

 Should be orange.

 My favourite variety.

 Yeah. And they taste incredible,

 especially when really young and raw,

 sliced in a salad.

 Oh, yum.

 And they look beautiful.

 What’s not to love about those carrots?

 And Fred explains about

 collecting the carrot seeds.

 So they’re ready when you squish the head

 and you get a crunch to it.

 Real crunch and crackle.

 That’s with most seeds, most dry seeds.

 Okay, yes.

 There’s the point,

 because then he goes on to say

 the main seed categories are,

 and I got quite excited,

 and then dry seeds and wet seeds.

 So those are the two main seed categories.

 I do.

 Dry seeds and wet seeds.

 So we hear about the dry ones.

 So they generally are on pods

 and they’ll dry on the plant.

 Peas being a great example.

 There we are.

 And then we see Fred stomping his peas

 as if he’s stomping some grapes.

 Pods are splitting open

 and the peas are separating from the pod.

 This is a beautiful ASMR section.

 I could have watched him

 stomping his peas all day.

 He sips out the pods

 and there are the seeds at the bottom

 and then you’ve got a little bit of chaff.

 So he does some lovely winnowing.

 That’s basically, yes, gorgeous to watch.

 Let’s the wind blow the chaff away

 as he pulls them into another bucket.

 And then he shows the bucket

 all completely clean.

 Yeah, exactly.

 But one thing is,

 if you’re thinking about winnowing,

 you can’t do it with every type of seed

 because if you do it

 with like a really light seed,

 they’re all going to go shooting off.

 They’re all going to go shooting off.

 So if you do do it with really light seeds,

 so I’m thinking like poppy seed

 if you’ve got a lot of chaff,

 although usually with poppies

 it’s quite easy to kind of get them out.

 Anyways, if you’re doing it

 with that poppy seed size seed,

 I think you’ve got to do it lower

 to the receptacle instead of really high up

 because then you’re just going to lose it all.

 Or you get that machine

 that Mandy Barber’s got.

 Oh my gosh, yes.

 Mandy Barber from Incredible Vegetables.

 She pops the seeds and the chaff

 and everything in the top.

 Yeah, it goes down,

 gets blown, I think,

 didn’t they put in a vacuum cleaner?

 A vacuum cleaner in

 and then at one end.

 Yeah.

 Anyway, I’ve put a clip on our website.

 Yeah, you have.

 And then Ron shows the wet seeds

 such as mango lassi cherry tomato.

 Oh my gosh, these looked amazing.

 They did, didn’t they?

 This is one of her favourite varieties.

 So with these, you get the seeds out

 and ferment them for two to three days.

 The coating around them has

 a sort of germination inhibiting enzyme

 to stop them germinating in the fruit

 because that would be no good, would it?

 So you squeeze out the juices

 with the seeds, let it sit for three days,

 stirring occasionally, then add water

 and then the heavier seeds sink to the bottom

 and you’re left with clean seeds.

 Yeah.

 And you lay those out to dry for a few days

 and then you have your tomato seeds.

 And at the end,

 Ronja shows how they sow them

 and they sow just about everything

 in modules, don’t they?

 Yeah, they do.

 Well, Ronja grew up in Germany.

 She studied a BSc in agricultural sciences

 and Fred’s background is in horticulture,

 ecology and human ecology.

 Interesting.

 And Vital Seeds is part of Badderford Collective.

 So on the 154 acres of the farm,

 they are just one of six independent

 agroecological growing enterprises.

 It’s a bit like Mandy Barber again.

 Isn’t she part of a collective

 where she is with incredible vegetables?

 Anyway, doesn’t this sound like such a great life?

 They also, as well as those polytunnels,

 they have a reservoir for all their watering needs

 and also somewhere for them to cool off in the summer.

 Doesn’t that sound so idyllic?

 Yeah, that’s a really nice lifestyle.

 Back with Adam, he also talks about self-seeding plants

 and so he’s putting some in pots

 and terracotta pots that he’ll then move around the garden

 when they’re ready to sell seed

 and then therefore they can seed into that area,

 which I think is a great way of doing it actually.

 So he has Geranium nodosum,

 Verbena Bampton and Chinese teasel.

 And then we’ve got Frances Tophill

 and she is in Bath in Somerset

 and she’s talking borrowed landscapes.

 This is the garden of Alex Crossman and Jen Weaver

 and they talk about how they planned their garden back in 2014

 to reflect Somerset landscape and to attract wildlife.

 We see lots of tall grass, lots of wild flowers

 and then beyond the hedge,

 it’s growing more wild there, isn’t it?

 Yeah.

 He talked about how they’ve tried to create a mix

 between unmanaged and managed boundaries

 and then in the planting,

 sometimes there’ll be a mix of a managed boundary

 within an unmanaged and a little bit more wild border,

 for example, which I think is really, really cool

 and then sometimes he’ll have a managed boundary

 within a managed border.

 So it all just really mixes and matches really nicely.

 Yeah, it was lovely.

 I really, really, really loved this garden.

 I thought it was absolutely stunning.

 I know.

 It reminded me of ours quite a bit.

 I think that’s why I liked it so much.

 Are you actually serious?

 If our garden looked like this, I would be over the moon.

 No, but there were like sections of it,

 which I was like, oh, that’s like ours.

 Yeah, if you take kind of a six inch square section of ours,

 you might see that, but nothing.

 You’re joking me.

 Oh my gosh.

 You’ve been away from home for too long.

 I have.

 I really have.

 Anyway, so he’s got the hedgerow and hornbeam.

 They’re more in the more sort of formal part of the garden,

 and then it changes to hazel and wild rose and hawthorn

 at the back, doesn’t it?

 Lots of berries for the birds

 and they get field fairs and redwings.

 Can you imagine how lovely it’d be to see all that?

 We also get some night camera footage

 of badgers, foxes and deer coming in.

 They’ve got everything going on, haven’t they?

 We see the driveway, which was really cool.

 One side is wild with some strategically placed birch

 and then on the right hand side,

 it’s naturalistic prairie style planting.

 Yeah, with verbena and geraniums and wild thistles.

 Yes, gorgeous, weren’t they?

 Yeah.

 And we see those beautiful wooden paths.

 I always wonder how slippery wooden paths get when they’re wet.

 Yeah, how much sand or grit you need to put down.

 Yeah, always a bit fearful of that.

 Then we see some verbena wafting

 and there’s the prairie border

 that was completely covered in pollinators, wasn’t it?

 Oh, yeah, entirely.

 Frances strokes some grass.

 We see butterflies and bees on the Eupatorium.

 She snaps a photo of a butterfly.

 Yeah, takes a quick photo.

 Turn your sound off, mate.

 And then there’s a more formal part of the garden

 with the steel raised beds

 and it’s all enclosed by clipped hornbeam.

 And then Frances talks a bit about some grasses

 that didn’t work and some grasses that did.

 Did you catch the names of the ones that did and didn’t work?

 Yeah, so this was all because there’s this area of quite high rainfall

 and obviously grass is usually like it really quite dry

 and generally free draining,

 whereas this is more almost going towards boggy-ish,

 but not quite boggy, but you know what I mean.

 Anyway, so they had tried sporobolus and Stipa tenuissima,

 but they did not come back whatsoever, just too wet for them.

 However, calamagrostis and deschampsia cespitosa

 are very, very good grasses to have in those areas.

 Just keep that in mind.

 And the deschampsia cespitosa,

 that’s a native grass that’s growing all around the landscape

 and so bringing that into the garden again

 is adding to that borrowed landscape vibe, isn’t it?

 Precisely.

 His veg garden was beautiful, wasn’t it?

 A bit like ours with the polyculture.

 Yeah, exactly.

 So he had borlotti beans next to chop suey greens.

 That’s a glebionus coronaria.

 That’s a daisy-like flower, crown daisy.

 Is that the bit that you were thinking looked like ours?

 No, no, it wasn’t even that bit.

 That I would understand.

 No, it wasn’t even that bit.

 Yeah, there was an aster covered in pollinators.

 Yeah, there were most daisies.

 And Francis wasn’t sure what they were.

 I thought they looked like those little parasitic wasps that we get.

 Oh, maybe.

 I have no idea.

 You’re better on that front than I am.

 Well, Francis sums it up by saying how everything is welcome there,

 from deer to the tiniest of insects.

 Alex and Jen, they are both ecologists and they have Crossman Ecology.

 That’s their business.

 But to get a better idea of the sheer beauty of this garden,

 you really should check out Alex’s Instagram,

 Sweetpea, and I’ll put some photos on our website of that so you can have a look.

 It’s really, really, really beautiful.

 Is it a really beautiful Instagram page that just makes you really jealous?

 Yes, basically.

 Okay.

 There’s no part of me at any point where I thought, oh, looks just like our garden.

 But there’s a nice article that was in the English garden about four years ago,

 and Alex has posted that on his Instagram

 so you can see some of the beautiful photos that were taken in it

 and some of the words as well.

 And in it, it explains that Alex was particularly inspired by Piet Oldhoff.

 He was at the garden, one of Piet’s gardens,

 Hauser and Wirth Gallery, which I haven’t heard of in Bruton.

 He visited there and then that was it.

 He was completely inspired.

 So within a couple of weeks, they stripped the lawn out of the front garden

 and started planting up.

 And then what they did was they divided it into two.

 So one side was for Alex, the other for Jen,

 and Alex’s is the grid-like side with the straight paths,

 whilst Jen’s is the wilder one with the wilder planting and more kind of curvy paths.

 Oh, how interesting.

 And then on Alex’s side, he removed all the turf and on Jen’s side,

 she still wanted to keep a patch of lawn.

 So I like that idea of where they had different styles,

 went with their different vibes,

 but it all sort of came together really nicely, didn’t it?

 I love that.

 Another interesting thing from this article.

 This was in 2022.

 Alex said that the weeding could be a real slog.

 And so at that time, they were looking for some part-time help with the garden.

 So I wonder if they found any and if they have any help with it now.

 But that was good to hear because I am guilty of just going,

 right, I’m going to do all of this.

 Because I watched this and I thought, that’s it.

 I’m taking all the grass off the top bit of our garden.

 I’ve already started my little meadow patch,

 but I’m just going to now go for it with everything else.

 But then there is the maintenance of it and the weeding of it, isn’t there?

 There is.

 And frankly, it’s not really a lawn that we have as well.

 It’s got a lot of other stuff in it.

 So it’s still creating this like huge mossy patches

 and huge dandelion patches and general wild carrot patches.

 So it’s not really a lawn.

 But it’s neither here nor there.

 It’s not really a lawn.

 It’s not really a meadow.

 It’s just this kind of old field.

 Yeah.

 But it’s really interesting and relatable to hear

 that they had such a tough time with weeding.

 Because when you see Adam digging up a few weeds

 and it’s all just dirt otherwise, it’s like, oh, well, that’s easy.

 Monty’s garden, long meadow always looks weed-free

 and there’s this beautiful chocolatey soil, isn’t there?

 Free of weeds, ready for planting.

 But as we know, Monty’s got a couple of gardeners,

 doesn’t he, for long meadow?

 Exactly.

 Well, a final thing on Alex and Jen’s place.

 Those beautiful boardwalks are made from planed oak.

 Okay, interesting.

 I thought they were absolutely stunning.

 Adam was very cleverly watering in slo-mo.

 That water came out very, very slowly.

 That’s why it was still really slow at 1.5 speed.

 And he’s got his own wildlife.

 He has a red kite soaring above, which is rather lovely.

 And he gives us a bit of a garden tour.

 Now, his great big beautiful pond was interesting

 because he’s built the wall for that.

 He’s going to line it and then he’s going to put

 another wall within the lining to hide the lining.

 And then he’s going to also put 50 mil of concrete on the bottom.

 So if Ila the Black Lab jumps in, it doesn’t do it any harm.

 Yes.

 We didn’t consider that, did we?

 Probably should have.

 We didn’t consider the Hobbesmobile.

 The Hobbesmobile.

 I think she’s learned her lesson now, though.

 I don’t think she was that happy when she went in the pond.

 No, she didn’t seem happy afterwards.

 I don’t think she’s been in six.

 She looked very sheepish.

 I should do this cake.

 And then another part of his garden

 will have a steel edge around the side.

 Then pathways.

 And he described them as reflecting walks in the countryside

 and those will be gravel.

 In terms of the planting, that’s going to be guided by the quince.

 He’s then going to have another layer of fruit

 and then cut flowers as well.

 Yeah, I really like that.

 Then we see that patio that he’s laying, all immaculate.

 He’s using six to one sharp sand to cement.

 He mixes with water to dough-like consistency.

 Looked very satisfying.

 It did, didn’t it?

 Could play with that for ages.

 You would love that.

 He’s laying that mortar on 100 mil of hardcore base, I think he said.

 And then he does explain, of course,

 when you’re laying something like a patio,

 everything needs to slope away from the house.

 And something I didn’t consider is that will depend on the texture of it.

 So something that’s more grippy that needs more of an angle

 and then smoother surfaces, less of an angle

 because the water will flow more easily off that.

 And then he’ll put some kiln dried sand in between the joints

 to make it feel more natural

 and allow moss and things to grow through.

 Oh, I like that.

 And then it’s to East Sussex, to Steve Jenner and Chris Briggs’ place.

 Steve and Chris.

 Steve and Chris.

 They have a spot that overlooks the sea.

 They’re right on the edge of the South Downs.

 Yes, lots of wind.

 Yes, I was just going to say we find out it’s very windy there.

 And they’re on chalk as well, aren’t they?

 So quite a few challenges there, I think.

 Yeah, quite a few.

 First off, they created the patio

 and then they used the chalk that they dug out.

 They put in like a reinforced wall, didn’t they?

 And then had a raised section at the back.

 Yeah, so they have three sections in the end

 because they have the kind of normal middle area

 which was kind of already there, just the plain canvas of the garden.

 And then they created a sunken area.

 I always like little sunken areas near the house.

 I think they’re quite cute.

 Oh, do you?

 Interesting.

 Because it’s a bit…

 Especially if you’re mid-terrace or end-terrace townhouse,

 I feel like they’re quite nice little enclosures

 where you can feel a bit more private in your garden.

 I see, yeah, I can see that.

 Yeah, like if I was to be there,

 I would want a little sunken area then a mid-raised

 and then a kind of really raised bit at the back.

 Right, okay.

 I have a few different areas.

 Anyways, I really like that.

 So they have the sunken area, then the main area,

 then the raised area at the back,

 which then goes on to the meadows,

 which we’ll talk about a bit later.

 But on the plants front,

 they are of course loving of all the dahlias.

 Yeah, because they like lots of colour.

 Lots of colour, very on board with that.

 So they have David Howard, which is a lovely one.

 Monty has that one, nice orange.

 And then they also have Bishop of Landorf,

 which I haven’t heard of before,

 but that nice juxtaposition between the two.

 They also had another one, which was a yellow dahlias.

 So they had this general kind of orange, pink

 and yellow all together.

 And then they had other things like Rebecca’s Cosmos

 and Aeonium’s as well in the bed.

 Yes, that was a shock to see all those.

 Not a shock, that’s the wrong word.

 A surprise.

 A nice surprise.

 Yeah, I really like Aeonium’s in a bed.

 I think it’s so different to a natural border.

 They’ve really integrated them, haven’t they?

 They said that the obsession, 20 years ago,

 they picked up their first Aeonium

 and then that’s when the obsession began.

 And we’ve heard that quite a lot.

 It always just starts with one, doesn’t it?

 It does.

 You’ve got to be careful.

 If you’re going towards an Aeonium,

 just keep an eye on your bank balance.

 It sounds like a lot of addictions

 where it just takes one.

 That’s why your street dealer will give you

 the first, I don’t know, hit of heroin.

 For free.

 For free because they know that’s it, you’re hooked.

 Selfly analogy.

 Not the best analogy, but you know what I mean.

 It’s not like we’re trying to have

 a really chill, garden-swell chat here.

 Anyways, the one that they have

 that they really, really like is Colossus

 and that has huge dinner plate-sized Aeonium heads.

 Yes, 30 centimetres across.

 That’s mad.

 Yeah, like really big.

 Think of your great big ruler.

 Your long ruler is a 30 centimetre ruler, isn’t it?

 Yes.

 That much across.

 Size matters at this point.

 They said how usually it shoots up one stem

 and then it’s kind of meant to die back,

 so it’s not meant to give any babies or whatever.

 They got babies because they cut it back.

 So they got little side shoots out the side

 and then also you can take cuttings from that

 and then let that callus over,

 put that into a new pot

 and they now have a new baby

 and you can see that it’s getting bigger

 and bigger and bigger,

 so they’re waiting for it to get to that dinner plate size.

 Yes, very impressive.

 Yes.

 And then we have a little moment

 where we hear from Chris that Steve is the grass’s guy

 and Chris really bigs him up on that, doesn’t he?

 Very sweet moment.

 Steve’s a bit bashful.

 Yeah, exactly.

 I really like that.

 And then they talk a bit about the support that’s needed

 because it is so windy there.

 So they use a lot of supports to the plants,

 but they have found that the more plants they’ve packed in

 whilst they’ve been creating this garden,

 then the less they’re needing those supports.

 So it’s all starting to work without, isn’t it?

 Did you see the crochet-covered tree

 keeping the tree all toasty as well?

 That was really cute.

 I love that.

 And then what’s the final surprise of this garden?

 The final surprise is, as I said earlier,

 was the beautiful meadow that they have

 just out the back beyond theirs.

 They have a little gate,

 a little secret garden gate that they get to go through

 to this really open area

 where you just have lovely wind coming through.

 Huge area.

 Yeah, huge area of just meadows

 and they’ve mown little paths through

 and so it’s just really chill.

 They can walk around their own land.

 Lovely to have that.

 And they’ve used yellow rattle, of course,

 to help keep the grass at bay

 and they mow once a year

 and then they break all the clippings off, as we know,

 because you don’t want it to be too nutrient rich.

 And then they’re going to scarify areas

 that they want to add the wildflowers to.

 It would have been lovely to see that meadow in flower

 sort of earlier in the year,

 perhaps because it was basically

 it was a field of hay, wasn’t it?

 Which is what ours looks like right now.

 I would love to have seen it.

 Did they show any clips?

 Did I miss that?

 They didn’t show any clips of it being green

 and with the flowers in there.

 No.

 I’d love to see what that looks like.

 Yeah, I agree.

 It was a real hidden gem though, wasn’t it?

 And then you could see the sea at the end of it as well.

 I know.

 Really lovely.

 Well, do you remember Jeff Stonemanks?

 Yes.

 Driftwood by Sea.

 How could I not remember him?

 He was our second ever Chit Chat guest.

 A real character, absolute delight to chat to.

 Well, he wrote an article about Steve and Chris’s garden

 in Argus.

 Anyway, I’ll put a link to it.

 But he says in there how Chris and Steve

 moved to the site in 2015.

 Because the new homeowners of their previous place

 weren’t gardeners, so they weren’t particularly fast,

 they let Steve and Chris remove the entire garden

 to their new plot, 11 van loads worth.

 Can you imagine?

 I wonder, I know they weren’t gardeners,

 the new homeowners of Steve and Chris’s last place.

 I think they’re going to regret their life choices

 at some point, especially if they see this.

 Oh, that’s going to be painful.

 That’s going to be so painful.

 Oh my goodness me.

 Bad choice, bad, bad choice.

 Bad choice, man.

 Anywho, Jeff goes on to say that this place

 that they have used to be surrounded

 by a huge Leylandii.

 And they cut those back

 and had to spend a lot of time digging up the roots.

 So a lot of work to get rid of them

 because they were just shading everything out.

 We know what Leylandii are like.

 But they are a pain.

 But of course, they did provide an enormous windbreak.

 And it wasn’t until they’d all gone

 that they realized just how windy it gets.

 Oh, interesting.

 It’s a bit like antibiotics, isn’t there?

 There’s good things and bad things.

 I love how you’ve made the link with that.

 But yes.

 Well, you guessed it.

 They are open through the NGS.

 They, well, they were open through the NGS this year.

 They finished for this year, but I’ll put a link in.

 So hopefully they’re going to be open again next year.

 So if you want to visit Chris and Steve’s place,

 then check that link out.

 Keep an eye on it.

 Ready for next year.

 Fantastico.

 I loved this last segment with Adam,

 where he said he just feels very lucky with his own garden.

 And I’ve read how he has previously said

 how he doesn’t feel any emotional or sentimental attachment

 to any of the gardens that he leaves behind

 when they move house.

 Because he likens it to when he’s created a garden for a show.

 Basically, you create this beautiful garden

 and then you’re always leaving that behind.

 But hearing him say that,

 I wonder if he’s decided this is the one.

 This is the one he’s going to stick around now with this one.

 Because it does seem so idyllic, doesn’t it?

 With that river and the fields and nice bit of space.

 And he’s putting an extra amount of effort into this, like this.

 Yeah.

 He always puts a lot of effort in.

 Because also it’s not much effort for him.

 Well, he makes it all look so easy.

 He does.

 But yeah, I know what you mean.

 Anyway, he’s been to the garden centre.

 And what does he have?

 He has Crocosmia George Davison.

 And he is, first of all, he talks about getting a good bargain.

 When you see these plants, you can see that they have loads.

 There are loads of little plants to this one plant.

 So you can easily take that back home.

 And then what he’s doing is he’s taking out each.

 You can really tell the individual sections.

 He’s then taking off the bottom corms.

 So just leaving the top one, which has the spout coming off it.

 They’re the old ones, aren’t they?

 The bottom ones.

 Yeah, exactly.

 Fresh new one.

 Exactly.

 And then you just whack that in some new soil and let that grow from there.

 It’s a bit like with basil and you get basil from the garden centre.

 It’s always loads of plants in one pot.

 So it’s lots of free plants.

 Yes, I’ve had that this year.

 It was amazing.

 It’s a nice feeling, isn’t it?

 And then we’re to job for the weekend.

 So that’s tidy up containers.

 So hardy perennials control weeds.

 And then finally, Adam has a bit of a cuddle with Ash who’s purring away.

 So what was your favourite plant from this episode, Sweetpea?

 I kind of have a mix between the Aeonium Colossus from Stephen and Chris’s garden.

 And then also, I did really like the tomato mango lassi.

 Oh, okay.

 From Vital Seeds.

 Yes, exactly.

 I really like the look of that.

 Okay.

 Yeah, that’s a good choice.

 Anyways, what’s yours?

 Well, I liked everything in Alex and Jenny’s garden.

 I thought it was gorgeous.

 I thought it was all put together so beautifully.

 Looked a bit like our garden.

 Doesn’t look anything like our garden.

 In your dreams, Sweetpea.

 In your wildest dreams.

 I liked the Eryngium.

 I thought that was gorgeous.

 Always love an Eryngium.

 A bit prickly to weed around, as he said, but very nice.

 So I think probably I’d go with the Eryngium.

 And I really liked the Crocosmia  at the end.

 I’d like to get lots of Crocosmia in ours.

 Yep.

 But I’m going to go with the Eryngium.

 Cool.

 Nice choice.

 And your top takeaway?

 My top takeaway is the Winnowing.

 Just generally doing that is a very easy technique to get rid of all the chaff from your seeds.

 Yes.

 I really like it.

 It’s quite satisfying.

 Well, I also, from the Vital Seeds section, I really enjoyed Fred stomping the pods.

 That was such a beautiful sound.

 I don’t know where they put the microphone, but that was gorgeous.

 But I think my final top takeaway choice is actually again from Alex and Jenny’s place.

 I really loved the boardwalks.

 Those beautiful oak, plain oak boardwalks.

 I just think they, yeah, they give such a nice feel.

 I completely agree.

 So those, assuming they don’t get slippery when wet.

 Well, we have a Gardeners’ World next week.

 It is on the 18th of September, and here’s what’s going to be on that episode.

 In a special program exploring the enduring value of allotment life,

 Frances Tothill heads to Exmouth in Devon,

 where thriving plots and passionate growers are at the heart of a vibrant community.

 At a time when more people want to know where their food comes from

 and enjoy the unbeatable taste of homegrown produce,

 Frances discovers why these much-loved spaces matter more than ever.

 Joe Swift heads to Manchester to offer advice to newbie allotmentier De-Graft Mensah,

 who, when not presenting news round, can’t get enough of growing his own food.

 Now, we saw him, didn’t we, at Morvan, I think it was,

 and he was judging the wheelbarrows.

 Do you remember those little kids wheelbarrows?

 Oh my gosh, yes.

 I think that was him, wasn’t it?

 Yeah.

 There’s a determined plot holder in Scarborough who refuses to let a

 pigeon-led brassica massacre get the better of her,

 and in Bradford, two allotment holders share how, for them, a love of growing

 has forged an unlikely friendship that bridges generations.

 And in a dramatic finale, actors Zoe Henry and Jeff Hordley,

 better known as Rhonda Goskirk and Cain Dingle from Emmerdale,

 share the real-life soap opera behind their much-loved allotment

 and dig the dirt on who really does most of the work.

 Interesting.

 I am really looking forward to that because I love all things allotment.

 Yeah.

 That’s going to be a fun episode.

 That is going to be very cool, actually.

 Well, if you want to get in touch, if you’ve got any questions or any answers

 for anything we’ve talked about on this episode, please do contact us.

 You can do that through our webpage, which is…

 Notjustagarden.co.uk

 Or you can contact us on our new email address, which is…

 hello@notjustagarden.co.uk

 For anyone who can’t figure out what she said, it’s hello@notjustagarden.co.uk

 Thank you.

 And also check out the website for all the links

 and things we’ve talked about on this episode.

 They’ll all be there on the blog.

 If you go to podcasts, click on recaps, click on the latest one,

 you’ll find it all in there.

 And also subscribe if you want to get hold of Sweetpea’s

 beautiful plant list that she puts out each week.

 You can get hold of that as a subscriber.

 Also, as a subscriber, you get first dibs on any offers that we have coming through.

 Yeah, exactly.

 Sweetpea, what are you off to do this evening?

 Probably should look over my enzymology lesson.

 I think that’s really important that you know your enzymes, so good idea.

 I won’t be doing that.

 No!

 So we shall see you next week.

 Absolutely.

 Well, thank you for listening, everyone.

 Bye-bye, Sweetpea.

 Adios, Mummy bear.