On this episode of Dear Gardener, host Ben Dark explores gardening life and gardening death. From the ranunculus flower’s writhing stem - a cut flower snake, trying to find its way back into the garden - to tulips drooping in a vase, the importance of writing accurately about plants is emphasised.

Literary comings and goings-on are explored on a visit to Parham House and hints are given for those of us in temporary gardens (aren’t we all?) We look at how to string a tomato and take soft-wood summer cuttings from a grape vine. Also, what to do with your moat and why hippoptamuslike plants are no good at all.

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Nick Stewart Smith spent seven years as Head Gardener at Lambeth Palace. Here he tells Ben Dark about his hidden life as a link in thousand-year horticultural chain, about his unique philosophy of place-making and about how to work in dialogue with a garden.

Nick's book: https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/publication/the-thousand-year-old-garden/9781803993041/

Wild Times in a London Park by Nick Stewart Smith: https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/wild-times-in-a-london-park/

Support Dear Gardener on Kofi: https://ko-fi.com/bendark

Episode Breakdown:

[00:00:03] Podcast intro: introducing Nick Stewart Smith, author of "The Thousand Year Old Garden"

[00:04:07] The personal nature of the book.

[00:06:23] Gardeners and garden features as links in a very long chain.

[00:09:38] Creating a dialogue with the garden.

[00:13:26] Life at Overbecks, the eccentric National Trust garden of rock face and banana.

[00:16:07] Exploring the book’s focus on the forgotten gardeners of Lambeth Palace

[00:21:50] The Glades, Nick’s signature effect with colourful perennials and nomadic annuals.

[00:27:56] Gardening, finding balance, small scale focus.

[00:29:33] Awareness of nature crisis, positive gardening, adaptation.

[00:32:36] Tolstoy, Levin and the transcendental power of scything.

[00:35:57] Van Gogh & Dürer - painters as inspiration.

[00:40:51] Farewell and thanks to guest, Nick.

On this episode of Dear Gardener, host Ben Dark explores the legacy and afterlife of gardens. The starting points are: a Laburnum safari through Østerbro, a fence-climb into an abandoned garden, and a run through the acid-sands of West Sussex.

Featuring Gertrude Jekyll, Edwin Lutyens and the National Trust in the news that Munstead Wood is 'to be preserved for the nation'

Support the show on Kofi https://ko-fi.com/bendark

Tickets to the Birmingham Talk here: https://www.bournvillehub.com/box-office/the-grove-a-nature-odyssey-in-19-1-2-front-gardens

Episode Breakdown:

[00:00:06] Lime tree mist season in Copenhagen. Excellent for spoiling cars

[00:05:36] Tennyson praised for 'rosey plumelets bud the larch'

[00:08:24] Golden chain tree and the particularity of its yellow

[00:13:01] Lilac's use as a besmirching foil. The neighbour's trampoline of huge and surprising beauty

[00:15:38] Father's death inspires thoughts on gardens.

[00:19:16] Gertrude Jekyll and the Arts and Crafts movement

[00:23:52] Gardens best seen after suffering?

[00:27:32] The Canterbury tales as told on the Hidcot coach.

[00:29:27] Small towns end abruptly.

[00:32:41] Rhododendron ponticum invasive but lovely in the shade

[00:35:50] Stalin's mimosa.