Podcasts have become a staple for many people, and they're especially useful for keeping your hands free for pottering around the garden.
There are plenty of gardening podcasts out there, from the Gardens Illustrated podcast Talking Gardens, to the age-old Gardeners' Question Time and practical advice pods.
We’ve rounded up some of our favourite gardening podcasts to keep you busy.
The best gardening podcasts
Talking Gardens
Talking Gardens, the Gardens Illustrated podcast, sees Editor Stephanie Mahon chat to guests about their dream gardens. Guests pick the places, people and plants that have inspired them and choose elements that they would love to include in their fantasy gardens.
Season 2 features a conversation with Nigel Slater, who includes in his fantasy garden the inspirational spaces of Japan and the stars in the sky, to soft green moss and bright bronze azaleas. Designer Piet Oudolf will also be joining Stephanie, along with Arit Anderson, Tamsin Westhorpe, Arthur Parkinson, Isabel Bannerman, Marian Boswall and Errol Reuben Fernandes.
In Season 1, guests included Fergus Garrett, head gardener at Great Dixter, Troy Scott Smith, head gardener at Sissinghurst and Gardens Illustrated columnist Alice Vincent. Of course we're biased, but we think this is one of the best gardening podcasts on the market!
USEFUL INFO
Average length 40 minutes
How often is it released In blocks, weekly
Web Talking Gardens
Cultivating Place
Host Jennifer Jewell puts the culture back into horticulture and explores the different ways gardens and gardening have, and continue to have, an impact in a wider sense.
Have you ever taken the time to consider why you spend time cultivating the garden and exploring the gardens of others? Perhaps not to any great length, but for garden writer Jennifer Jewell, host of Cultivating Place, this question is at the heart of every conversation featured on her podcast.
Broadcast on public radio in California each week, its full title is Cultivating Place: conversations on natural history and the human impulse to garden, and it is based on two beliefs. The first is that horticulture is on a par with art, music, architecture, geography, history and literature and is a key part of our cultural literacy.
The second is that gardens and gardening connect us to larger environments, both culturally and botanically. On her website, Jewell writes: ‘Gardens are both more and less versions of ourselves, our fingerprints, our signatures, our reflections, our legacies – as individuals and as cultures’ and her weekly interviews explore the different ways gardening and gardens affect people.
USEFUL INFO
Average length 50 minutes
How often is it released Weekly
Web cultivatingplace.com
On the Ledge
Aside from the stylised Instagram shots of air plants and succulents, indoor plants have a lot to offer. This is the podcast to help you become a part of the houseplant revolution.
Freelance writer and previously garden editor at the Guardian, Jane Perrone has extensive horticultural knowledge and it makes her indoor gardening blog and podcast On the Ledge a must-listen. Episodes cover a huge range of indoor plants, from trendy succulents and air plants to more exotic specimens. In the style of a horticultural agony aunt, Perrone answers her listeners’ plant conundrums from floppy Aloe vera to yellowing Monstera leaves and gives advice and tips throughout the show on houseplant maintenance and care.
On the Ledge invites gardening personalities on to the show who have a particular interest or expertise in houseplants, such as garden writer and author of Plant Love Alys Fowler, and garden blogger Matthew Perry. Perrone also visits some of the best places to buy your houseplants and she gives her top tips for getting your houseplant home, safe and sound.
USEFUL INFO
Average length 40 minutes
How often is it released Weekly
Web janeperrone.com
National Trust
A great source of inspiration. Explore some of the country’s most historic gardens and wild landscapes and learn from the dedicated experts who love and manage them.
The National Trust Podcast offers an insight into gardens, walks and literary locations around the country. You’ll uncover the hidden stories, learn about the fascinating characters and meet the wonderful people that make the places we look after so special. New episodes are released twice a month.
The Garden Podcast series began in 2016 with host Alan Power, the head gardener at Stourhead, visiting some of the National Trust’s most treasured gardens: Croome Court, Stourhead, Sissinghurst, Stowe, Mount Stewart and Cliveden. During his visits, he chats to the staff and volunteers who manage the garden and shares the historical impacts and hidden stories of these great estates. Although The Garden Podcasts aren’t the most recent series to be broadcast by the National Trust, the episodes are still available and it’s worth going back and listening again.
General episodes include Bridgerton-worthy gardens and a history of drag.
USEFUL INFO
Average length 20 minutes
How often is it released Twice a month
Web nationaltrust.org.uk
Gardeners' Question Time
Gardeners' Question Time has been a radio broadcast for over 75 years, and now it can be listened to as a BBC Radio 4 podcast too.
A panel of horticultural experts answer gardening questions from a live audience and it is recorded in a different location each week. An expert panel answer's people's gardening questions, from ways to protect plants from slugs to what could be killing their apple trees.
This is the original gardening advice pod, and a great listen for anyone who wants to pick up a few tips and some handy knowledge.
USEFUL INFO
Average length 40 minutes
How often is it released Weekly on a Friday
Web bbc.co.uk
Grow, cook, eat, arrange
Grow, cook, eat, arrange is the weekly podcast from gardener, writer, teacher, and cook, Sarah Raven. Over the last two decades, Sarah has led the way by introducing a new kind of productive gardening which places emphasis on intense colour, sophistication, and achievability.
Recorded at the beautiful Perch Hill Farm in Sussex, Sarah talks with special guests from across garden design, floristry, food, ecology, conservation, and more. Brimming with top tips and helpful hints, listen and learn how to create your most productive garden ever.
From practical advice podcasts about what to sow now to seasonal recipes and conversations with people across the horticultural sphere, grow, cook, eat, arrange is sure to leave you feeling inspired.
USEFUL INFO
Average length 5 - 25 minutes
How often is it released Weekly
Web sarahraven.com
In Defence of Plants
If the state of the world is getting you down, tune in to In Defense of Plants and listen to the amazing ways people are working to protect and preserve our fragile environment.
Matt Candeias is on a mission to cure plant blindness. His podcast In Defense of Plants started in January 2015 as an additional element to his blog of the same name and now 443 episodes later, it has become a fascinating platform for sharing amazing evolutionary stories from the botanical world.
From the smallest duckweed to the tallest redwood, tune in for a podcast celebrating everything botany.
USEFUL INFO
Average length 45 minutes
How often is it released Weekly
Link indefenseofplants.com
Looking for more wildlife podcasts? Our friends at BBC Wildlife Magazine have a great list.
