The Organic Gardening Podcast

In this month’s interview episode, Fiona meets Lesley Greene, one of the founders of the Bisley Community Composting Scheme. The scheme is of the UK’s longest-running community composting initiatives.
Celebrating its 21st anniversary this year, Bisley Community Composting have been transforming local organic waste into valuable compost for the community in Gloucestershire for more than two decades. Fiona chats to Lesley about the scheme’s history, the joys and challenges of community composting, and how the scheme works. She also takes a tour of the site, which produces compost for around 160 local households every year.

This month, Fiona catches up with Chris to reflect on a challenging summer of extreme heat and drought, and what it could mean for the way we garden in the future. They discuss which crops have coped best, how gardeners can adapt what they grow and ways to conserve water and protect soil health. They also explore seed saving, companion planting and using shade to help gardens cope with hotter conditions.
Also on this episode...

Anton joins Fiona and Chris to answer your gardening questions, including green manures, raspberry pruning, propagating fig trees and dealing with vine weevil. They also discuss how we can make better use of household water during periods of drought.

In this month’s interview, Fiona is joined by agroecology writer Nancy Matsumoto to discuss her book, Reaping What She Sows. The book celebrates women changemakers from around the world who are helping to rebuild our broken food system. From maverick farmers, millers and bakers reviving local grain economies, to brewers, distillers and winemakers regenerating land and ecosystems, as well as Indigenous and diasporic seed savers, these inspiring women are creating shorter, more direct and transparent alternative food supply chains. 
Fiona and Nancy explore the people and ideas helping to shape a more resilient, sustainable and equitable food future.

It’s been an incredibly dry summer this year and gardeners country-wide have been dealing with extreme heat and drought conditions. 
In this month's episode, Chris and Fiona will be chatting about how their gardens & allotment are fairing in the unusually dry weather. They'll also be discussing how to mitigate common problems that have been caused by the prolonged heat.
Later on, Anton joins the podcast to answer your questions on flea beetle, tomatoes not ripening and how to get rid of weeds on your paving.

In this month’s Organic Gardening Podcast interview, Fiona Taylor is joined by professional horticulturist and garden consultant Kate Turner.
Kate has worked behind the scenes on BBC’s Garden Rescue, ITV’s Love Your Garden and BBC Gardeners’ World. She has also been head gardener at Charterhouse School and worked closely with The Therapy Garden, a thriving horticultural therapy centre in Surrey. 
In this episode, Kate joins us at our HQ in Ryton, where she shares stories from her career, including how she helped bring together the Army Wives Gardening Club, which went on to create a medal-winning garden at the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show.