BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Podcast

Tall and elegant, growing on upright spikes lined with individual flowers, these delicate yet regal floral towers can bring a fairytale look to a flower border. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From how to begin gardening, growing with the seasons, creating months of floral colour in borders and pots, and discovering successful plant combinations, we’ll also give your garden year-round interest, unlock the potential of your plot, give advice for what to grow in small spaces, plant for pollinators, nurture the land we grow on, find the joy in gardening, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Start your gardening year with growing inspiration in the Spring Conversations podcast from BBC Gardeners' World Magazine and hear from the UK’s most loved and well-respected gardening experts.From how to begin gardening, growing with the seasons, creating months of floral colour in borders and pots, and discovering successful plant combinations, we’ll also give your garden year-round interest, unlock the potential of your plot, give advice for what to grow in small spaces, plant for pollinators, nurture the land we grow on, find the joy in gardening, and more.Enjoy friendly gardening chat and informative discussion with the magazine team, perfect for everyone who loves gardening. With new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe now, wherever you get your podcasts, and never miss an episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This time of year, the last thing many of us think about doing is immersing in cold water outside, but cold, open water can calm the mind, strengthen the body, and reconnect us with nature, boosting mental clarity, mood and resilience. No stranger to wild swimming is cold water swimming expert, open water coach, and wild swimming author Alice Goodridge, based in the Scottish Highlands. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A deep dive into ornamental wild carrot and its airy umbels that attract pollinators. Planting windows, sowing techniques and why root disturbance matters. Tips for growing straighter stems for cutting and managing floppy growth. Advice on pairing with meadow plants to boost biodiversity and garden atmosphere.

Cathy Schofield, Chief Allied Health Professional leading Bradford’s nature-based mental health initiatives. She describes allotment groups, canal and moor visits, VR nature for inpatients, biodiversity projects and partnerships that bring green and blue spaces into care. Short stories show patient enthusiasm, access challenges and efforts to make nature-based therapy routine in NHS mental health services.

 Connecting with nature and gardening are proven ways to benefit our health and wellbeing. Support for people to engage in nature-based interventions is also on the rise, highlighting the vital work that a burgeoning collective of community gardens and community gardeners are doing. Therapeutic gardener at RHS Bridgewater, Salford, Ozichi Brewster talks about the healing power of nature and gardening, and how a rise in social prescribing is helping a range of health and wellbeing issues. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you haven’t heard of Ratibida before, it’s also known as the Prairie coneflower. A plant that thrives in dry conditions, it's happy growing in many planting locations from a cottage or informal garden to a gravel garden, in prairie planting, and in flower borders and beds, as well as to grow for a cut flower. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Creating green spaces for our cities and community gardens for residents are ways to bring pockets of nature into our urban landscapes. By strengthening social ties, they bring neighbours together, foster a sense of belonging, and create supportive, multicultural networks, transforming neighbourhoods and empowering residents to reshape the way cities think about green space. Naveep Deol, trustee of the National Park City Foundation and chair of the London National Park City, is a passionate advocate for greener cities, the community gardening movement, and how these shared green spaces can act as small sanctuaries that nurture both personal and community health. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As we look for ways to spend more time in nature, how can we build a deeper and more meaningful relationship with the natural world? What does it mean to connect with nature, why does it matter and how have we drifted away from it? Chair of Natural England, Tony Juniper is one of the UK’s most influential environmental thinkers and campaigners. Combining scientific insight, policy expertise, and a passion for the natural world, he'll discuss how reconnecting can change not just the way we live, but the world we’re shaping for generations to come. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices