The James & Joe Garden Show

Is it okay to hate butterflies? Susan in London would like to know. Cue a deep sigh.
It’s Question Time, and James Alexander-Sinclair and Joe Swift are back with your weird and wonderful garden questions. But first, Joe’s ketchup bottle has exploded. It hit both walls, his ear, his shirt and the sofa cushions, and now the great fridge or cupboard debate has to be settled once and for all.
Then there’s an operatic welcome that owes a great deal to Pavarotti, and James’s day out at the Britain in Bloom finals in Rochdale (gilets bleus and all). An Austrian listener gets her letter read back to her in an accent she specifically asked them not to do. There’s the case for butterfly houses as a form of imprisonment, the interior designer whose big idea was to paint the whole house white, and the architect who looked at James’s finished garden and decided it had to go. Plus a winter build where the mud nearly came over the top of James’s wellies, Joe’s favourite funk soul album, and why you should only grow the veg you can’t buy.
This week’s questions:
Christina in Bisamberg, Austria: Should I move my olive and fig trees out of their pots and into the ground?
Susan in London: Is it okay to hate butterflies?
Paolo: It’s the 18th century. Do you hire William Kent or Capability Brown?
Hannah: Do you work in all weathers?
Maxwell: Is grow your own actually cheaper than buying food?
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:40 A Pavarotti welcome
02:50 Joe’s exploding ketchup bottle
03:54 Should you keep ketchup in the fridge?
07:26 Britain in Bloom finals in Rochdale
10:46 Should olive and fig trees go in the ground?
16:38 Is it okay to hate butterflies?
19:32 Are butterfly houses cruel?
21:55 William Kent or Capability Brown?
22:46 Why architects shouldn’t design gardens
25:00 The designer who painted everything white
26:01 The architect who wanted the garden gone
29:37 Why the garden should come before the house
32:05 Do garden designers work in all weathers?
39:06 Is grow your own cheaper than buying food?
Got a question? Send it in for the chance to win the most coveted prize in horticulture (no, not a Chelsea gold medal).
To ask us a question email gnome@jamesandjoegarden.com or go to our website www.jamesandjoegarden.com
For ad free listening and bonus content then join us at the Garden Collective.
Not only will you get us but new articles every week from some of the best garden writers around and access to a bulging archive from (without wishing to drop names) the likes of Alan Titchmarsh, Ann-Marie Powell, Tom and Sue Stuart-Smith, Advolly Richmond, Jan Etherington and many others. Come and join the Collective for essays, seasonal notes, reflections and stories.
About our hosts
James Alexander-Sinclair is a garden designer, writer and broadcaster. He is an RHS Vice-President and was awarded the Veitch Memorial Medal for outstanding contribution to horticulture in 2022.
Joe Swift is a familiar face on television as a presenter of BBC TV’s Gardeners’ World and other gardening programmes. He is a garden designer, broadcaster, writer and design director of Modular.
Follow James & Joe on Instagram: @jamesandjoegarden
Follow The Garden Collective on Instagram: garden_collective_
Contact us: gnome@jamesandjoegarden.com
www.jamesandjoegarden.com
Remember the two rules: no dead plants and no dull questions.

Is there anything more satisfying than a freshly mulched bed? James Alexander-Sinclair thinks not, and would happily burrow into one. Naked. Cue a deep sigh.
This week James Alexander-Sinclair and Joe Swift take on mulch: why you should do it, when you should do it, and why you should stop fretting over which sort to use and just chuck it on. Joe mulches in autumn, James holds out for January, and both agree that carting everything off to the compost heap and back again is, frankly, a complete waste of time.
Along the way: the snow shovel trick that should have won them a Garden Media Guild award (they weren’t shortlisted, they’re fine about it), Frank shovelling eight cubic metres in the rain while James supervises from the kitchen, hessian vs landscape fabric, the great wood chip nitrogen myth, planting straight into eight inches of sand, Cumbrian bracken mixed with wool, the noble portmanteau (strulch, meet spork) and four kilos of live worms arriving through the letterbox at breakfast.
Plus gulch, bulch and yelch. All will become clear... ish.
Timestamps
00:00 Intro, hi-fi and hunkering down
05:32 Gulch, bulch and yelch: guess the topic
08:25 Where does the word mulch come from?
11:37 Why should you mulch?
12:56 Mulch in autumn or January?
13:26 Chop and drop explained
17:53 Bulk bags vs a loose load of mulch
19:44 Snow shovel tip for spreading mulch
22:02 What is strulch?
25:33 Is wood chip a good mulch?
26:24 Hessian vs landscape fabric
28:17 Does wood chip rob soil of nitrogen?
30:53 Sand mulch: planting into sand
34:32 Should you dig mulch in?
36:12 Buying worms for your garden
Next week it’s Question Time, so send us your weird and wonderful garden questions for the chance to win the most coveted prize in horticulture: the garden gnome.
To ask us a question email gnome@jamesandjoegarden.com or go to our website www.jamesandjoegarden.com
For ad free listening and bonus content then join us at the Garden Collective.
Not only will you get us but new articles every week from some of the best garden writers around and access to a bulging archive from (without wishing to drop names) the likes of Alan Titchmarsh, Ann-Marie Powell, Tom and Sue Stuart-Smith, Advolly Richmond, Jan Etherington and many others. Come and join the Collective for essays, seasonal notes, reflections and stories.
About our hosts
James Alexander-Sinclair is a garden designer, writer and broadcaster. He is an RHS Vice-President and was awarded the Veitch Memorial Medal for outstanding contribution to horticulture in 2022.
Joe Swift is a familiar face on television as a presenter of BBC TV’s Gardeners’ World and other gardening programmes. He is a garden designer, broadcaster, writer and design director of Modular.
Follow James & Joe on Instagram: @jamesandjoegarden
Follow The Garden Collective on Instagram: garden_collective_
Contact us: gnome@jamesandjoegarden.com
www.jamesandjoegarden.com
Remember the two rules: no dead plants and no dull questions.

Can you be a good gardener when it’s cold, wet and utterly miserable? And would anyone in their right mind eat a marmalade sandwich in the bath? Cue a deep sigh.
It’s Question Time, and James Alexander-Sinclair and Joe Swift are back with your weird and wonderful garden questions. First, a listener has written them a theme tune. There’s just one problem: she wants them to sing it.
Then it’s winter kit (agricultural waterproofs held up with baler twine, technical trousers you can hear from the other end of the garden, and James’s dream of owning a pair of combinations), a mad scientist’s laboratory in Bridport where Joe breeds the terrifying Quercus horribilis, why a fresh bag of farmyard manure might be the best smell in the garden, exactly what percentage of their lives they spend thinking about their gardens, and which garden designer has had the most influence on gardening. James also has a theory about the indoor toilet that may change how you look at your back garden forever.
This week’s questions:
Hannah: Winter is coming. How can I be a good gardener in the cold and wet?
Hallie Mae: Which two plants would you combine to make an even better plant?
For the Record 1983: Why is a new bag of farmyard manure the best smell in the garden?
Gillian Moorhead: What percentage of time do you think about your garden?
Stephen Farr: Which famous garden designer has had the most influence on gardening, for better or worse?
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:40 A listener writes us a theme tune
05:11 How to garden in the cold and wet
08:18 The best waterproof trousers for gardening
11:52 Long johns, combinations and layering up
15:54 Biscuits and sandwiches in the bath
16:58 Which two plants would you combine?
20:59 Could you breed an evergreen rose?
24:17 Why does farmyard manure smell so good?
30:43 The voiceover line Joe couldn’t say
31:43 How much do gardeners think about their garden?
36:58 Most influential garden designer ever
42:06 How the indoor toilet changed garden design
44:19 Central Park, Birkenhead and Frederick Law Olmsted
47:04 Is everyone a garden designer now?
Got a question? Send it in for the chance to win the most coveted prize in horticulture (no, not a Chelsea gold medal).
To ask us a question email gnome@jamesandjoegarden.com or go to our website www.jamesandjoegarden.com
About our hosts
James Alexander-Sinclair is a garden designer, writer and broadcaster. He is an RHS Vice-President and was awarded the Veitch Memorial Medal for outstanding contribution to horticulture in 2022.
Joe Swift is a familiar face on television as a presenter of BBC TV’s Gardeners’ World and other gardening programmes. He is a garden designer, broadcaster, writer and design director of Modular.
For ad free listening and bonus content then join us at the Garden Collective.
Not only will you get us but new articles every week from some of the best garden writers around and access to a bulging archive from (without wishing to drop names) the likes of Alan Titchmarsh, Ann-Marie Powell, Tom and Sue Stuart-Smith, Advolly Richmond, Jan Etherington and many others. Come and join the Collective for essays, seasonal notes, reflections and stories.
Follow James & Joe on Instagram: @jamesandjoegarden
Follow The Garden Collective on Instagram: garden_collective_
Contact us: gnome@jamesandjoegarden.com
www.jamesandjoegarden.com
Remember: no dead plants and no dull questions. See you back in the garden.

Is the most important thing in garden design... a chair? James thinks so. Joe, alarmingly, agrees. Cue a deep sigh from the plants.

This week James Alexander-Sinclair and Joe Swift sit down (eventually) to argue that every good garden starts with where you put your bottom. Where should a seat go? Sun or shade? How many friends do you need before you're allowed a terrace? And is a garden bench really just a sculpture you occasionally sit on?

Along the way: a fish that grows a few centimetres every time it's mentioned, James's garden building with a pretentious Spanish name, a reclaimed teak table flattened by a falling tree the day after it arrived, Joe's claim to have invented the plastic rattan sofa, a deck chair stand-off over a Ritz biscuit, and a radical proposal for trousers with the cushion built in.

Timestamps
00:00 Intro
03:25 Joe's big fish in Ireland
04:26 James's West Coast tour of Canada
06:20 Is sitting the key to garden design?
07:32 Where to put a seat in your garden
08:37 How big should your terrace be?
12:39 Why a garden bench is a sculpture
17:04 Designing a bespoke garden bench
20:02 Sun or shade: where to sit now
23:16 How comfortable should garden seating be?
27:13 Why garden chairs need arms
30:54 Built-in seating for small gardens
37:05 Wood, metal or plastic rattan?
41:23 Bring back the deck chair
44:42 The cushion: the most important part

For ad free listening and bonus content then join us at the Garden Collective.
Not only will you get us but new articles every week from some of the best garden writers around and access to a bulging archive from (without wishing to drop names) the likes of Alan Titchmarsh, Ann-Marie Powell, Tom and Sue Stuart-Smith, Advolly Richmond, Jan Etherington and many others. Come and join the Collective for essays, seasonal notes, reflections and stories.

To ask us a question email gnome@jamesandjoegarden.com or go to our website www.jamesandjoegarden.com
Every question is in with a chance to win Jekyll, our garden gnome and the most coveted prize in horticulture.

Follow James & Joe on Instagram: @jamesandjoegarden
Follow The Garden Collective on Instagram: garden_collective_
Contact us: gnome@jamesandjoegarden.com
www.jamesandjoegarden.com

About our hosts
James Alexander-Sinclair is a garden designer, writer and broadcaster. He is an RHS Vice-President and was awarded the Veitch Memorial Medal for outstanding contribution to horticulture in 2022.

Joe Swift is a familiar face on television as a presenter of BBC TV's Gardeners' World and other gardening programmes. He is a garden designer, broadcaster, writer and design director of Modular.

Our only two rules? No dead plants and no dull questions.

What underwear should a professional gardener wear? Nobody at Gardeners' Question Time is going to touch that one. Luckily, you have us.
James Alexander-Sinclair and Joe Swift hand the podcast over to you, and this week's postbag is long. Very long. One listener has had enough of pants that fall apart, fall down or cut off the circulation, which leads to a full design brief for the James and Joe gardening undergarment: rib cage to knee, built-in knee pads, a hori hori holder and a warm pocket for toffees.
Also in the bag: a lavender hedge crisis delivered as a tragic ballad in rhyming couplets (it wins a gnome), what to wear when judging a horticultural competition in North Carolina, and the plants you'd choose for a garden designed for your absolute nemesis... the ones that look like thoughtful luxury and turn into an endless maintenance hellhole. Bamboo, Japanese knotweed, mind-your-own-business and a walnut tree that poisons its neighbours all get a mention. Somewhere in there is an actual fact about allelopathy.
Plus: the correct way to pronounce scarifying, why Dr Seuss was never a doctor, and what Joe would do if he were ever sold to Tottenham.
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Welcome to The James & Joe Garden Show
01:40 James sings the intro
02:47 How to send us a question
04:32 What underwear should gardeners wear?
10:18 Designing the perfect gardening pants
13:39 The Lavender Conundrum: a poem
16:31 When to rip out a lavender hedge
17:00 How to prune lavender
19:50 What to wear to judge a flower show
24:50 A uniform for flower show judges
27:32 Designing a garden for your nemesis
31:11 Invasive plants: knotweed, balsam and bamboo
32:21 Allelopathy: plants that poison their neighbours
35:52 Why is Dr Seuss a doctor?
To ask us a question email gnome@jamesandjoegarden.com or go to our website www.jamesandjoegarden.com
For ad free listening and bonus content then join us at the Garden Collective.
Not only will you get us but new articles every week from some of the best garden writers around and access to a bulging archive from (without wishing to drop names) the likes of Alan Titchmarsh, Ann-Marie Powell, Tom and Sue Stuart-Smith, Advolly Richmond, Jan Etherington and many others. Come and join the Collective for essays, seasonal notes, reflections and stories.
About our hosts
James Alexander-Sinclair is a garden designer, writer and broadcaster. He is an RHS Vice-President and was awarded the Veitch Memorial Medal for outstanding contribution to horticulture in 2022.
Joe Swift is a familiar face on television as a presenter of BBC TV's Gardeners' World and other gardening programmes. He is a garden designer, broadcaster, writer and design director of Modular.
Follow James & Joe on Instagram: @jamesandjoegarden
Follow The Garden Collective on Instagram: garden_collective_
Contact us: gnome@jamesandjoegarden.com
www.jamesandjoegarden.com
Send us a question for the chance to win the most coveted prize in horticulture. Poems welcome. Only two rules: no dead plants and no dull questions.