The Gardener Ben Podcast

S3E18 of The Gardener Ben Podcast features a conversation with Neil from @national_chrysanthemum_society.

Neil shares how his passion for chrysanthemums started at a very young age, how the gifting of just a few plants sparked a lifelong love of growing, and how it led to his involvement with the National Chrysanthemum Society.

This is a group of plants I have tried growing in the past with limited success. Still making up one of the largest cut flower crops grown worldwide, I’ve decided to give this lovely group of plants another go and was inspired by my conversation with Neil to order myself some rooted cuttings, which should arrive over the next couple of months.

They will add a nice late splash of colour to the garden and hopefully be ready to cut and bring into the house in October and November.

In my own garden, I’ve been processing that huge pile of weeping willow cuttings, creating dead hedges in organic spiral forms and cutting the excess up for firewood. The weather is still being incredibly unkind to us, so it’s hard to really get on with much in the garden. If you find yourself falling behind, please be kind to yourself — the task will still be there when the weather clears.

There are now just two episodes left in Season Three. Next week’s episode is very long indeed. I have taken the decision to leave the conversation entirely intact and put it through absolutely no editing or post-production whatsoever. The share from Paige (not her real name) is incredibly personal and will resonate on such a relatable level with so many of you. She is a recovering alcoholic and wanted to share her story in the hope of touching just one person who may be in need of a helping hand. Tune in next week to listen to the full conversation.

The Gardener Ben Podcast is brought to you in association with @peterbealesroses, winner of 30 Chelsea Gold Medals and creating timeless roses since 1968. Go online and shop at www.atpeterbealesroses.com, and make sure that you’re following along on Instagram and TikTok.

The Gardener Ben Podcast is edited by @mark_hamilton_anderson.

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S3E17 of The Gardener Ben Podcast is available for you to listen to and download now. This week, I have the pleasure of being joined by one of my all-time favourite Instagram accounts I’ve been following, @richardgrows, for a very long time now. His passion for plants simply oozes from his account. He has absolutely massive collections of weird and wonderful-looking carnivorous and tropical plants, which is not a subject I know a massive amount about. I hope that you enjoy our conversation and that you show his account on Instagram and TikTok some love. 💚

The Gardener Ben Podcast is brought to you in association with @peterbealesroses, winner of 30 Chelsea Gold Medals and creating timeless roses since 1968. Go online and shop at www.peterbealesroses.com, and make sure that you’re following along on Instagram and TikTok.

The podcast is edited by @mark_hamilton_anderson.

Join me again next week when I get to talk to Neil from @national_chrysanthemum_society. This is a group of plants that I’ve barely explored but absolutely adore, and guided by Neil’s advice, I’ve gone ahead and ordered myself a collection of plants which will be delivered in the coming months.

Catch us next week. Until then, I hope that you stay dry, safe, and happy gardening.

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Episode 16 of season three of The Gardener Ben Podcast is available for you to listen to now. This week, I’m joined by Ana, co-founder of @seed_ball.

With a love of wildflowers and a background firmly set in conservation, Seedball set out to make wildflowers easy to grow and have since diversified into herbs and salads, wrapping seeds in a mixture of clay infused with chilli to protect them from insect damage and make them easy to grow just about anywhere.

Listen to the full episode on Spotify, Apple, Amazon Music, or my YouTube channel now, and make sure that you head to their account and show them some love 💚

The Gardener Ben Podcast is brought to you in association with @peterbealesroses, winner of 30 Chelsea Gold Medals and creating timeless roses since 1968. Go online and shop at www.peterbealesroses.com, and make sure that you’re following along on Instagram and TikTok.

The Gardener Ben Podcast is edited by @mark_hamilton_anderson.

Next week, I’m joined by one of my personal gardening accounts on Instagram, @richardgrows, sharing with us his passion for rare, unusual, and different plants.

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On S3E15 of The Gardener Ben Podcast, I get to speak to Charles Carr, Head of Production at @hilliergardencentres.

Home-growing all of their stock, supplying 22 garden centres and their online store with peat-free grown stock 50 weeks of the year, Charles and I explored his journey into the world of horticulture and the challenges faced by the garden centre group going fully peat-free. We discussed how some plants that we have been used to purchasing have really struggled with the changeover, while others, such as ferns, have become much easier to produce and therefore more readily available.

If you haven’t yet registered your vote to lobby the UK government into taking action and banning the use of peat in the horticultural industry — which sees enough peat removed from the environment to fill 300 Olympic-sized swimming pools each and every year — head over to @peatfreepartnership now and make your voice heard.

The Gardener Ben Podcast is brought to you in association with @peterbealesroses, winner of 30 Chelsea Gold Medals and creating timeless roses since 1968. Go online and shop at www.peterbealesroses.com.

The podcast is edited by @mark_hamilton_anderson.

Next week, I have the pleasure of being joined by Anna from @seed_ball. So until then, happy gardening!

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S3E 14 of the Gardener Ben Podcast is about mindfulness, self, and the quest to be present. It features a conversation with Nicola from @soulfulwisdomacademy.

Nicola is a shamanic dragon priestess who I have visited several times for Reiki healing. It’s no coincidence that this particular podcast episode is scheduled, as it marks one year exactly since I visited Nicola for the first time.

At the end of 2024 into 2025, I was really struggling with my mental health. I was incredibly depressed, lost, and weighed down, carrying pain, grief, and anxiety that I didn’t know how to let go of. I had lost the ability to hear the voice in my head. I couldn’t decipher which way was up or which way to turn next. Luckily, I had people around me to guide and help me, and although I had started personal therapy, I was determined to do as many things as possible to make myself feel as well as I could.

One of these things was to try Reiki healing. The experience was beyond moving, and even if you’re sceptical, as I was when I first visited Nicola, the experience could not be doubted.

So, at a time of year which is traditionally dark, depressing, and challenging for many of us that struggle with mental health issues, I wanted to bring you this personal conversation with Nicola, who shares with us the gifts that she has and her journey into using those gifts to help others like me.

I really hope that you enjoy the conversation, and if there’s something that you’re struggling with, you reach out and ask for the help that you need.

The Gardener Ben Podcast is brought to you in association with @peterbealesroses, winner of 30 Chelsea Gold Medals and creating timeless roses since 1968. Go online and shop at www.peterbealesroses.com.

The Gardener Ben Podcast is edited by @mark_hamilton_anderson.

Next week, we’re swinging back to the topic of horticulture and gardening, and I’m joined by Charles Carr from @hilliergardencentres. Until then, happy gardening.

#gardenerben #podcast #podcaster #mindfulness #wellbeing