The Cut Flower Podcast

Garden Design and Sustainability with Chris Hull

• Roz Chandler / Chris Hull • Season 1 • Episode 100

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Text Agony Aunt Roz with your Cutflower Questions.

Hi, I’m Roz Chandler, and welcome to another episode of The Cutflower Podcast! Today, I’m joined by a very special guest—Chris Hull, an award-winning landscape designer and presenter on Garden Rescue. We’ll be talking about his journey in garden design, sustainability, and some fantastic insights into creating eco-friendly gardens. Let’s dive in!

Episode Summary:
In this episode, Chris Hull shares his evolution from gardener to landscape designer, highlighting his award-winning work at the Chelsea Flower Show. He discusses the principles of sustainable garden design, stressing the importance of using local materials and native plants to minimize environmental impact. Chris provides tips on designing gardens that promote biodiversity, emphasizing how diverse plantings can create habitats that support local wildlife and ecosystems.

Beyond the design aspect, Chris opens up about his work with the mental health charity Rethink and his belief in the therapeutic power of gardening. He speaks about the profound effects gardening has on mental well-being, offering listeners insight into how horticulture can serve as a tool for emotional and mental recovery. 

Key Takeaways:

  1. Sustainable Gardening: Focus on using native plants and locally sourced materials to reduce environmental impact.
  2. Design for Wildlife: Incorporate a variety of plants to create a garden that supports local ecosystems and wildlife.
  3. Gardening for Mental Health: The act of gardening can improve mental well-being, offering therapeutic benefits and a calming escape.
  4. Practical Experience: Aspiring garden designers should immerse themselves in hands-on work to truly understand plants and landscape dynamics.

If you found this conversation with Chris Hull inspiring, please leave a review and share the episode with your gardening friends. Be sure to check out Chris’s work on his YouTube channel, Chris Hull Gardens, and follow him on Instagram for more design inspiration. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out at roz@fieldgateflowers.co.uk


[00:00:00] Roz Chandler: I'm so delighted to welcome Chris Hull to our podcast today. And Chris Hull is a multi award winning landscape designer with experience working on high end residential, public realm and community based projects throughout the UK and abroad. Chris and co designer Sid Hill won gold at RHS Chelsea Flower Show, and I know he'll be really modest about that, with their microbiome garden.

[00:00:22] Roz Chandler: And that's where I met Chris, actually, at Chelsea. Chris is also a presenter on Garden Rescue with Charlie Dimmock, and does loads of other things which we'll come on to. Chris, tell me about your journey into the world of garden design, and were you a work forever in the garden and mother's a child, or was it a passion that developed in later life?

[00:00:40] Chris: It was I was definitely always outdoorsy as a child, so my dad's a sorry, my stepdad is a forester, works for the Forestry Commission, so I always used to go out logging with him from a really young age doing stuff and my mum, It's hobbyist, gardener, and my dad also is pretty green fingered.

[00:00:57] Chris: So I was always, wherever we were, I spent a lot of time in my nan's garden. She used to grow loads of veg, and so I was always involved outside. And then when I was 15, I got my first gardening job at a country house hotel, and then started training under the head gardeners there, and that was it really.

[00:01:15] Chris: Have a look back. 

[00:01:16] Roz Chandler: It's weird, isn't it? When people start and get into gardening, they basically don't leave it. I've got a rag trainee at the moment who didn't start as a rag trainee. She's only started about a month ago. She came she lived in a village locally and was, she's an artist and was a young girl looking for some extra work.

[00:01:33] Chris: Yeah. I 

[00:01:33] Roz Chandler: said can you come and do some picking for me, some flowers? And can you come and do a bit of weeding? Nothing, honestly, just a garden job, minimum wage, come and do it. After a couple of months, probably three months, she decided this was for her. And this was nothing to do with what she was going to do at all.

[00:01:47] Roz Chandler: So I don't know whether there's something in that soil that says you're going to become addicted to me and then you're going to do it. But I find that a lot. 

[00:01:54] Chris: I think you're right. That's exactly it. I needed money. That's why I got the job, but obviously I wanted to do something outdoorsy.

[00:02:00] Chris: But I ended up being a waiter in that same hotel. So I'd work in the garden in the day. And then in the evening I'd go and work as a waiter or after school, I'd go and be a waiter in there. So it was really funny. So it's just doing a bit of everything. But then I was just got hooked on the gardening and yeah, it worked out really well because a lot of garden designers don't come from that background necessarily.

[00:02:19] Chris: Some, Some do, but others don't. So it's nice to, I think it's nice to go from the practical side, doing gardening and learning how it all works, and then delving into the design side. It's worked out nicely for me. 

[00:02:32] Roz Chandler: I think if I have my time again, I might be a landscape designer. I quite fancy one.

[00:02:36] Chris: Hey, there's 

[00:02:36] Roz Chandler: still time. No, I'm not rounding anything else in. A lot is talked about sustainability and what makes a garden? We're often asked how sustainable we are, but what makes a garden sustainable? How can we be better at sustainability in our gardens? 

[00:02:51] Chris: It's such a funny topic because It's quite divisive.

[00:02:55] Chris: Some people can get very they feel very strongly about it and can be a bit pushy sometimes. Which I really don't like, by the way, so people who shut it down your throat. It's quite, people have very strong opinions about things, but actually if they reflected on themselves, they probably realized they were doing a million other things that were bad for the environment too.

[00:03:11] Chris: It's 

[00:03:11] Roz Chandler: October, it's in January. Yeah, exactly. We were all being completely honest about stuff. I 

[00:03:17] Chris: think as long as people are are having a go and trying to do their bit, Great, there's no need to be forcing it on people, but I think things in the garden that you can do obviously everyone knows buying things locally and buying things from growers who actually grow stuff themselves here It's really great as well.

[00:03:33] Chris: And then looking at materials. I mean I try and do this a lot in my work is Using materials that haven't traveled from a quarry in India or Egypt and you can't always, you can't always avoid it. Sometimes the client doesn't have the money and, that's all that's available or you can get it cheap, whatever happens, you can't always achieve the best thing, but you can try your best.

[00:03:54] Chris: And I've been looking lots into at the minute about sourcing timber locally. So getting it from some pretty rough and ready sawmills that are local, but they get it from the woods that's near them, and they're, harvesting it all in their sawmill rather than getting cedar that's come from Canada and things like that.

[00:04:09] Chris: Even if it is sustainably managed over there, it's just nice to know it's come from your doorstep. 

[00:04:15] Roz Chandler: I'm not sure you always know. No. 

[00:04:16] Chris: I 

[00:04:16] Roz Chandler: think, because it's not labelled necessarily, it's like flowers isn't it? They're not labelled where they come from. In the same way, I'm thinking about that landscape product.

[00:04:25] Roz Chandler: I wouldn't have even thought about it. I wouldn't go and go, oh, that, that slab or that paving or that timber has come from. That's a little bit more worrying, actually, that you don't know where it's come from. It's okay. 

[00:04:36] Chris: Yeah. And it's just something to think about. And then the other side of being sustainable is also, is just, packing in diverse, Plantings, things that are great for wildlife.

[00:04:45] Chris: Not so much on the carbon footprint side, but how you can benefit the wildlife around you and create a really diverse garden. Basically, diversity is key to making something sustainable, really. 

[00:04:57] Roz Chandler: Yeah, I love it. I put a pond in last year for the sheer fact, for only fact, of adding some diversity.

[00:05:02] Roz Chandler: It's not, doesn't actually do anything. I haven't put fish in, it's just got plants and it goes wild. It's completely wild. It's in a sort of an area where nobody, it's not meant to be beautiful. 

[00:05:11] Chris: Yeah. 

[00:05:11] Roz Chandler: The whole point of it and then growing dahlias which are open and growing plants and verbena that's open.

[00:05:16] Roz Chandler: I have noticed a lack of butterflies and bees this year which is a bit worrying. I've heard lots of people say this. Yeah, hopefully they're gonna, yeah, a real lack of numbers. 

[00:05:26] Chris: Yeah. 

[00:05:27] Roz Chandler: Yeah, hopefully they'll be back next year but it was a bit worrying. But yeah, so I know you do a bit of TV. I always said that what I would do is I'd like a radio show.

[00:05:37] Roz Chandler: I'm not sure I'd want to be doing TV. And how did you first become involved in BBC series Garden Rescue, which we all watch? And how easy did you find the transition from garden design? It's a whole different skill set. TV, my goodness, it's no. 

[00:05:50] Chris: Yeah, it is very different. I, I. Basically the Rich Brothers who were on it, the presenters they were leaving so then there was an opening and I think the company put out an email with the SGD saying, is anybody interested in TV, basically?

[00:06:04] Chris: So I thought I'll send an email in, why not? I'd never, something I'd never thought of, but why not? And then coincidentally, they also contacted me directly because I was in the pro landscapers 30 under 30 that year. Anyway I then had to do a load of self film screen tests because it was COVID at the time.

[00:06:20] Chris: So they normally would send someone out and, film you. But I did it with my wife Zoe was behind the camera and I was, doing all these little bits. I think I was making bug hotels or something like that. And it's really funny because you can hear Zoe just breathing really heavily.

[00:06:35] Chris: No, the audio is terrible. 

[00:06:36] Roz Chandler: But 

[00:06:38] Chris: I did, I edited it to, I filmed shots of me, picking stuff up and walking in and walking out and I edited it myself. So it looked like a mini episode from the TV and they said no one else had done that and because he understood how the show works. Yeah, that worked in my favor, I think.

[00:06:54] Chris: Wow, and that was the beginning. That was the beginning, and it took a while to adjust, but I really enjoy it. It's really good fun. Everyone, we're always having such a laugh when we're doing the show. And yeah, now I'm just, I'm quite confident in front of the camera now. 

[00:07:07] Roz Chandler: Yeah, absolutely. I don't know, it's one of your, one of your strings 

[00:07:11] Chris: to your bow now.

[00:07:12] Chris: It is good, and I'm also actually on the TV front. I've just started working on Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh. Yeah which has not been announced anywhere until just now, so there you go. Oh, wow, we've got a first. 

[00:07:23] Roz Chandler: Wow. 

[00:07:23] Chris: Yeah. And that's 

[00:07:24] Roz Chandler: interesting. So how did that come about? Just they contacted you after Garden Rescue?

[00:07:29] Roz Chandler: No, actually, they contacted me after seeing 

[00:07:31] Chris: me on The One Show. I don't know if you saw, I did like a pocket garden makeover thing for The One Show. And it was transforming this lady's little garden. And somebody from that show saw me on there and then asked me to Come on to this lovely weekend, yeah.

[00:07:44] Chris: But it's only as a, basically as a garden expert, so they have loads of little segments throughout the show, so each week I'll do, not each time, but I'll do a segment on, autumn tree planting or hedges or whatever it might be. When is that filmed then? It's all filmed in Hampshire, on a farm.

[00:08:03] Roz Chandler: Wow, okay. 

[00:08:04] Chris: Yeah. 

[00:08:05] Roz Chandler: That's quite exciting, yeah. Yeah, so that first 

[00:08:07] Chris: one comes out this Sunday, which will be it's the 16th today for us, isn't it? So The 20th. 

[00:08:13] Roz Chandler: Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I should be watching it then. Brilliant. And it's weekly, isn't it? Yeah, every Sunday. 

[00:08:19] Chris: And I won't be in every Sunday because there's other people.

[00:08:22] Chris: They have florists doing bits. They have Camilla who also does some planty stuff. So there's a few different people. But yeah, be on this weekend. 

[00:08:30] Roz Chandler: Okay. So I first met you in Chelsea, obviously, and fell in love with your garden at Chelsea, which did get a gold and was rightly deserved. How did that come about?

[00:08:38] Roz Chandler: How did You know, because as I said to you, I want you to do a a show garden at Gardeners World next year. I'll tell you what, it's quite complicated. It's complicated. The application is complicated in itself. 

[00:08:49] Chris: Yeah. 

[00:08:50] Roz Chandler: You need a sponsor. 

[00:08:51] Chris: Yeah. 

[00:08:52] Roz Chandler: And so if there's anyone out there who wants to sponsor Gardeners World Cutting Patch Garden, that would be great.

[00:08:57] Roz Chandler: But it's, how did you do it? How did you come around with it? It's a 

[00:08:59] Chris: really weird process, and it does sound really confusing until you've done one, because I always thought exactly the same as you, like, where do you even start? Luckily for me and because it was Chelsea Project Giving Back, who are basically a charity who fund lots of charity gardens at Chelsea, so they work with Gardens that are partnered with other charities and they have a big pot of money and they fund these gardens.

[00:09:22] Chris: So they were our sponsor Which helps straight away because they've done lots of these already before so that they know their way around You know the show and how it all works, which is really good But you can look at corporate sponsors as well, people in the past partner with M& G or I don't know a drinks company or whatever it might be.

[00:09:42] Chris: There's people have corporate sponsors as well so that's definitely something to approach for gardeners world. Get try and get yourself a corporate one 

[00:09:50] Roz Chandler: Thinking my daughter's a lawyer a major corporate lawyer in London. Maybe I should tap her up 

[00:09:55] Chris: Yeah, and yeah, and the application process is always hard.

[00:09:58] Chris: I think the chelsea one is RHS shows in general are just a complete nightmare, but they but they're obviously very rigorous and, you have to play your cards right. But we actually, I actually got into doing it because Sid, who I designed it with he got approached by Bower Research UK as they were looking.

[00:10:17] Chris: how they could, raise awareness for the charity and raise some money. And they liked what he was talking about with his edible meadows and the gut microbiome. And then he said, Oh, I do it on my own. So got in touch with me. 

[00:10:29] Roz Chandler: Yeah, I wouldn't do it on it was a big garden as well. And let's be honest, it was a lot of work.

[00:10:33] Roz Chandler: It was very, 

[00:10:33] Chris: it was a lot of bespoke elements. It was very built considering it's all about plants garden. There was a lot going on in it, loads of bespoke stuff. Yeah, it was really. complex thing to do. Worked out very well. it 

[00:10:44] Roz Chandler: again? Or are you doing it again? 

[00:10:47] Chris: No, I'm not. I might do in the future, but I'm not actually actively doing it again at the minute.

[00:10:52] Chris: Because it takes two years. So it's two years from submitting your application to then getting to the show. So right now they've just, in September, they just took all their applications for 2026. Maybe further down the line. And I think if I did, I'd probably do it for a mental health charity or something along those lines, I think.

[00:11:11] Chris: Do it a bit differently. But yeah, it's a funny old experience. 

[00:11:14] Roz Chandler: Yeah, I'd definitely like to do something and come back to a mental health charity, but yeah, maybe that's another angle. 

[00:11:19] Chris: Yeah, so what about your garden? You should do it. Surely you've got lots of suppliers that you might be able to tap up to sponsor you.

[00:11:26] Roz Chandler: Yeah, because I want to do it as seed to vase, because that's the name of one of my courses that I do. But it's like taking seeds obviously in a cutting patch and taking it all the way through to floristry. So yeah, I saw a potting bench and then I saw a floristry bench and I saw that anyone could have a cutting patch and they could take seeds and take it all the way through.

[00:11:45] Roz Chandler: So it's about finding a potting shed obviously and finding a seed. That could work with you to produce the seed. So maybe it's a seed supplier. 

[00:11:54] Chris: Exactly. So if you can get somebody to financially support it, and then actually other stuff, like even on our garden, we were sponsored by Project Giving Back, which was a big chunk of what was the main chunk of the money, but even then we didn't have enough budget.

[00:12:06] Chris: So we then partnered with Simproof who were a pro Baltic drinks company. So they funded us. another 16 grand, something like that, I believe. Yeah, big money. Yeah, to help us get it over the line which we're very thankful for to them. 

[00:12:20] Roz Chandler: Yeah, that's all. Yeah. Like I say, I will look at it back again and think about the sponsorship.

[00:12:24] Roz Chandler: Yeah, I'd really like to do it. Yeah. God's world is not so stressful as Chelsea. That's for sure. Maybe it's just an entrance into the market. Yeah. And I'd like to give it a go. So I'll keep you posted on that one. Tell us about a particular project that was fun or challenging that you've done, or both.

[00:12:41] Chris: Ooh! Is that anything really viral? a storm of all the 

[00:12:46] Roz Chandler: Yeah, I liked the Mediterranean garden by the way, but yeah. Oh yeah. Had a good look round. I thought, ooh, I quite like that Mediterranean garden. 

[00:12:54] Chris: There's a lot of a lot of particularly challenging ones. So Chelsea was probably one of the most challenging ones I've ever done, to be honest, because we were putting so much work into ourselves, and a lot of it was uncharted territory, things people had never built before, and it wasn't standard practice, so that was quite difficult.

[00:13:10] Chris: But Actually, I think one, one thing that really stands out to me was this garden room that I was a whole garden that I've done recently, a year or so ago. But we also did this garden room within it that was completely bespoke. I built it just me and Gruff, who's one of the landscapers on Garden Rescue, actually.

[00:13:30] Chris: But we worked together on that because we like timber work. And and we did it all with Devon grown timber that was Devon grown and milled. And it was all really wacky shapes and completely bespoke. And I think it, it drove us quite mad. But in the end we got there and are really proud of it.

[00:13:44] Chris: And it's this completely, I'll send you some photos of it. It's a completely unique building. It's really cool. And that's Yeah, that spurred me on to doing the mad shelter at Chelsea the hive. So then that was our next crazy escapade after that. 

[00:13:58] Roz Chandler: I'll give you a hammer and some timber and that's it, you're off.

[00:14:01] Chris: Yeah, basically. 

[00:14:03] Roz Chandler: So what single piece of advice would you give for somebody wanting to do a career in garden design? Did you obviously did gardening and then decided to train as a landscape gardener. What would you say to somebody now today? 

[00:14:15] Chris: So I think, I would recommend that people do that.

[00:14:22] Chris: Not necessarily get a job as a gardener and go for as long as I did before training in garden design, but I think definitely get practical experience. Whether you're a career changer who's in a Corporate job looking to go into garden design, or even if you're just coming out of school and wanting to go into garden design, because you can get onto a garden design course fairly easily.

[00:14:42] Chris: But I think alongside that, get a job as a gardener. And you have to start from the bottom. You have to do weeding. You have to do all of those jobs. You have to clean things, because you, some people, they wouldn't even know what the weeds are to start with. So I think it's really important.

[00:14:56] Chris: And then you start to learn, your plants, because you're not going to learn your plants unless you're working with them and touching them. It's all right looking at a book, but it doesn't actually embed it in your brain, so that's my advice. 

[00:15:06] Roz Chandler: Yeah, I can definitely. Years back I used to work for KLC, isn't it?

[00:15:12] Roz Chandler: Oh yeah. Yeah, I was their marketing director, an interim marketing director and I obviously had an interest in gardening and I had the flower farm but on a much smaller scale and I went as an interim and I loved it. It was great just to see all their courses and obviously landscape design. Yeah, they 

[00:15:25] Chris: Do a lot.

[00:15:26] Chris: Yeah. Another, one other little bit of advice is also get in with a landscaper that's good. Whether, whether you just go and do some voluntary work or shadow them on some jobs, because that's another gap in a lot of garden designers sort of skill sets, is that they might know plants and design, but they, a lot of the time, people lack in construction knowledge and how sites work and how they operate.

[00:15:49] Chris: That is, Just so valuable to do that. So definitely recommend that. 

[00:15:54] Roz Chandler: So you have a YouTube channel. What do you do over on your YouTube? It's new. It's 

[00:15:58] Chris: new. I started it almost a year ago when I was building that garden room. Actually, it was the first video I did. And and I was like I'm going to bed into this.

[00:16:06] Chris: I really wanted to give it a bash, but unfortunately my dad has been really ill over the last year. So I had to just, Cut something out of my workload. Wasn't earning, obviously doesn't earn me any money. It's a passion project, really. So I had to stop that and put it on pause.

[00:16:19] Chris: But now I've just just picked it back up again. And I'm trying to to keep doing that. Just doing things that I think are really fun, things I find interesting. I did one where I was out hunting carnivorous plants out on a heathland near me, which, people would never have known they were there.

[00:16:33] Chris: It's really unusual. And I'm just making one on Some of the biggest trees in the southwest. So going around different estates, looking at their champion trees. So yeah, just a bit of fun really, but it's just a nicer way of giving some people some long form content, off of Instagram, basically.

[00:16:49] Chris: Where do they find you? What's your YouTube? Chris Hull Gardens, same as my Instagram, but on YouTube. Instagram is

[00:16:54] Roz Chandler: your Instagram. Yeah. Brilliant. Yeah. And obviously it's on Instagram and we're going to put it all in the show notes so people can find you. 

[00:16:59] Chris: very much. 

[00:17:01] Roz Chandler: I know you're involved with Rethink, a mental health charity.

[00:17:04] Chris: Yes. 

[00:17:04] Roz Chandler: Can you tell us more about it? I'm really interested. I've done a lot of work on this podcast, actually, with both doctors and professors, and all things about being outside and being good for your mental health, and I've written quite a lot about mental health. And my daughter is a mental health psychotherapist, and she does dance and drama therapy, which is the same as carbon therapy.

[00:17:23] Roz Chandler: It's the same 

[00:17:23] Chris: thing. Yeah. 

[00:17:24] Roz Chandler: And she's working with adolescents between the ages of 23. 

[00:17:29] Chris: Oh wow, okay. 

[00:17:30] Roz Chandler: I think it's quite challenging. I think mental health as a whole thing is quite a challenging area. And I, how did you get involved? What made you do it? What's, what? 

[00:17:38] Chris: Because my dad's is is a, Paranoid schizophrenic and he's lived with it since his early 20s.

[00:17:44] Chris: So all of my life. And I'm he's not with my mum. He's on his own and So i'm his basically primary sort of carer in a way yeah and Yeah, because I've seen him go through all his ups and downs throughout his life and in and out of hospital being sectioned and all the rest of it, I just, I know how difficult it is for people like him, because there's no way he could do those things on his own if he didn't have me to support him to navigate that crazy world of the mental health care system.

[00:18:14] Chris: Yeah, people need. Bit of a bit more help around that area and also around the stigma, between it all. I really liked Rethink's works. I followed them on Instagram and they share a lot of good statistics and facts and it's there, some people can be quite wishy washy around the subject and they're quite, to the point, which I really liked.

[00:18:31] Chris: So I just reached out to them and said, I'd like to work with you in some way or be an ambassador or whatever I can do to help. And that's how we got talking really. 

[00:18:40] Roz Chandler: Yeah, no, it's great. Cause I hadn't heard of the charity before and I know a relatively a good amount about mental health and I hadn't heard of Rethink.

[00:18:48] Roz Chandler: So I was thinking, wow, why haven't I heard about it? And then, and obviously then you were in it and I thought this is something we all need to talk about. I think people do talk about mental health more than they ever did. 

[00:18:57] Chris: They do. Yeah. 

[00:18:58] Roz Chandler: And less stigma attached to it, I'm hoping. But it's still massively underfunded.

[00:19:03] Roz Chandler: It is. 

[00:19:05] Chris: Yeah, it's really tricky because in some areas, just from my own experience, I've noticed that the actual attention and care that my dad receives is less than it used to be, when I was probably 20 years ago or something. 

[00:19:18] Roz Chandler: Wow, really? Less now than it was then. 

[00:19:20] Chris: Yeah. He used to have a sort of care coordinator type person who would check in with him regularly, make sure he's, on the straight and narrow and not in any risk and they would always check in and Nate doesn't get any of that, hasn't had that for years and now they, they Basically say if I ring them and said I think something's going wrong, I think he's going downhill quite fast We need to, we need to do something about it or else he's going to end up being sectioned Somebody would usually come out and try and help and they do what they can whereas now they all they say is You unless he's a risk to his own life or someone else's we can't help you and you have to call the police and you think that's not going to help anyone.

[00:19:59] Roz Chandler: It's not, and the police don't want to be called either, which is actually No, it's not 

[00:20:02] Chris: their job. 

[00:20:03] Roz Chandler: Yeah no. Talking about sectioning, you've still got, at some point, I mean my daughter was sectioned at one point, but at some point, yeah, the whole system is completely and 100 percent underfunded. And it's, what's going to happen about that?

[00:20:18] Roz Chandler: Because it's getting more and more, and we need more and more money. 

[00:20:22] Chris: It does, yeah, it's a real shame. But that's why you were saying what your daughter does, and gardening, horticultural therapy, things like that are really good. When somebody's You know, in a good frame of mind and they can go out and work on a garden or whether they're going out walking in a group or whatever they're doing.

[00:20:38] Chris: They're doing something that can take them out of their mind and whether they're socializing or whether they're just there in their own sort of lone bubble, they're still getting out and doing something. And that's really good. Cause if you've got something regular like that to go to, it can really help to manage things.

[00:20:51] Chris: Yeah. 

[00:20:52] Roz Chandler: Yeah, I mean I've had this student working with me since he was 16 and he went off to Cardiff Uni and he's now only his third year, so it's been quite a while and he comes every summer and Christmas in Autumn. We, I was discussing with him and he doesn't necessarily have any mental health issues per se.

[00:21:06] Roz Chandler: Yeah. But he said the reason he comes and works here, he said the number one reason he comes and works is 'cause he is. And he said, and I can come and I can not think about anything. And I, it really helps me. I know it sounds mad, but it's good. And I thought that's really interesting. And then he was the guy who went off to Cardiff to study maths and then came home at Christmas and went to me, I'm not really sure maths is for me, Ross.

[00:21:27] Roz Chandler: So he then went back and did economics and he came back at Easter and he went. I'm not sure it's right for me. I said you should just go off and do horticulture now you've been outside for so long Elliot. Go and do horticulture. He's actually doing archaeology now. Oh cool. He ditched the whole maths thing, ditched the, because he wants to be outside.

[00:21:44] Chris: That's a cool job. And he 

[00:21:45] Roz Chandler: Thought that's really cool job. So he came here at 16 thinking he was going to be a mathematician or some sort of data analyst and he's now doing archaeology. So strange things happen when you come on board. Good on 

[00:21:55] Chris: him. 

[00:21:56] Roz Chandler: Turn up and wait. To think you're going to do one thing and then you turn up and things are completely different.

[00:22:00] Roz Chandler: And that's about being outside. It doesn't actually matter whether you're gardening or walking or being in nature or whatever. It's about being outside. It's quite hard to explain. Yeah. But it's brilliant for you to do it. 

[00:22:13] Chris: Yeah, that's why my favourite job is going on the ride on Moa. You just 

[00:22:19] Roz Chandler: switch off, 

[00:22:19] Chris: don't 

[00:22:21] Roz Chandler: think.

[00:22:22] Roz Chandler: My favourite job is pricking out seeds. Because you just go like that, and 

[00:22:27] Chris: like 

[00:22:28] Roz Chandler: that. And you normally listen to a podcast and you're sitting under the tree. And you're going, ha, another one, and that's pretty lovely. In any day I spend a lot of time online and I have to get up and go outside. I can't bear it.

[00:22:39] Roz Chandler: But it's, yeah, so I have to go and see what the seeds are doing, see if they're germinating any quicker than I saw them yesterday and see if they're doing anything today. Yeah. If you were on a desert island, what books would you take with you, or indeed any items you'd take with you? What would you take?

[00:22:51] Roz Chandler: Go on officer, we're going to put you on a beautiful desert island, what would you do? 

[00:22:55] Chris: Books. Lord of the Rings. 

[00:22:58] Roz Chandler: Ah, okay. 

[00:23:00] Chris: And also it's a series called The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. This is all fantasy sort of books. Again, it's similar to Lord of the Rings. I'm a massive nerd, really, so I love stuff like that.

[00:23:11] Chris: And I'm obsessed with those Stormlight books at the minute. I'm like glued to them. Yeah, those would be my books. And items. No gardening books by the way. That's boring. You don't need that on 

[00:23:22] Roz Chandler: survival book or something, or what can I eat book. Oh, if there is lots I could eat on this island while I'm here.

[00:23:28] Roz Chandler: I'll just be in a fantasy world, starving. 

[00:23:30] Chris: I might take the A to 

[00:23:32] Roz Chandler: Z RHS gardening encyclopedia and then I could learn every single plant while I was there. 

[00:23:39] Chris: I'll be on the other side of the island to you. That sounds a 

[00:23:42] Roz Chandler: bit. Yeah. Sad person. And I'd take a 

[00:23:45] Chris: mattock, I think. That would be my, one of my items.

[00:23:48] Chris: That's the most useful tool you can have on you. Probably is. 

[00:23:52] Roz Chandler: Or I, yeah, I might take a Milwaukee Hori knife. They're pretty easy. Oh, that's good. Lot with that. Could do a lot with that. 

[00:23:58] Chris: Yeah. 

[00:23:58] Roz Chandler: So who's your inspiration? Who keeps you going? Get up every day. I'm gonna go and get another TV job, or I'm actually gonna go and find some more from my landscape design business.

[00:24:08] Roz Chandler: What am I gonna do? 

[00:24:09] Chris: My, my wife is the one who who keeps me going. She we work together quite a lot, which is really nice. Yeah, so we are always just. Bouncing ideas and worries and whatever off of each other. That's that's my, which is my main sort of rock that keeps me plodding on because it is a really difficult industry, especially, when, as like when you're self employed or run your own business, you're in your own little bubble and then you see everyone else in The similar industry all do, they're doing this and they're doing that and you're always comparing yourself to people and it's oh my, why do you do it?

[00:24:38] Chris: It's so annoying and it's not like you're in a competition at all, but you just, you constantly think oh, maybe I should be doing this or I should be doing that. But I've learned that now you just, you've just got to go with your own flow and do your own thing and then it is all going to work out. But it took me a long time to realize that, I think.

[00:24:56] Roz Chandler: I think I've only just got there, to be honest. What everyone else is doing is fine. But I'm just going to do this. 

[00:25:01] Chris: But 

[00:25:02] Roz Chandler: yeah. So three quick questions. Your favourite hobby besides gardening? 

[00:25:07] Chris: BMXing. I like riding bikes. Mountain bikes and BMXing. 

[00:25:12] Roz Chandler: My husband's a trials bike rider, so he has one with an engine.

[00:25:14] Roz Chandler: Yes, 

[00:25:15] Chris: very cool though. He's done that 

[00:25:17] Roz Chandler: since he was 14, so it's pretty cool at his age, but he's still doing it over Yorkshire mountains, but yeah. Yeah, that's good. But you'll 

[00:25:22] Chris: be able to Yeah, so I like mountain bikes too. You'll have to get an engine 

[00:25:25] Roz Chandler: at some point. 

[00:25:26] Chris: Yeah, I think, I don't think I could be trusted with an engine.

[00:25:30] Chris: But yeah, I like riding bikes, basically. That's that's my thing. 

[00:25:33] Roz Chandler: And what about your childhood dream job? What was it? When you went to the careers officer and they said, And what would you like to be? What would 

[00:25:39] Chris: you say? I've always wanted to be to, to work with animals, so I would, I always said vet, although I secretly knew I'd never be a vet, but basically animals was, That was my dream job.

[00:25:48] Chris: Anything with animals. 

[00:25:50] Roz Chandler: I was going to be a doctor. I'd have been a useless doctor, by the way, but it was funny thinking that's what you were going to be. I'm not saying I wasn't clever enough, but there were some sort of few downsides. Yeah. And if you won the lottery tomorrow, what would you do with it?

[00:26:03] Roz Chandler: Besides obviously tell me. 

[00:26:04] Chris: I plan this out nearly every week in my head, so I've got a good answer for this. I would buy some massive house and big bit of land, some sort of estate. Then I'd have my own little mini farm with all my animals, because obviously it's my dream job as a child. So I have like pygmy goats and horses and donkeys, all the fun, fun animals and loads of dogs that I've rescued that can just be feral on the farm.

[00:26:28] Chris: And then I'd build a massive garden that I can invite people to and they can have fun and learn stuff and experiment and That's what 

[00:26:35] Roz Chandler: I do Yeah, I've got I mean I've got some animals you'd be proud of me I've got some Three girl pigs and the little boys come to play with them at the moment and they're not interested Two goats and six chickens, a dog and a cat.

[00:26:49] Chris: That's a good, that's a good selection.

[00:26:51] Roz Chandler: Yeah, I wouldn't mind a donkey, but they live longer than we do. That's the problem. That's why donkeys act as if we're donkeys. 75 years. I sound really ridiculous about 75 years. I 

[00:27:03] Chris: didn't realize 

[00:27:04] Roz Chandler: they got that old. They live a lot. I think they're the age of a peony, someone once told me.

[00:27:09] Roz Chandler: Okay, yeah. You can't live that long. So I think it's, I think it's a long time. Wow. Which is why they end up in sanctuaries. 

[00:27:16] Chris: Oh, bless it. They can all come and live on my land when I win the lottery then. I don't mind. I look 

[00:27:21] Roz Chandler: forward to coming to your massive house on an estate with all these animals when you've won the lottery, but obviously I'm going to win it first.

[00:27:27] Chris: Yeah, okay. 

[00:27:28] Roz Chandler: I do, and I get caught up in all sorts of things like the amaze house. Oh yeah, I do 

[00:27:33] Chris: too. 

[00:27:34] Roz Chandler: I'm gonna win the 

[00:27:35] Chris: Devon one. It's happening. 

[00:27:36] Roz Chandler: Are you? Are you gonna, what, after me? 

[00:27:39] Chris: Yeah, no, I'm gonna win. I'm always convinced I'm gonna win as well. Every time I play the lottery or play a game, I'm in my head, I'm like, yes.

[00:27:46] Chris: Alright, I'm 

[00:27:47] Roz Chandler: winning this. And we wake up. But then in our heads we say someone has to. Exactly. It might be me, but that's the advertising campaign. 

[00:27:56] Chris: So you just keep playing. 

[00:27:59] Roz Chandler: That's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. But Chris, it's been lovely to have you today, to chat along today and learn all about what you're up to.

[00:28:06] Roz Chandler: You have such a diverse portfolio from TV to London. Don't you really? You have quite a diverse different. Any books in the making? Anything in the next job? 

[00:28:15] Chris: No books in the making. Maybe when I've got something interesting to write about, I'll I'll do that. But, maybe a few years, yeah.

[00:28:22] Chris: And anything else? What's next? Anything we don't know about you've already told us? A secret? You already got that little secret, yeah. Other than that, I'm just going to be plodding on with my work. Now I'm down in Exeter, I'm trying to focus on building up my business down here again, because I was in Bath so I've only been down here since early this year.

[00:28:38] Chris: So I'm going to be focusing on that, trying to do more YouTube and build up my social media a little bit more. So if anybody wants to go and check 

[00:28:45] Roz Chandler: that out. 

[00:28:47] Chris: Yeah. 

[00:28:49] Roz Chandler: So anybody, I, like I say, I'm in the show notes. I'll put all your links and anybody wants any help, get in 

[00:28:54] Roz Chandler: contact with Chris.

[00:28:55] Chris: Please do. Yeah. It was really nice to talk to you, Ros. And you, take care. All right. Cheers. Bye.