The Cut Flower Podcast

The Gardener Guru: Using Peat-free compost

• Roz Chandler • Season 1 • Episode 150

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Text Agony Aunt Roz with your Cutflower Questions.

Join Roz Chandler as she interviews Kate Turner, the Gardening Guru, about her journey from acting to sustainable gardening, the importance of peat-free compost, and adapting gardening practices to climate change. Discover practical tips for beginners and insights into resilient, eco-friendly gardening.

key topics

  • Kate's journey from acting to gardening
  • Importance of peat-free compost and environmental impact
  • Adapting gardens to climate change and unpredictable weather
  • Practical tips for seed starting and plant care
  • Resilient plants and native species for changing climates

You can follow Kate on Instagram here and view her website here.

First Tunnels, leaders in domestic and commercial product tunnels. 


Rosalind Chandler (00:00)
Hello and welcome back to the podcast. Today I'm joined by someone many of you will already know and admire, Kate Turner, also known as Gardening Guru. Kate is a gardening writer, a speaker and a passionate advocate for sustainable gardening, particularly peat-free growing and growing with nature. Kate has helped thousands of gardeners feel more confident about growing plants in a way that's good for the planet as well as beautiful in the garden.

Kate is so lovely to have you here. So Kate, tell us about, tell us about those, for those who might not know you, a little bit about your journey. mean, how did you get into gardening and how the gardening guru?

Kate (00:30)
⁓ thank you, Roz, it's so nice to be invited.

Yeah, well, do you know what?

I've not got a normal, you I wasn't one that used to follow my grandma around the garden picking gooseberries and raspberries. My mum, we had a lovely garden, but she wasn't that interested in it at all. She loved it, but it wasn't her thing. I wanted to be an actor. I was an alternative actor. I did circus. I did all those kind of weird stuff, but ended up just always getting a part as a grand.

Rosalind Chandler (00:50)
No, me neither.

Kate (01:09)
grandchild because I'm under five foot and always people think I'm a lot younger than I am. Anyway, long story short, you know, that gets a bit hard, gets a bit depressing and demoralizing and things weren't going right in my life. I was told I could never have children and I came and I just decided, you know what, if I can't grow children, and this sounds cheesy, I'm going to grow gardens. And the job came up in Brighton for a parkkeeper and it was just something completely different.

Rosalind Chandler (01:20)
Yes.

Kate (01:39)
So I became a parkie, I was telling people to keep off the grass in Brighton for a couple of years and I fell in love with it, I really did. And from then on I became a head gardener at a big posh public school. I learned, I trained, qualifications. I was lucky enough to fall into TV gardening because I'd had a bit of experience around TV. I said I knew how to make a good cup of tea for the presenters, that helps.

Rosalind Chandler (02:05)
Yeah,

that goes down, yeah.

Kate (02:07)
Yeah,

absolutely. So I worked on Gardeners World and I started up a community garden in a park where I lived. My ex was head of grounds and gardens and it just became my way of life. It really, really did. The nice thing is that I did actually manage to grow a child. They still don't know how it happened, but I have a very healthy 21 year old, but I kept growing plants and the gardening guru was one of those things that it was a job for a company called Miracle Grow.

Rosalind Chandler (02:27)
Good.

Kate (02:37)
that was advertised during lockdown. And I felt really cringe about the name and I think it's very much a woman thing. But recently I started to own it. I thought, yeah, actually I've been doing this 25 years. I am a bit of a guru. I mean, you never stop learning with gardening. I'm sure you know that. And that was their job title. And I was gonna drop it when I left Miracle Grow but actually no.

Rosalind Chandler (02:48)
Yeah!

Kate (03:01)
I own that name now and I'm quite proud of it. So that's my whistle stop tour.

Rosalind Chandler (03:05)
Yeah, definitely.

That's amazing. I didn't realise you were in acting and circus acts. It's always interesting to see someone's background, isn't it? You never know where someone's come from. So what inspired you to become such a strong advocate for peat-free gardening, which is when I came across you?

Kate (03:14)
Yeah, we've all got so many different ones. Yeah.

Yeah, so it certainly wasn't something I had known much about. I was always an organic gardener because that just felt right. I said I ran a community garden for 12 years in between doing my kind of contracts for the gardening makeover shows that I did. And it was funded by the council in Surrey, Surrey Heath. And it was this lovely garden that I built and we got a grant from Marks and Spencer's and I got into composting.

everything was pesticide free. So I was very much into sustainability. But then during lockdown, obviously work got hard and this job came up. And that's when I found out all about Peat Free, because Miracle Grow, who are also Levington and Umbrella, a lot of other things, were all starting to go Peat Free. And I learnt about what was happening to Peat Lands and Peat Habitat. So that's kind of what really, that's how I became a bit of an expert, because

Miracle Grow have these massive factories where they produce peat-free. They used to extract peat, so I went to see the peatlands, which was quite an eye-opener, and then I just learned a lot more about it. So it's only been about six years. I've always been aware of it. I remember Jeff Hamilton at Barnsdale. He went peat-free really early on. But I never even, I never thought about it. I didn't buy much bagged compost anyway. It wasn't something I did.

Rosalind Chandler (04:31)
Wow.

Kate (04:45)
But yeah, so that's how I got into it.

Rosalind Chandler (04:48)
think we buy it, we buy peat-free and I'm not sure we know why we do. We know it's good and we know that obviously for the environment it's pretty bad to buy compost that's not peat-free but I'm not sure we know why. Why should we be bothered?

Kate (04:53)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

It's one of those things. just think if we're gardeners, a lot of us, we're trying to make our environment just that little bit better anyway. And so if you're buying peat-based compost, that peat has come from a habitat where there is so much biodiversity. It's a carbon sink. So as soon as you start extracting the peat, you are releasing so much carbon back into the atmosphere, which we don't want. Some of the peatlands aren't them, but the prettiest.

But there are certain creatures and flora and fauna that can only survive on these peatlands. They also act as amazing sponges. you know, we've had such a wet winter and we've got so many problems with flooding. You you dig up the peat bogs, that's gonna cause a lot more problems with flooding. So they hold water, they hold carbon, they're amazing resource for wildlife. And they hold more carbon than forests do.

and there's a lot more forests on the planet. So that's how important they are. And when you go and see the devastation that these extraction, you know, the extraction of these habitats, it really, and that's when it hit me. When I went to see up at Gretna Green, ⁓ a peat site that had been completely extracted, was just, it was a bit of a shock actually. And because peat takes, what is it? It takes a year just to grow back one millimeter. You think how long.

it takes to restore that area. So that's why we don't need it. It's only been around in the 60s with garden centres using bagged peat compost. So we did manage before, we have to change the way we garden. I think we've really got to look at that.

Rosalind Chandler (06:42)
Yeah.

I think it is about changing what you do with it. So what should gardeners do now? Obviously it's an overwhelming time of the year, it? What should we do now? They're getting leggy, they're too overwatered, they've got too much light. What germination rates should we expect? exactly.

Kate (06:48)
Yeah, yeah, definitely.

Go on.

No.

⁓ no, that's because everyone starts too early,

That's the thing. I mean, obviously it's too late now, but so many people, I know we're desperate, especially this winter, it's been so miserable. You just want to have a bit of light in your life, don't you? So use those seeds. But for so many people, it has been too early. And if like me, you haven't got a polytunnel or a greenhouse, how many windowsills does one house have? Unless you've got a castle, you're a bit stuffed.

Rosalind Chandler (07:20)
Yeah.

Kate (07:31)
So if you have gone and done it and done it early, lot of people think it's all about the heat, it's all about giving them the nice heat, especially tomatoes, chilies, things like snapdragons. Heat, yes, to germinate, but once they've germinated, it's light, light, light all the way. And I do, and I've done a video about it, I do foil line cardboard boxes because it does help, it really, really does. You want all round light, otherwise they're just gonna stretch.

towards that window sill. mean, I've got a lovely bright room here. I'm right by the sea with some big windows, but even so, they're still going to stretch. So just by putting foil around two sides, that helps bounce the light back. I use plastic boxes that I take in and out. I mean, I do spend my life doing the hardening off dance that I think a lot of gardeners do.

Rosalind Chandler (08:20)
Keep going, okay? Yeah.

Kate (08:21)
Yeah, don't go away. Don't go on holiday now. I'm away working from Friday to Wednesday, so my partner was under strict instructions to turn things. you can, mean, grow lights are so much more affordable now. They really, really are. I'm a firm believer in using grow lights. But again, you've got to get that height right. If they're too high, they're still going to get leggy. Too low, you scorch them.

So really do your research on grow lights. Don't just get the cheapest on Amazon because they're not gonna be good. But I'm a fan believer in just waiting, being a bit patient and using storage boxes, crates, putting holes in the bottom so they drain once you take the lids off. Use some garden fleece as extra protection. But all my sweet peas are all outside in plastic storage crates and they're doing really well.

Rosalind Chandler (09:09)
Yeah, yeah, I did a podcast quite a while ago.

Kate (09:09)
So a little tip I do have though, if you're gonna sow,

yeah, what I would say is though, is always warm your compost up for seed sowing. So seed you're gonna sow indoors, bring it in the night before, bring your compost in to warm it up and that will really help with germination. That's a little tip, lot of people, you think of compost, yeah, it's been sitting out in a shed or in the garden center, in the yard.

Rosalind Chandler (09:27)
Mmm, that's true.

Kate (09:34)
You know, it's got really cold, it's got a bit waterlogged. I always empty out into like a plastic bucket, a trug give it a bit of a mix and warm it up overnight. It doesn't come to bed with me, but it stays in the kitchen and it's just that bit warmer.

Rosalind Chandler (09:48)
I know, I mean I remember in the winter buying compost and it's frozen. It's completely frozen because obviously it's stored in your yard and it's frozen and cold. Yeah.

Kate (09:53)
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so you think those seeds, they're just not going to

do anything. You they might not rot, but they'll sulk. And even if they do germinate, seedlings, they can do this thing. They get checked. You know, they go a cold night, a cold spell, and you might think they're OK, but they'll never be as good as they could have been. And a lot of people blame the compost, but actually it's the temperature or that it was too wet.

So bring it in, bring it in just in a little bucket, just the amount you want. You don't have to bring the whole bag in overnight, but just warm it up a bit. And it's nicer for your hands as well.

Rosalind Chandler (10:29)
Yeah, because otherwise you're right, it's too cold. So many, yeah, freezing cold. Many of the people listening to this podcast are growing cut flowers, either for a pleasure or as a business. If somebody wanted to start growing flowers for cutting, what would be your starter pack of reliable plants?

Kate (10:32)
Too cold, yeah.

Yes. Yes.

So I'm talking to the experts here, but I'm a big lover of Azinia. I love Azinias because I find they're pretty foolproof. I really, really do. And I love these more muted, muted shades. You can get these paler shades as well. I love Azinia. I do love sunflowers. I love a Cosmos, annual scabious, but I like to grow some annuals as well. ⁓ Perennials. So I love some salvias.

Rosalind Chandler (11:11)
Thank

Kate (11:13)
because they're coping really well with the weather that we've got. So I love some salvias. But I also like to use some ornamental grasses. I ⁓ can't say it, the frosted explosion and the bunnytails and breezer, Quaker grass, just to add a bit of interest. But I love azinia and this is another one I love, which is probably so outdated, but I just find it so easy to grow. And it's a good old gladioli.

Rosalind Chandler (11:40)
yeah coming back in coming back in

Kate (11:40)
I love a glad. Yeah.

Very Dame Edna, but I do, I love gladiolas. I love the lime green and the whites and the kind of deep, deep burgundies. That's my, but gladiola, just have always managed to grow so easily. And I think you have to grow dahlias these days because everybody does, but I love the singles for my wildlife. Yeah. So that's kind of my basic.

And I've always grown for myself. I've never grown as a business. But in the community garden I did used to teach, we used to have a little rabbit-proofed cutting garden area. And zinnias, they were just, they exploded. They were amazing. And the rabbits left them alone as well.

Rosalind Chandler (12:26)
Yeah, yeah, that's very true actually. So let's go back to peat-free growing. Peat-free compost has become a huge topic, hasn't it, in gardening recently. know, and people have talked obviously for the environment that why we need to go for peat-free. But many gardeners are saying peat-free compost just doesn't work as well. You know, what's actually going on there and how can people make it work better? There is a lot to talk about or wish we didn't have to use peat-free. And obviously they've pushed the time scales back for peat-free now, haven't they? So...

Kate (12:28)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yes. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Rosalind Chandler (12:56)
What's gone wrong with it or what can we do to work with it? I think it's about how you work with it.

Kate (13:01)
It's how you garden, Roz it really is. It's not so much what's gone wrong with it. Well, what has gone wrong is that the promised legislation, the promised ban that was supposed to come into force, banning sale of peat-based compost in the UK hasn't come through. So you had a lot of companies spent, and I'm talking millions of pounds in changing everything up and rescaling everything they were doing to produce peat-free.

So the guys that had kind of started to slow down on peat, they're now, they're selling peat again, they're exporting it from the Baltic, but what's happened is anyone can sell a bag of peat-free compost. So you can't, the quality, can't, you can't garner the quality. So my big advice would be not to buy the really cheap stuff because it's cost a lot of money and a lot of time and a lot of scientists have worked really hard in getting a good recipe for a good peat-free.

If you're gonna buy the bog-offs, the really cheap ones, then usually that compost isn't gonna be very good. So you wanna get a kind of trusted brand or even a company that that's all they do and all they've ever done is peat-free. Not necessarily some of the big companies that have been around a long time are producing really good peat-free. But if you've never heard of somebody do a bit of research, because you might just get a really fibrous coarse compost. And the thing is before,

You'd have to own a peat bog to dig up peat and dig compost. But now, you know, I could go and do a bit of, I don't know, wood sawing and sweep up my sawdust from the bottom, chuck a bit of dirt in and sell it as a bag of peat-free compost. You know, there's no restrictions on people selling it. So do your research, check, check the company and don't go for the really cheap, cheap stuff. Buy fresh. You know, if you're going to buy compost this year, buy it this year.

Don't buy it from the bottom of the pallet, because that's probably been there from last year, and it will be really compacted and all the goodness would have been leached away as well. So always buy fresh. If it's not there, ask your garden center. know, be a bully about what you want in your garden center. Yeah, just check. also look for the, there's like with the electrical appliances, there's a ⁓ rating, like a traffic light system of A, B, C, D, E, I think, of colors.

and if it's in the red then you know it's not a good product, it's not sustainable, it's not environmentally friendly, whereas the higher green it is so it's like how you buy your dishwashers, your fridges, that kind of thing and it's called the responsible sourcing scheme so have a look at that. But it's how you garden. The bottom line is you have to change the way you're watering, that's the big one. Peat-free looks dry on the top but actually it holds water better.

So often what happens is the roots are soggy, the top is dry, you keep watering, you're rotting your roots. And that's the big one. Don't overwater, change your watering. We always used to say, give everything a really good drink, know, really drench it, really drench it. Don't do that this time. Go up and down your rows if you've got parts, if you've got seedlings, go up and down your rows and come back again. So it's a little and often, which is so different from what I was taught as a park's garden. It really, really is. And that is a difficult.

Rosalind Chandler (16:12)
Yeah, yeah. We were taught to soak

them, soak them twice a week, don't water every day, then do it little enough. It's actually the opposite of what we've been taught.

Kate (16:16)
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Yeah, it is.

It really is. And just get to know, you do get to know your plants a bit more as well. Just get to garden a bit more, but really get to feel that that compost, just don't let it sit there wet. And if you're growing a lot of tomatoes, try not to have tomato trays with grow bags, because they will just sit soggy and they'll just rot away. You can sieve it.

You know, you're growing, if you're sowing seeds, either get a good seed sowing compost, peat-free one. There are some good ones around. Coil-based ones with gritting are good. What ⁓ was I going to say? Yeah, but if you've got a multipurpose, then you can sieve it out. And those bits that you see, those kind of big bits of bark and twig, they're part of the blend, part of the recipe. It's all about giving nitrogen back into the compost mix. It's about the air porosity. It's about the drainage.

The only time you want to get rid of them is if you're sowing seeds. So that's the only time, but don't worry about those bits. Really don't. Just mix it up. Open the bag and give it a good mix. That's what I say. Try it out.

Rosalind Chandler (17:26)
Yeah, because there has been talk of fungus

gnats obviously when you're doing seed sowing undercover and it's the wooden bits presumably that was.

Kate (17:33)
Yeah, it is, it's

the wood because they feed on the wood and the only time that fungus gnats are an actual problem is the larvae. So if you're sowing a lot of seedlings and I imagine for you, Roz and a lot of your members, if you've got polytunnels full of seedlings, it can be an issue. But always, always open your compost bag outside and if there is any problem, give it a stir and leave them overnight, you know, and they should disperse. Once you kind of give it a bit of a shake, it should disperse.

They are better now. The year before when we had a really wet spring and summer, that made it a little bit worse because they're attracted to moist, damp environments. Hopefully this year, because we had last year, we had such a dry summer, it shouldn't be such a problem. And it has seemed to have eased a bit. I work on a complaints line for peat-free compost. And I know it's great. But a lot less, very, very few complaints came through, are coming through. So I think hopefully.

Rosalind Chandler (18:22)
⁓ dear.

Kate (18:31)
it might be better, but fungus gnats can come from anywhere. They can come from the garden center, come from your garden. They're part of the ecosystem, they're everywhere. The fungus gnats themselves aren't gonna do you any damage. The larvae, as I said, only really on seedlings. So just be aware, but open it up outside first. That's what I'd suggest, especially if it's a business. Yeah.

Rosalind Chandler (18:53)
Yeah, yeah that's interesting.

So we are seeing increasingly unpredictable weather patterns as you saw, wetter winters, hotter summers, you know we are going to have to adapt to climate change in the way we garden. What changes should gardens be thinking about and how to make the gardens more resilient? I mean it's going to be tough.

Kate (19:11)
It is tough, it is tough because one year will be really, really hot then the next will be really, really wet. For me, as a gardener, my key thing is mulching for soil health. Everything starts with the soil. And the more you mulch, the better your soil is. If you've got light sandy soil, which is great for rainy but not so good for feeding and nutrients, give it some mulch. If you've got heavy clay, which as we know just floods, mulch, just keep mulching twice a year, every year.

That is one of the best things you can do to combat all these kind of changes in the weather, because it helps with flooding, it helps with drought. I know we can't all do it all the time. This is mainly for big gardens, but do that mulch. Think about your soil health. Really, really do. Water storage. Think about, obviously, I mean, my waterbots are overflowing at the moment. It's ridiculous. But if you've got a big garden, channel it. Think about channels of ways you can channel that water.

Rosalind Chandler (20:03)
Yeah.

Kate (20:09)
Think about having a rain garden. They're really good little things. Think about what you plant. If you have a very wet area, think about things like willow. Make your little willow tunnels. They're really, really good to do that. Rather than a fence, think of a hedge, because fences are a nightmare for when it's windy, and we've had some severe windy weather. I mean, Devon, it's just been unbelievable, but so is everywhere else.

Fences, well they fall over, we know that, they fall down, they cost you money, but also they're wind tunnels. So the wind goes over and then it just swishes straight down your garden. People think a fence will stop the wind. Think about planting a native hedge instead or in front of that fence and eventually you can protect that fence as well as your garden. But the wind will filter through a hedge much more than it ever will a fence or a dead hedge, they're quite fun to build as well.

Just think about what you plant. I know a lot of us go on about, but we can't plant loads of Mediterranean because it's so wet. A lot of Mediterranean plants do cope with winter wet, but that's because they're in very dry, stony soil. So again, it's thinking about where you plant. Have different levels in your garden. Think about having some higher levels so the water can drain away. I mean, there are plants that are gonna suffer. We're gonna probably start to lose beech trees.

know, and rhododendrons and azaleas, things that are shallow-rooted. And that's gonna be really hard, but there's wonderful tree, ginkgo, which is an amazing tree. I mean, that's been around prehistory, the ginkgo biloba tree. And that's really good at coping with these kind of changing climates, as is a field maple, which is a native tree. So think about that. But unfortunately, not all our native species are great at coping with some of this extreme weather. So holly, for example.

is suffering a bit as well, but beach trees, which are some of my favorites, are suffering, yeah. I mean, I'm trying not to use pesticides, have less lawn, anything that uses a lot of fossil fuels, have a few more wildflowers. I'm not an advocate for completely rewilding. I don't think it works the way a lot of people do it, but I am up for having a few more unkempt areas, a few more native flowers.

Rosalind Chandler (22:02)
Yeah.

Kate (22:24)
water in your garden, have somewhere for that water to go and you know if you haven't got a pond, get a pond and that will really help and you know you'll get the pollinators in but the pollinators are suffering because everything is all topsy-turvy you know it's all all over the show. Spring so much earlier, the pollinators are coming out and things have gone over so think about successional planting. If you are growing cut flowers, think about all year round cut flowers, think about

Rosalind Chandler (22:30)
Yeah.

Kate (22:52)
what flowers can come out ready for the bees this time of year. Don't just think about that summer kind of madness. Think plan all year round, all year round.

Rosalind Chandler (23:02)
Yeah, I think you're right. think, what did I read? That we were going to have the climate of Barcelona by 2050, which isn't that far away, if you think about it. So we're obviously heading towards that. And then I spoke to someone who said, well, if you're going to plant apple trees today, it's probably not a good idea to plant traditional British apple trees. You probably want to go somewhere in the middle of France and see what they're growing. then, so the species are definitely going to change. And we have to be prepared for that.

Kate (23:10)
It's not, is it? No. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yes, he will.

Definitely, yeah, yeah.

We do have to be prepared. We have to be resilient and we have to kind of take those blinkers off. I mean, love, know, cut flowers, it's all about growing annuals, but put in some perennials, put in plants that you know are gonna be there all year round that aren't gonna be so high intensive to produce.

you know, that is, that's an issue. But the fact is that there are cut flower farmers like yourself in the UK is brilliant. So I urge people to buy their cut flowers from British growers because the carbon footprint of bringing in flowers from all over the world is that's, know, that's not sustainable, is it? So just growing your own flowers, growing your own, have a go at growing your own food, you know. I mean, we've got a war going on at the moment. I don't want to bring things down, but it just, you know, food security.

Rosalind Chandler (24:16)
that's.

Kate (24:17)
Yeah, it's the price of fuel already, know, shot up. So let's try and grow our own food. I mean, I've got a tiny garden. I'm not saying this as somebody with acres. I've got an urban garden and nearly everything I grow is containers. And I try and grow as much food as I can. And I just find it so important. It's a hard one, though.

Rosalind Chandler (24:37)
Yeah, definitely. So after all your

years of gardening, what's one lesson that nature keeps teaching you?

Kate (24:47)
respect and adaptation. Just, you know, what I learned 25 years ago as a parks gardener, a lot of that's gone now. A lot of those old traditions, as much as some of them were amazing. Some are great, mulching, that's what I was taught, mulch, mulch, mulch. But, you know, before you mulch, you burn all the weeds off with weed killer. You know, that was, you know, everything was sprayed within an inch of its life. I worked on bowling greens. I mean,

They are so full of chemicals. So yeah, so adapt. Adapt and just respect nature. Work with her rather than against her. Right plant, right place. You know, if you've got a shady corner, then grow things that don't mind those conditions. Don't desperately try and grow a rhododendron if you haven't got acid soil. know, people do. People don't know. So many people don't know. It's very easy for us who've been doing it to kind of get a bit not.

Rosalind Chandler (25:37)
Yeah.

Kate (25:43)
not snobby, but you know, well, don't you know this? But a lot of people don't. They really don't, and there's so much misinformation out there as well on social media. It can be a real, where do I start? Who do I listen to?

Rosalind Chandler (25:57)
Yeah, definitely. think respect of nature is absolute because we are not in control. It's the one thing we're definitely not in control of. It's almost like the sea. People always used to say to me, respect the sea because it's very dangerous and it's in control and you're not in control. You think you are, but you're not. And nature is exactly the same. It's the one thing we cannot control as human beings.

Kate (26:02)
No. I haven't seen it this year.

Yeah. Yeah.

No. Yeah, yeah, no, I...

Well, totally. And thank goodness we can't, you know. And I've really felt this winter, kind of because I live by the sea and I do swim all year round, but I haven't this winter. I haven't this winter because it's almost like nature said, like, tough, you know, this is me having a go at you. The sea has been so crazy this winter. It's like she's not wanted us in there. And just the amount of sewage that's going in there as well. yeah. ⁓

Rosalind Chandler (26:21)
Yeah.

Kate (26:45)
But it is, you we have to start respecting nature. We all have to. And then hopefully change will start to happen slowly. Fingers crossed, slowly. Yeah, God, yes.

Rosalind Chandler (26:53)
So a quick fire round for you Kate, your favourite flower

to grow from seed.

Kate (27:00)
Well, I'm sorry, but it's calendula. I just love calendula. They're amazing. They're just, it was one of the first flowers I grew. I used to teach little kids, really tiny kids, to grow flowers in my community garden. And calendulas were just brilliant, because they were so easy. They're quite big seeds, and they're so useful, and they're just so happy. But Indian prints, I just love that, calendula Indian prints. But I just find they are foolproof. You can chuck them in your garden any time of year, you know, and they'll just come back.

Rosalind Chandler (27:03)
⁓ really? Okay.

Kate (27:30)
I love them.

Rosalind Chandler (27:31)
Yeah, I agree with you. It's definitely foolproof. More varieties there now. So don't always have to be bright orange. It can be ice and all the rest of it. So better. Yeah. But definitely the easiest thing to grow. Definitely. And one plant every garden should have.

Kate (27:35)
Yes, yeah. No, there's some really pretty colours, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, lemon verbena. I just, I love it. It's such a pretty plant. Anyone can grow it in a pot. needs to be, unless you're Southwest really sheltered. But if you've never grown or smelt a lemon verbena leaf, it's just, if you're feeling down, if ever i'm feeling blue, I just go and rub a lemon verbena and give it a smell. And it makes a wonderful tea. So if you've got tummy trouble, menstrual cramps.

It's actually really, really good. If you bake cakes, you put it in the bottom of your cake tin. I just love the scent of it. And it's really pretty for bees. The flowers are really pretty. You do have to bring it in in the winter or start again. I usually start again from cuttings. ⁓ Southwest, I'm OK, last the winter. But I just, it's such a lovely, sweet little plant.

Rosalind Chandler (28:37)
Yep we have that too and your most underrated cut flower do you think?

Kate (28:39)
Okay.

Well, this is a bit difficult for me, I think, because I'm a bit old fashioned, but I just love the gladiolis again. I love my glades. I love them because they're so easy. They're so easy. And I find they last for ages. They've gone out of fashion. Dahlias are the big thing, which absolutely. But not many people seem to kind of go for the glades, maybe because my mum used to like them. I love, are they? Yeah.

Rosalind Chandler (28:49)
Yeah.

think they're coming back in tall, stately, looking good

in arrangements, know, they're taller than a elf. I think they've got a revival. I think we could say we were the beginning of the glad revival.

Kate (29:12)
Right. Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, glad rags. I just think they're fun. They always make me, they make me laugh, you know, they're good fun. I wouldn't just have a garden with, you know, blotches of them everywhere, like they used to grow them, but I just find they're fun. then you put a bit of gypsophila, another old fashioned favorite there, and it just softens it all up. yeah. Yes, I'm not into my ammies. I've never been able to grow ammies. Ammies or Dorcas, terrible, terrible.

Rosalind Chandler (29:24)
Thanks.

that's well you heard it from Kate first and what's your best gardening advice what's the best garden advice you've ever

received I think I know what you're gonna say here I could see what my biggest best gardening advice I've ever received is mulching and it was from an allotment guy in the very hot summer we had

Kate (29:50)
had awful failures with the Ami family.

no. Let me tell my

Rosalind Chandler (30:06)
and he was not watering anywhere near what he did before and he controlled the weeds. ⁓ So yeah, what's your best gardening advice Kate? That you've ever ever received? Mulching, yeah.

Kate (30:13)
on my back.

mulching.

Yeah, it's mulching.

Honestly, it's mulching. And this was 25 years ago. And now the no dig revolution is massive. And I do agree with it. But mulching, even if you're not a no digger, you've got to get that organic mulch on. It's all about soil health. It really is. Yeah, that's what I'm going to end with. It's not sexy. A lot of companies don't promote it enough because it doesn't get traction. But it is.

the most important thing you can do for your soil and therefore your plants. Don't feed your plants with synthetic chemicals, feed your soil.

Rosalind Chandler (30:56)
Interesting. So if somebody was listening and wants to start growing cut flowers this year but feels a little bit nervous, what would you say to encourage them Kate?

Kate (30:57)
You

The thing is, Roz you if you train as a doctor, it takes years. You train as a lawyer, you train as an accountant, marketing, whatever. It takes years. A mechanic, a car mechanic. People seem to think that gardening is something you should be able to do straight away. So it's a learning journey and it really is. And it's a wonderful journey to go on. So be kind to yourself, be patient, find out all you can. And just if something doesn't work, it's not you.

Rosalind Chandler (31:15)
Yeah.

Kate (31:36)
You know, it really isn't. You might have done something not quite right. Just go back and look again. Don't give up. Have a go because you will find it's one of the most rewarding things you can do. And there's some wonderful communities out there as well online that I would suggest joining like yourselves. there are so many wonderful places out there to get support and encouragement. But just don't expect that you can grow everything all at once.

Try not to grow too many, you know, no one's going to eat 100 cabbages, you know, seriously. Just start small and simple and start slow and it's not going to happen overnight, but just take those little wins.

Rosalind Chandler (32:15)
No.

think that's the thing. think that one thing that has taught me over 15 years of doing it is that there's never such a thing as 100 % success and failure is okay and what worked last year doesn't necessarily work this year.

Kate (32:32)
Absolutely, that's a really good point.

Rosalind Chandler (32:33)
and those seeds were

great last year or not. mean, every year we get really good at one thing and we think we've cracked it. Like this year it's larkspur. This year we are overridden with larkspur and we're pretty good at it. Last year we were disastrous at it. So I think you've just got to accept that and maybe teaching us that failure is okay is not a bad thing.

Kate (32:36)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah. Right. Okay.

no.

That's very true. That is no, that's a really good point. It doesn't matter. And you learn. That's how you learn by things going wrong. You learn. And without that, you never learn. So just just be prepared for things to go wrong and accept it. And it doesn't mean you've it's your fault. Doesn't mean you haven't got green fingers. Plants die all the time. Yeah. goodness. Yeah.

Rosalind Chandler (33:15)
No, and that's always harder for people who are perfectionists, who people who love success, and maybe that's what

gardening is here to teach us.

Kate (33:24)
Yeah, absolutely and it's a great lesson to learn, it really, really is, but just give it a go, give it a go and you'll get hooked, I promise you.

Rosalind Chandler (33:33)
as we both are. So Kate, where do people find you? Obviously on Instagram I've seen all your videos and they're really good actually Kate. ⁓

Kate (33:40)
Oh, thank you. Yeah, I've started having a

go. I have watched quite a lot of the videos that you and Tom Coleman have done for some help and inspiration because I was just a lurker and I actually used to help teach influencers about horticulture and I just thought, do you know what, this year I'm going to be 60 next year so I'm going to give it a go this year and I'm really enjoying it and I'm getting some lovely comments and some lovely dialogue with people I know.

Rosalind Chandler (34:00)
Yeah.

Kate (34:07)
So yeah, Instagram, Facebook, and I'm a garden consultant in the Southwest. So if ever anybody's feeling a bit overwhelmed about what to do in their garden, then just have a look on my website and just get in touch. It's Gardener, it's Katie, Gardener Guru is my handle, yeah.

Rosalind Chandler (34:19)
So is it gardening guru? your handle gardener guru?

So that's where you can find Kate and we shall put it in the show notes too. Please go over and give Kate a follow. Her videos are really informative and I suggest you do that. So Kate, no further ado, thank you for joining us. I learned a lot about peat-free compost because I was one of these people who bought it. And I why I was doing it but I didn't realize the devastation was so huge. And I was a bit shocked that we've put the date back.

Kate (34:30)
Yeah. lovely. That'd be lovely.

kids.

Yeah, it's massive, scary.

Yeah, we haven't got a date.

Rosalind Chandler (34:56)
So that's not great, but we can all just adapt.

And also we should adapt. I mean, I've had lots of comments just today about people growing sweet peas and that they obviously use moist compost to begin with and they're doing it in toilet rolls and that the bottom of the toilet roll is dry. no, the bottom is wet and the top is dry. What should they do? I think overwatering is the biggest problem for gardening.

Kate (35:05)
Mm-hmm.

right? Top is dry. Yeah.

It

is absolutely. Yeah, it's a massive problem. We've just got to stop overwatering everything. But we just get to learn your plants a little bit more, you know, just take that bit more care, just take a little bit more time. Even if you've been doing it for 40 years, you have got to start to relearn. And that's not a bad thing, is it? You know, just. Yeah, we do. Yeah, we do. Yeah, work with your compost. thank you, Roz.

Rosalind Chandler (35:38)
It's all about learning. We learn something new every day. Every single day I am learning something new. So definitely for sure. So thank you for coming over Kate. I'm sure people give you a

follow. Stay in touch and all right, darling.

Kate (35:50)
Lovely, thank you, wonderful, thanks

so much. have a good week, bye bye now.

Rosalind Chandler (35:57)
Bye bye bye bye.