Loving Your Garden - Better Gardening Podcast
Loving Your Garden is a Facebook Group set up by broadcaster Rod Whiting during the first Covid lockdown in April 2020. It has quickly grown to nearly 450 thousand passionate and inspiring gardeners, thanks in no small part to knowledgeable and expert members like John Stirland. John has more than fifty years of experience in horticulture and you can now access his knowledge and that of our members as we link our podcast to LYG’s fortnightly live feed. Each week, we’ll discuss the jobs to be done, plant suggestions and answer your questions. If you love your garden and aspire to be a better gardener, join our Facebook group (Link here: https://bit.ly/3oIzVr9), and increase your knowledge from the likes of John, our more experienced members and regular expert guests. Feel free to email your questions or suggestions on what you would like us to feature in our podcast to rod@lovingyourgarden.org Thanks for listening!
Episodes
78 episodes
A Journey through a Garden Designer’s Own Garden – with David Stevens
Take a walk through the personal garden of multi-award-winning designer David Stevens.In this episode of Loving Your Garden, I’m joined by Boom Radio’s gardening expert John Stirland as we explore multi-award-winning desi...
Before You Plant Anything This Spring...
...Be sure to listen to this relaxed conversation with two fabulous gardeners: my co-host, John Stirland — Boom Radio’s gardening expert — and horticulturist, broadcaster and RHS judge, Martin Fish.It was a real pleasure to...
What Experienced Gardeners Wish They'd Known Sooner With David Stevens
In this special seasonal edition of the Loving Your Garden podcast, John Stirland and I sit down to reflect on the gardening year just gone – and look ahead to what comes next.As is customary at Christmas, we're joined by the renowned g...
Growing Wildflowers The Easy Way - With Dr Ana Attlee
Struggling to get wildflowers growing in your garden? You’re not alone! 🌿Gardeners are often surprised at how challenging it can be to grow wildflowers successfully, so we've been chatting to Dr Ana Attlee, co-founder of Seedball, to find a...
Summer's Done - Autumn's Here Early!
It's been an interesting Summer! It started with drought, then the rains came, and as the nights begin to draw in, it's turned unseasonably cool. Signs of Autumn are already showing, certainly in my East Midlands garden (UK). After a relatively...
Hot Tips for Cool Gardens - With Multi-Award Winning Designer David Stevens
As the sun turns up the heat, so do the challenges in our gardens. In this summer edition of the Loving Your Garden podcast, I’m joined by our resident horticulturist John Stirland and award-winning garden designer David Steve...
Lush Lawns & Palm Trees - In Cheshire! With Steve Fives
This might just be our best episode yet from LYG HQ!Steve Fives is officially Loving Your Garden’s most engaging member – with more views, comments, and conversations than anyone else in the group… including me, and I run the pl...
Spring Into Action: Gardening Tips with John Stirland & Martin Fish (Pt 2)
With UK gardens bursting into colour, this is a beautiful time of year — but it’s also a busy time, preparing the garden for the seasons ahead.In the second half of our conversation with Gardener and Broadcaster Martin Fish and ou...
Spring Into Action: Gardening Tips with John Stirland & Martin Fish (Pt 1)
The new gardening year is well underway, and our Loving Your Garden Facebook group is bursting with colourful spring blooms and a real sense of excitement as our gardens awaken from their winter slumber.So, what bette...
Growing Cut Flowers With Roz Chandler
If you've resolved to growing more cut flowers in '25 then you'll find Roz Chandler from Field Gate Flowers an interesting guest. Roz talks about starting her cut flower farm 15 years ago almost by mistake and now runs a successful business gro...
Better Gardening tips in 2025...With Two Badly Disguised Santas
It's become a thing for multi-award-winning garden designer David Stevens to drop in over Christmas with our resident horticulturist John Stirland over a glass of sherry for a gardening chinwag. The result is always educational as these two sta...
Eight Steps To Your Dream Garden With David Stevens
11 Times RHS Chelsea Gold Medallist (and LYG member), David Stevens, has designed a few gardens in his long career (understatement). Enough to earn him 26 RHS medals and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Garden Designers. In ...
Is Bamboo REALLY The Plant From Hell?
Recent press reports would have you believe Bamboo is the devil incarnate but does it deserve its bad reputation? While it's certainly true some varieties can be highly destructive, are gardeners right to shun it at all costs?Who better to ...
John Stirland On Why Those New Plants May Not Be Thriving, Plus What The National Garden Scheme Can Do For You
Firstly, apologies for our silence over the past few weeks, we've been busy creating a brand new YouTube channel and subscription newsletter (links below) as well as overhauling our Facebook group to accommodate the massive new growth of 'Lovin...
The Secrets And Pleasures of Herbaceous Perennials With Rosy Hardy
It's always a pleasure and a privilege to be in the company of one of the UK's foremost plantswomen, Rosy Hardy. With countless RHS gold medals to her name, Rosy has become a leading authority on Herbaceous Perennials and this is pure gold for ...
No Wildlife, No Garden With Mary Porter
It’s always a pleasure to welcome our favourite Nature Watcher Mary Porter onto LYG. Spring in the UK is a great time for an update from Mary whose knowledge and experience of the natural world is much appreciated by all of us at LYG and to lis...
Ugly Lawns No More With This Prep Plus Removing Troublesome Tree Stumps
In association with Magic Mind - Mental Performance Shots They have a limited offer you can use now, that gets you up to 48% off your first subscription or 20% off one-time purchases with code LOVEGARDEN20 at checkoutYo...
Growing From Seed With Tom Sharples
There is nothing so satisfying than adding food to your dinner plate that you've grown from seed. While many gardeners are well-equipped to sow and propagate both vegetables and ornamentals, most others prefer the convenience of pot...
Late Winter Pruning With John Stirland
Deep Joy! Winter's last hurrah is nearly upon us, at least if you're in Northern Europe, and it's time to finish off the Winter pruning. Our resident horticulturist John Stirland covers the basics and answers member questions on specific plants...
It's Seed Sowing Time!
Our resident horticulturist John Stirland kicks off season 4 of Loving Your Garden - Better Gardening Podcast with a masterclass in seed sowing. John is in full flow here with oodles of great advice on growing plants from seed as a new ga...
Three Top Gardeners Drop In For A Festive Chat
You'll need to check out the Loving Your Garden site to see our festive guests in their Santa gear but you can hear the fun in our season finale as horticulturist, gardening writer, broadcaster and RHS judge, Martin Fish, and multi-award...
Growing Happy Healthy Houseplants with Jane Perrone
We borrowed our guest's phrase 'happy, healthy house plants' this week as it aptly describes a nirvana that many of us struggle with. Jane Perrone is a gardening writer and podcaster whose articles many will have read in the Guardian, Fin...
John Stirland's Autumn Almanac (With Apologies To The Kinks!)
It's been a while since we checked in with our resident horticulturist John Stirland who's forgotten more than I'll ever know about gardening so it's nice to talk about getting ready for some Winter colour, Autumn feeding, and pruning as ...
Making Sense of Peat Free
There's been a noticeable increase in discussions on the LYG Facebook site about the forthcoming ban on the use of peat products in UK gardens, due to be enforced from the end of next year. To help us make sense of it all, our guests this...
Autumn Splendour With Rosie Hardy
It is a delight to have Rosy back to chat about what can, with the right planting, be a spectacular time of year in the garden. Rosie and her husband Rob supply a vast number of herbaceous perennials from their nurseries at Hardy’s Cottage Gard...
