SPEAKER_01 0:00

BBC Gardeners World Spring Fair returns to Bewley in Hampshire from Friday the 1st to Sunday the 3rd of May. And it's one of those events that kicks off the gardening season, particularly in springtime. And I'm delighted that one of the experts who's going to be on side for all of the uh event is Adam Kirtland, who joins me to look forward to the show. Adam, uh I can't believe we're we're talking about spring already. And it just seems like we've we've got rid of the wrapping paper from Christmas.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

It do it does. It's it's funny, isn't it, this time of year? Because we all joke that that January is approximately a million days long. And then suddenly February's gone, and then you know, we're now talking in the middle of March, and I'm looking outside at a gorgeous blue sky, and is it spring? I don't know. I don't know if I can certainly say that it is.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Let's pick up on that first of all, Adam, because in your brilliant blog, and and we'll talk about it uh in more detail in a second, view from the potting bench, which is what many people know you for brilliant uh website. On your blog, you refer to something called what you've called Fool's Spring. Now t explain that to me.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Well, it's this idea that we come out of winter and we get this unseasonably warm period or this unseasonably sunny period, which we've got. I'm in Birmingham at the moment, and we've had for about a week or so where we've got this gorgeous kind of sunshine. And we are technically, technically in spring right now. But when you know we're in February and we're at the very start of March, where we're not really in spring, we get this kind of thing that we call full spring, where it's it's not really spring just yet, but it's it's spring-like weather. And then the trouble is as gardeners, we get a bit lured into a full sense of security and we start planting things out and we start potting things up outside, and we're actually there's lots of frost still to come, you know. We've still got frost, we're not out of the woods just yet. Um, but we've come out of winter and we're in this point where we've got this gorgeous sun, and we need it. I don't know what I don't know about you or anybody else that's gardener, but I sort of feel like a solar panel at this time of year, and I've got to run out and recharge in all of the sunlight before it disappears again.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

Get those shorts on and get some sun on your knees. Uh yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:21

I mean, nobody quite needs that with you, Steve, but um, yeah. Maybe over summer.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

Now, um, I touched on your uh brilliant uh website and blog view from the potting bench. Um for people who don't know you and and woe bet them if they don't, because it is it is a brilliant, uh, a brilliant website. Tell us a bit about your journey into gardening and and how it all began for you.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Well, I mean I'd like to say I came into gardening in quite a normal way by having a small garden and just wanting to kind of grow things. And I did, and I had grandparents that grew, and and I look back now actually at both of my my grandmas um and they both gardened, and I obviously absorbed some enough when I was a child, but I didn't really start gardening properly until lockdown, and you know, we were thrust into the the throngs of furlough and all of that kind of stuff. And I was just at home, and you know, we're talking about the weather. I think we sort of forget actually, as a gardener, that first lockdown that we had, the weather was absolutely glorious, and it was just gorgeous for the whole thing. So, as a gardener, you know, providing everyone around you was okay, it wasn't it wasn't an awful time to be able to just be outside in your own garden. Um, but uh it just threw me into the garden that that time. I was off work and I was um I was in the garden and I just became completely obsessed with it, completely obsessed. And then I started sharing what I was doing online, started Instagram, um, started posting on there kind of every day, and I've pretty much posted on Instagram every day for the last five or six years. Um, and it's just grown and grown and grown, kind of gone from strength to strength. And it's a mixture of funny things, kind of funny relatable gardening things, but also really practical tips and advice and lots of kind of garden DIY and all of that kind of stuff. So yeah, I I just became obsessed almost overnight.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

It's interesting that you mentioned posting on Instagram because if we go back sort of to just post-Covid, and we know a lot of people took up um gardening and and horticulture, interest in horticulture during COVID, but just after that, that social media seemed full of um content about celebrity chefs and cooking and and all of the bits that went with that. That seems to have shifted now. Um, and you're a prime example because your social media and podcasts have become hugely popular. So, you know, gardening is the new cooking, and cooking was the new rock and roll, isn't it? I mean, uh does it does it feel like that?

SPEAKER_00 4:52

I suppose it does. It's it's funny because I uh in terms of the the the people that I follow and the the the content that I kind of consume as a as a consumer rather than as a creator, I actually I follow lots of gardening accounts, obviously, but I also follow lots of cookery accounts and they're still there. And there are still people that I've seen that I've kind of followed since the start of lockdown that really started cooking and getting into baking. The baking was massive as well over over lockdown. It seemed like everybody was making banana bread at one point. Um and but th those are all still kind of kind of there. But I I think I think the thing about gardening, and not to sound you know, kind of a little bit woo-woo, but I think people are really craving things that feel kind of real and grounding and that you can just do and you can go outside and you can, you know, you don't have to have loads of expensive equipment. You can just go and do it. And gardening sort of it slows you down, I think. And you know, you're working with the seasons, you're working with the weather, with soil, with nature, and the kind of the rhythm of of day-to-day life. But I think at the same time, it is really accessible, and you don't need acres of land, you know, you really don't. People are growing herbs on windowsills or tomatoes on balconies. And I think online, gardening has kind of become a really supportive community, and people love sharing what's working for them and asking questions and celebrating all the like the little ones as well as the big ones, like that first tomato or you know, your first bunch of carrots. And it is just this supportive community where we've all got an immediate shorthand, and that's the great thing, actually, thinking forward to the show, is that at every single show I'll meet someone that's either a follower or that's a that's a you know a fan or someone that I just I'll bump into. And without needing to know anything about them, we've all got that immediate shared love of the fact that we like gardening, that we're uh that we're at a gardening show, and we can just start talking about plants immediately, no matter what your age, background, you know, all of that kind of stuff. It's just gardening for me is just that that thing that connects so many of us all together.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

Absolutely. Now, uh, as we mentioned, you're going to be at the BBC Gardeners World Spring Fair in Bewley, in Hampshire, a lovely setting from Friday the 1st to Sunday, the 3rd of May. Should just point out lots of information on the website BBC Gardenersworldfair.com, particularly about how you can get tickets. Um you're doing a uh a number of things, uh, but one of the most interesting is the Bug Hotel Making Workshops. Tell me about that.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

Well, this is, I think, now the third time that I've done this uh at the Gardeners World. We did them in two of the autumn shows, and this is the first time we're doing it at spring. And we knew they'd be popular, but I don't think we anticipated quite how popular they would be. And the the last two we've done have both sold out completely. And we last did them in the at the autumn show, um, and they just sold out completely. And I had to kind of try and sneak a few people in because they were desperate to come in. But they're just they're really, really hands-on and fun. Um, and as you say, we'll be building bug hotels, which are basically like little habitats for beneficial insects for the garden, and they're great because they help biodiversity in the garden. They're also something that families can kind of come and build together and then take inspiration from to make even more of them at home if they want to. But the great thing is it's all the materials are provided, all the tools are provided. You just need to get yourself a ticket and come along, and I teach you exactly how to do it. There's a bit of hammering, there's a bit of clattering, there's a bit of um stapling, and then we get to forage a little bit to put this stuff inside the bug hotel. So we get to go out into the woods that there are there and pick up some bits to put inside. And then you get to take the lovely bug hotel home with you. But but I will say this, and this isn't this isn't me trying to get people to go and buy tickets, they have sold out in record times the last few years. So if you want to come, make sure you get an extra, make sure you get a ticket. And we have added extra tickets this time. So each session, I think, now holds 20 people, um, and there are four of those a day, but the tickets on some of those sessions are already really low. So um, so get your tickets now.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

Uh I will just remind people of the web address, bbcgardenersworldfair.com. The tickets are going quickly for a brilliant session, it sounds like uh bug hotel making works. A good day out on its own. However, there is so much more going on uh at the show, and some people will be visiting for the first time. You've been uh previously. What would you s say they can expect and and which areas do you recommend that they um they explore?

SPEAKER_00 9:32

It's such a good it's such a good show, and I uh you know I know I'm going to say that, but I've been I've been I think this will be my third time at Bewley, but it's just such a great show. There's everything there, there's great food, there's great nurseries, there's great talks, there's loads of workshops, and you can wander over to the uh Motors Museum and all of that kind of stuff as well. But I think for me, uh it's really hard to pick pick a favourite kind of part of it, but I think for me it is just the nurseries, and some of the nurseries there I've known for for years, right since I started gardening in lockdown, and it's great to see them, great to see what new plants they've got. Um, and I think what's great about those at the shows is that sometimes you see really unusual things that you might not see in a garden centre. Um, and I think it's it's just nice to talk to the people that that own the nurseries that are the real kind of the actual experts, and it's really great to get some information from them. But it's a proper wandering around sort of a show. You know, there is like I say, there are talks, there's demonstrations, and there's just great inspiration from the little show gardens and things that there are there. So it's one of those ones where you need to come ready to war because you'll be you'll be getting lots of steps in, but you'll go away with tons of inspiration.

SPEAKER_01 10:45

Absolutely. Now you are now very successful, Adam, and your podcast social media, the website, and and appearing at the shows. Going back through your journey, um, like all gardeners, you will have made mistakes. What oh, you're laughing, so I suspect there's more than one. Can you can you pick one and and and sort of say what advice you might have given to yourself had you have known better at that time?

SPEAKER_00 11:16

I think the thing is, especially because of the way that I came into it being obsessed overnight, I wanted to just do everything. And I remember looking out to the garden and thinking, I want to make that border bigger, and I want trees here, and I want to build a perga and I want to redo the patio and build a greenhouse, and you can't, you absolutely just can't. So it's perhaps slightly a cliche, but I think the biggest piece of advice is don't try to do everything at once because you're just gonna overwhelm yourself and you're gonna get burnt out as a gardener. So when you first start gardening, you want to plant everything, you want to build everything and change everything, but you have to go a bit like I was saying before with the rhythms of the of the garden, and gardens evolve over time, they're not something that you finish overnight, they're just not, and they change constantly. So it's better to start small, learn what works well in your garden, and enjoy the process rather than trying to create the perfect garden overnight.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

Talking of making the most of what you've got, uh not everybody has a big garden uh or or space to do their work in. So uh talking about sort of small gardens and and patios, small spaces, which is becoming popular. Uh a couple of top tips, uh Adam, for for making the most of that limited space.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

I think the the most obvious one, or perhaps the best one, is think about the whole space rather than it just being kind of a flat space, think about how it goes up as well. And so think about vertical growing. And that's that's something that that gardens have talked about for a while. And it's something that I've done in in my gardens that I've had over the last few years by using materials to kind of grow upwards. So, yes, you know, we can use obelisks and trellis to grow climbing plants and things like that, but it's it's more than just that. So if you're short on space, grow upwards rather than outwards. So think about things like climbing beans or cucumbers or squash that you can grow on trellises or or frames, but also think about different materials that you can use. So I've used so all the wood that we use in the book hotel workshops are from pallets, so kind of old old wooden pallets. You can use pallets and and just lean them up against a fence or a wall, and then you can plant herbs in them, you can plant bulbs in them, you can plant strawberries in them, all sorts of things. So think about growing up, think about how you might add hanging baskets or wall planters if you've got fences and walls. You can just add planters to those. You know, you don't need to just think about how it's growing out in front of you, think about how it's growing up around you as well.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

Absolutely. BBC Gardeners World Spring Fair is at Bewley in Hampshire from Friday the first to th Sunday, the third of May. Lots of information on the website about how you can get tickets, who you can see there, and of course, don't forget to get tickets to book for the building of the bug hotels at BBC Gardenersworldfair.com. Uh Adam, just finally, um I know that gardening goes in in sort of trends and phases, doesn't it? And I again going back to uh to your blog, I was I was reading about your um dilemma with dahlias uh and the British and the British weather. They they are popular one year, they're not popular the next year. I think I spoke a lot last year with people about uh with about dahlias. What are this year's I don't want to use the word trends because that seems to undermine you know the interests of the gardeners. What are the this year's high interest areas?

SPEAKER_00 14:41

Well, uh I I heard of a word the other day that I'd not heard of before, and I can't remember where I heard it, but it's foodscaping, and I don't know if this is going to actually be a trend this year, but I've seen a couple of people mention it. And it's basically where you're instead of having you know a vegetable patch hidden at the back of the garden like you you know your grandparents might have done, um, you know, where you've got a veg pot right at the end of your of your garden, people are really starting, and it's it's certainly not a new thing, but you've I see it in some of the show gardens and the borders and things at the shows as well, where you're mixing edible plants into your ornamental borders as well. So think of things that are really attractive, like rainbow chards, or you know, there are gorgeous herbs, or even like dwarf tomatoes and edible flowers all growing alongside one another. And it means that your garden can look beautiful but also produce food at the same time. So um I think it's a it's a big trend about making them beautiful and making them resourceful and productive, um, as well as just looking great.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

Absolutely. Adam, always a pleasure to catch up with you. Thank you so much, and uh enjoy the show at Bewley, where I know you're going to bring the sunshine.

SPEAKER_00 15:53

I can't wait.

unknown 15:54

Can't wait.