Ep60: A Good Ol' Chit-Chat With... Helleentje & Peter
18/1/2026 | 1h 14 mins.
Helleentje and Peter Walker from Wack’s Wicked Plants showed us their beautiful collection of carnivorous plants on Gardeners’ World 2025 episode 28. They join us for a Good Ol’ Chit-Chat and take us on a stroll down memory lane from the UK, to The Netherlands, to Azerbaijan, before settling in Scampston. We also find out about the science of growing melons and chrysanthemums, Capability Brown’s lime tree that sounds like a plane, their national collection of Mexican butterworts, and Uncle Charlie’s oranges.
Some mentions from our guest, links can be found here: https://notjustagarden.co.uk/gardens/
Scampston National Collection of Mexican Butterworts Cites
More Not Just a Garden Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/NotJustaGarden/home Website: https://notjustagarden.co.uk/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notjusta_garden/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/notjustagarden/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NotJustaGarden Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Not Just a Garden Bonus ep3
14/1/2026 | 45 mins.
The third of our Not Just a Garden Bonus episodes and this week we look at cigarettes with asbestos filters, how London Bridge was once inhabited, which guests were on the latest Gardeners' World compilations episode, drunk Australian bees, how the term "horse power" really came about, the fascinating world of fungi, the efficient mechanics of "Josh" and The Ocean Cleanup, and the varied and unpredictable subject of animal gestation periods.
In the Quazy Quiz we find out about another highly skilled but also dangerous career in science, and Who Am I? looks at another of the Gardeners' World presenters. We also hear where Frances Tophill and Joe Swift can be found this late winter/early spring.
Relevant links can be found on our website here: https://notjustagarden.co.uk/recaps/
To help make this podcast happen, please visit our Patreon https://www.patreon.com/notjustagarden
More Not Just a Garden https://notjustagarden.co.uk/ https://www.instagram.com/notjusta_garden/ https://www.facebook.com/notjustagarden/ https://www.youtube.com/@NotJustaGarden Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Ep59: A Good Ol' Chit-Chat With... Dwayne Black
11/1/2026 | 1h 5 mins.
Dwayne Black was on Gardeners’ World 2025 episode 27 showing us his stunning garden packed with lavender paths, grasses and immaculate dahlias. He joins us for A Good Ol’ Chit-Chat and we talk about how Dwayne prep’d for the big day, how the decision was made to add a fountain to the garden, the experience Dwayne has had with social media when it comes to the gardening community, what impact the seasons have on mental health, and a slightly violent technique for opening peonies!
Some mentions from our guest, links can be found here: https://notjustagarden.co.uk/gardens/
More Not Just a Garden Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/NotJustaGarden/home Website: https://notjustagarden.co.uk/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notjusta_garden/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/notjustagarden/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NotJustaGarden Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Not Just a Garden Bonus ep2
07/1/2026 | 43 mins.
Another Not Just a Garden Bonus episode and this week we look at which jobs are threatened by AI and which are safest, pursuing careers in arts or sciences or both, which country in the world gets to celebrate the new year first, clever things to do with sunflower stems, a biotechnology company that uses fungi to improve tree growth and their survival rates, some interesting - and funny - gardening books, what slug, snail, cone-snail and squid tongues have in common, clever birds laughing in the face of man-made anti-bird devices, sweating trees in the Amazon, and fish that can produce buckets of slime in an instant.
On this week's Quazy Quiz, Sweetpea debuts her new game, Plant Name or Sweetpea Being a Pain and we have another Gardeners' World presenter Who Am I? We also hear some fantastic news about Advolly Richmond.
Relevant links can be found on our website here: https://notjustagarden.co.uk/recaps/
To help make this podcast happen, please visit our Patreon https://www.patreon.com/notjustagarden
More Not Just a Garden https://notjustagarden.co.uk/ https://www.instagram.com/notjusta_garden/ https://www.facebook.com/notjustagarden/ https://www.youtube.com/@NotJustaGarden Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Ep58: A Good Ol' Chit-Chat With... Ash Whiffin
04/1/2026 | 1h 8 mins.
Curator of Entomology Ashleigh Whiffin from National Museums Collection Centre in Edinburgh was on Gardeners' World 2025 episode 26 where she showed us the transformation of surrounding land from lawn to floral diversity. She joins us for a Good Ol' Chit-Chat and we find out about how Ash became curator, the intriguing world of forensic entomology (not necessarily for the faint-hearted☠️), the ingenuity of leafing mining insects, the lesser known migratory habits of marmalade hoverflies, and how bee-flies aren't quite as cute and cuddly as we first thought.
Some mentions from our guest, links can be found here: https://notjustagarden.co.uk/gardens/
National Museums Collection Centre Butterfly Conservation website Ash's butterfly Get Ready With Me Illustrator Ed Harrison National Museum of Rural Life National Museum of Flight, East Lothian
More Not Just a Garden Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/NotJustaGarden/home Website: https://notjustagarden.co.uk/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notjusta_garden/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/notjustagarden/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NotJustaGarden Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Welcome to Not Just a Garden!A name that came about after we laboriously tackled a weed-infested, overgrown, black-run-steep patch of field into something vaguely resembling a garden. Literal blood, sweat and tears were spent in the process but once the beds were built, the plants began to grow and the wildlife took over, we agreed it was not just a garden, but something so much more; a shared achievement, a bonding experience, an escape from screens, a hideaway for tranquil moments, a safe space to sit and put the mad and confusing world to rights.Our continued shared love of gardening has had us avidly watching Gardeners’ World each week, taking notes here, animatedly discussing there, which has in turn lead us to giving a Sweetpea & Bear style recap on our podcast! Just a mother and daughter chewing the fat over Nick, Frances and Adam’s big garden moves, enjoying Monty and Toby’s poetic presenting, learning intriguing garden history from Advolly and hanging off Carol’s every propagating word.The programme has also brought into our living rooms each week a novice, professional, serious, hilarious, quirky, eccentric, inspiring world of guests, all of whom we want to know so much more about. So our Good Ol' Chit-Chats series was born; each episode we chat with a previous guest on Gardeners’ World and find out more about what would make their dream garden.So grab a cup of tea and flask of coffee, a glass of wine, a whisky, a Pimms, an Apple and Pear juice or anything in between, and join us for a Good Ol’ Chit-Chat about Not Just a Garden!Sweetpea & Bear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.