the happy garden podcast

Mollie chats to Simon Akeroyd, author of 30 gardening books and previously a garden manager for the National Trust. Simon is sharing tips on how to increase your house's value by up to 20%, simply by making your garden space look attractive to buyers, and it doesn't have to costa fortune to do so! Loads of advice on the subject from Darren too who has spent over 30 years making gardens look beautiful for homeowners. Lots of gardening chat and giggles along the way too.

Meet Lorraine from Caley Bros mushrooms. They won gold at Chelsea and are running workshops at Gardener's World Live at the NEC in June. Why are they called brothers when they are two sisters? Find out! We hear from Adam Frost too as Mollie nabs 5 minutes with him at Chelsea and we also announce the lucky winner of the GWL tickets.

Find out how to win 2 tickets to GWL for free! Mollie meets the designer of the gold medal winning Seawilding garden at the Chelsea flower show. Lots of chat with Darren about how to look after your hanging baskets in June, how to grow strawberries from scratch and we also find out about this year's Bugs matter survey, run by the charity Buglife. It involves a splat-o-meter - find out more!

After a month apart, Mollie and Darren are reunited to bring you this week's episode! After a 4 hour delay while Mollie tried to sort the technicalities of the podcast equipment out, they are back in the swing of things. Mollie chats to David Austin on the gold award winning stand at the Chelsea Flower Show. Hear his reaction when she confesses to him that it was her who fell in to the rose display at Chelsea last year! Hear a chat with Chris Baines at Chelsea too as he was the special guest of the RHS this year honouring his wildlife garden in 1985. Lots of laughter as always.

Mollie sits down for a chat with Nick Bailey, designer of this year's headline show garden at Gardener's World Live at the NEC in Birmingham in June.

Meet Paul Walton, the head gardener at the fabulous Biddulph Grange Stumpery. Mollie spends an hour with Paul finding out about the history and concept of the garden. We also find out what it takes to keep this garden going, both physically and financially.