the happy garden podcast

Darren explains Hügelkultur, Hügelkultur (meaning "mound culture" in German) is a centuries-old gardening and permaculture technique where raised beds are built by piling logs, branches, and woody debris at the base, and layering them with compost, turf, and soil. It seems to be just what our plants need to survive these drought conditions! Hear a bit of Mollie's chat with Soil acoustics, a new and exciting branch of ecoacoustics – the science of listening to sound made by the natural world. The full podcast on Soil Acoustics is coming soon!.

Mollie catches up with Paul Hetherington from the charity Buglife to discuss the effects of the continuing heatwaves on our insects in the garden. It's also Flying Ant Day soon too, although they await the rains which we of course don't have at the moment! Darren suggests 20 heat tolerant and drought resistant plants for your garden and hear a very merry Mollie chatting to her festival friend about winning in Petersfield in Bloom :0)

As we enter yet another heatwave in 2026, how are your plants coping? Darren has plenty of tips to try and keep everything alive. Mollie has a chat with Georgie Guernsey from the Packington Estate about being the new home of Gardener's World Live, exciting times ahead!

Mollie meets Joffrey Watson, a UK chainsaw sculptor, who creates bespoke wooden sculptures from fallen trees using chainsaws and wood tools. Based in Shropshire, Joffery is also a town crier! A fascinating and funny guy. A pleasure to introduce you to Joffrey...

It's all over for another year! We have a look back at the show and have a chat with Kate from The Folklorian Garden and also Stan from Craighouse Cacti to find out what they won and how they found the show. We also hear how one of the groups had their van stolen the night before the show which had all of the plants and sculptures for their display. What happened next was nothing short of astounding. Find out more, just press play!

Mollie heads off to the NEC as the build begins for the show gardens at GWL 2026. Meet show Director Bob Sweet and hear from Alice as well as Kate Patrick who has designed the Folkorians garden. The feature garden this year is called The Evolution Garden and it's been designed by Prof. Alice Roberts and Dr. David Stevens and our very own Darren has the job of planting it! All goes swimmingly until a digger hits a water pipe and then it turns in to the wrong kind of swimming!