100th Blog Post!

Holkham beach on an October morning

It’s Saturday morning and I am sitting on a bench looking out across Holkham beach in Norfolk. Some of my family are heading down to the sea, it may take a while to get there but luckily the 2 year old is in a carrier on her dad’s back, her little legs might not make it. Mum, now 96, would love to go too but we decide the wheelchair might not work well on sand, so we’ll watch them disappear and then head to the Lookout Cafe nearby.

I am reminded of the second blog post I wrote back on November 21st 2022. Do take a look at the photo of the beach on that post because that morning the tide was in, all the way to the fence posts. I was sitting on the same bench, a little earlier in the day, it was 8am. An early start because my photographer friend Hilary, wanted to catch the light, which was stunning.

I wrote: “I have set myself the task of working out whether I can document my podcasting journey, by writing a weekly blog.  I am hoping that by sharing the exciting bits and the more challenging bits, I can begin to build a community of other gardeners or plant lovers who might want to listen to the end product next April: Our Plant Stories.   This way I also figure we might start with more than 3 listeners.”

And here we are at the 100th blog post and there are 40 episodes of Our Plant Stories on all the podcast apps and on the website and we’ve had over 16,000 downloads. More importantly I’ve met some lovely people; the people with the plant stories, the growers with their expertise, and listeners. I loved bumping into one of those listeners, Sophie, when she was visiting Hill Close Gardens because of the podcast. If you have followed this blog for any length of time you will know that there’s been plenty of serendipity on this podcast journey.

I have learned a lot about plants and about podcasting. I have also learned how even a little bit of encouragement can go an incredibly long way. A comment on the blog, a virtual coffee bought via the Buy me a Coffee page on the website, a rating or review on a podcast app are amazing gifts. It connects you with another person who has listened and wants to tell you what they thought. (Hopefully good things!) I think I have said before that with Radio 4, you made a programme, tossed it into tape library and headed off to make the next one, knowing there was an audience. With a podcast you have to work at it, find places to talk about it (Radio 2 at midnight!), hope listeners will share it with friends, get lucky with a review. I am hoping to pick up some more tips with a visit to the Apple podcast HQ next week - a perk of being a finalist in the Independent Podcast Awards.

So thank you to all of you who have supported the podcast whether that be from the very first blog posts or by joining along the way. I am also using this 100th post to launch a membership club on Buy me a Coffee - if you click and look here, you will see it: Our Plant Plugs! By joining, you’ll be supporting the podcast with a once a month beverage. Having that regular coffee income to help offset the costs of all the behind the scenes stuff that goes into making a podcast; the hosting platform, the recording and editing programmes, would be amazing. Of course individual coffees are still very welcome too!

I also hope that in time maybe there will be things I can offer back as special bonuses for the Plant Pluggers. For example many of you may remember Vicky Meads from New Forest Hostas who featured in the first series of Our Plant Stories. Her passion for her plants was palpable and her skills stunning - witness her most recent Gold Medal at Chelsea. I was chatting to her today and she mentioned that she is currently running a ‘clearance offer’ on some of her hostas because she needs to make some space in the greenhouses. So there are some great offers, on some of her beautiful plants. You will be supporting a small grower and you are one of the first to know about it. Take a look here. So in Our Plant Plugs I will be able to share this kind of information or maybe even offers, that I gather as I go.

Looking along my bookshelves I have a spare copy of Lally Snow’s book; My Family and Other Seedlings. So this time next week I will close my eyes and pick someone who has joined Our Plant Plugs to send it too. It will be that kind of low key, gentle, plant plug community and if you can join it that is fantastic. And if it isn’t for you no worries - thank you for being here and listening and reading.

Have a lovely weekend

Sally

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