A crash course in marketing
Click here to get to the episode page where you’ll find all the information about Fig trees and links to Mary Menniti’s Italian Garden Project website.
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Tape boxes from Radio Merseyside days
In the old days when you made a programme, on tape, for Radio 4, you literally took the programme in its box with its title and programme number written on the outside and left it at ‘Tape Library’. Coming from local radio where you put it in the tape cupboard, for the next days broadcasting, this felt quite scary. There were hundreds of tapes going into that library, would they find it - of course they would it was a library, that was the point!
A slight aside here - one of my jobs as a Programme Assistant at Radio Merseyside was to check all the tapes were in the cupboard ready for your next shift putting them ‘on air’. One particular producer who always edited up to the very last second would put empty tape boxes into that cupboard so that the PA coming on shift would think all was well. And if you spotted that then he’d put old programmes in the box and then fly in at the very last minute with that week’s programme!
However the point was, once you had delivered the programme you simply moved onto the next project. Somebody else did the marketing for that series and of course with radio you are part of a schedule from which people can tell where they are in the day - that’s the lunchtime programme, or the afternoon play or the morning news show or the feature slot. So marketing was not a skill set that a radio producer needed.
Podcasting is a very different world. I did a course online this week that said you need to spend as much time on the marketing as you do on the making. Eek! However back at the steep learning curve, I write a press release and start to draw up a list of people to whom I can send it. There are of course gardening magazines but their leadtimes are long so by now they are probably sorting the copy for July/August. However the good thing about podcasts is they stay there, forever. Then there are other gardening programmes and podcasts. There are plant societies and groups. There are gardening charities. There are garden centres - yes I met a lovely lady called Caroline last week at Bypass nurseries on the A12. I gave her a card and Bypass nurseries now follow me on Instagram and I follow them. Oh and I bought a Hydrangea and some sunflower seeds. I was on the lookout for a Passion flower - haven’t found one yet. So I will keep you posted on how this latest phase goes.
Over Easter, I did hear another story of a grandmother who took cuttings. (Check out the Passion flower episode if you missed this tale.) However this one got reprimanded in Kew Gardens for doing it! I asked my friend if that was the end of her cuttings into the handbag habit - ‘oh no’ he said!
I am excited this week that we have our first story that takes us out of the UK, this time to the US. This is another of the stories that emerged right back at the beginning of this whole project. I was simply talking to two old friends when the story about the Fig tree appeared and not from the gardener of the two. They led me to Mary Menniti, she set up The Italian Garden Project, do take a look. She has been a great source of encouragement and enthusiasm. I love the thought that we could build an Our Plant Stories community that would bring together gardeners from all over the world.
It’s also been so lovely hearing from some of you via email or on social media. If something in the podcast makes you smile do feel free to share it with us all in comments - Anyone have a grandfather who had the cuttings habit? And if you fancy doing a bit of marketing at your local garden centre - be my guest.