Pick of the Year 2023
Christmas gift giveaway
Finally it is here - the Pick of the Year episode! And as a loyal reader of this blog you too can be a part of it. You see last week Andrew, my husband, bought me a Christmas present - a book he thought I would enjoy. However when he looked on my desk he realised I had already got it! So I am going to give it away as a Christmas present to one of you. All you need to do is drop me a note in the comments about a favourite moment you have from this first series of Our Plant Stories. It might be one of the stories; perhaps you loved hearing about Hannah’s mum in Plant Tattoos or Bridget’s grandmother in Passionflower, maybe you loved the walk along the riverbank in Willow or Pam’s flash mob playing the Ukrainian national anthem in Trafalgar Square that led to her friendship with Anya. It could be that you are now growing one of the plants; were you inspired to grow peonies or mint or plant a fig tree or a yew tree? I will love seeing all your comments and one will be picked out of the hat or perhaps it will be a flowerpot to win the book which is Why Women Grow by Alice Vincent. She also has a podcast of the same name which you might want to check out too.
It has been great fun to compile this special episode. It gave me the chance to talk to other plant podcasters, hearing how they make their podcasts and learning from those who have been doing it for many years. I have found podcasters, like gardeners, to be very generous. So plant podcasters are obviously off the scale generous!
When I compiled Pick of the Week or Pick of the Year for BBC Radio 4, I became very used to listening for the clip that I thought would work as a stand alone piece of audio and working out how all those clips might all weave together into a programme. A bit like returning to editing after many years, this episode has reminded me how much I always enjoyed that process. (Well perhaps not the first time I did it - I hardly left the office for an entire week, apart from to go home and sleep!)
I hope as you listen to this episode, the clips from Our Plant Stories may remind you of things you enjoyed from the first series and I am really excited to see what you liked. I hope the clips from On The Ledge, Scotland Grows and Roots and All may encourage you to go and listen to those podcasts if you don’t already. So what follows are some links for your onward listening journey.
On the Ledge : I guarantee you that when you look at Jane Perrone’s website you are going to see something you fancy. As I write this there are 281 available episodes. If the clip of Tea Frances has wetted your appetite to know more about spiders then this is the episode you want - number 268.
Scotland Grows Podcast : I love being transported to other places, other landscapes and this podcast does that for me. The plants we grow, the way we garden is of course influenced by where we live and this is a great celebration of Scottish gardens and gardeners. Do listen to the whole episode which you will find here. I loved that Simon Jones’ has his own special area of propagation - his front garden and it is great to hear about his experiences as the Curator of Plants at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland based at Edinburgh Zoo.
Roots and All : This is another wonderful podcast which I have been listening to for a long time. There was a brilliant episode recently about bees which I would also really recommend and will be re-listening to when once again next year I try to get better at identifying bees! You can find Sarah’s interview with Paul Sterry here and I found his book in the bookshop at the weekend and it looks wonderful. You can buy the book via Sarah’s website here.
So now over to you - is there a favourite moment (or just why you enjoy listening, if picking one thing feels too much like picking a favourite child!) that you can share in the comments. It will be really lovely for me to hear from you and I look forward to sending this Christmas present to one of you!