Exciting news to share this week - we have a trailer on a podcasting app. Updating this on Monday we have now reached Spotify. Hopefully it is also on its way to Apple podcasts and Google podcasts. Apparently it can take up to a week for it to wend it way through systems and pop out the other side. Which is one of the reasons you publish a trailer ahead of your first episode.

I can also share the trailer here, helpful if you think the easiest way for you to listen will be via this website. But you can also of course Follow on any of the podcasting apps.

It is now all systems go with editing and episode pages so that every week there will be a podcast to send out. In the old days working at Radio 4, many offices with weekly programmes would have a large whiteboard on the wall so you could see what was coming up and whether it was ready to tx. I currently have a large sheet of sticky white paper on my wall. You can have all the lists you want on the laptop but there is something about seeing it, writ large in front of you which focusses the mind.

One question that came with the writing of the trailer was about the timing of the podcast. I have decided to publish on a Sunday and was originally thinking about afternoons, 4.30ish, the same time as this blog. However I heard from one gardener who heard an advance version of the trailer that she would happily take the podcast into the greenhouse with her of a Sunday morning so I am rethinking the timings. As ever if you have any thoughts on this do pop them in the comments and it is always lovely to hear from you.

I can also reveal to those of you here, that I have just planted my first Our Plant Stories cutting. It’s a Fig tree - well potentially several Fig trees. I must have passed that tree, multiple times on my way to the tube station. However it wasn’t till I started to edit the Fig Tree programme that I suddenly ‘saw it’. This week I made friends with Harry, the owner. He is Greek Cypriot and one of the trees originally belonged to his mum, now 87. It was on parent’s allotment and had been a gift from another allotment owner, originally coming from Cyprus. When Harry had to give up the allotment he bought a cutting of his mum’s tree. I have followed all of Mary’s instructions ( 31st Dec blog post) and will let you know how I get on.

There is a long list of things to do in the next 4 weeks and as a reader of this blog there is one that I am going to ask if you can help with. I need to share that this new podcast is happening with as many people as possible. So if you think you could be part of this by telling friends, getting them to listen to the trailer, telling them about the website, I would be so grateful. And let me know how you get on! I am also willing to talk to any and everyone about the project - so if you think there is someone I should speak to then just get in touch either in comments or via sally@ourplantstories.com

And thank you as always, for being part of the early crew - on this podcasting journey.