The Organic Gardening Podcast Garden Organic

 “Everyone deserves a meal” is one of the mottos of organic gardener Sarah Mead as she tackles garden pests – and is the thread running through this month’s podcast.

Fiona takes a tour of Sarah’s beautiful, Soil Association-certified organic garden at Yeo Valley dairy farm in Blagdon, and find out how she works alongside wildlife rather than trying to eradicate pests.

“It’s critical to leave things alone so you don’t break the food chain because once you’ve done that you’ve lost the battle,” says Sarah, who uses sacrificial plants, companion planting and copper tape to help manage whitefly, slugs and other challenges in the six-and-a-half-acre garden.

“Organic gardening is all about being hands off. It’s less work in the long run: less digging, less mowing, less spraying. It can be done on a large scale or a small one. Just start by apply one principle and keep going.” 

To mark Veganuary, Fiona and Chris also discuss veganic gardening, and moving away from animal-based ingredients in the garden. They touch on the value of plant-based diets that encourage us to grow and eat more vegetables, which are great for our health and for biodiversity.

And they also share their love of feeding the birds in winter - and look forward to Big Garden Birdwatch at the end of this month.

The podcast team are looking back on 2022 in December’s episode, chatting about their triumphs and trials – and what’s on their Christmas wishlist.

We get up close to our soil in this month’s Organic Gardening Podcast with a fascinating discussion about protecting soil over winter, warming up wormeries and creating veganic compost. 

Fiona joins Chris Collins to share details of her trip to a new compost demonstration site in Cumbria. And discusses how she looks after her wormery in winter to protect her worms and make the most of her vermicompost. And we learn how ‘spraing’ can affect potato tubers.

Dr Anton Rosenfeld pays a visit to Becca Stevenson, head grower at the certified organic Five Acres Community Farm, in Ryton, to find out what’s involved in a community supported agricultural (CSA) farm.

Becca shows Anton how CSA farms allow communities to buy shares in what they produce to get local produce on to local plates, cut down on food waste and increase community engagement with food growing. She talks about the challenges of pests and diseases and getting through the hungry gap with bundles of stored and preserved produce.

Thanks to our sponsors The Organic Gardening Catalogue, visit www.organiccatalogue.com/POD8 to take advantage of their Autumn Bliss raspberry offer.

Chris and Fiona share their highlights for the start of autumn, and what will be keeping them busy this month. Chris chats to Stephanie Slater, Founder and CEO of charity School Food Matters, and the team help out with queries on splitting tomatoes, No Dig green manures and organic playing field maintenance.

Shoes filled with dust, salads shrivelling, and a bad case of watering can elbow - it’s certainly been one of the most challenging summers for gardeners!

This month sees the return of the National Allotment Week, an initiative let by the National Allotment Society, so we’ve got an allotment special for you. Chris and Fiona chat about life on what's happening on Chris's allotment, Fiona is treated to a tour around Rekha Mistry's allotment, and Anton and Chris help with some tricky allotment challenges