Gardens of Earthly Delight

Andrew Valenti

An exploration of our connection to earth through conversations with experts and celebrities who have formed their own profound relationships to the natural world.

  1. Oct 22

    Flower Remedies and Homeopathy w/ Alexis Smart

    Alexis Smart is a flower remedy practitioner, a classical homeopath, and the founder of Alexis Smart Flower Remedies. For over twenty years she has worked with the 38 flower remedies of Dr. Edward Bach, first as one on one with clients and now through a line of her own formulas. She also continues her homeopathy studies in Greece with George Vithoulkas. Most of us have felt a flower shift our mood without being able to say why. Alexis has come to see every flower as having a personality of its own, and she feels it as much standing next to the living plant as she does in the bottle. We talk about how she came to this work as a patient before she was a practitioner, a doctor who dosed himself with Peruvian bark two hundred years ago, and why a more diluted homeopathic remedy is the stronger one. We get into how Dr. Bach found his 38 flowers and how an essence is made, why heather grows in crowds on the Scottish hills while water violet grows alone, the difference between an oak and a people pleaser, and the one remedy she avoided for years because she was afraid she might need it. Alexis also shares her account of how homeopathy nearly disappeared from American shelves. Note: Alexis shares her own experiences and her work as a practitioner, and nothing in this episode is medical advice. If you’re dealing with a health condition, please talk to a qualified healthcare provider. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODEAlexis Smart Flower Remedies: https://alexissmart.comWholeHearted: https://alexissmart.com/products/whole-heartedFirst Aid Kit: https://alexissmart.com/products/first-aid-kitGanesh: https://alexissmart.com/products/ganeshLacy Philips and To Be Magnetic: https://tobemagnetic.com/Dr. Edward Bach and the Bach Centre: https://www.bachcentre.comSamuel Hahnemann: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_HahnemannGeorge Vithoulkas: https://www.vithoulkas.comBach Flower Remedies: Form and Function by Julian Barnard: https://florisbooks.co.uk/books/9781584200246Aura-Soma: https://www.aura-soma.com CONNECT WITH ALEXISWebsite: https://alexissmart.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexissmartflowerremedies SUPPORT THE SHOWThis season, like the first, is ad-free and listener-funded. You can make a one-time or recurring donation through our fiscal sponsor, tax deductible in the US: https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/gardens-of-earthly-delightOr subscribe to the newsletter for $7 a month and get the extended notes for every episode, plus the parts of these conversations that did not make the recording: https://gardensofearthlydelight.substack.com FOLLOW GARDENS OF EARTHLY DELIGHTWebsite: https://gardensofearthlydelight.comListen and subscribe: https://gardensofearthlydelight.com/subscribeSubstack: https://gardensofearthlydelight.substack.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/gardensofearthlydelightpod/Everything in one place: https://linktr.ee/gardensofearthlydelightMusic by Dolly Valentine: https://open.spotify.com/artist/00CmJgHxGVen5RjRFppVUtLogo by Hunky Kitty: https://altonkyle.com ★ Support this podcast ★

    Flower Remedies and Homeopathy w/ Alexis Smart

  2. Oct 7

    Eat Your Garden with Harry Holding

    Harry Holding is a garden designer and the founder of Harry Holding Studio. His first RHS Chelsea Flower Show garden in 2023 was over 80 percent edible and won the People's Choice Award, and this year he returned with the Eden Project and won the RHS Environmental Innovation Award. His first book, Eat Your Garden: Edimentals as a Beautiful, Low-Effort Way to Grow Food, came out this spring with Chelsea Green. Most of us split the garden in two, with the pretty part in one place and the vegetable patch in another. Harry works with edimentals, plants that are both ornamental and edible, and a lot of us are already growing them without knowing it. He sees food as a gateway to connecting with nature, and the garden we already have as the place to start. We talk about what happens to a Chelsea garden once the show is over, how one show garden became two school gardens, and why a potato is maybe the best first thing to grow. We get into edible meadows, a garden he grew in crushed rubble, the case for sea buckthorn, and a concrete made from waste mussel and cockle shells. Harry also shares the feeling of being connected to something bigger when we're out in nature, and two ways in for anyone who doesn't feel that pull yet. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODEEat Your Garden: https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/eat-your-garden/The School Food Matters Garden, Chelsea 2023: https://www.givingback.org.uk/our-gardens/school-food-matters-gardenThe Eden Project Bring Me Sunshine Garden, Chelsea 2026: https://www.edenproject.com/media-relations/eden-projects-chelsea-garden-receives-top-honours-after-star-studded-dayStephen Barstow and edimentals: https://www.edimentals.com/blog/Charles Dowding on no dig, Season 1: https://gardensofearthlydelight.com/episodes/the-less-you-dig-the-more-you-grow-w-charles-dowdingGrow Together by Charles Dowding: https://www.toppingbooks.co.uk/books/charles-dowding/grow-together/9780241807101/Sid Hill: https://www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/misc-shows/designer-biogs/chris-hull-sid-hillJoshua Sparkes at Birch Farm: https://woolsery.com/thecollective/birch-farm/Peter Korn: https://www.gardensillustrated.com/gardens/international/peter-korn-klinta-tradgard-sand CONNECT WITH HARRYInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/harryholdingstudio/Website: https://harryholding.co.uk/Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/harry-holding-studio/ SUPPORT THE SHOWThis season, like the first, is ad-free and listener-funded. You can make a one-time or recurring donation through our fiscal sponsor, tax deductible in the US: https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/gardens-of-earthly-delightOr subscribe to the newsletter for $7 a month and get the extended notes for every episode, plus the parts of these conversations that did not make the recording: https://gardensofearthlydelight.substack.com FOLLOW GARDENS OF EARTHLY DELIGHTWebsite: https://gardensofearthlydelight.comListen and subscribe: https://gardensofearthlydelight.com/subscribeSubstack: https://gardensofearthlydelight.substack.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/gardensofearthlydelightpod/Everything in one place: https://linktr.ee/gardensofearthlydelightMusic by Dolly Valentine: https://open.spotify.com/artist/00CmJgHxGVen5RjRFppVUtLogo by Hunky Kitty: https://altonkyle.com ★ Support this podcast ★

    Eat Your Garden with Harry Holding

  3. Sep 23

    Preserving Memories Through Fermentation w/ Rachel de Thample

    Rachel de Thample is the head fermenter at River Cottage in Devon, where she teaches fermentation and gut health courses. She has worked in food, health and sustainability for more than twenty-five years, including as Head of Food at the organic retailer Abel & Cole, and her River Cottage Fermentation handbook won a Guild of Food Writers award. Her new book, The Fermentation Year: Everyday techniques and recipes to rewild your microbiome, is published by Bloomsbury and comes out today September 24, 2026. Rachel explains why a jar of vegetables packed straight from the field is one of the safest things in your kitchen, and why the life in that jar depends on the soil the vegetables grew in and how recently they were picked. We talk about why a salt-brined pickle beat a vinegar pickle in a blind tasting of 120 people, what her grandmother meant when she said a recipe just happens, how she rewilded her own gut microbiome, and why she'd trust an old forgotten ferment from the back of the cupboard over a fresh bag of salad. We also get into a heritage seed project where the seeds learn from every season they're grown through, a trip in Sicily where guests taste wines next to the soils they came from, and how a jar of preserved lemons always brings her back to a moment with her mother. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE The Fermentation Year: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/fermentation-year-9781526697554/ Fermentation: River Cottage Handbook No.18: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/fermentation-9781526612502/ River Cottage: https://www.rivercottage.net Garden Organic Heritage Seed Library: https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/what-we-do/hsl Chuckling Goat: https://www.chucklinggoat.co.uk Wild Country Organics: https://www.lfm.org.uk/producers/wild-country-organics/ Knepp: https://knepp.co.uk COS, Vittoria, Sicily: https://www.cosvittoria.it CONNECT WITH RACHEL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dethample/Events & Workshops: https://linktr.ee/dethample?utm_source=linktree_profile_share<sid=c1b007b4-2e7b-499c-9472-44c6034336a6 SUPPORT THE SHOW This season, like the first, is ad-free and listener-funded. You can make a one-time or recurring donation through our fiscal sponsor, tax deductible in the US: https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/gardens-of-earthly-delight Or subscribe to the newsletter for $7 a month and get the extended notes for every episode, plus the parts of these conversations that did not make the recording: https://gardensofearthlydelight.substack.com FOLLOW GARDENS OF EARTHLY DELIGHT Website: https://gardensofearthlydelight.com Listen and subscribe: https://gardensofearthlydelight.com/subscribe Substack: https://gardensofearthlydelight.substack.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gardensofearthlydelightpod/ Everything in one place: https://linktr.ee/gardensofearthlydelight Music by Dolly Valentine: https://open.spotify.com/artist/00CmJgHxGVen5RjRFppVUt Logo by Hunky Kitty: https://altonkyle.com ★ Support this podcast ★

    Preserving Memories Through Fermentation w/ Rachel de Thample

  4. Sep 10

    What Plants Teach Us About Being Human w/ Jack Algiere

    Jack Algiere is Advisor and Chief Agroecology Officer at Stone Barns Center in the Hudson Valley, where he was the first employee back in 2003, when the place was a cattle operation and not much else. He is the author of Seeding Hope: What Plants Teach Us About Being Human, published this month by Chelsea Green. Most of us go looking for nature somewhere else. Jack makes the case that the most dependable way back is the thing on your plate, because you can go most of your life without walking on bare soil, but every day you eat something that was grown on this planet. We talk about observation as a skill you have to practice, why your hands and eyes are still the finest instruments in farming, and what gets lost with every degree of separation between a person and the soil. We get into land races and the flint corn he keeps deliberately mixed, the difference between seed security and seed sovereignty, why a seedless watermelon is closer to a parlor trick than an invention, and what Goethe and Rudolf Steiner still have to say to a working farmer. He closes with the food memories that actually stayed with him, none of which are meals. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Seeding Hope: https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/seeding-hope/ Read the introduction: https://www.scribd.com/document/1076696410/Seeding-Hope-Introduction Stone Barns Center: https://www.stonebarnscenter.org Jack at Stone Barns: https://www.stonebarnscenter.org/jack-algiere Otto File, the eight row flint corn: https://hudsonvalleyseed.com/products/otto-file-flint-corn The history of that corn, from New England to Italy and back: https://foodtank.com/news/2013/12/indigenous-crop-new-england-eight-row-flint-corn-otto-file/ Jack on farming and consciousness: https://www.chronogram.com/topic/environment/jack-algiere-on-farming-consciousness-and-seeding-hope/ CONNECT WITH JACKInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/farmer.jack/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackalgiere/ Stone Barns Center: https://www.stonebarnscenter.org SUPPORT THE SHOW This season is listener funded. You can make a one time or recurring donation through our fiscal sponsor, tax deductible in the US: https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/gardens-of-earthly-delight Or subscribe to the newsletter for $7 a month and get the extended notes for every episode, plus the parts of these conversations that did not make the recording: https://gardensofearthlydelight.substack.com FOLLOW GARDENS OF EARTHLY DELIGHT Website: https://gardensofearthlydelight.com Listen and subscribe: https://gardensofearthlydelight.com/subscribe Substack: https://gardensofearthlydelight.substack.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewvalenti.av Everything in one place: https://linktr.ee/gardensofearthlydelight Music by Dolly Valentine: https://open.spotify.com/artist/00CmJgHxGVen5RjRFppVUt Logo by Hunky Kitty: https://altonkyle.com ★ Support this podcast ★

    What Plants Teach Us About Being Human w/ Jack Algiere

  5. Aug 26

    Finding Flavor with Franco Fubini of Natoora

    Franco Fubini is the founder and CEO of Natoora, a produce supplier built entirely around flavor, working directly with growers across Europe, the US and Australia and supplying some of the most famous restaurants in the world. He is the author of In Search of the Perfect Peach: Why Flavour Holds the Answer to Fixing Our Food System, published by Chelsea Green, and a judge for the Food Planet Prize. Most of us were trained to reach for the best looking thing on the shelf. Franco explains why the fruit we pass over is almost always the better one, and why that has almost nothing to do with what farmers can grow and almost everything to do with what a supermarket can move. We talk about crop planning and what it means to tell a farmer you will sell whatever they grow, why a scarred nectarine carries more flavor than a flawless one, how anyone can start learning to taste, why an English glasshouse tomato can carry a heavier footprint than one trucked up from Sicily, and what trust actually looks like when there is no label doing that work for you. In the end, he shares a favorite food memory that will have anyone yearning for the Italian coast and a simple summer meal.  MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Natoora: https://natoora.com In Search of the Perfect Peach: https://www.chelseagreen.com/writer/franco-fubini/ Natoora on Winter Tomatoes and the Marinda: https://natoora.com/en-GB/stories/what-are-winter-tomatoes/ How Natoora started: https://natoora.com/en-US/our-story/ Food Planet Prize: https://foodplanetprize.org/people/franco-fubini/ Riverford: https://www.riverford.co.uk Ocado: https://www.ocado.com Darina Allen on tasting is believing, Season 1: https://gardensofearthlydelight.com/episodes/the-solution-is-under-your-feet CONNECT WITH FRANCO Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/franconatoora/ Natoora: https://natoora.com SUPPORT THE SHOW This season, like the first, is ad-free and listener-funded. You can make a one-time or recurring donation through our fiscal sponsor, tax deductible in the US: https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/gardens-of-earthly-delight Or subscribe to the newsletter for $7 a month and get the extended notes for every episode, plus the parts of these conversations that did not make the recording: https://gardensofearthlydelight.substack.com FOLLOW GARDENS OF EARTHLY DELIGHT Website: https://gardensofearthlydelight.com Listen and subscribe: https://gardensofearthlydelight.com/subscribe Substack: https://gardensofearthlydelight.substack.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gardensofearthlydelightpod/ Everything in one place: https://linktr.ee/gardensofearthlydelight Music by Dolly Valentine: https://open.spotify.com/artist/00CmJgHxGVen5RjRFppVUt Logo by Hunky Kitty: https://altonkyle.com ★ Support this podcast ★

    Finding Flavor with Franco Fubini of Natoora

  6. Apr 24

    The Healing Sting w/ Kate Hinkens

    Kate Hinkens had been dealing with Lyme disease since she was seven years old. After years of misdiagnosis, relapse, and months of intravenous antibiotics that left her sleeping eighteen hours a day and unable to finish a sentence, she found her way to bee venom therapy - ordering bees online, standing in her bathroom with tweezers, and stinging herself until something shifted. Kate is now a beekeeper and bee venom therapy practitioner who teaches people how to self-administer BVT for chronic illness. In this episode we get into the biochemistry of why bee venom can do things antibiotics can't, what a low-histamine diet looks like during treatment, the full medicine cabinet of the hive: honey, propolis, royal jelly, bee pollen, bee bread, the ethics of beekeeping, and what bees have to teach us about reciprocity with the natural world. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Intro 01:28 Kate's Lyme disease history and years of misdiagnosis 03:17 Why Lyme is so hard to diagnose and treat 05:00 The antibiotic route and why it stopped working 08:25 Discovering bee venom therapy 10:00 The science: melittin, biofilms, and chronic Lyme 12:30 Apamin and the blood-brain barrier 14:00 Immune regulation and systemic inflammation 16:00 Diet and detox during BVT 19:00 Alpha-gal and the Lone Star tick 21:30 Andrew's own Lyme disease experience 23:00 Royal jelly, propolis, honey, bee pollen, and bee bread 32:00 The ethics of beekeeping and native bee populations 40:00 Does it matter what species of bee you use? 43:00 The honeybee's origins in North America 45:00 The ethics of using bees for BVT 49:00 Fun facts: how honey is actually made 54:00 How bees make decisions 57:00 The geometry of the honeycomb 59:00 The vibrational frequency of bees and healing 1:01:20 Kate's bee boxes and her BVT practice 1:02:41 How this deepened her connection to nature 1:05:07 Favorite food memory CONNECT WITH KATE HINKENS Website: stinglab.orgInstagram: @katehinkens FOLLOW GARDENS OF EARTHLY DELIGHT Substack: gardensofearthlydelight.substack.comInstagram: @gardensofearthlydelightpodPodcast: gardensofearthlydelight.com/subscribe Music by: Constant SmilesLogo design by: Hunky Kitty ★ Support this podcast ★

    The Healing Sting w/ Kate Hinkens

  7. Apr 9

    The Less You Dig, The More You Grow w/ Charles Dowding

    Charles Dowding is something of a legendary gardener. He coined the term "no dig" and created an entire movement and method to home and market gardening - all focused on the health of the soil. Charles is the author of 16 books - his latest, "Grow Together" being released just yesterday, April 9, 2026. I visited Charles at his market garden, Home Acres, in late February and we covered a lot of ground. We get into how no dig began, what thirteen years of side-by-side dig versus no dig trials actually show in the soil data, and why he waited 20 years to write his first book. We also talk about humanure and a trial that produced surprising results, copper garden tools and the work of Viktor Schauberger, water memory, structuring devices on the hose, and a farmer in the Austrian Alps a hundred years ago who sang to his water and had the best crops in the region. It was an honor to visit Charles at his homestead, even being late February (perhaps the slowest time of year for a garden) it was still filled with life and growth. TIMESTAMPS:00:00 Intro/Origins of Gardening and Market Gardening Journey03:06 Discovering No Dig Gardening06:53 The Role of Cardboard in No Dig Gardening09:48 Addressing Purity in Gardening Practices11:41 Climate Change and Its Impact on Gardening14:13 Education and Transition to Full-Time Gardening16:05 The Benefits of No Dig Gardening18:26 Exploring Humanure in Gardening22:55 Comparative Trials in Gardening Practices26:15 Innovative Water Management in Agriculture32:25 The Distinction Between Farming and Market Gardening34:50 Nutrient Density and Soil Health37:06 Starting from Scratch: Soil Remediation Techniques38:26 The Spiritual Connection to Gardening43:29 The Power of Observation in Gardening46:16 Water Memory and Its Impact on Gardening51:21 Favorite and Least Favorite Crops & Favorite Food Memory53:58 New Book Release: Grow Together RESOURCES MENTIONED Charles Dowding: Website: charlesdowding.co.ukNew book: Grow Together (DK, 2026)New Energies for Gardening by Charles DowdingBooks & People: Farmers of Forty Centuries by F.H. KingThe Fourth Phase of Water by Gerald PollackViktor Schauberger - Comprehend and Copy Nature DocumentaryRudolf SteinerPaul Stamets CONNECT WITH CHARLES DOWDING Website: charlesdowding.co.uk YouTube: @CharlesDowding1nodig Instagram: @charles_dowdingFacebook: facebook.com/CharlesDowdingNoDigGardeningSubstack: substack.com/@charlesdowding549359 FOLLOW GARDENS OF EARTHLY DELIGHT Substack: gardensofearthlydelight.substack.comInstagram: @gardensofearthlydelightpodPodcast: gardensofearthlydelight.com/subscribe Music by: Constant SmilesLogo design by: Hunky Kitty ★ Support this podcast ★

    The Less You Dig, The More You Grow w/ Charles Dowding

  8. Mar 27

    Make Me Good Soil w/ Sophie Strand

    Sophie Strand is a writer and author of The Flowering Wand: Rewilding the Sacred Masculine, The Madonna Secret, and her most recent book, a memoir called The Body Is a Doorway. She lives in the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she writes about mythology, ecology, and the intersection between storytelling and the more-than-human world. This conversation spans a lot of ground. We talk about what it means to be from a place versus being of a place, Tom Bombadil and what Lord of the Rings has to teach us about ecology, communicating with plants through dreams, the concept of pharmacon and the problems with how we use psychedelics, making good soil as both metaphor and practice, and how Sophie's experience with chronic illness has deepened her relationship with the natural world. A brief note: This conversation includes some discussion of drug use and psychedelics in the context of plant medicine and healing. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - The Hudson Valley as savior 04:42 - Being from a place vs. being of a place 06:38 - Human beings as peripatetic wanderers 09:07 - Sardinian throat singing and inherited traditions 11:16 - Eucatastrophe: the happy disaster 15:31 - Tom Bombadil and ecological wisdom 19:26 - Communicating with plants 20:13 - Dreams as messages from plants 22:23 - Dreams come from a place 27:34 - Being an instrument played by fungi 28:51 - Naming and ownership 35:25 - Hopi language and present tense 37:09 - Telepathic communication as wordless 39:24 - Psychedelics and plant medicine 41:17 - Pharmacon: potion and poison 43:10 - Our culture of addiction 46:39 - Ayahuasca and ego death 50:39 - Creating communities that honor intuition 54:31 - Aphids, ladybugs, and observation 56:41 - Make me good soil 57:21 - Degenerative connective tissue disease 59:36 - Soil as tomb and womb 01:01:44 - Nature and healing 01:07:18 - The blue heron as messenger 01:09:36 - Favorite food memory: apples and cheddar RESOURCES MENTIONED Sophie Strand: Substack: Make Me Good SoilBooks: The Flowering Wand: Rewilding the Sacred Masculine, The Madonna Secret, The Body Is a DoorwayBooks & Media: Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. TolkienThe Telepathy Tapes podcastLandmarks by Robert McFarlaneTime and Again (speculative fiction book)The Never-Ending Story (film)People Mentioned: Tom Bombadil (Lord of the Rings character)C.S. LewisJames Hillman (mythopoetic thinker)Patricia Kaishian (mycologist and writer)Places: Hudson Valley, New YorkOverlook MountainAshokan ReservoirWoodstock, New YorkConcepts: Eucatastrophe (Tolkien)Pharmacon (Greek concept)Mycorrhizal fungiHealthismCONNECT WITH SOPHIE STRANDWebsite: sophiestrand.com Substack: Make Me Good SoilInstagram: @cosmogyny  Books: The Flowering Wand, The Madonna Secret, The Body Is a Doorway FOLLOW GARDENS OF EARTHLY DELIGHT Substack: gardensofearthlydelight.substack.com Instagram: @gardensofearthlydelightpod Podcast: gardensofearthlydelight.com/subscribe Music by: Constant Smiles Logo design by: Hunky Kitty ★ Support this podcast ★

    Make Me Good Soil w/ Sophie Strand
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Trailer

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
7 Ratings

About

An exploration of our connection to earth through conversations with experts and celebrities who have formed their own profound relationships to the natural world.

Information

  • Creator
    Andrew Valenti
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    15
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Gardens of Earthly Delight
  • Show Website
    Gardens of Earthly Delight

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