Poodling Around Jane Hunt

Jane Hunt homes in on the delights of a formal English garden in the summer months, by talking to the head gardener of Levens Hall and Gardens, in the Lake District, Cumbria. This amazing garden was first established by the French gardener, Monsieur Guillaume Beaumont, in 1694 but has been under the care of current head gardener, Chris Crowder, for the past 38 years.
Whilst best known for its topiary garden the oldest in the world which does come into the conversation, the Levens Hall garden has so much more to offer. Jane explores the various parts of the garden, with Chris's help, focusing on the general delights that a visitor can enjoy, if they visit during the months of June, July and August. She also quizzes Chris about some specific plants and shrubs that might be seen and some more unusual features that you wont find anywhere else.
The podcast highlights why lovers of gardens and gardening, no matter where they live in the world, should make a beeline for this incredible garden, not just to tick a sighting of the worlds oldest topiary garden off their bucket list.
It also discusses some particular attractions and events for summer 2024 and what to look forward to in the first week of September.
With Chris Crowder being the 11th head gardener at Levens Hall and gardens (eleven being not that many since 1694), Jane takes the listener through a little bit of work that she did last year, as part of her PR work for Levens Hall and Gardens focusing on all 11 of the men who have shaped the garden during its long history. From 1694 to the current day, she explains what we know of these men and how they shaped the gardens of today.

If you can’t head off to Italy this year, you simply have to bring the tastes of the Mediterranean to your own home and what could be better than a tasty woodfired pizza, bubbling with cheese and with a beautifully charred base worthy of any pizzeria in Naples?  Maybe a pizza  - or even better, another recipe concoction, rustled up in your own garden oven?
But how do you top that?  Maybe by serving up that pizza from an oven you’ve built yourself, so it comes with a big topping of self-satisfaction?
Jane Hunt interviews Andrew Manciocchi, the Anglo-Italian and managing director of Orchard Ovens, who first introduced the concept of woodfired pizza ovens to the UK in 2003, to get to the bottom of what’s involved with building your own pizza oven.  Having helped homeowners incorporate ovens into garden designs not just in the UK but beyond, Andrew has a wealth of knowledge to impart.
So how much time do you need to allow for a DIY pizza oven project? Is it a two-person job?  What are the first steps, if you want to be poodling around your garden, living life as if in La Bella Italia … or as Gwyneth Paltrow, Jamie Oliver, or other Valoriani celeb customers who've been furnished with pizza ovens by Orchard Ovens?
Jane learns all from her Catapult PR client, to discover how homeowners can get their DIY skills into full swing and have a glorious self-built pizza oven in their own garden or back yard, potentially in time for the 2024 Euros, if they buy themselves a Valoriani pizza oven kit and adopt a Tuscan-do attitude.  With these Valoriani ovens available not just in the UK, it’s something that anyone in Europe, the USA – or in other countries – could do.
Jane discovers how many DIY talents you might need for the project, how the kit concept works and how not to get the whole project wrong, by buying the wrong self-assembly pizza oven kit in the first place.
Tips are provided as to where to situate the oven and avoid regular pitfalls that many of those building their own pizza oven encounter.  Jane also discovers what help is available to UK buyers and what sorts of dishes, beyond pizza, could be cooked outdoors – including those she has managed in her own pizza oven!
But if DIY isn’t your thing but you desperately want the lifestyle benefits of cooking and entertaining outdoors, Jane and Andrew discuss what the other woodfired pizza oven options might be, for those who are not that handy with bricks, mortar and render but who want to have the ultimate garden party catering option.  With these Valoriani ovens also being available worldwide, it can inspire anyone.
With a Coldplay Chris Martin story thrown in, and Jane explaining how she finds cooking in her own oven and who she’d most like to serve up a woodfired treat to, in her dreams, at a pizza party, there's lots to digest.
 

With the worldwide phenomenon that is World Topiary Day just around the corner, the creator of the multi-award-winning gardening awareness day, Jane Hunt, managing director of Catapult PR, talks to Patrick Salembier, President of the European Boxwood and Topiary Society in Europe.
Jane discovers why the award-winning idea is a huge hit in France but also in the USA, Belgium, Italy, Portugal and other far-flung places and not just in the UK where it has put Levens Hall and Gardens, the founder of the day and the world's oldest topiary garden, at the top of the topiary tree.  
Jane explains about some of the specifics of the World Topiary Day activity this year, both in terms of what is happening with regard to activity  between participating gardens and what is specifically happening at Levens Hall and Gardens.
She also gives listeners an insight into why the day of World Topiary Day - May 12 - had such significance and why the raucous Radish Feast, which preceded it centuries ago, was so notorious.
Patrick highlights what worldwide gardens find so appealing about the concept and describes some of the French gardens participating again this year, including an amazing garden that is his society's current award winner and his personal favourite, which is just 'perfect' all year round.
 

Jane Hunt records some of her own impressions of the city of Bremen, in Northern Germany, whilst building on her own experience with the knowledge and insight provided by experienced Bremen tour guide, Guido Klostermann.  Jane provides details of her own experience, quizzing Guido on some of the things she saw, to discover more about this incredible but lesser-known city that has so much to offer to the visitor.  
Together, Jane and Guido discuss the cultural landmarks, the local cuisine, the festivals and the shopping experiences in Bremen, as well as the city's remarkable and undeniable connections to music and the Brother Grimm's fairytale of the Town Musicians.
After learning more about what she herself saw in Bremen and discovering other things she really should return to see in the future, Jane hints about her greatest wish.  She then moves on to emotionally explain what led her to Bremen in the first place and why this was so significant for her family and potentially that of 6 other families in the UK and Canada.  The emotional podcast ending indicates why peace is so important.

It's so easel!  That sums up the forthcoming 2024 season at Levens Hall and Gardens in the English Lake District,  as Jane Hunt discovers when interviewing self-taught artist, Bob Sutcliffe OBE.  
Jane learns how first a diagnosis of epilepsy, and then a heart attack 10 years later, resulted in Bob picking up a tin of watercolours and painting for the first time, using art therapy to manage his health condition.  She also finds out how this has subsequently led to an incredible charity fundraising journey, significant sums being raised and the award of an OBE for charity work.  
Jane also explores how Bob's latest fundraising project - his new book entitled 'Tree Therapy' - has led him to arranging a season-long art exhibition at English stately home and Elizabethan property, Levens Hall and Gardens, home to themed gardens that include the world's oldest topiary garden - a Guinness World Record Holder.  She explores the plans for the artworks that will grace these gorgeous English gardens, the community involvement that will surround their appearance in the Levens Hall gardens and how Bob's artworks will add a completely new dimension to the fourth World Topiary Day, to be held on Sunday May 12.  
The content of the book, which has artworks of trees in both the Lake District, England and Finland, is discussed, along with themes of creativity applying to both adults and children.
This podcast conveys an uplifting real life story that should inspire anyone who receives a poor health diagnosis and feels that the future looks dim.
It will also provide lots of inspiration for those wishing to visit Levens Hall and Gardens in 2024 or join in with the annual World Topiary Day event which Levens Hall and Gardens founded in 2021.  For anyone who lives in Cumbria or the Lake District or who is intending to travel their this year, it will also help pinpoint a must-see experience that many people put on their bucket list.
 
 
 

Jane Hunt gets on the scent of a historic and traditional canine sport that is largely these days confined to the beautiful countryside of Cumbria, or as some people may better know this  part of the UK - the Lake District.  
Jane discovers all there is to know about the dog-focused sport of houndtrailing, which involves trail hounds following their noses, to race to the finish line, having expertly followed a trail of aniseed and paraffin across what can be tough Cumbria fellside terrain, with many an obstacle en route to the prize money and trophy.
By talking to various members of the Hound Trailing Association, some of whom are also trail hound owners, she learns all about the sport, its origins, the thrill of taking part in it as a hound owner and breeder, or just watching it as a spectator amidst some of the most spectacular scenery in the UK.  
She also learns just what a challenge it is to keep this very unique and traditional, historic sport alive today, when there are so many other distractions, and why it is so important to do so, to ensure this element of Cumbrian culture is not lost.
By exploring the story, she finds something that could enrich social life and add a new interest to life, even perhaps if you don't live locally and just follow your dog's fortunes from afar.