Our Plant Stories Sally Flatman

When we think of 'allotment history' we perhaps have images from the two world wars with the population being urged to cultivate every spare bit of land from parks to bomb craters. But to really understand our relationship with these spaces we need to go back much further in time.
Lally Snow has written a book called My Family and Other Seedlings and in this episode she tells us how she has woven this history into her own experiences of growing food on an allotment with the aid of 3 under 5 year olds.
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Produced and Presented by Sally Flatman
Music: Fade to Black Howard Levy
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Buy me a Coffee is a way to support me to make this podcast and every virtual coffee you buy goes towards Our Plant Stories. Thank You!
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Kathy Slack brings us the first plant story to feature a vegetable, it is a root vegetable; a radish. They may be tiny but as you will hear in this plant story the impact of growing radish seeds was rather enormous. Kathy has a passion for vegetables so we not only discuss her journey growing them but other questions too - if you were to come back as a vegetable what would it be? Spoiler alert she seems to favour being a broad bean not a radish!
Hear her in conversation with Lally Snow, who we first met in Mint. Lally has just published a book about the history of allotments in the UK woven with her own story of taking on a plot and growing vegetables with the help of 3 under 5 year olds. They discuss their shared attitude of just 'having a go'.
And of course we also learn how to grow the plant. 5 weeks from now you too could be eating a radish slammer, made with your own radishes, just add butter and salt!
All the details are on the episode page.
Presented and Produced by Sally Flatman Buy me a Coffee
Music Howard Levy
Mentioned in this episode:
Buy me a Coffee
Buy me a Coffee is a way to support me to make this podcast and every virtual coffee you buy goes towards Our Plant Stories. Thank You!
Buy Me A Coffee
Buy Me A Coffee

Philippa Steward of Justdahlias admits that her passion for dahlias has become somewhat of an obsession! So who better than Philippa to share with us that enthusiasm and love of this beautiful flower in its many shapes and colours. Philippa has a plant story for later in this series but I couldn't resist talking to her about dahlias now so we could all share her excitement and plant some for this summer.
In this bonus episode we learn about planting tubers, she shares how to select your varieties and there is promise of gathering dahlia seeds in the future.
Do follow Philippa on Instagram at Justdahlias.
Produced and presented by Sally Flatman. Buy me a Coffee
Music Fade to Black Howard Levy
Mentioned in this episode:
Buy Me A Coffee
Buy Me A Coffee
Buy me a Coffee - for the price of a virtual coffee you can support this podcast and help me to make Our Plant Stories. Thank you!
Buy Me A Coffee

Judith Kleinman had a Silver Birch tree outside her bedroom window when she was growing up. She now has three beautiful Silver Birch trees outside her back door in her small courtyard garden. But to understand why these trees are her plant story you need to go back to her first student summer and a terrible traffic accident that left her in a spinal injuries unit. She tells her story and returns to the hospital to see a garden that has been built by the charity Horatio's Garden and meet the Head Gardener Ashley Edwards. Will she find Silver Birch trees?
You can see photographs of the trees on ourplantstories.com and of course we learn how to grow the plant.
Judith has written a book - Finding Quiet Strength which I think draws inspiration from these strong and flexible trees.
Presented and Produced by Sally Flatman
Music: Fade to Black by Howard Levy

A short bonus episode in which David Gedye pieces together the story of how the Monkey Puzzle tree made its way to the UK and how it became so popular with gardeners in the country.
David has been researching this tree and its links to his family for the past 68 years. He wrote a book about it, sadly sold out but luckily for us he shares his knowledge here.
Presented and Produced: Sally Flatman
Fade to Black by Howard Levy

David Gedye's mum told him a plant story when he was just 10 years old. It involved a very famous Monkey Puzzle tree and his great great grandfather, a head gardener. That story has led him on a lifetime trail, 68 years so far, to learn more about head gardener Philip Frost and to find out about that tree. Could the story be true - did his great great grandfather carry Monkey Puzzle seed in a tin in his waistcoat pocket and plant the famous Dropmore Monkey Puzzle tree?
He shares his story here. Do take a look at the episode page on the website to see the wonderful photograph of David's great great grandfather beside the tree.
Presented and Produced by Sally Flatman
Fade to Black by Howard Lake