The Garden Log

Plants for problematic places, paths for ponderous people: a gardening podcast

In this late summer sunset of an episode Ben visits Down House, home of Charles Darwin, considers the hybrid geranium and praises the Michaelmas daisy. Any emails to th

Heavenly Dishevelment

Are the best gardens designed or created? Why are there beetles crawling on my World of Interiors magazine? What cut flowers would go with my collection of pornographic p

Flight of the aspidistra

Two very different 3am trips to the garden this week as heat gives way to rain. Also, using soft cuttings and plastic cups to make plants from plants, some Musa basjoo, s

Grey sedge, smuggled cuttings, a watering disaster and the new garden at Grosvenor Square

How will our gardens look in the future? Ben visits the new garden in Grosvenor Square with its Nigel Dunnett planting to find out. Also featuring: tragedy at bathtime;

Old roses, strange apples: finding beauty in the bleached bones of an English summer

Is Thomas Knight the greatest villain in the history of fruit growing? And how does a Frenchman's marriage influence the rose gardens of England? These and other very imp

In praise of shadow, featuring Baroque hornbeams and Emily Brontë

We find ourselves at the mercy of forces beyond our control and hide from the wind and sun under a leafy bowers of the Baroque garden at Gammel Holtegård. A gardening pod

Green Fingers are the Extensions of a Verdant Heart: Russell Page and Redcurrants

Just after the summer's hinge, Ben eats his neigbours' soft fruit, considers the lily and reads that all-time classic of garden writing The Education of a Gardener. Her

Green Ghosts and Fading Clones

Welcome to season 2 of the Garden Log. Ben says goodbye to the Danish garden and prepares to return to London. Featuring, seeds, clones and the horticultural spirits tha

How to keep plants alive (and other mysteries)

In this excellent episode Ben finds roses like cats, lawns like dunes and flowers like clothes pegs. Also featuring a few simple tricks to stop things dying.

Pine riots, wolf-vines and the joy of other people's gardens: A gardening podcast

Its a sultry spring day on the Garden Log. We muse on the kindness of strangers, advise on planting for a rubble-strewn drive and yearn for romance. https://ko-fi.com/b

Underrated shrubs, sweet perfumes and the art of the Garden Room: A petal strewn podcast

In this recreation of a lost walk Ben visits the garden of G. N Brandt (deceased) who brought the arts and crafts movement to Denmark and whose modest orchard-watergarden

#100 Perfect mistakes, rhubarb, rollercoasters, tulips and timeslips: A gardening podcast

Its spring and Ben is gardening hard. In a special dispatch from the flowerbeds he reports on sparrows, cosmos and creeping jenny. Also featuring a trip to the fairground

#99 Wildflowers, Tyrants and Sweet Magnolia: A Gardening Podcast

Ben discusses Ornithogolum, irises, poppies and golden fleece. Also featuring a trip to the Boboli gardens in Florence and a reading from The Grove: A Nature Odyssey in 1

#98 [On Location] The good, the mad and the hyggeligt: front gardens of Hellerup

In this special episode of The Garden Log Ben walks out one mid-spring morning in search of beauty and blossom. The pavements brings him plants, thoughts, birdsong and so

#97 Of oligarchs, snowberries and other shade lovers: A gardening podcast

The garden log comes out in favour of seed heads, weeds some beds, throws some droops, sees some shoots - you know, gardening stuff! For events tickets go here - https:

#95 Rose pruning with King Midas: A gardening podcast

What's more tangled: a neglected climber or or human morality? The Garden Log sticks its head into thorns and finds out. https://ko-fi.com/bendark http://linktr.ee/be

#94 Sowing Eupatorium, seeing Sorbus and reverting Picea + The Grove, the wind, the snow and the seagulls

Ben takes to the seed compost, hunts cactus through the snow and talks about his new book, which, by the way, is available to buy here! https://linktr.ee/bendark

#93 The surprising speed of Arum italicum: featuring Proust's Asparagus, Mahonia x media and the Aucuba fertilisation frenzy of 1865

Celebrate the return of the Garden Log with some of your favourite shrubs! Plus mulch shovelling, cotinus and some dodgey but lovable carex

#92 [On Location] Life in the Ruins: Mutant brambles and runaway figs in the deserted village of Campo di Brenzone

In this starling-squalled episode of the Garden Log Ben is turned away from the botanic garden and makes his way to the mountains of Italy to talk about vegetables, olive

#91 [On Location] Kitchen Garden Confidential

Ben tours the fruit trees of Bernstorff Slotshave, discovers a nuttery and uses it to muse on pruning, ivy, bees, wasps, dogs, figs, cliffs and trees. https://ko-fi.com