In this hugely engaging and informative podcast, Sarah Raven, Arthur Parkinson and guests discuss their favourite flowers and edibles of the season with masses of useful tips on how to grow, arrange and cook them - and which varieties to choose. The pair have great taste and years of experience, so their suggestions are invaluable.
Sarah’s an absolute fount of knowledge when it comes to growing your own produce, both cut flowers and fruit and veg, and she loves cooking simple meals with freshly-picked produce – and the podcasts are interspersed with lots of recipes. Arthur has been working with Sarah at Perch Hill as her florist for over 10 years, making arrangements from their cut flowers for photoshoots and open days.
There’s an inspiring episode on lilies, and despite the discussion of lily beetle, it makes you want to rush out and buy some of their many suggestions. These include the bronze coloured Lillium ‘African Queen’, crimson or white L. regale and white L.‘Casa Blanca’, L. ‘Lady Alice’, L. ‘Henryi’ and L. ‘Tiger Babies’ which Arthur says he’ll be growing in pots this year with plenty of good drainage. Sarah explains to us that lilies are happy in dappled shade and look good growing through Osmunda regalis and hellebores, while Arthur says they also look good with oriental grasses in groups of a dozen or so.
In another episode on seed sowing, there’s a lot of useful information on everything from pricking out and potting compost to root trainers and timings. Arthur’s tip is not to rush at it but sow with the season, waiting until you can go out into the garden and pick lettuce with a T-shirt on, advising us to sow things like basil and zinnia around mid-April, or even May with things like cosmos that germinate quickly in order to get them outside or into a cold frame quickly to help them harden off
There are some interesting guests, including Dan Pearson who discusses working with Troy Scott Smith restoring Sissinghurst’s Delos garden and how they went about harnessing more light and creating terraces with free draining soil to create a Grecian landscape of Mediterranean plants.
But the real joy of the podcast is the combination of Sarah and Arthur’s shared experience and ideas – they’re clearly close friends and colleagues, and natural speakers, and their joint, but often different, perspectives creates an immensely enjoyable and inspiring listen. Give it a go!
Potpourri Magazine
Podcast - Grow, Cook, Eat, Arrange
