Penny Haslam presents this down-to-earth gardening podcast from her own garden in Cheshire, north west summer.
She calls herself a have-a-go gardener and the tone is jolly and personal as she chats away about what she’s up to in her garden from sowing lettuce to squeezing the black flies off and cutting back her unruly nasturtiums. She’s an enthusiastic amateur gardener who is articulate at evoking what she enjoys about gardening, such as watering in the evening, watching the thirsty plants really soak up the water, almost visibly perking up, or why she loves pelargoniums, and how they remind her of being abroad, growing in old tin cans against white rendered walls. Penny’s enthusiasm for keeping the ‘big blousy heads’ of her clashy red and hot pink pelargoniums going by continually dead heading and feeding them with seaweed, made me want to rush out and do the same to mine.
Now, in series three, she has a flourishing vegetables garden, but in series one, there’s an entertaining episode where she calls on her mum Delia, who is a natural on the podcast, to help rescue her failing tomato plants. They tip out the tomato plant, to check its roots and discovering they’ve damped off, repotting with pearlite. Other plants that get rescued in other episodes include a fatsia which is in the way of the new extension and gets moved to a massive ‘pot of indecision’ before she decides on a permanent home.
The podcast is entertaining and down to earth and as much about Penny’s irreverent sense of humour as gardening. She talks about a neighbour’s loud drumming, grumpy builders and her perimenopausal irritations. It’s real-life gardening with all its highs and lows and will perk you up if you need a confidence boost and help you see the funny side of gardening if it’s ever getting stressful.