Ask James & Joe: Rogue Pruning, Talking Plants & Gardening Heresy
It’s time for Ask James & Joe – where listener questions meet gardening rebellion, unexpected sermons, and the occasional Victorian murder mystery.
This week’s postbag takes us everywhere from “should you really wait a full year before changing your garden?” to whether plants gossip about us when we’re not looking. James confesses to breaking his own rules, Joe defends gardening instinct over perfection, and both agree that courage – not calendar dates – is the real secret to success.
Along the way we cover:
– Why waiting a year isn’t always the right advice
– Late bulb planting and breaking gardening “rules”
– Pruning roses with a hedge trimmer (yes, really)
– Storm damage, fallen trees, and why gardens always recover
– The most poisonous plant you probably already grow
– Which plants would be terrible witnesses in a Victorian crime
– Whether plants feel loved, threatened, or quietly judgemental
– Why gaps in gardens are actually a gift
There’s theology (again), questionable accents, plants on the run from the law, and a reminder that gardens are resilient, optimistic, and never finished – much like the people who love them.
Plus: news of James & Joe’s first ever live podcast, coming this March.
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This episode is sponsored by Kress, leaders in robotic lawnmowing and battery landscaping tools. Learn more here.
Hot news for pod lovers...
We are going on tour: true, it is very short tour at the moment to Rosara at Nicholsons Nurseries in West Oxfordshire. On March 10th we will be there recording a podcast and answering questions from a live audience. We would love you to be there and to be a part of the podcast.
Bring your best questions (remember, no dead plants or dull questions) and the most outstanding will get to take home one of our coveted green gnomes.
Ticket details are here: March 10th. 7:00pm. Tickets £30.00 but £25.00 to members of the Garden Collective. There will also be wine (chosen by Joe).
We are very excited at the idea of meeting fellow Garden Collective members. See you there.
The future
We will be recording the podcast live every fortnight specially for members of the Garden Collective. Half the pod will be on a theme (feel free to suggest anything you would like us to talk about) and the second half will be questions. Collective members can listen anytime after the livestream has finished.
The pod will also be available in the usual places (Spotify,Apple Podcasts or YouTube) a week later. If you want to be up with the groovy people then you need to join the Collective here.
About our hosts
James Alexander-Sinclair is a garden designer, writer and broadcaster. He is an RHS Vice-President and was awarded the Veitch Memorial Medal for outstanding contribution to horticulture in 2022. He is the RHS Ambassador for Garden Design and a Fellow of the Society of Garden Designers.
Joe Swift is a familiar face on television as a presenter of BBC TV’s Gardeners’ World and other gardening programmes. He is a garden designer, broadcaster, writer and design director of Modular.
