Avant Gardeners (Madeleine Gasparinatos & Emily Allen)

In this episode, we return for part 2 of our conversation with Charles Dowding, the guru of no dig gardening. 

If you haven't listened to Part 1, feel free to go back and brush up on the basics of no dig, composting and weeding, before diving head first into this episode where we explore planting by the moon, biodynamic, gardening with intention and what he's on (he must be on something, surely, if he's this happy all the time!).

We also discuss why Charles is getting more politically involved in gardening (and allotment management in the UK), before jumping into the Fast 5. 

We chat about ladybugs, olive scale, blushing bride, Le Sac, Rachel's Farm, PIP Magazine, The Food Saver's A to Z

We're drinking a tasty little vermouth called Outlandish Claims by Ravensworth

Charles Dowding has been gardening organically and applying the no-dig method for the past 40 years. He’s been instrumental in spreading the word of this style of gardening globally, heralding its effectiveness against weeds, its ability to produce thriving veggies, and its time-saving benefits.

Based in Somerset in the south west corner of England, Charles gardens on his property, Homeacres, a 1 ½  acre block. He recently celebrated 11 years there, and it’s magic to see the transformation of this space from a neglected parcel of land into a productive paradise.

Charles’s kinesiology career was short-lived due to the frequent remarks about the dirt under his fingernails, but he wouldn’t have it any other way. Charles is passionate about education and is increasingly a voice for the future of food and how gardening can play a pivotal role in climate change.

He has written numerous books on gardening, he runs workshops from Homeacres and online, and liberally shares his insights, successes and failures on YouTube and social media. He must be one of the happiest people in gardening. 

Find Charles on Instagram here

We're kicking off Season 2 with the delightful Jac Semmler, author, flower lover, and director of plant practice Super Bloom.

Jac has held coveted positions including Head of Plants and Strategy at The Plant Society, as well as roles at The Diggers Club. Her debut book Super Bloom is a manifesto to all things flowers, and her 2023 release, The Super Bloom Handbook is all about maximum flowers for minimum effort.

Heartland is the name of Jac's home garden, a suburban block turned flower paradise, on the land of the Bunurong people of the Kulin Nation.

Find Jac on Instagram here, and follow her beautiful plant practice and everything she's up to professionally at @SuperBloomAu.

We're drinking a 2023 Hughes and Hughes soiree pet nat from southern Tasmania. And it's delish.

We're reading

The Well Gardened Mind by Sue Stuart Smith

The Complete Book of Vegetables, Herbs & Fruit in Australia by Bob Flowerdew, Matthew Biggs, Jekka McVicar

Do
Catch Jac's session The Agrarian Kitchen coming up on Feb 3. 

Welcome to our short and sharp summer series where we revisit some of your very favourite episodes. We've added an additional little intro, reflecting on our chat with Charles Dowding and general updates since then. things we've been working on since then.
Gosh we loved revisiting this chat with Charles. Whether it's your first time listening, or your second go, we hope you get a lot out of it. 

Listen to Part 2 with Charles Dowding here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7hb74jPuZDqravRpS0oR9N?si=d622b4298b914633

Here's the original episode spiel:

Pinch us! We had the chance to speak with the guru of no dig gardening himself, Mr Charles Dowding. Over an hour and a half we meandered all manner of subjects including the obvious (no dig gardening, composting, weeding) and the maybe less obvious - the politics of gardening, UK alotments, microdosing. 

To keep our episodes short(ish) and sharp(ish) we've split this into 2 parts. 

Charles Dowding has been gardening organically and applying the no-dig method for the past 40 years. He’s been instrumental in spreading the word of this style of gardening globally, heralding its effectiveness against weeds, its ability to produce thriving veggies, and its time-saving benefits.

Based in Somerset in the south west corner of England, Charles gardens on his property, Homeacres, a 1 ½  acre block. He recently celebrated 11 years there, and it’s magic to see the transformation of this space from a neglected parcel of land into a productive paradise.

Charles’s kinesiology career was short-lived due to the frequent remarks about the dirt under his fingernails, but he wouldn’t have it any other way. Charles is passionate about education and is increasingly a voice for the future of food and how gardening can play a pivotal role in climate change.

He has written numerous books on gardening, he runs workshops from Homeacres and online, and liberally shares his insights, successes and failures on YouTube and social media. He must be one of the happiest people in gardening. 

Find Charles on Instagram here

But before we get there...we're chatting about  tiger snakes, guinea fowl, garlic, accidental gardens, zucchini season, jam season, community flower shows, 

We're drinking an English Breakfast Mar-tea-ni. We made a tea sugar syrup, added gin, lemon juice, aquafaba (use egg white if you like) and that's pretty much it! Super refreshing. Can recommend. 

We're recommending Futuresteading by Jade Miles. Charles recommends Peter Singers' book Animal Liberation

We came across Huw Richards perhaps the odd-way around, first picking up his amazing book 'Veg In One Bed' before discovering his huge online presence. Huw has been gardening since the age of 3 on his parents' smallholding in mid-west Wales. He started a YouTube channel aged 12, which has since received over 100 million views. Huw's gardening is driven by curiosity, experimentation and impact planting. It's obvious how much joy he derives from striving for flavour and beauty in the garden.  He's a brilliant communicator and oh boy did we love this chat with him. 

Check out his Substack, find him on Insta or Youtube.
Huw's latest book is called The Self Sufficiency Garden. 

In this episode we’re drinking Waubs Harbour Distillery whisky (yep, we've gone top shelf). We're talking about Australia's Big Things, Clematis 'Freckles', the cows have set Em's native trees back a couple of years and we're recommending 'Growing Vegetables South Of Australia' by Steve SolomonAll the things. Thanks for joining us.

Follow us on Instagram here.

--This episode is proudly sponsored by Bush Mits. We each bought a pair of these last year and have barely taken them off. They're UPF 50+ for the ultimate sun protection. They're fingerless AND have reinforced palms so you can do all the tough and fiddly jobs. We've discovered they are a saviour in the garden / on the zero turn / out with the cows / even hanging out the washing. Enjoy 15% off Bush Mits' beautiful range by using the promo code AG15 when purchasing from bushmits.com--

Welcome back to season 4!

We're kicking this season off chatting to the delightful Connie Cao. We chat container gardening, how to kick start our Asian Veggie patch, Loofas (these things are amazing!!), Edmame and having backyard chickens.

Connie lives in the suburbs of Melbourne where she's transformed her south-sloping backyard into a haven of fruit trees, veggies, ornamentals and a bustling chicken run over the years. She learnt to garden alongside her father. She is the author of Your Asian Veggie Patch which features over 40 things to grow and 50 recipes influenced by her Chinese heritage. 

Before we get to that, we're drinking a Ruggabellus, we're eating the most delicious strawberries from Ashcraig Farm in Nicholls Rivulet, Tasmania. Maddie has grown the best dahlia of her life (thank you, Dahlia dealer). We're taling about Dragon's Egg Cucumbers, Cornersmith Bread & Butter Pickle. Emily has had a birthday and hit the jackpot with a new electric chainsaw, a wheelbarrow and a shrub shearers. Plus, a double mulch pile hook up!

Maddie is recommending a recipe that Emma Bowen made that's a Julia Ostro Tomato and Olive Tart from Around the Table. 

So nice to be back. See more at www.avant-gardeners.com

Ep 02 - Avant Gardeners

In this episode we give you Part 1 of our chat with our friend, and inspirational gardener, Pip Steele-Wareham who is doing magical things at her property Moorfield @The_Garden_At_Moorfield in Victoria. 

A lot of this week's chat is about her and her husbands Hugo's previous property Little Oak and the challenges and successes they had there. We speak about Pip's approach to gardening (find what you love, and grow that), her obsessions with soil, and if -nay, when - rhododendrons will come back into fashion. 

It's a juicy little Episode, and we'll be back in a fortnight with Part 2. 

What we're drinking

• Chatto Pinot Noir, 2021. Bloody delish

References worth looking up

• Milkwood Permaculture
• The Garden at Moorfield

As always, find us on Instagram @avantgardeners.podcast, and please rate, review and subscribe wherever you're listening to this podcast.

Buckle up ya'll, it's the final episode for Season 2 and we're welcoming one of the nicest blokes in gardening to the microphone, Mr Phil Dudman. With a diverse and colourful career that extends from touring with an 80’s rock band, to hosting garden tours in Italy, an epiphany when Phil was 27 sent him down the literal and metaphorical garden path and he hasn't looked back since.

Phil is a trained horticulturalist, gardening talkback host on ABC Local Radio, the horticultural editor at Organic Gardener Magazine, has written books and is a familiar face on TV, Youtube and social media.

Phil runs workshops and courses both online and from his own backyard, and you can explore what's on offer at www.growyourfood.com.au.

Phil lives and gardens on the land of the Widjabul-Wai-bal people of the Bundjalung Nation in the Northern Rivers region of NSW.

We chat to Phil about pests, garden design, attracting birdlife to your backyard and weeding with wine at 10am. 

Before we get into it though, Emily and Maddie are drinking a Jauma grenache. We're talking about online marketplace purchases and tip shop wins. We're using Google Images to sort out our plant ID issues. We're sluggish with the garlic, and Maddie is barely keeping the lights on with her garden. Emily's finally sorted the pesky carport out, and her 7 year old daughter is winning at gardening this month. 

Follow Phil on Instagram here, check out his YouTube here and his website here

Ashley James is a garden designer and horticulturist based in the Yarra Valley, Victoria, on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people.

He started working in the industry when he was  just 14 years old, alongside his dad. He started his own business aged 23 and went against the grain, focusing on soft-landscaping and design, when all the cool kids were doing landscape construction. He went on to study horticulture, and now works on everything from vineyards, to large wedding and function venues, urban spaces, country estates and cottage gardens. Ashley’s known for his beautiful, romantic gardens that weave traditional design principles with naturalistic plantings. 

Ashley’s aim is to create a dream garden for each client. He is an absolute plant and flower die hard, and is a self-professed Plants Man. He and his work has been featured on The Block, Better Homes and Gardens and Country House Facelift, while a stunning Eltham garden project was written up on the Design Files. If he isn’t busy enough, Ashley continues to create his dream garden at his own home that he shares with his wife Bianca and three children, and he’s the newest columnist for Home Beautiful, providing amazing gardening advice and inspo.

We're drinking
Latta Rattlesnake

We're talking about

Winespeake in Daylesford on Instagram here.

Dimity's amazing stall at Cygnet Garden Market - Check her out on @TinyFarmTas

Edna Walling

We're also talking lemons, seaweed and how hard gardening is.

We're reading
The Age of Seeds - How Plants Hacked Time and Why our Future Depends On It by Fiona McMillan-Webster

Visit us at @avantgardeners.podcast and www.avant-gardeners.com

--This episode is proudly sponsored by Bokashi One. Reduce landfill and boost the efforts in your garden in a fuss-free, no-smell way. Enjoy 15% off the entire Bokashi One range by using the promo code AG15 when purchasing from www.bokashi.com.au between now and 1 Jan, 2025--

Natasha Morgan is a landscape architect-turned-gardener, forager and creator of inspiring spaces. Having successfully done a treechange in 2014 from Melbourne, Natasha transformed the phenomenal property Oak & Monkey Puzzle. A couple of years ago Natasha and her family downsized to Little Cottage on a Hill in Daylesford, Victoria and continues to create magic, including a gorgeous and productive verge garden. Natasha hosts workshops from her property if you're lucky enough to be in the area. 

We talk about tree changes, preserving, autism and chickens, designing a garden, building community and wicking beds. Natasha lives, works and gardens on Dja Dja Wurrung country. 

Emily's gone full cocktail, whipping up a delish mojito (rum, raw sugar, mint and lime). Yum, Yum!

We're talking about pinching out tomatoes, baby chickens, lavender, Kunzea, olive trees.

Emily is recommending a Kunzea hand cream, and Maddie is recommending Visionary by Claire Takacs

Check out Natasha's story and workshops here, and follow her on Instagram here.

Follow us on Instagram here.

Thanks for being here. 
Feel free to leave us a review. We would LOVE that. 

Hi, and welcome to Avant Gardeners. 

In this episode we give you an intro into the lives of Emily and Maddie, two friends who live, play and garden on Melukerdee country in Tasmania's Huon Valley, with varying success.

Both have unexpectedly landed on properties, with vast gardens, and very little know how.

In future episodes we'll be inteviewing others, but in this episode it's all about us. 

What we're drinking

• Merry Spiced Cherry Amaretto Sour (based on  this, recipe but with home made cherry sugar syrup inspired by Verona Stands, and aquafaba)

References worth looking up

• Serious Backyard Vegetables, a past course by Milkwood Permaculture
• Matthew Evan's carrot top pesto recipe, available in The Commons
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

To wrap up a season of dreamy guests, we spoke to Kirsten Bradley, co-founder of Milkwood Permaculture. Kirsten and her partner Nick Ritar founded Milkwood, kind of by accident, back in 2007 when they moved to Nick’s family farm with the intention to build a tiny home, grow veggies and lead a simple life. And it turns out they weren’t the only ones looking for this type of life. 

Soon they were hosting events and workshops as teachers and students descended on their farm. That interest and momentum spawned this way-of-living, education hub which has become Milkwood Permaculture. Milkwood was the name of that first farm in country NSW. While their location has changed once or twice, their ethos has only grown stronger and bolder. Kirsten and Nick now call lutruwita / Tasmania home, and they continue to share their knowledge on everything from permaculture design, to how to grow mushrooms, and building resilient and abundant communities.

Milkwood was a bit of a gateway drug for Maddie's entry into gardening, and Em and her husband have recently embarked on their Organic Vegetable Gardening Course. Where we live there’s barely a home that we go to that doesn’t have a copy of Kirsten's first book Milkwood: Real Skills for Down-To-Earth Living.

Kirsten's latest book is called The Milkwood Permaculture Living Handbook, Habits for Hope in a Changing World, released in late 2023. The book explores the 12 Principles of Permaculture, and covers everything from ‘compost everything’, to ‘using your privilege for purpose’ and ‘cook a meal outdoors'.

Find Milkwood on Instagram here. 

We're drinking a rosemary gimlet - following a recipe from Cocktail Botanica by Elouise Anders

We're recommending the Bronchial Buster tea, recipe from Plants for the People by Erin Lovell Verinder

We're drooling over everything at The Agrarian Kitchen - check out their cooking classes here. 

We're flicking through a decades old Fowlers book

We're loving Bokashi and Compostable Kate's tips.

Visit us at @avantgardeners.podcast and www.avant-gardeners.com

--This episode is proudly sponsored by Bokashi One. Reduce landfill and boost the efforts in your garden in a fuss-free, no-smell way. Enjoy 15% off the entire Bokashi One range by using the promo code AG15 when purchasing from www.bokashi.com.au between now and 1 Jan, 2025--

 Matthew Evans was a chef and food critic who left Sydney in search of flavour and to become closer to food production. He landed in Tasmania’s Huon Valley and he, his partner Sadie Chrestman and son Hedley call the 70-acre Fat Pig Farm home. Matthew is the author of books including The Real Food Companion, The Dirty Chef, Not Just Jam, Soil and his latest book Milk, published in 2024. 

Matthew is gearing up to host the inaugural GROUNDED Australia conference at Fat Pig Farm on December 4 + 5, 2024. This two-day immersive event is part food festival, part writers' festival and part farming conference, which will interrogate how to do farming better. Over 40 amazing speakers will descend upon the Huon Valley for workshops, discussions, networking, amazing food and drinks and even a mobile sauna! 

Matthew lives, gardens and farms on the land of the Merlukerdee people.

To celebrate, we're drinking the dregs of a limited-release Fat Pig Farm Rhubarb Gin. Over ice. It's delicious.

We're chatting tomatoes, our seedling dealer, our grevillea era (loving the Bronze Rambler). We're upcycling milk cartons, tomato trellises are up, and there's a story about the dangers of mowing. 

Check out Grounded Australia here and here.
Follow Matthew and Sadie's adventures at Fat Pig Farm on Insta here.

Follow us on Instagram here.

Thanks for being here. 

Oh hey there! We've missed you.

We're back for Season 3 with one of our faves, Erin Lovell Verinder.

Erin Lovell Verinder’s entire career is about reconnecting the people with the plants.

She is a woman on a mission to bring people along on her journey to become in tune with the natural world and inspire others to heal through the beauty of plant medicine. 

Erin is a nutritionist, a herbalist, a teacher, and a writer, having published Plants for the People in 2020, followed by The Plant Clinic the following year. Her popular TED Talk on Herbalism, the quiet rebellion, is a must watch. 

Erin and her husband Noah currently live, work and garden on the land of the Bundjalung people, in the Byron Hinterland in NSW. They recently relocated there from their stunning and lovingly restored home in a church in the aptly named hamlet of Blessington, in Northern Tasmania. Their Tassie property, The Cedar Church, is available for your own divine getaway.

In the episode Emily and Maddie are catching up on 2 months of no-gardening-chat and there's been a lot going on. 

We're drinking bootleg gin from Maddie's neighbour Bill with Friendship Syrup from our amazing friend Rachel Valentine. We're talking about Paulette Whitney's Broccoli & Other Love Stories, we're making chilli oil, we're growing and cooking Brussel Sprouts. And we're drooling over the perennials, and the colour collections, at Veggie & Flower Garden Seeds. We're going to need a big heap of Milkwood's Perfect Seed Raising Mix to grow everything this spring. Watch out when you mix lavenders :-)

In this Episode we interview your friend and mine, Dimity May. Dimity's gateway drug to gardening was through market gardening, but she turned her attention to seedling growing just as the pandemic (remember that guy?) was just taking off, setting up Reid Tiny Farm in Canberra as a CSA model, for seedlings.

In 2023, Dimity, her husband and two kids, made the move to Tasmania's Huon Valley, and since chatting with Dimity (she was our very first interviewee!), she's changed her business name to Tiny Farm Tas, and has been incredibly busy setting up her operations in a new state, a new climate, and with a new model.

It's no mean feat, and we are in awe.

Notes for this Episode.

We're drinking Ravensworth vino

Guest:  Dimity May, Tiny Farm Tas (previously Reid Tiny Farm)

Some of the things we chat about:

Milkwood Permaculture: Organic Vegetable Gardening (Next course begins 20 November, 2023)

The Food Savers A-Z, The Essential Cornersmith Kitchen Companion by Alex Elliott-Howery & Jamie Edwards

Tiny Farm Canberra 

ActiveVista 

Buena Vista Farm 

All Sun Farm 

JM Fortier  The Market Gardener’s Masterclass 

Keeley, Fat Pig Produce - local veggie boxes in Southern Tasmania

BioDynamics Tasmania 

Joyce Wilkie, All Sun Farm 

The Sustainable Food Trust, Patrick Holden 

The Regenerative Journey, Charlie Arnott 

Welcome to our short and sharp summer series where we revisit some of your very favourite episodes. We've added an additional little intro, reflecting on our chat with Kate and composty things we've been working on since then.

Compostable Kate's was a cracker of an episode. 

While not a sponsor of this episode, Bokashi is offering an ongoing 5% off everything on the www.bokashi.com.au website for all your Bokashi and EnsoPet needs. We're addicts. Simply enter the code AG15 at check out to receive your 5% discount. 

Here's the original episode spiel:

We've been dedicated students of the Compostable Kate's School of Compost since wayyyyy back, so it's an absolute dream to interview her for this week's episode.

Kate Flood (aka Compostable Kate) is a sustainability educator, compost queen and author of The Compost Coach (2023). She is prolific on Instagram, sharing all things Bokashi, worm farms and hot compost. She lives, gardens and composts in the Bega Valley, in southern New South Wales on the Yuin-Monaro Nations.

We chat about what Kate and Beyonce have in common, her amazing jumper collection and, of course, all things compost including sheet composting, what kind of composting she'd do on a desert island, and a whole lot more.  We also talk about how composting is fabulous for the garden, and vital part of climate activism. 

Find her on Instagram here

But before we get there...we're chatting about possums, snails and wheelbarrows.

We're drinking the Compostable Kate Cocktail (a fresh little number we whipped up with sparkling rose, ginger syrup, strawberries and borage).

We're recommending The Overstory by Richard Powers

Kate recommends: the Share Waste app - a way to connect people who wish to recycle their food scraps and other organics with their neighbours who are already composting, worm-farming or keeping farm animals.

Welcome to our short and sharp summer series where we revisit some of your very favourite episodes. We've added an additional little intro, reflecting on our chat with Phil Dudman and general updates since then. 

We got so many amazing tips from Phil, and we hope you do too. 

Here's the original episode spiel:
Buckle up ya'll, it's the final episode for Season 2 and we're welcoming one of the nicest blokes in gardening to the microphone, Mr Phil Dudman. With a diverse and colourful career that extends from touring with an 80’s rock band, to hosting garden tours in Italy, an epiphany when Phil was 27 sent him down the literal and metaphorical garden path and he hasn't looked back since.

Phil is a trained horticulturalist, gardening talkback host on ABC Local Radio, the horticultural editor at Organic Gardener Magazine, has written books and is a familiar face on TV, Youtube and social media.

Phil runs workshops and courses both online and from his own backyard, and you can explore what's on offer at www.growyourfood.com.au.

Phil lives and gardens on the land of the Widjabul-Wai-bal people of the Bundjalung Nation in the Northern Rivers region of NSW.

We chat to Phil about pests, garden design, attracting birdlife to your backyard and weeding with wine at 10am. 

Before we get into it though, Emily and Maddie are drinking a Jauma grenache. We're talking about online marketplace purchases and tip shop wins. We're using Google Images to sort out our plant ID issues. We're sluggish with the garlic, and Maddie is barely keeping the lights on with her garden. Emily's finally sorted the pesky carport out, and her 7 year old daughter is winning at gardening this month. 

Follow Phil on Instagram here, check out his YouTube here and his website here

We snuck a bonus episode into season 3 - and what a cracker it is. We're chatting to Diego Bonetto, aka The Weedy One. Born in Italy, Diego grew up foraging for dandelion, wild asparagus and mushrooms. It wasn't actually foraging as such, it was just how you lived.

Since moving to Australia, Diego has taken foraging and edible weeds on as his career, educating and showing people how we're surrounded by abundant food and medicine, much of it growing on in our backyards, or the cracks of the pavement. 

Diego lives and forages on the lands of the Eora, Dharug, Wiradjuri and Gandangara people.  Check out his amazing range of workshops - treat yourself or a friend (or both go!)

Before we get to Diego, we're drinking a Dandelion Margarita and talking about nettle, Phoenix Creations, fermented garlic, Birchs Bay Art Farm, Mewstone and making your own Christmas wreaths. 

Recommendations:

• Emily's loving all things Kunzea including this Kunzea Jelly  - use it like quince paste
• Madeleine is planning Christmas dessert from Nadine Ingram's new book Love Crumbs
• and Emily has bought her daughter Easy Peasy: Gardening for Kids by Kristen Bradley of Milkwood Permaculture. 

Follow us on Instagram here.

Follow Diego on Instagram here. 

Thanks for being here. 
Feel free to leave us a review. We would LOVE that. 

--You have a limited time to enjoy 15% off the entire Bokashi One range. Reduce landfill and boost the efforts in your garden in a fuss-free, no-smell way. If you have a dog, why not consider the EnsoPet  to turn your dog's waste into safe, healthy soil. Use the promo code AG15 when purchasing from www.bokashi.com.au between now and 1 Jan, 2025--

Pinch us! We had the chance to speak with the guru of no dig gardening himself, Mr Charles Dowding. Over an hour and a half we meandered all manner of subjects including the obvious (no dig gardening, composting, weeding) and the maybe less obvious - the politics of gardening, UK alotments, microdosing. 

To keep our episodes short(ish) and sharp(ish) we've split this into 2 parts. 

Charles Dowding has been gardening organically and applying the no-dig method for the past 40 years. He’s been instrumental in spreading the word of this style of gardening globally, heralding its effectiveness against weeds, its ability to produce thriving veggies, and its time-saving benefits.

Based in Somerset in the south west corner of England, Charles gardens on his property, Homeacres, a 1 ½  acre block. He recently celebrated 11 years there, and it’s magic to see the transformation of this space from a neglected parcel of land into a productive paradise.

Charles’s kinesiology career was short-lived due to the frequent remarks about the dirt under his fingernails, but he wouldn’t have it any other way. Charles is passionate about education and is increasingly a voice for the future of food and how gardening can play a pivotal role in climate change.

He has written numerous books on gardening, he runs workshops from Homeacres and online, and liberally shares his insights, successes and failures on YouTube and social media. He must be one of the happiest people in gardening. 

Find Charles on Instagram here

But before we get there...we're chatting about  tiger snakes, guinea fowl, garlic, accidental gardens, zucchini season, jam season, community flower shows, 

We're drinking an English Breakfast Mar-tea-ni. We made a tea sugar syrup, added gin, lemon juice, aquafaba (use egg white if you like) and that's pretty much it! Super refreshing. Can recommend. 

We're recommending Futuresteading by Jade Miles. Charles recommends Peter Singers' book Animal Liberation

We've both been obsessed with My Father and Other Animals for some time now, so when author and accidental-farmer Sam Vincent said yes to being interviewed we were quietly nervous. He joined us from his family's farm in the Yass Valley that he shares with his partner Lauren and daughter Orlando. This land has traditionally been inhabited by the Ngunnawal and Wiradjuri people.

After his dad had a farm accident, Sam and his mum thought it would be wise to get Sam out to the property regularly in a bit of a babysitting capacity, which Sam said gave his weeks structure and his life purpose. Over the years it became an apprenitiship of sorts and gave Sam both a solid understanding of how much of a conservationist and regernative farmer his dad was, and a taste of living on the land. 

In this discussion we talk about hiding squash in drawers, the idea of turning the whole farm into a garden of sorts, rotational grazing, tagasaste (tree lucern), figs, farming with his daughter and a whole lot more.

Before we get into it, Maddie and Emily are drinking....coffee. Yep, just plain white coffee. We're midly disappointed in ourselves but it was 9am and we couldn't face a fig cocktail. 

We're also talking indoor plants - inspired by our chat with Sophia Kaplan and getting our hands on Plantopedia, friends with green thumbs, compost (when are we not talking about compost!), hakea, brahmi, tagasaste, getting more white on your leeks and more.

Recommend: Call of the Reed Warbler by Charles Massy. 

Find Sam on Instagram here, and get your hands on My Father and Other Animals here

Justin O'Brien was one of those in the online gardening world that welcomed and embraced us. So it's an absolute treat to get the man himself behind the microphone to chat all things gardening.

Perhaps better known as his Instagram alias of Urban Farmer, Justin O’Brien has been gardening in some form since he was a kid, and was an active member of the Camden Community Garden for nearly a decade, seeing it through the floods of 2022., Justin and his wife Chantelle purchased their current home nearly 3 years ago, and Justin documents the garden transformation, sharing plenty of useful tips and lots of laughs, as he creates a home for his veggies, his chickens and his family.

Justin is also a fiercely competitive gardener and may or may not still be touchy about last year's failed competitive pumpkin growing. 

But before we get to that we're drinking a classic - Campari and soda. 

We're utilising Jac Semmler's succulent growing tips, we're loving Hannah Maloney's The Good Life, Maddie hard recommends Maggie McKellar's Graft. We're talking Organic Gardener Magazine, chimmichuri, putting up jute netting, and making the most of the spring rain thanks to a well-timed installation of a new gutter and tank system. Hurray!

Find us on Instagram @avantgardeners.podcast.

And pretty please share our podcast with a friend of yours and / or rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts.

Thanks for being here :-)

--This episode is proudly sponsored by Bokashi One. Reduce landfill and boost the efforts in your garden in a fuss-free, no-smell way. Enjoy 15% off the entire Bokashi One range by using the promo code AG15 when purchasing from www.bokashi.com.au between now and 1 Jan, 2025--

When Petrina Burrill was in grade six, she wrote, ‘When I grow up I want to be a florist,’ such was her conviction and obsession with blooms. Since then, Petrina Blooms - as she’s known on Instagram. has had a diverse career, but has landed back in the garden where she belongs. She’s now known for her secret garden-esque backyard in Melbourne and her epic annual ranunculus, aka ranunk, schedule. 

For over a decade, Petrina has lovingly transformed her family's backyard into a year-round spectacle of beauty, from where she hosts workshops and events and picks bunches of flowers for lucky recipients. 

Petrina lives, works and gardens in Ivanhoe Victoria, on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country.

The days are longer and we're drinking a Willie Smith's Organic Cider. It's yummy and not too sweet. Perfection!

We're talking about rooster dramas, kiwi fruit, espaliering stuff, wormwood for chickens, what the heck is a corm, Bokashi, and dreaming of a Hannah Maloney-esque pumpkin arch. We've also been mismanaging our potatoes. face palms.

Check out Petrina's magical garden escapades here

Follow us on Instagram here.

Thanks for being here. 
Feel free to leave us a review. We would LOVE that. 

We’ve had Hannah on our list for a looooong time, so it’s a bloody thrill to have interviewed her.

Hannah Maloney is the inspiring force behind Goodlife Permaculture, an organisation all about sharing concepts of education, community and design to help people create good lives and landscapes. 

Hannah is a host on Gardening Australia on ABC, a best-selling author with two books in the bag and another on the way, and by all accounts, an infectious ball of energy and good vibes. Hannah lives, works and gardens in Nipaluna/Hobart with her partner Anton, her daughter Frida and a menagerie of animals including chickens, goats and ducks. 

In this episode we’re cracking a pistachio Cicchio Spritz by the legends at Zonzo Estate, We’re recommending Nettles and Petals, we’re talking fertilizer, asparagus, cows, rhubarb.

All the things. Thanks for joining us.

Follow us on Instagram here.

We've been dedicated students of the Compostable Kate's School of Compost since wayyyyy back, so it's an absolute dream to interview her for this week's episode.

Kate Flood (aka Compostable Kate) is a sustainability educator, compost queen and author of The Compost Coach (2023). She is prolific on Instagram, sharing all things Bokashi, worm farms and hot compost. She lives, gardens and composts in the Bega Valley, in southern New South Wales on the Yuin-Monaro Nations.

We chat about what Kate and Beyonce have in common, her amazing jumper collection and, of course, all things compost including sheet composting, what kind of composting she'd do on a desert island, and a whole lot more.  We also talk about how composting is fabulous for the garden, and vital part of climate activism. 

Find her on Instagram here

But before we get there...we're chatting about possums, snails and wheelbarrows.

We're drinking the Compostable Kate Cocktail (a fresh little number we whipped up with sparkling rose, ginger syrup, strawberries and borage).

We're recommending The Overstory by Richard Powers

Kate recommends: the Share Waste app - a way to connect people who wish to recycle their food scraps and other organics with their neighbours who are already composting, worm-farming or keeping farm animals.

--This episode is proudly sponsored by Bush Mits. We each bought a pair of these last year and have barely taken them off. They're UPF 50+ for the ultimate sun protection. They're fingerless AND have reinforced palms so you can do all the tough and fiddly jobs. We've discovered they are a saviour in the garden / on the zero turn / out with the cows / even hanging out the washing. Enjoy 15% off Bush Mits' beautiful range by using the promo code AG15 when purchasing from bushmits.com--

We're having a good old yarn today with Holly Wainwright. Holly is not a professional gardener. She is a writer, editor and podcaster who recently made a sea change, moving outside of a city for the first time in her life which has given her the space (mental, not necessarily geographical) to take on what she describes as her first true hobby... gardening. And boy is she glad she found it!

Holly is the Executive Editor at Mamamia and a familiar voice on Mamamia Out Loud as well as her new podcast MID. Holly’s fifth novel, He Would Never, is set for release in April 2025. Holly credits Therapy Lettuce for its positive impact on her mental well-being. Holly lives, writes and gardens south of Sydney on the lands of the Jerrinja and Wandi-Wandandian people, on the Yuin nation with her partner, Brent, and their two teenage children.

--This episode is proudly sponsored by Bush Mits. We each bought a pair of these last year and have barely taken them off. They're UPF 50+ for the ultimate sun protection. They're fingerless AND have reinforced palms so you can do all the tough and fiddly jobs. We've discovered they are a saviour in the garden / on the zero turn / out with the cows / even hanging out the washing. Enjoy 15% off Bush Mits' beautiful range by using the promo code AG15 when purchasing from bushmits.com--

You'll often hear us mentioning our friend Emma Bowen in these episodes. Well we finally got her in to record an episode. Emma is the founder and former CEO of the not-for-profit Pocket City Farms in inner city Sydney. Her vision saw a former lawn bowls club transformed into a market garden, events space, education hub and vital part of the broader community bringing clean, organic food to the people.

In 2020, Emma, her partner Zag and their two young kids made the move to Tasmania’s Huon Valley, settling on a 50-acre former apple, apricot and cattle farm. Emma has plans to establish a permaculture orchard while maximizing the diversity of the farm.

Emma is passionate about the transformative power of farms and gardens and the immeasurable value they bring to our physical and mental well-being as individuals and communities. Alongside her farm work she is a permaculture garden designer and community project consultant (check out her work here) and operates two gorgeous airbnbs on her property.
We're utilising what's in the garden (and the back of the pantry) and we've made a Cucumber and Basil Mezcalita! We're talking about chicken coops, Emily's new Wandotes, Middleton Fair's Scarecrow Competition, Geums, Twitch Grass, three sisters planting Julia Ostro's almond and plum cake from Good Cooking Everyday (back to back Ostro recommendations! For good reason though) and much more.  

See more at www.avant-gardeners.com

S3 E2 -- here we go! This week we've had the pleasure of chatting to pun-tasting garden coach Chloe Thomson, aka Bean There Dug That.

Chloe is a horticulturalist who is inspiring and teaching gardeners just like you. She recently  founded Sprout School, an online course to help provide you with knowledge and conference, no matter how or where you're gardening. Chloe and her family live, garden and outdoor bath in Hurstbridge, on the land of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people of the Kulin nation, on the outskirts of Melbourne. We talk to Chloe about shade gardening, interpreting plant labels, and growing fruit trees in pots. She's a delight.

But before we get to that we're drinking a 2023 Brash Higgins Free Ball. It's bloody delish.  

We're pronouncing hellebores with far more artistic flair than necessary. 

We're complaining about possums and what the heck is up with indoor pots these days! Despite lush growth on my indoor plants, we're struggling with finding good indoor pots. 

Emily has had brand new calves, Maddie has brand new baby lambs.

Maddie is very optimistic about the upcoming gardening season, Emily has done all her seasonal rose prep a la The Garden at Moorfield's Rose Guide. 

Maddie's watching (and crying in) Clarkson's Farm

Find us on Instagram @avantgardeners.podcast.

And pretty please share our podcast with a friend of yours and / or rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts.

Thanks for being here :-)

Rodney Dunn's excitement when talking about gardening is like a kid in a candy store. Fuelled by a 'quest for flavour' and inspired by The River Cottage UK, Rodney and his wife Severine moved to Tasmania in 2007, opening The Agrarian Kitchen, a cooking school and garden that has grown to become an institution itself. In 2017 they added a restaurant to their offering and have recently opened up their phenomenal one-acre walled garden adjacent to the Restaurant and brand-new cooking school, making it the trifecta of all things agrarian dreams.

We chat to Rodney about what he learned from the 'old garden', the new no-dig method they've used, we go deep into mycorrhizal fungi, tips to take on-board when starting a new garden, and what his last meal would be.

Before we get into that, we're drinking a Negroni (equal parts gin, campari and vermouth, shaken and served over a big fat icecube with an orange garnish) and it's delicious.

We're chatting dibblers, garlic, golden beetroot, Lactic Acid Bacteria and so much more.

Emily's recommendation is The Practical Australian Gardener by Peter Cundall, Maddie's recommendation is this salad dressing - honey, grated garlic, salt, sherry or white wine vinegar, oil. Put it on everything. 

Explore classes and garden tours or book a lunch at The Agrarian Kitchen here, and follow them on Instagram here. Find Rodney on Instagram here.

Plantlovers, let us welcome Sophia Kaplan to the microphone. What a bloody treat to interview Sophia about all things floristry, moving to Paris, Indoor plants, and what she's growing at her place.

Sophia's eponymous studio specialises in botanic set design for stills photography, floral styling for events, editorial and commercial projects. She's worked with an incredible lineup of brands including Louis Vuitton, Maison Balzac, Audi, Sydney Opera House and Mud Australia. 

She is the co-founder of Leaf Supply along with Lauren Camilleri and together they've written books including Leaf Supply, Plantopedia, Indoor Jungle and most recently, Bloom. 

But before we get into that chat, Emily and Maddie chat about poa, and a crowbar-type device and one of our favourite nurseries - Plants of Tasmania. We're cooking hot wet bread salad, aka baked tomatoes with capers, olives and croutons, from the book Community, by Hetty McKinnon.

We're drinking Wildflower's beer - specifically their River Fossil Farm blueberry beer.  This brewery is owned by Emily, her husband Chris, and the amazing Bernadette and Topher. If you're in Sydney, best you go visit their cellar door asap. Run don't walk. 

Find Sophia on Instagram here, Leaf Supply here, and Sophia's website here.  

Ep 03 - Welcome back Avant Gardeners! 

We bring you Part 2 of our chat with friend and rose-die-hard, Pip Steele-Wareham from @The_Garden_At_Moorfield.

In this chat we explore her 150m (no, that is not a typo) naturalistic garden, and then go deep on roses - why she loves them, how to tend to them, selecting the right rose for you and beneficial plants to keep them healthy.  

If you didn't catch Part 1 of this chat, jump in now. 

This week ....

We're drinking a most delish Sailor Seeks Horse Pinot.

We're reading The Gardeners Bed-Book by Richardson Wright as well as My Father and Other Animals by Sam Vincent

Find us on Instagram at @avantgardeners.podcast

This week we're chatting to the super lovely Brenton Roberts whose garden we've coveted for a long time now. 

Brenton lives in the Adelaide Hills with his wife Libby and young family, breathing new life into the garden and home, built in the 1860s. They moved to the property about 10 years ago, and commenced the thoughtful process of transforming it to a magical, whimsical and productive space.

Brenton was a finalist in 2018's Gardener of the Year Awards, and has been featured on Gardening Australia - a show he grew up with and was inspired by. He had his first Paul Bangay book by the time he was a teenager, and an amazing farewell gift by a former boss looped him back in with Paul later on. 

Notes for this episode:

We're drinking a Vini Fusilli Pinot Nero Romolo 2022 from our delightful friends Lucinda and Piero who live down the road (and we have to ask ourselves whether we only make friends with people who have either great gardens or access to great drinks. Maybe we do?). 

We're reading The Milkwood Permaculture Living Handbook by Kirsten Bradley 

And we're also reading The Smart Veggie Patch by Terry Memory

We're shopping for hydrangea and funeral tips thanks to the Gardening Australia Magazine