The Garden Log
- Episodios
- 115
- Se publica
- cada semana
- Último episodio
- 9 Oct 2026
Sobre el podcast
Welcome to a strange green world. This is the audio journal of award-wining British author, gardener and plant historian Ben Dark. A witty and intelligent window into the remarkable life of plants and the beautiful places they grow.
Episodios 115
The Secrets Gardens Keep
From Venice to Plumstead, remarkable stories lurk behind ivy-covered walls.This episode of the Garden Log leaps the wall of an abandoned garden on the island of Giudecca to tell of gout, roses, princesses …
Notas del episodio
From Venice to Plumstead, remarkable stories lurk behind ivy-covered walls.
This episode of the Garden Log leaps the wall of an abandoned garden on the island of Giudecca to tell of gout, roses, princesses, pills, Gertrude Jekyll's sister and tioletless Austrian.
It also visits South London where behind closed doors a secret slice of Mesoamerica is growing.
Here are some remarkable picture of The Garden of Eden in Venice to look at while you listen.
Is the Cottage Garden Dead?
Can the English Cottage Garden survive in the new world of scorching summers and blasted borders?Is there still a place for higgledy beauty and perennial favourites in our strange new world? Find out in this …
Notas del episodio
Can the English Cottage Garden survive in the new world of scorching summers and blasted borders?
Is there still a place for higgledy beauty and perennial favourites in our strange new world? Find out in this 500 year history of the nation's most beloved garden style.
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/463428/green-kingdom-by-dark-ben/9781847928337
Abutilon, Abutilon!
Celebrating the beauty and strangeness of plants.This week we lope into the half-shade with graceful Magnolia kobus, elegant Abutilon 'Patrick Synge' and the monstrous Hydrangea aspera 'Bellevue', before …
Notas del episodio
Celebrating the beauty and strangeness of plants.
This week we lope into the half-shade with graceful Magnolia kobus, elegant Abutilon 'Patrick Synge' and the monstrous Hydrangea aspera 'Bellevue', before bursting into the light with golden Acacia pravissima (the sawtooth wattle), duskyVitis vinifera 'Incana', and the tiny-leaved Myrtus communis subsp. tarentina.
Also featuring one of the finest accounts of plant hunting The Mountains of the Moon and a recommendation of what to read in gardening this this week.
https://www.thegardencollective.uk/ben-dark/
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/463428/green-kingdom-by-dark-ben/9781847928337
Sisyphus on the Lawn
An existential defence of high maintenance gardening. Why should we strive for ease when working outside feels so good? With some carex, some meristems and some plant morphology for good measure. And thank you …
Notas del episodio
An existential defence of high maintenance gardening. Why should we strive for ease when working outside feels so good? With some carex, some meristems and some plant morphology for good measure.
And thank you for preordering Green Kingdom! https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/463428/green-kingdom-by-dark-ben/9781847928337
So farewell Monty Don
In this post-rain episode of cult gardening podcast The Garden Log we say goodbye to the universal uncle Monty Don who is to retire from Gardeners' World.But our Gardeners' World keeps turning, so also enjoy …
Notas del episodio
In this post-rain episode of cult gardening podcast The Garden Log we say goodbye to the universal uncle Monty Don who is to retire from Gardeners' World.
But our Gardeners' World keeps turning, so also enjoy introductions to the gorgeous autumn snowflake (Acis autumnalis) and the Corsican knotweed (Polygonum scoparium) a must-have evergreen perennial for the dry garden.
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 [email protected]
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 postcards? These and other important …
Notas del episodio
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 postcards? These and other important questions answered in the guide to effortless good taste.
For more of this sort of thing join me at https://www.thegardencollective.uk/ben-dark/
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, some Clerodendrum trichotomum, some …
Notas del episodio
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, some Clerodendrum trichotomum, some Solanum laciniatum and some flower crab spiders, plus of course, aspidistra: ‘They’re a dashed important subject,'
And here's the link to the How to Academy event: https://tickets.howtoacademy.com/the-epic-family-history-of-plants-tickets/worldwide-live-stream/2026-10-27-18-00
Love to all you gardeners and gardening people
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; some borrowed seedlings; a 4000 year old …
Notas del episodio
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; some borrowed seedlings; a 4000 year old stumpery and Tom Stoppard's Arcadia at the Duke of York Theatre.
And if you enjoyed any of that then of course you must pre order my book
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/463428/green-kingdom-by-dark-ben/9781847928337
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 important questions answered in an episode …
Notas del episodio
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 important questions answered in an episode of The Garden Log recorded in the bleached white of a Herefordshire summer.
If you enjoyed any of this history, gardening and plants podcast then consider preordering my book here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/463428/green-kingdom-by-dark-ben/9781847928337
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 podcast. Here is the mega-discount for …
Notas del episodio
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 podcast.
Here is the mega-discount for Americans
Lots of love
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. Here's the link to the Garden Collective …
Notas del episodio
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.
Here's the link to the Garden Collective: https://www.thegardencollective.uk/ben-dark/
Green Kingdom here:
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 that linger when we leave.
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/bendark linktr.ee/bendark
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-woodland survives in the suburbs north …
Notas del episodio
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-woodland survives in the suburbs north of Copenhagen.
#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, tabloid libel and a woman named X
#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 19 1/2 Front Gardens - recently described …
Notas del episodio
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 19 1/2 Front Gardens - recently described by The Daily Telegraph as 'the best gardening book of 2022' and available to order from everywhere here: linktr.ee/bendark
#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 some sort of helicopter, all of which are …
Notas del episodio
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 some sort of helicopter, all of which are lovingly reported on.
For more of this sort of thing try The Grove: Available to order now:
https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-grove/ben-dark/9781784727383
#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://linktr.ee/bendark
#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/bendark
#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, olives and the Villa Cimbrone https://ko-fi.com/bendark
#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/bendark
#90 [On Location] Bernstorff Slotshave 1: A good walk foiled
In Ben's first ever outdoor recording for the Garden Log he is driven from a historic kitchen garden to wander in search of euonymus, yew trees and friendly dogs. https://ko-fi.com/bendark
#89 Copenhagen: city of roses (A gardening podcast)
In this northerly episode of The Garden Log Ben discusses lime trees, hollyhocks, hedge heights and salsify and is refreshed by the Scandinavian approach to Japanese Knotweed.
#88 Goodbye to all that
In the last episode of the Garden Log's three-and-half-year 'season 1' Ben reflects on the garden and looks forward a new chapter… www.ko-fi.com/bendark
#87 Acer griseum, Crocus chrysanthus, frost reports and water fountains: a gardening podcast
Spring breezes blow the daffodils as Ben reports on the damage that winter hath wrought and the beauty of new growth www.ko-fi.com/bendark
#86 New discoveries, old adversaries and very strong coffee: A gardening podcast
In this midwinter episode of the Garden Log Ben plays dice with the Gods of Winter, prunes ground cover roses and discusses the newty beauty of psuedopanax www.ko-fi.com/bendark
Aquí están los 40 episodios más recientes de 115. Los anteriores están en el feed del podcast.
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