SPEAKER_00 0:00

Well if the recent crop of b if the recent crop of good weather has made you really feel that spring may have arrived, you may well be right, because it is nearly time for BBC Gardeners World Spring Fair, which again goes back to the beautiful setting of Bewley in Hampshire from Friday the 1st to Sunday the 3rd of May. Now Sue Kent is a celebrated British garden designer, television presenter, author, speaker, and advocate for accessible gardening, whose work challenges traditional expectations of who can engage with horticulture. And I'm delighted to say that she joins me to look forward to the show. Sue, spring has sprung. We should all be smiling, shouldn't we?

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Oh, I am smiling. It's absolutely fabulous. I'm surrounded by green shoots and all the new herbs have come up, and uh so not only am I looking at them, I'm eating the spring too, and it's wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

It is good, isn't it, to get that little bit of sunshine on our backs after what was such a wet start to the year. Had many gardeners pulling their hair out.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

I know, but I do like the bit of wet for weeding. Oh, it's really useful. Uh, the weeds come out much easier. So when when it's wet and um I see weeds, I don my stuff and I go out. I get muddy.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

Excellent. Now, um Bewley, lovely setting. And you're going to be on the BBC Gardeners World magazine stage uh for a series of talks. What are you going to be talking about?

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Well, I'm going to be talking about how to get the best from your raids beds, be they vegetables, be they flowers, be they built within the borders or containers, uh, you know, within a border. And so I'm going to be chatting about, you know, how to make the most of those and and maybe what what how you can, you know, um, you know, keep them fed and nutrient-rich and and have a spectacular display.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Hmm. Now it's a well-known uh fact, Sue. We've spoken about this uh in the past that you have inspired many gardeners with your unique approach, which is is predicated on your need to do things slightly differently because of your disability. Just outline how that works for me.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

So I have short arms and no grip, and so uh I use my feet quite a lot of the time to garden, and I and I I use my hands, but I I you know I'm always on the lookout for tools that can help me, and I'm always look on ways that um I can garden more easily. And this can include hard landscaping and plant choices. Plant choices can make a real difference um to make gardening easier.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

So, what are therefore the the easy ones to to plant if you have the challenges that you have?

SPEAKER_01 2:41

Well, I think if you've got no grip, using you know uh secataires and and and and and cutting all the time is quite difficult. So having you know perennials that come back but that have got stems that are easy to manage and easy to cut back and that sort of thing is has been key to me able to manage my garden rather than big shrubs that I've got to fight and I have got to get someone else to trim. And and topiri is something that I haven't got the control or uh to do. So I yeah, I would I would if I wanted to fill the space uh and colour in winter, I would choose sort of grasses rather than topiri. Uh though I love topiri, and if I could do it, I would do it. Um so it's just adapting um to your physical needs, and uh, lots of people have different physical needs, they could be sensory, you know, uh they could be visual, um, you know, they could be in a wheelchair. Uh so it's it's working out what works for the individual and giving them some ideas that you know uh what works for me may not work for someone else, but it's it's being creative in your thought process.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

I guess a a lot of people who would like to engage in horticulture and and get their garden uh looking nice but have uh a range uh of challenges or or disabilities that you might live with are perhaps a bit fearful of having a go, or or they might think it's a bit too difficult for them.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

I I know, I really it's really sad this, isn't it? I I always think you should have a go. And and and obviously life is not easy, so you're going to face some difficulty. And and if you kill, you know, you can kill a few plants um along the way. Um, but that doesn't make you a bad gardener. That's that's a learning experience. And I think, you know, give it a go. Um, you start small, and uh, you know, exp gardening is all about experimenting, and when you learn, you know, when you make mistakes, you learn from them. And I wish people wouldn't be afraid. I think fear is the one thing that holds people back in life generally, and I really don't want it to apply to gardening because it's such fun and you know it's a lifelong love if you get into it.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Hmm. Now you've mentioned uh one uh key element already, which is raised beds. Um what sort of things are you going to be talking about and advising people to do with those raised beds? Because you you can't grow everything in a raised bed, can you?

SPEAKER_01 4:56

You you can't, but it's funny because I'm here uh in the uh in uh Maclesfield and in Cheshire at the moment. And a raised bed doesn't necessarily mean to be a wooden container plonked in the ground. Um, you know, if you live on a terrace or you live on a hill, you can have a raised border that is built into the hill that they uh they've got here. So it doesn't look like a raised bed, but it is raised. Um so you you you you know, raised beds have lots of definitions, but you can grow most things in a raised bed as long as you've got your soil right, um, your watering system right, and nutrition right. You know, even even certain types of trees you can grow in a raised bed. Um, but it's fitting them into your design so it doesn't look like you've just stuck a raised bed somewhere. You can do this very cleverly with design, and you often see that at some of the shows, how our designers do that. So these shows are really important to sort of fire up the imagination to see how you can make something not only be practical but beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Absolutely. Um things like pollinators are are so important for ecosystems in our gardens, aren't they? And summer flowers play a big part in this. So you are you a big fan of those things that attract the bees, the butterflies, and the bugs?

SPEAKER_01 6:15

I am, I am. I mean, I didn't used to think about this. I just thought everything when I first started, of course, it's a flower, it'll love it. But of course, I am a big fan of hydrangeas, and not many of them do produce. So um I've compensated for that in my garden, and I I really do think about everything I, you know, I um buy now. But it's funny because when the lavender's in, I can't go near it because I get so close to it, it's absolutely full of bees. And um there's other plants that do that too, and and and I and I have to keep away because I get you know bee up my nose before I knew it. Um but yeah, so I I I plant certain things I'm gonna enjoy a bit further away from me. But yes, I love the butterflies as well. So I'm trying to attract a particular butterfly, you know, with with budliers and various, you know, you can read up on what butterflies like what plants, and you know, like there's a the verbascums, they've got a a moth that comes in, and um so I when I when I lag a particular butterfly, I I I start to plant to hope that they'll come visit me.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

And that's really important at the moment, isn't it, Sue? Because I was I was listening to a report the other day that says the sort of the the commoner garden, if you like, butterfly is sort of okay, but the the lesser known uh varieties, the lesser known breeds of of butterfly are in decline. So it's really important for people to sort of play their part. They're not just flowers in the garden, they're part of this bigger, really important ecosystem.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

And it's it's funny, I was talking to someone the other day and they said, Oh, the birds aren't coming through my garden. I want I want um I want I want more birds to come to my garden. She's and then she said, But I don't want lots of insects.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

Oh, picking, picking and choosing.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

But yeah, no, I think the butterflies um are in decline, and I I I particularly love butterflies. So and there's moths, you know, there's a lot of plants that uh that that the moths love. Um so you you you know, you but you only have to go on to some of the British Wildlife sites and they'll tell you what to grow. So there's lots of advice out there. If you know you can look at the butterflies that you like, and if they're going to come into this country, you can plant particularly for them.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

Yes, absolutely. BBC Gardeners World Spring Fair, just to let you know, is back at Bewley in Hampshire from Friday the 1st to Sunday the 3rd of May. There is lots of information on the website, BBC Gardenersworldfair.com, about how you can get tickets and of course when you can see the brilliant Sue Kent. And remember that the tickets will get you in to the National Motor Museum. So, double bubble uh for a day out at Bewley. Sue, when you're uh not giving talks on TV, you're obviously uh, you know, or being on the programme and and going around the country doing what you do. Um you must spend a lot of time in your garden, which in my mind is a showcase garden of perfection. Is that right? Is that right? Smooth. What is your garden like at home?

SPEAKER_01 9:12

Um so uh my garden is on five different levels. Uh so I'm surrounded by woodland and cliff, and I overlook the sea, and I'm sort of uh southeast facing in the front and southwest facing in the back. Um but because we're down a cliff, I do lose some sun. And at the top I've got uh vegetables, it's it's it's uh the sunniest part, really, and I've got a sort of a little Mediterranean garden, and then I go down, and I've got Iranger borders and a long walkway. Um, and then I do love grass, it's so out of fashion. But I've got two lovely long strips of grass because I've got grandchildren, we run up and down the grass a lot, and uh do lots of games on the grass, and uh and then I've got borders around, but a lot of my borders are very narrow because I stand on one foot to garden and I can only reach a certain way balancing, and so it's quite it's not it wouldn't be to all people's tastes, but it suits me, and I think that's really important in gardening to make the garden work for you.

SPEAKER_00 10:11

Absolutely. Um now you mentioned that your garden's on a on a number of different levels, which suggests it's perhaps perhaps a little bit bigger than the the average person's garden. A lot of people have small gardens, see, which can be a good idea. Maybe you could do a swap with somebody who's listening. Uh they can be tricky things, can't they? To make a small f space feel bigger, but bright, you know, vibrant, full of life, and and how best to use it. What would be your top couple of tips for people who are trying to make the most of a relatively small space?

SPEAKER_01 10:44

Well, I would I would go to a garden show and look at show gardens and look at beautiful borders because they're full of inspiration. I, you know, I've now work for um uh Garden Rescue as well, and we do a lot of uh makeovers for small gardens, and it's quite it's quite a challenge getting your mind uh round making something beautiful. But I I I think use the walls, use the verticals a lot. Um, you know, you can bring a if you've got fences, which a lot of modern gardens do, or brick walls, you can you use them, they need wiring up properly, they need you know proper structures put in for you to be able to get those plants up the walls. But you know, you can espaliere trees, you can have climbers, and then you know, um, and and and you know, you can put you can raise the levels, you can use raised beds within a border. So you can make the border and then raise it up so you get various height variations, smaller plants can come up higher, and then then you you know often you find these beautiful small plants that make a big impact, they're slightly lost at ground level. But if you place something within a border and then put these plants in, they're raised up, and then they you know, if it's planted properly and it's cohesive, it can look amazing.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

Good advice.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

And of course, you always need a place to sit.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

You do with a glass of wine. Are we allowed to say that?

SPEAKER_01 12:02

Yeah, or mint tea.

SPEAKER_00 12:04

Or mint tea, yes.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

Mint tea. Oh, you know, a herb, I think herbs are so important because they really bring the garden to you. You you get involved because you get the taste and the you know, and you eat them, and and I like a bit of product from the garden. And I I love flowers, but I also love food.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

Absolutely. Great, great advice, and uh we'll be looking forward to to that through the spring and the summer. Sitting out in the gardens, watching the sun go down with a a mint tea or a glass of wine, depending on what it is you like. Now, so the the show uh has so much going on. We should just touch on some of the other things. There's the BBC Gardeners World magazine stage, which you're on, which we've already mentioned. You're gonna be doing a book signing as well, aren't you? Um yes, I am, yeah. Um but there's just just to give everybody a sense of things like the show gardens, the beautiful borders, uh and the shopping. That's a big one as well, isn't it? Shopping.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

So, you know, um you yeah, as you said, you've got the magazines that they've got beautiful borders, um, which I love, which is where you know people come and they do often the young designers are starting off, and rather than start a show garden, they do a beautiful border, and you can get a lot of inspiration from them. Um, and you've got um, you know, lovely shopping. Um, there's lots of space at Beauty, so you can wander around and and and really take your time and um you know look at what's on offer and then and make a purchase. And the thing is, a lot of that is what's in flowers, so if you if you're not sure what to put in your garden and you want to know exactly, you can you can pick the right thing because you know what it's gonna look like. Um, and I think you've also got um you know food markets, you know, which I love. I know you know food and and and flowers go go well together. And I think there may be some showcase gardens there, um uh which is always it is I just love looking at other people's designs and what what they they come up with. You you never know what you're going to see. And I think as well at Palace House, um uh there's gonna be a lot of floral displays, yes. Um, which is is is rather lovely, you know. So how you bought your flowers, you've grown your flowers, and then you can go and learn how to put them together well.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

Right, yeah, important. And just looking at my list as well, is there's wine and cheese and mocktails tasting, which which sounds fabulous.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

I'll be there, I'll be there with the mock tail.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

How to make spring bouquets, bug hotel making, and of course, uh people who've been before will know you can get plant expert tours of the walled, the fantastic walled gardens at Bewley. I I don't think one day is enough, Sue, is it? I think everybody should go for all three.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

I don't think one day is enough. I get because you can get to the you know, my husband's coming, he's going to the motor museum, and um I'm not being stereotypical there, but he is going to the motor museum while I'm working. And so you get free entry to the motor museum, and as you say, you can get tours of the gardens. Um so yeah, make it a weekend.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

Make it a weekend. That weekend is Friday the 1st to Sunday the 3rd of May at Bewley in Hampshire. BBC Gardeners Worlds uh get that BBC Gardenersworldfair.com uh is the address for the website. Lots of information on tickets and who's going to be there, and of course how you can see and hear the brilliant Sioux Kent. So it's been an absolute pleasure as always to catch up with you. I'm sure you've got lots of prep to do uh before the show, but have a fantastic time in Bewley.

SPEAKER_01 15:17

Yes, thank you, Steve. I look forward to maybe seeing you there.