Avant Gardeners

--This episode is proudly sponsored by Willie Smith's Non-alcoholic Cider. Made from Organic Apples grown not far from us, we're big fan of this delightful non-alcoholic cider. It's more refined that apple juice, there's no added sugar, and it's something fancier than your standard sparkling water. It has that craft cider taste, and it's a great option if you aren't drinking, want just one less alcoholic drink, or feel like something a little different. Enjoy 10% off their Non-Alcoholic ciders when using the code AG10 at https://www.williesmiths.com.au/product/willie-smiths-non-alc -- We're back! Welcome to a new season of Avant Gardeners. This is an Emily & Maddie episode where we start off with saffron and end on a recommendation that will have your veggies lasting much much longer in the fridge. Maddie has grown a successful saffron crop, and now understands why it's so expensive, she's popped in a bunch of Gladiolus, there are kiwi fruits growing (we incorrectly said that kiwi don't ripen off the vine. This is untrue - they will ripen on your bench). Coriander are going off in the garden paths. Maddie is ambivilent about quinces. Emily is giving back to the local seed saving group, and has a great hack with pillow cases. She's recommending King of the Wilderness a story about the amazing Denny King, as a tree that was previously thought to be extinct has recently been discovered. King's Lomatia. Emily is recommending The Swag. A big thank you to Willie Smith's Non Alcoholic Cider for being this episode's sponsor.

~ This season of Avant Gardeners is proudly supported by Blundstone's new series WorkLife. Launching in November and perfect for gardening. Find your local stockist here. ~ Emma Horswill was a madkeen gardener with a fine arts degree and a 9-acre block. With plans for a veggie garden and orchard, Emma turned her hand to flower farming in 2019, and since then has gone from strength to strength. This family run farm, called Earthenry, now grows well over 100 different varieties of seasonal and field-grown blooms, and has cultivated a dedicated community of volunteers and devotees who flock to the farm for events including garden and gossip, twilight flower picking, pick your own mornings, workshops, and seedling sales. Emma also breeds her own dahlias, makes made-to-order bouquets and sells organically-grown seeds. Emma, her husband Greg and their two teenage children live, work and garden in the beautiful township of Snug, on the lands of the Nuenonne people in Tasmania. Before we get to that, Maddie & Emily and drinking a Fin Wines' Dandelions and Bumblebees Emily is talking about pea straw, her broody chickens and some tips she's learned from Nicky Husted, aka Purely Chickens. We both went to the Cygnet Garden Market and bought a literal boot load of plants including Mint! Hurray. Chocolate mint, peppermint and basil mint. Emily is loving The Garden Curator's column in Graziher magazine about observing where the early and late light moves in the garden, and that's where to plant those frothy, tall grasses to catch the light. Maddie is loving the cows, Hetty McKinnon's dukkah from the Community cookbook, and having garden chats with Emily. This is our last episode of 2026. Thank you for being here. It means the world.

~ This season of Avant Gardeners is proudly supported by Blundstone's new series WorkLife. Launching in November and perfect for gardening. Find your local stockist here. ~ Mark Udovitch and his partner Lisa wisely used Covid lockdowns to establish an urban microfarm just south of the Sydney CBD, in the leafy suburb of Bardwell Valley. This steep and productive block is flourishing with veggies, fruit trees and indigenous plants. Mark and Lisa also share the property with European honeybees, a chicken coop, and their two young children. Mark is also a prolific preserver, fermenter and sourdough maker, is a member of the Sydney Edible Garden Trail Team, hosts a regular Permaculture at the Pub event, and is a Radiation Therapist in his spare time. He's passionate about getting more dirt under the fingernails of more people, and shares what he knows online. Mark lives, works and tends to his garden on Gadigal country, in NSW Maddie has - in a very roundabout way - made a Porto Tonico with Magnolia syrup. It's like gin and tonic, but port and tonic, (with or without magnolia syrup). Garnish it with an orange slice, cinnamon quill and rosemary. We're debriefing all things Citrus. Emily is on a full agpanthus rant, and turns out Maddie thought the singular of Agapanthus was...Agapantha. Lol. She didn't realise this wasn't the case until after we'd finished recording. Emily is on the green manure train, Maddie is hoping to grow Cucamelons. One of Emily's sisters bought her the book Horti-Curious by Ann Treneman and she's LOVING it. Maddie is obsessed with her Oak & Rose Razor Hoe. We learned heaps from attending one of the Grow Great Fruit pruning webinar. Things Mark mentions: Limestone Permaculture, Root Lab Mushrooms, Permaculture in the Pub Thanks for being here!

~ This season of Avant Gardeners is proudly supported by Blundstone's new series WorkLife. Launching in November and perfect for gardening. Find your local stockist here. ~ Tim Pilgrim has become synonymous with his own naturalistic style of garden design, one that's plant-driven and subscribes to the maximalist aesthetic. With gardening in his blood, and after working at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, he returned home to work on one of the Digger's Club's most famous gardens, St Erth. Tim and his wife Hadley started TP Gardens back in 2013, and since then he's worked on some of the most jaw-dropping gardens in the country including Du Fermier in Trentham, Paul Bangay's Stonefields and at Bress, a biodynamic winery in the Central Victorian goldfields. Tim's debut book Wild By Design has recently been released, shooting straight to the best sellers list. And deservedly so. Tim draws his inspiration from the beauty of wild landscapes and other creative gardening minds. Tim lives, gardens and designs on Dja Dja Wurrung Country, sharing his home with his wife, and three young sons. Before we get to Tim's chat, we're drinking Walnut Liqueur made from green walnuts macerated with alcohol - a Slovenian specialty. Emily is going great guns with her seeds - rudbeckia, violas, edamame. Her orchard understory is blooming with cornflowers, walking onions, rosemary, thyme, wormwood, queen anne's lace, cosmos, calendula, and strawberries! The sorrel is still a pest. Emily's loving Banskia (it's giving May Gibbs vibes). Maddie recommends growing Correa Alba from cuttings. Maddie + Emily did a beautiful bushwalk - the Freycinet Circuit, and picked up reading tips from our very great mate Franzi. Emily's recommending Platypus Spinach from Dimity May at Tiny Farm Tas. Maddie wants baby lamb energy, vs tired mutton energy. Maddie's trying to grow shelling peas, and has made a huge (although not catastrophic) mistake with her flannel flowers. And we're trying to manifest Juvenile Grandma phase. Thanks!

~ This season of Avant Gardeners is proudly supported by Blundstone's new series WorkLife. Launching in November and perfect for gardening. Find your local stockist here. ~ Brenna Quinlan is an illustrator and educator with a keen focus on permaculture and sustainability. Her special skill is putting her energy, creativity and passion into making the world a better place. She's not afraid to take hard, uncomfortable or challenging subjects, but she always has humour at the core. Through her art she has collaborated with the likes of Costa, Milkwood Permaculture, David Holmgren and the CSIRO. Brenna lives, creates art and permacultures in a strawbale house that she built from reclaimed materials on Bibbulmun Menang boodja, in an intentional community in Denmark, Western Australia. Before we get into this highly delightful, educational and entertaining chat with Brenna, Emily and Maddie are drinking a Joshua Cooper 2024 Pinot Noir, Maddie is talking about chickens and accidentally discovered the most delicious eggs she's ever tasted. She's making lots of homemade marshmallows with those bad boys. We go deep into potatoes: Pink Eyes and King Edwards, and Maddie's planted out a bunch of cuttings from Emily's succulent garden - including Blue Chalk Sticks and something else whose name we don't know. Maddie is recommending Wintering by Katherine May, and is embarrassed by her lack of chlorophyll knowledge. We also explore the abscission zone (of leaf and brain variety). Emily's spending wholesome days with the kids at Birches Bay Art Farm, where she recently purchased some Native Pepper Berry. She's also experimenting with thornless blackberry. Brenna is a wealth of information and recommends the following: Rewilding the Urban Soul by Claire Dunn Everyday Permaculture by Anna Matilda, aka Urban Nanna Koren Helbig's 'The Power of Quarterly Rest' Retrosuburbia, by David Holmgren Follow Brenna here, and consider supporting her on Patreon here.

Scott Whitaker is a visual artist and former art gallery owner who now runs Hinterland Bees with his wife Allyson Reynolds. They got their first hive back in 1996, and now manage more than 250 of them across orchards and rainforests in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland. Scott produces pure, natural raw honey and has become synonymous with swarm removal. His social videos are mesmerising to watch, opting for no protective gear when handling thousands of them. Scott lives, gardens and bee keeps on Jinibara and Kabi Kabi country in the Sunshine Coast hinterland in Queensland. If you love or loathe bees, or eat anything pollinated by bees, this is a great listen! Before we get there, we're drinking a Hartzview Honey Mead. Emily is talking about all the positive impacts on her gardening journey including Terry Memory, Milkwood Permaculture, Emma Bowen @ Rising Farm and Hannah Maloney. She's also about to plant all her peonies. Maddie is trying to grow Hollyhock, she's reneged on her idea of building her own chicken coop, and she's on the snail warpath. She's also recommending Danielle Alvarez's Cheesy Cauliflower Soup. Yum! Scott recommends the book Honey Bee Democracy by Thomas D. Seeley. NOTE: We interviewed Scott about 8 weeks ago, and since then varroa has been detected in several of his hives. Thanks for listening. We'd love it if you could rate, review and share Avant Gardeners with your friends. Follow us on Instagram or check out our website.

Welcome to the first episode of our little mini winter series. We'll be talking about the birds and the bees, the mind and fruit trees. Thanks for being here. First up, we're having a fan girl moment chatting to Sue Stuart-Smith. Sue is a psychiatrist, psychotherapist and author of The Well Gardened Mind – a Sunday Times Bestseller. Sue originally saw gardening as 'outdoor housework', but it was the veggie garden that drew her in. She originally studied English Literature at the University of Cambridge before qualifying as a doctor and working in the NHS, where she went on to become the lead clinician for psychotherapy in Hertfordshire. Sue and her husband, celebrated garden designer Tom Stuart-Smith, have together spent almost four decades cultivating the Barn Garden – a place that inspired much of her writing. Her book explores the relationship between gardening and mental health. Sue lives, works and gardens in Hertfordshire in the UK from where she shares widely her deep appreciation for the natural world. Before we get to this beautiful chat with Sue we're drinking a Sailor Seeks Horse Chardonnay. Emily is dishing up why she's not a fan of carnations. Maddie boldly states she's going to build her own chicken coop. We've discovered (unpalatable) native blueberries. We've found all of the apple info at Pomiferous. And Emily's decided what to plant in her future espalier bed - including a Plum Scrumptious - an interspecies plant that is plum and peach. Yumbo!

Samuel Shelley is a Tasmanian-based photographer specialising in food, commercial, lifestyle & ad photography. What he often leaves off his bio is his partnership in the family-run, Tassie based business Veggie and Flower Garden Seeds that his sister Bec founded in 2020. Sam is their chief photographer - amongst other things - and knows a thing or two about taking a killer flower pic. He lives in Nipaluna / Hobart with his wife, his two daughters, and a pretty serious fishing addiction. Sam is giving us a little tutorial today on how to get the best flower photos you can! Before we get to that we're drinking a Passionfruit Caipiroska. Emily is swapping hay for seedlings, she's growing rainbow chard and snow peas from seed. She's loving the Tigerella tomato, and hanging unripe tomatoes upside down. With all her basil, Emily is making Hannah Maloney's Basil Pesto Log. Maddie is suggesting putting basil seeds in water, she's trying desperately to nurture her Flannel Seeds (after germinating them with smoke). She's loving her autum fruiting Facebook Marketplace raspberries. And she's been making Vodka Pasta