
S5 Ep11: November - The botany of the kitchen garden with Helena Dove
From The Organic Gardening Podcast by Garden Organic
November 4, 2025 · 57 min · Season 5 · Episode 11
About this episode
Fiona chats with Helena Dove about the botany of the kitchen garden and autumn gardening tips.
This month, we’re celebrating the slow beauty of autumn, from the changing of the leaves to creating colourful bulb trifles. There’s still so much joy you can get out of your garden, as we prepare for shorter days and longer nights. In this episode, Fiona chats with Helena Dove, Kitchen Gardener at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Helena has a wealth of knowledge surrounding the physiology of vegetables, and teaches us how we can better understand the makeup of plant life. In the postbag, Fiona, Chris and Emma answer your questions on using black plastic on the compost heap, how to help overwintering larvae, and how to prevent your apples from developing bitter pit.
People in this episode
Host: Fiona
Guest: Helena Dove
Topics covered
- autumn gardening
- kitchen garden
- vegetable physiology
- plant life
- composting
- overwintering larvae
- apple care
Keywords
- kitchen garden
- autumn
- vegetables
- compost
- larvae
- bitter pit
- bulb trifles
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
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