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Avant Gardeners

Avant Gardeners

By: Madeleine Gasparinatos & Emily Allen
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With lots of enthusiasm and very little know how, Emily and Maddie love chatting about gardening, often with a glass of wine or cocktail in hand. In each fortnightly episode, we speak to people who inspire us in the garden, in order to unearth some much needed knowledge.2023
Episodes
  • Honey Atkinson // Intergenerational Living, Photography, Dividing Labour, Becoming more 'Me'
    Jul 28 2026

    -- Save 15% off everything when shopping. Use the code AGPOD15 here. This episode is proudly sponsored by Veggie and Flower Garden Seeds. With more than 900 varieties of veggie seeds, and unique and hard-to-find flower seeds, this is our go-to place to shop for garden goodies. Female founded, Bec sources freshest seed to help with your germination success. We love their amazing customer service, their helpful advice on getting the most out of your seed, and the range of stunning flowers and veggies they have available. --

    Honey Atkinson first picked up a camera at age 15 and has worked as a full-time photographer for more than 20 years. We first came across Honey through her work photographing Compostable Kate's book, The Compost Coach, and have been big fans ever since.

    Recently, her focus has been on working with quietly ambitious women in business. Honey regards her work as a practice in mindfulness, saying, "Searching for what is beautiful about life is a real gift."

    Until she was six years old, Honey lived on a commercial fishing boat in Far North Queensland. These days, Honey lives, forages, makes sourdough and grows veggies on a 10-acre property on Djiringanj Country in New South Wales' Bega Valley with her partner, children, and mum.


    We talk about Cathedral Thinking, Perfectionism, Reflecting on ourselves, colour pallettes, taking photos of your garden to look back on and see how far you've progressed, finding little snippets of time to garden.

    Honey talks about living on a boat for the first 6 years of her life, choosing to move south, integenerational living including things like domestic and economic division, the joys and chaos of having three generations under the one roof, and what gifts it brings to everyone. Her and her mum have a shared Pinterest board. There's SO much in this chat. Best to just listen :-)

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    56 mins
  • Olives and Medlars and Quolls, oh my!
    Jul 21 2026

    -- Save 15% off everything when shopping. Use the code AGPOD15 here. This episode is proudly sponsored by Veggie and Flower Garden Seeds. With more than 900 varieties of veggie seeds, and unique and hard-to-find flower seeds, this is our go-to place to shop for garden goodies. Female founded, Bec sources freshest seed to help with your germination success. We love their amazing customer service, their helpful advice on getting the most out of your seed, and the range of stunning flowers and veggies they have available. --

    Geez, having Poh on last week is a tough act to follow, but we're giving it a crack.

    Emily has knocked the top off a Brothers Maclean 2024 Mencía, and we love this apt description of it: "Heavier than a pinot, but not too ballsy."

    Emily's talking about her long Tomato season, we discuss split tomatoes, cucumbers, Tiny Farm Tas' CSA Flower seedling box, and annoyingly somoene threw out Em's poppy seeds.

    Maddie's misidentifying things, has trouble noting down where things are sown.

    Emily's discovered a Medlar tree on her property - she'll report back on her verdict of the fruit.

    Maddie reckons No Mow May is great, and heard something funny (not for the dogs) on vet talk back radio.

    Maddie will use Milkwood' olive brining method for her 89grams of olives.

    Mountain peppers are being harvested, and we're excited to watch Clarkson's Farm Season 5 (old news now)

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    31 mins
  • Poh Ling Yeow // The Inconvenience of Gardening, Bees, Peaches and Possums
    Jul 14 2026

    -- Save 15% off everything when shopping. Use the code AGPOD15 here. This episode is proudly sponsored by Veggie and Flower Garden Seeds. With more than 900 varieties of veggie seeds, and unique and hard-to-find flower seeds, this is our go-to place to shop for garden goodies. Female founded, Bec sources freshest seed to help with your germination success. We love their amazing customer service, their helpful advice on getting the most out of your seed, and the range of stunning flowers and veggies they have available. --

    Poh Ling Yeow is an artist, author, cook, and TV host - one of the hosts of Masterchef Australia. She's also a relatively recent convert to gardening—but gee whiz, has she grabbed it with two hands!

    ​She doesn't call herself a chef, but she burst onto our screens in 2009 in the very first season of MasterChef. Since then, she's been a regular on TV, including her own series, Poh and Co., which followed the creation of her amazing garden.

    ​Poh explains that her "greed for life experience" has always made her creatively adventurous and willing to invite change. We think those are words to live by.

    ​Poh lives, cooks, creates, gardens, and tends to her bees - alongside her beloved dog Tim on Gah-na land in Adelaide, South Australia.

    Before that we're chatting Miso - Maddie's obsessed with these miso chocolate biscuits, and this way of cooking cabbage that you're going to love (panko, miso and add some chilli - oh my!).

    Maddie is loving strawberries growing in pots, and reccomends this Bee Native florists hand balm

    Poh talks about Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerrer, Maddie talks about Phosphorescene by Julia Baird

    Poh also references The River Cafe cookbook, and Tickle Tank in Adelaide

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    52 mins
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