Jo Thompson is one of the UK's most celebrated garden designers, known for creating deeply romantic, naturalistic gardens that feel timeless, layered and full of atmosphere. Her projects span the UK and abroad - from wildflower meadows in the English countryside to rooftop terraces in New York and coastal gardens in Italy and Brazil.

She's a multiple award-winner at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, with several Gold medals to her name, and her designs - ranging from private landscapes to meaningful public projects - are widely admired.

Beyond her design practice, she's a respected teacher, author and voice in the gardening world, sharing her knowledge through books, lectures and her much-loved newsletter, The Gardening Mind. Jo's work reminds us that gardens can be both art and refuge – spaces that connect us to beauty, memory and the natural world.

Before we get to Jo's chat, Maddie and Emily are talking about:

• Agapanthas (sorry!)
• Snakes
• Wildflower Meadows
• Emma Bowen of Rising Farm
• Sea salt and olive oil on vanilla icecream

Then we get into glorious Jo's chat and we cover a lot. Highlights include:

• Glasshouse Project
• Women in horitculture / at the Chelsea Flower Show
• Designing a garden
• Trypophobia
  
• Damsen Cocktail

Jo lists a bunch of her favourite roses:

Wild Rover
Meg - climber
The Lark Ascending
Felicite-Perpetue
Adélaide d'Orléans
Ghislaine de feligonde
Blush Noisette
Bengal Crimsen
Mutablis
Gertrude JekyllMILsures
Olivia Rose Austin
Ispahan

We're baaaaaack! And with a slightly new format. We're trying out one week where we release our chat (longer version), and the following week we'll release our guest interview. It means we can get episodes out weekly. We'll trial it and see.

We've missed the podcast so it's awesome to be back.

Emily has knocked it out of the park with a delicious mulberry bramble (gin, mulberry cordial from our friends' tree, blackberries, lime).

Having taken more than two months off, we have so much to chat about.

Including, but not limited to:

Seed saving - calendula and platypus spinach,

Drying hydrangeas thanks to Anya The Garden Fairy

We're talking about Moths - they need a rebrand.

The Almanac, Cool Climate Sowing Guide

Alnwick Garden and Millie Fleur's Poison Garden (by Christy Mandin).

Aaaand lilacs, daphne, feverfew, calendula, compost bays.

Catch up next week when we interview (omg!) Jo Thompson!

Jodi Wilson is a bestselling author of four books, a health journalist and postpartum doula. Several years ago, she and her family packed their lives into a caravan, and set of in search of adventure, and a more simple life. After two years on the road they put down roots in Tasmania. It is here where she's embraced gardening, and written her most recent book, A Brain That Breathes, out today.

Jodi lives, writes and gardens with her partner and their four children on the land of the punnilerpanner people in north western Tasmania

Before we get to this thought-provoking chat, Emily and Madeleine are drinking Archie Rose Straight Dry gin with some home made purple elderflower cordial.

Emily is regretting purchasing a Ginko tree, and the agapanthus keep rearing their ugly head.
She is loving her Cerastium tomentosum - snow in summer - and Maddie's cutting is also doing quite well.

Maddie is obsessed with Sage, and wants to propagate more. She's also tried her hand at sage sticks. She's got a picnic blanket in the post and is excited for more outdoor eating-and-drinking sessions. Calendula is back, and in some beautiful colours, and she is recommending Why Women Grow, by Alice Vincent.

Jodi has a HUGE list of books she recommends for summer, and or anytime. We've already read a couple of them and they are excellent. Can highly recommend her recommendations!

-The Mushroom Tapes by Chloe Hooper, Helen Garner, and Sarah Krasnostein
-Heart the Lover by Lily King
-Sandwich and Wreck by Catherine Newman
-The Octopus and I and A Catalogue of Love by Erin Hortle
-The Hiding Place by Kate Mildenhall
-The Ten Year Affair by Erin Somers
-Consider Yourself Kissed by Jessica Stanley

We're also banging on and singing the praises of libraries, AGAIN!