Ep. 288 - The teabreak episode! What does the working week of a modern professional gardener involve? As we delve inside Lucy's schedule, we discover what forms the backbone upon which winter physical work rests - a lot of tea and biscuits...

·37 min·3 clips

Lucy confesses she accidentally deleted the first seven minutes of last week's recording, leaving listeners without an episode.

Lucy Chamberlain opens the episode by apologizing to listeners for a technical error where she accidentally deleted the first seven minutes of last week's recording, causing the episode to be lost. She explains that co-host Saul Walker is absent due to evening talks, so she is hosting solo. Lucy introduces the theme of the episode: a behind-the-scenes look at her week as a professional gardener, framed around her daily tea and coffee breaks. She starts on Tuesday at Len's garden on Mersey Island, describing the coastal setting and her dog Lily's behavior. Lucy details her tasks, such as collecting leaves from hard paving and raised vegetable beds, and shares her snack choice of sesame snaps. She then moves to her parents' home in the afternoon, where she plants 200 daffodil bulbs and discusses early snowdrops with her mother. Lucy and her parents chat over tea and McVitie's digestives, with her father joining after feeding chickens. On Wednesday, heavy rain forces Lucy to change plans, canceling a bulb-planting job and instead potting up 67 tropical plant cuttings in her shed. She briefly visits a new garden to weed woodland beds, dealing with clay soil and weeds like creeping buttercup. Thursday involves meeting with the 'Thursday underground gardening gang' for coffee, then helping Simon with garden tasks like cutting back perovskia. Lucy ends her gardening week at Kingsland, clearing leaves before heading home. She concludes by mentioning her upcoming trip to the Garden Media Guild awards in London, where she is nominated for three awards.

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