The Nature Garden: gardening, wildlife and nature notes · The Weekending Show

Avocets & Goosegogs

·47 min·3 clips

Avocets were extinct as a UK breeding bird before colonising flooded East Anglian marshes.

Carl Steinsohn opens the Nature Garden Podcast with the week-ending show team from Lionheart Radio. The tone stays easy and local from the start. It drifts along the garden path and down the country lane with birds, bees, flowers, and trees. Northumbrian stories sit right in the middle of that ramble rather than off to one side. Flower show season gets the first big stretch. Tom Pattinson is already thinking about the competitions and has his clipboard ready. The first show in the area lands at Howick Hall on the last Saturday in July each year, which gives the episode a clear sense of timing and place. The birds come next. Tom Cadwallander brings good news about the avocet, the RSPB's emblem, and keeps the attention on seabird diversity. Steve Lowe then heads down by the river. He is tackling a rather nasty invader and doing the kind of practical work that keeps river spaces in better shape. The show also pauses on laburnum. There is a question hanging over why it had to be removed from so many school grounds. John and Dean from the Annick Garden join in with tips on how not to gas yourself with cherry laurel. Their advice is blunt enough to stick. The programme never loses its practical thread. Tom Pattinson keeps dropping in garden tips while the wildlife notes are still fresh. Gooseberries get a careful run of attention. He recommends training them on four or five canes so the young stems make a goblet shape. That shape keeps air moving through the middle of the plant. Better airflow helps reduce fungal trouble. It also makes it easier to spot gooseberry sawfly or magpie moth caterpillars before they strip the bush. The episode treats gooseberries as a useful plant worth respecting. Currants come alongside them. Blackcurrants, red currants, and white currants all get a mention. The blackcurrants taste a bit tart until they are properly ripe. He points listeners toward the Ben varieties, including Ben Nevis, Ben Moore, Ben Lohmann, and Ben Sarek. Ben Sarek gets special praise as a reliable plant that has served well in the garden for years. Deep planting is part of the method too, because it encourages strong new shoots from below the surface. Annual pruning keeps the bush renewed and productive. The rhythm is practical rather than flashy. A branch gives fruit, then gets cut back, then a younger one takes over later. That pattern suits the whole episode. It keeps circling back to the same patience and observation. The final stretch folds in more ordinary garden housekeeping. Wet lawns are still too soft to cut properly. When mowing starts again, the blades should be raised a couple of notches and lowered gradually over time. The show closes with a reminder to enjoy the rest of the summer. There is also a note that the programme will be back after a wee summer break in September. The last feeling is one of familiar company rather than instruction alone. It sounds like people who have spent enough time outside to know what needs doing and what is worth simply noticing.

As heard by us

A loose Northumbrian garden episode about avocets, flower shows, river work, and seasonal advice.

This episode folds avocets, flower shows, river work, and the day to day business of a Northumbrian garden into one loose run of talk. Tom Pattinson brings the show season and pruning notes, Tom Cadwallander covers the avocet, Steve Lowe talks through the river fight with a…

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You want a Northumbrian garden ramble with seabirds, gooseberries, and straight talk.

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