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

Roots & kingfishers

·39 min·2 clips

Butterfly Conservation says 125,000 people submitted 160,000 counts in the Big Butterfly Count 2025.

1. The Nature Garden: gardening, wildlife and nature notes episode “Roots & kingfishers” links autumn planting, river wildlife, butterfly counts, and weekly garden jobs. 2. Carl Steinson presents Tom Pattinson, Tom Cadwallander, and Richard Austin as the voices shaping the episode, with Lionheart Radio named in the opening and closing. 3. The episode asks what gardeners and birders can do in mid-autumn, from planting bare-root trees to noticing wildlife and tracking butterflies. 4. Tom Pattinson says bare-root planting is useful now because plants are dormant and can be introduced to borders, orchards, and mixed garden spaces. 5. He contrasts pot-grown apples at roughly £35 to £50 with bare-root apples at about £20 to £30, and says he prefers bare-root planting. 6. He recommends soaking bare-root roses and fruit trees in water for several hours or overnight before planting. 7. He says the planting hole should be twice the depth and twice the width of the root system, filled with compost or well-rotted manure before the plant goes in. 8. He warns that roots dry quickly in wind and air, so the plant should stay in water until the moment of planting and then be backfilled firmly. 9. He finishes that section by advising a surface mulch to hold moisture and winter warmth around the new planting. 10. Tom Cadwallander then shifts to the riverbank, describing Tom Pattinson fishing near Lesbury and the quiet value of standing still beside water. 11. He says otters were seen near the 18 arches on the river and uses that sighting to lead into kingfishers. 12. He explains that common kingfishers in Britain and Europe have electric-blue backs and orange underparts, and that they dig nesting holes about 45 centimeters deep in exposed river banks. 13. He gives a practical identification tip: fish carried head-first are usually for young, while fish carried the other way are for the adult bird to swallow. 14. He says kingfishers move downstream in autumn and early winter, appear in estuaries and rock pools, and can be heard by their explosive call as they fly. 15. He broadens the discussion to woodland kingfishers in Malaysia, which feed on invertebrates, frogs, tadpoles, and other prey rather than fish. 16. He also recounts seeing a white-throated kingfisher in India bashing a lesser whitethroat before swallowing it whole. 17. The tone in Cadwallander’s section is conversational and rambling, with long observational passages, place names, and personal memories from India and Malaysia. 18. Pattinson’s final gardening notes are practical and method-based, moving from lawn repair to apple storage, grapes, brassicas, and cuttings. 19. Listeners who like practical autumn gardening, bird identification, and local nature counts will get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners wanting a tightly edited story or a single topic may skip it.

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from The Nature Garden: gardening, wildlife and nature notes