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

Springtime

·40 min·2 clips

Tom Cadwallander says a flock of almost 300 fieldfares lifted from fields near the border at dawn.

Spring is the thread running through it all. The programme opens with Carl Steinsen welcoming listeners into the Nature Garden and framing a spring show that moves between the pruning bed, the bird hide, and the dig site. Pruning comes first. Tom Pattinson joins to talk through shrubs, structure, and the familiar spring question of how much to cut back, with roses firmly in view. It is careful, seasonal work. The advice stays practical, and the tone keeps nudging listeners to think first before reaching for the shears. Birds drift in next. Tom Cadwallander brings his own patch of observation, with woodpeckers, field fairs at dawn, and the kind of wandering attention that makes a nature programme feel properly lived in. Then the ground changes. The conversation heads to Lindisfarne, where David Pets reports on the latest archaeological dig and the finds turning up in the soil. A carved cross stands out. He describes a high cross, a cross head, and the heavy fragment that has become the favourite object from the year so far. The details are vivid. One side seems to show a bird, while the other carries something dragon-like or monstrous, and the group is still working through exactly what the carving shows. The site feels old and bright at once. The discussion lingers on how such pieces would once have stood crisply carved, sometimes painted, sometimes fitted with metal or glass, like public art in the open air. Metalworking follows. The team talks about early medieval metalworking, including little globules of molten copper, crucible fragments, and a tiny surviving bit of what may have been an oven or hearth. Moss gets a pass. The show closes with the easy conclusion that moss can stay, because birds are already collecting it for nests, and then sends everyone back out to enjoy gardening and time outdoors with nature.

As heard by us

Spring pruning, dawn birdlife, and a muddy Lindisfarne dig.

Springtime on The Nature Garden Podcast stays grounded and useful, with Tom Pattinson laying out pruning advice for shrubs and roses just as the season brings the usual questions about what to cut back and when.

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Need spring pruning guidance with birdsong and a muddy archaeological detour?

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