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

The Holly and the Ivy

·49 min·3 clips

Steve Lowe describes tools from Cresswell Peel Tower being repurposed and sent to Ukraine.

Carl Steinsen opens the week-ending Nature Garden Podcast with the Lionheart Radio team. They head off on a festive walk down the garden path and along the country lane, with birds, bees, flowers, trees, and a bit of music for company. Northumbrian stories sit right in the middle of it. The mood is Christmas from the start, with decking the halls, dressing the tree, and making space for a little seasonal cheer. The correspondents take their turns. There are two toms on Christmas trees. There are alternative Christmas birds too. Steve Lowe brings a piece about giving gifts that can genuinely help people across the world. John and Dean return with mistletoe and ivy, with a nod to the Anick Poison Garden. Tom Pattinson then steps in with a festive guide to Christmas trees and holly. He says people keep asking which tree is best, or which type suits them best, and the answer depends on what they want from it. On holly, he notes that not every plant that looks good in the garden will give berries. The flowers need checking in the May-June period, and a hand lens makes the job easier. If the flower has both male and female parts, the stamens and the pistil, the plant should be self-fertile and berry up. If it only has the male part, it will never make berries on its own. If it only has the female part, it needs another holly nearby to do the pollinating. One of the garden hollies is Ilex aquifolium, the native holly, and the talk opens out from there to how long holly has been around, back into Saturnalia and older winter custom. The programme closes on practical winter reading, catalogues for specialist interests, garden jobs, and the usual reminder to enjoy gardening and time outdoors with nature.

As heard by us

A Christmas garden ramble that mixes seasonal advice with Northumbrian winter texture.

The Nature Garden's Christmas edition moves through garden path and country lane with holly, ivy, mistletoe, Christmas trees, birds, and Northumbrian stories, while still slipping in practical seasonal advice.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a Christmas listen that still knows its holly from its ivy.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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