Question Time: Are You Killing Your Plants… or Just Buying the Wrong Ones?

Question Time is back! Which means James and Joe are once again diving headfirst into your gardening dilemmas—with absolutely no guarantees that the answers will be sensible...

This week they tackle one of gardening's biggest myths: does spending more money on a plant actually improve its chances of survival? (Spoiler: one very expensive fern says otherwise.)

They also discuss whether black fences and Japanese-style charred timber are timeless or just another passing trend, debate the pros and cons of keeping a garden journal, and help a listener navigate the diplomatic nightmare of sharing a holiday garden with a sister who loves bargain-bin begonias.

Plus:

• Why expensive plants sometimes die the fastest.
• Joe's YouTube milestone... almost.
• James unearths his gardening notebook from 1990.
• Should gardeners embrace winter hibernation—or keep pottering all year round?
• A surprising amount of chat about reading glasses, tree ferns and Kellys.

As always, expect plenty of laughs, questionable accents, gardening honesty and the occasional ripping up of the rulebook.

And don't forget... if you've got a gardening question, send it in. It might just feature in the next Question Time!

If you're enjoying the podcast, we'd love it if you could leave us a review on Apple Podcasts—it really helps more gardeners discover the show.

Happy gardening!

https://www.thegardencollective.uk/the-james-joe-garden-show/

This is an important Public Service announcement: we will not be here next week as we are shaking things around.. Nothing too dramatic but we thought we would up our game. Thank you to all of you who tune in to listen to us burble on every tuesday - see you on 28th July.

To ask us a question email gnome@jamesandjoegarden.com or go to our website www.jamesandjoegarden.com

About our hosts

James Alexander-Sinclair is a garden designer, writer and broadcaster. He is an RHS Vice-President and was awarded the Veitch Memorial Medal for outstanding contribution to horticulture in 2022.

Joe Swift is a familiar face on television as a presenter of BBC TV’s Gardeners’ World and other gardening programmes. He is a garden designer, broadcaster, writer and design director of Modular.

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Not only will you get us but new articles every week from some of the best garden writers around and access to a bulging archive from (without wishing to drop names) the likes of Alan Titchmarsh, Ann-Marie Powell, Tom and Sue Stuart-Smith, Advolly Richmond, Jan Etherington and many others. Come and join the Collective for essays, seasonal notes, reflections and stories.

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Contact us: ⁠gnome@jamesandjoegarden.com

www.jamesandjoegarden.com

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