Carol Klein, gardener

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 2 August 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Carol Klein is a gardener, broadcaster and longtime contributor to BBC Gardeners’ World. She is a six time Chelsea Flower Show gold medal winner, a certified RHS Horticultural Hero and was awarded the RHS Victoria Medal of Honour.

Born in 1945 in Lancashire, Carol was the eldest of three children and her love of gardening was evident when she used to bring soil in from the outside as a toddler, and make a garden on the lino floor of her mum’s kitchen.

She began her career as an art teacher, working for many years in London schools. After meeting her husband, Neil, they eventually moved to Devon to buy a house and create a garden. They have lived in Glebe Cottage for forty seven years and it’s been the base for Carol’s former plant business as well as the location for some of her TV programmes.

Carol never intended to be a professional gardener. She followed that path after becoming a parent and deciding not to return to her teaching career. After first growing plants successfully for local markets, she then started entering professional garden shows up and down the country winning six Chelsea gold medals in the process.

Carol lives in Devon with her husband Neil.

DISC ONE: Feeling Good - Nina Simone DISC TWO: Not Fade Away - Buddy Holly DISC THREE: Corrina, Corrina - Bob Dylan DISC FOUR: Let’s Stay Together - Al Green DISC FIVE: Perfect Day - Lou Reed DISC SIX: Tutti Frutti - Little Richard DISC SEVEN: Skylark (Alauda Arvensis) DISC EIGHT: Radio, Radio - Elvis Costello & The Attractions

BOOK CHOICE: Flora Britannica by Richard Mabey LUXURY ITEM: A bottle of perfume CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Skylark (Alauda Arvensis)

Presenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Sarah Taylor

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:04.8	Hello, I'm Lauren Levern, and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast from BBC Radio 4.
0:09.6	Every week, I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury that they'd want to take with them if they were cast away to a desert island.
0:17.0	For rights reasons, the music's shorter than on the original broadcast, but you can find a version with longer music tracks on BBC Sounds.
0:24.4	Listeners will also get access to episodes 28 days earlier than everyone else.
0:28.8	I hope you enjoy listening. My castaway this week is the Gardner and broadcaster Carol Klein.
0:54.5	As one of the regular presenters of the BBC's Gardner's world, she's a familiar and respected expert on the pursuit she shares with an estimated 27 million people in the UK.
1:05.8	For many years, she ran her own nursery alongside her broadcasting career.
1:10.1	She's a six-time Chelsea Flower Show
1:12.0	Gold Medal winner, a certified RHS horticultural hero, having been awarded the Society's
1:17.9	Victoria Medal of Honour in 2018. Her love of plants is, if you'll pardon the pun, rooted
1:23.8	in her Lancashire childhood. It all started with her mother's nasturtiums. Then, just as she does in the garden, she used a mix of skill and spontaneity to find her way thereafter. She was an art teacher until she started a family and a garden of her own. Looking for a better work-life balance, she began selling seedlings from her own cottage garden in North Devon at local flower shows.
1:46.7	She's been getting her hands dirty professionally ever since.
1:50.3	She says, when you go out in the garden, you become engrossed in it.
1:54.1	It's been proved that physically touching plants and having your hands in the soil does lift the way you feel about everything.
2:00.7	I'd find it very difficult to live without a garden.
2:03.9	Carol Klein, welcome to Desert Island Discs.
2:06.3	Thank you.
2:07.3	So Carol, I think we should start in your garden at Glebe Cottage.
2:10.4	Your home for nearly 50 years in Devon, it's become something of a gardening landmark.
2:15.5	What did it look like when you first arrived? A bit rough.
2:19.8	There was no garden there at all. Our cottage was built for the gardener-come gamekeeper for the
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 3 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.