Grow Forward: Designing Resilient Gardens and Stronger Communities

Gardening with the RHS

Royal Horticultural Society

Home & Garden, Leisure, Hobbies

4.4 • 654 Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s time to look ahead to the future: From the coming season to the years beyond, the way we garden must evolve with a changing world. Award-winning garden designer Tom Massey joins us to share his tips on how to be more water-wise in the garden. We’ll also explore the growing importance of community gardens, as the RHS unveils its landmark Space to Grow report: the first comprehensive mapping of the scale, impact, and needs of community gardening across the UK. Sarah Galvin, Head of National Community Programs at the RHS, will join us to discuss some of the most inspiring findings. And finally, we’ll take a step into the wonderfully eccentric world of competitive fruit and vegetable growing with Pumpkins and Prizes, a new exhibition at RHS Garden Wisley. Curator Fiona Davison will be on hand to share the stories behind this vibrant tradition. Host: Jenny Laville Contributors: Sarah Galvin, Tom Massey, Fiona Davison Links: RHS Waterwise Garden by Tom Massey RHS Space to Grow Pumpkins and Prizes Exhibition

Transcript

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0:00.0	Save 30% on RHS membership today.
0:05.0	Enjoy unlimited access to 5 RHS gardens and 230 partner gardens all year round.
0:13.0	Delight in exclusive member only days and reduce rate tickets to RHS flower shows.
0:19.0	Plus expert gardening advice,
0:23.9	monthly editions of the garden magazine, and so much more.
0:28.8	Join today from just £56.org at rhs.org.uk.
0:32.5	Hurry, offer, end soon. Terms and conditions apply. Autumn is a magical time of year.
0:42.1	After the luscious greens of summer
0:43.6	follows the fiery hues of autumn leaves.
0:46.3	One final burst of exuberant colour
0:48.5	before the muted tones of winter set in.
0:52.2	This autumn is proving to be a particularly fruitful one with bumper harvest of everything from
0:57.2	squashes to grapes.
0:59.0	But it's not only our cultivated plants that have fed well.
1:02.4	Wild fruits, most notably acorns, have appeared in huge abundance this year.
1:06.7	This is what's called a mass year, when trees naturally produce a heavy crop.
1:12.1	One of the main theories for this behaviour is predator satiation.
1:15.9	In most years, trees produce just enough nuts to feed local wildlife like squirrels, jays, mice and badgers,
1:21.7	but crucially not enough for their populations to grow too large.
1:25.5	Then, every five to ten years, the trees change strategy.
1:28.8	They produce a glut of nuts, far more than all those hungry mouths could possibly ever eat.
1:33.8	The result is a surge in small mammal populations, but even after they've eaten their fill,
	...

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