Kimpton

Gardeners' Question Time

BBC

Leisure, Home & Garden

4.5 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2026

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Peter Gibbs and the GQT team are in Kimpton, Hertfordshire.

He's joined by Bob Flowerdew, Bunny Guinness and Juliet Sargeant.

With questions submitted from the local audience in Kimpton Memorial Hall, the panel take on a wide range of horticultural challenges, from alternatives to Valentine’s Day roses, to selecting shrubs for a north‑facing chalk‑clay garden and innovative ways of harvesting horseradish.

The panellists also advise our questioners on how to grow figs in containers, prune winter honeysuckle and propagate daphne, and they tell us how best to manage the surprise appearance of fairy rings in a lawn.

Alongside these questions, Marcus Chilton Jones, Curator at RHS Bridgewater shares the Do's and Don’ts of winter pruning.

Producer: Matthew Smith Assistant Producer: William Norton

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts.
0:05.7	Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, and I'm Ed Gamble, host of another BBC podcast, The Traitors Uncloaked.
0:12.7	But my show is available only on BBC Sounds, just like Ellis and John's Saturday bonus episodes,
0:18.2	The Pop Top Ten podcast with Scott Mills and Rylan, and comedy specials
0:22.2	from the likes of Harriet Kemsley, Susie Ruffle and Rommashranganathan. However, and maybe I'm biased,
0:27.9	it's really all about the traitors uncoaked. So for a whole bunch of exclusive scoops and
0:32.6	podcasts, listen only on BBC Sounds. Hello and welcome to Gardner's Question Time with me, Peter Gibbs.
0:39.3	Today we're in Kempton, a lively Hertfordshire village with a strong sense of community
0:44.3	and a very active gardening community.
0:47.4	We're recording in the Kempton Memorial Hall at the heart of the village.
0:51.8	Originally built in 1956 and reopened in 1983 by Queen Elizabeth
0:57.2	the Queen Mother after a devastating fire, this year marks its 70th anniversary, making it a fitting
1:03.8	place to gather, reflect and look ahead. Kimpton is a village where people get involved. The village has a community orchard with
1:12.4	apples turned into Kempton Apple Juice to fund environmental projects, a great example of how
1:18.1	growing things here feeds straight back into village life. From the allotment tenants association to
1:24.4	the garden club and local environmental groups. Gardening is part of
1:28.3	everyday village life, not just a hobby. And with that depth of gardening knowledge and enthusiasm
1:33.6	in the village, it felt only right to bring in a panel who know a thing or two about getting the best
1:39.0	out of soil, seasons and the odd stubborn plant. Please welcome horticultural writer and grow your own guru, Bob Flaudeau,
1:47.6	garden designer, bunny Guinness and plantswoman and landscape designer
1:51.8	Juliette Sargent, your gardener's question time panel.
2:15.8	Thank you. And later in the programme, the curator of RHS Garden Bridgewater, Marcus Chilton Jones, takes us through the do's and don'ts of pruning this February.
	...

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