Resilient gardens, blossoming trees & growing cucumbers

Gardening with the RHS

Royal Horticultural Society

Hobbies, Leisure, Home & Garden

4.3 • 691 Ratings

🗓️ 26 March 2026

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week we’re embracing the arrival of spring in the garden. RHS horticultural advisor Jenny Bowden applies a right plant, right place approach in her sandy, drought-prone garden in southeast England. Embracing experimentation, she’s creating a resilient, low-maintenance space that shows even challenging conditions can thrive. We’ll also be celebrating the breathtaking displays of blossom unfolding across the UK right now, as RHS expert Jonathan Newell joins us to explore the rich variety of flowering trees and shrubs in bloom, and what makes this time of year so special for gardeners and nature lovers alike.And to round things off, our resident veg growing affionado Liz Mooney returns with another allotment favourite: this time turning her attention to cucumbers. Host: Jenny Laville Contributors: Jenny Bowden, Jonathan Newell, Liz Mooney Links: Drought-resistant plants Drought-resistant gardening Guide to growing cucumbers Liz Mooney’s top tomato cultivars Liz Mooney’s guide to aubergines, sweet peppers, and chillis Liz Mooney’s guide to peas Liz Mooney’s guide to potatoes

Transcript

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0:00.0	Did you know, RHS members enjoy exclusive access to our RHS Gardening Advice Service
0:06.8	for expert guidance at your fingertips.
0:10.2	From caring for houseplants to creating stunning borders and solving tricky garden challenges,
0:16.1	we're here to help.
0:17.5	If you're an RHS member and have a question about this podcast or any other gardening topic,
0:23.3	simply contact us by phone or online through your MyRHS account.
0:28.3	And if you're out in the garden looking for instant advice, try RHS chat botanist, your digital gardening companion.
0:36.8	Discover more benefits of RHS membership at RHS.org.
0:40.3	.org.
0:41.3	.
0:42.3	Fourship.
0:43.3	.
0:45.3	So 8 o'clock in the morning and I've got a cup of tea in my hand and I step outside
0:56.0	and on my right hand side wonderful Californian poppies have self-seeded themselves
1:03.0	everywhere. They are bright orange, they're really really vibrant in the morning sun.
1:09.0	Then I've got some cornflowers and they're vivid, vivid blue.
1:12.6	They look amazing with the Californian poppies. We've got euphorbias are just a fantastic
1:18.6	essence of the Mediterranean there in my back garden and the salvias are vivid blue. I just love blues and yellows.
1:28.3	There's just a really lovely contrast of colours.
1:31.3	It's starting to come together quite nicely.
1:37.3	The arrival of spring has many of us dreaming of the garden in full flourish,
1:41.3	just as you heard from Jenny Bowden there,
	...

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