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Avant Gardeners

Written by: Madeleine Gasparinatos & Emily Allen
  • Summary

  • With lots of enthusiasm and very little know how, Emily and Maddie love chatting about gardening, often with a glass of wine or cocktail in hand. In each fortnightly episode, we speak to people who inspire us in the garden, in order to unearth some much needed knowledge.
    2023
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Episodes
  • Phil Dudman / maximising space, growing from seed, pests, the discipline (and joy) of gardening
    Apr 30 2024

    Buckle up ya'll, it's the final episode for Season 2 and we're welcoming one of the nicest blokes in gardening to the microphone, Mr Phil Dudman. With a diverse and colourful career that extends from touring with an 80’s rock band, to hosting garden tours in Italy, an epiphany when Phil was 27 sent him down the literal and metaphorical garden path and he hasn't looked back since.

    Phil is a trained horticulturalist, gardening talkback host on ABC Local Radio, the horticultural editor at Organic Gardener Magazine, has written books and is a familiar face on TV, Youtube and social media.

    Phil runs workshops and courses both online and from his own backyard, and you can explore what's on offer at www.growyourfood.com.au.

    Phil lives and gardens on the land of the Widjabul-Wai-bal people of the Bundjalung Nation in the Northern Rivers region of NSW.

    We chat to Phil about pests, garden design, attracting birdlife to your backyard and weeding with wine at 10am.

    Before we get into it though, Emily and Maddie are drinking a Jauma grenache. We're talking about online marketplace purchases and tip shop wins. We're using Google Images to sort out our plant ID issues. We're sluggish with the garlic, and Maddie is barely keeping the lights on with her garden. Emily's finally sorted the pesky carport out, and her 7 year old daughter is winning at gardening this month.

    Follow Phil on Instagram here, check out his YouTube here and his website here

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    49 mins
  • Rodney Dunn / The Agrarian Kitchen, no dig gardening, favourite books, last meal requests
    Apr 16 2024

    Rodney Dunn's excitement when talking about gardening is like a kid in a candy store. Fuelled by a 'quest for flavour' and inspired by The River Cottage UK, Rodney and his wife Severine moved to Tasmania in 2007, opening The Agrarian Kitchen, a cooking school and garden that has grown to become an institution itself. In 2017 they added a restaurant to their offering and have recently opened up their phenomenal one-acre walled garden adjacent to the Restaurant and brand-new cooking school, making it the trifecta of all things agrarian dreams.

    We chat to Rodney about what he learned from the 'old garden', the new no-dig method they've used, we go deep into mycorrhizal fungi, tips to take on-board when starting a new garden, and what his last meal would be.

    Before we get into that, we're drinking a Negroni (equal parts gin, campari and vermouth, shaken and served over a big fat icecube with an orange garnish) and it's delicious.

    We're chatting dibblers, garlic, golden beetroot, Lactic Acid Bacteria and so much more.

    Emily's recommendation is The Practical Australian Gardener by Peter Cundall, Maddie's recommendation is this salad dressing - honey, grated garlic, salt, sherry or white wine vinegar, oil. Put it on everything.

    Explore classes and garden tours or book a lunch at The Agrarian Kitchen here, and follow them on Instagram here. Find Rodney on Instagram here.

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    59 mins
  • Sam Vincent / My Father and Other Animals, regenerative farming, figs, akubras
    Apr 2 2024

    We've both been obsessed with My Father and Other Animals for some time now, so when author and accidental-farmer Sam Vincent said yes to being interviewed we were quietly nervous. He joined us from his family's farm in the Yass Valley that he shares with his partner Lauren and daughter Orlando. This land has traditionally been inhabited by the Ngunnawal and Wiradjuri people.

    After his dad had a farm accident, Sam and his mum thought it would be wise to get Sam out to the property regularly in a bit of a babysitting capacity, which Sam said gave his weeks structure and his life purpose. Over the years it became an apprenitiship of sorts and gave Sam both a solid understanding of how much of a conservationist and regernative farmer his dad was, and a taste of living on the land.

    In this discussion we talk about hiding squash in drawers, the idea of turning the whole farm into a garden of sorts, rotational grazing, tagasaste (tree lucern), figs, farming with his daughter and a whole lot more.

    Before we get into it, Maddie and Emily are drinking....coffee. Yep, just plain white coffee. We're midly disappointed in ourselves but it was 9am and we couldn't face a fig cocktail.

    We're also talking indoor plants - inspired by our chat with Sophia Kaplan and getting our hands on Plantopedia, friends with green thumbs, compost (when are we not talking about compost!), hakea, brahmi, tagasaste, getting more white on your leeks and more.

    Recommend: Call of the Reed Warbler by Charles Massy.

    Find Sam on Instagram here, and get your hands on My Father and Other Animals here

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    1 hr and 4 mins

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