We're baaaaaack! And with a slightly new format. We're trying out one week where we release our chat (longer version), and the following week we'll release our guest interview. It means we can get episodes out weekly. We'll trial it and see.

We've missed the podcast so it's awesome to be back.

Emily has knocked it out of the park with a delicious mulberry bramble (gin, mulberry cordial from our friends' tree, blackberries, lime).

Having taken more than two months off, we have so much to chat about.

Including, but not limited to:

Seed saving - calendula and platypus spinach,

Drying hydrangeas thanks to Anya The Garden Fairy

We're talking about Moths - they need a rebrand.

The Almanac, Cool Climate Sowing Guide

Alnwick Garden and Millie Fleur's Poison Garden (by Christy Mandin).

Aaaand lilacs, daphne, feverfew, calendula, compost bays.

Catch up next week when we interview (omg!) Jo Thompson!

Jodi Wilson is a bestselling author of four books, a health journalist and postpartum doula. Several years ago, she and her family packed their lives into a caravan, and set off in search of adventure, and a more simple life. After two years on the road they put down roots in Tasmania. It is here where she's embraced gardening, and written her most recent book, A Brain That Breathes, out today.

Jodi lives, writes and gardens with her partner and their four children on the land of the punnilerpanner people in north western Tasmania

Before we get to this thought-provoking chat, Emily and Madeleine are drinking Archie Rose Straight Dry gin with some home made purple elderflower cordial.

Emily is regretting purchasing a Ginko tree, and the agapanthus keep rearing their ugly head.
She is loving her Cerastium tomentosum - snow in summer - and Maddie's cutting is also doing quite well.

Maddie is obsessed with Sage, and wants to propagate more. She's also tried her hand at sage sticks. She's got a picnic blanket in the post and is excited for more outdoor eating-and-drinking sessions. Calendula is back, and in some beautiful colours, and she is recommending Why Women Grow, by Alice Vincent.

Jodi has a HUGE list of books she recommends for summer, and or anytime. We've already read a couple of them and they are excellent. Can highly recommend her recommendations!

-The Mushroom Tapes by Chloe Hooper, Helen Garner, and Sarah Krasnostein
-Heart the Lover by Lily King
-Sandwich and Wreck by Catherine Newman
-The Octopus and I and A Catalogue of Love by Erin Hortle
-The Hiding Place by Kate Mildenhall
-The Ten Year Affair by Erin Somers
-Consider Yourself Kissed by Jessica Stanley

We're also banging on and singing the praises of libraries, AGAIN!

~ This season of Avant Gardeners is proudly supported by Blundstone's new series WorkLife. Launching in November and perfect for gardening. Find your local stockist here. ~

Emma Horswill was a madkeen gardener with a fine arts degree and a 9-acre block. With plans for a veggie garden and orchard, Emma turned her hand to flower farming in 2019, and since then has gone from strength to strength.

This family run farm, called Earthenry, now grows well over 100 different varieties of seasonal and field-grown blooms, and has cultivated a dedicated community of volunteers and devotees who flock to the farm for events including garden and gossip, twilight flower picking, pick your own mornings, workshops, and seedling sales.

Emma also breeds her own dahlias, makes made-to-order bouquets and sells organically-grown seeds. Emma, her husband Greg and their two teenage children live, work and garden in the beautiful township of Snug, on the lands of the Nuenonne people in Tasmania.

Before we get to that, Maddie & Emily and drinking a Fin Wines' Dandelions and Bumblebees

Emily is talking about pea straw, her broody chickens and some tips she's learned from Nicky Husted, aka Purely Chickens.

We both went to the Cygnet Garden Market and bought a literal boot load of plants including Mint! Hurray. Chocolate mint, peppermint and basil mint.

Emily is loving The Garden Curator's column in Graziher magazine about observing where the early and late light moves in the garden, and that's where to plant those frothy, tall grasses to catch the light.

Maddie is loving the cows, Hetty McKinnon's dukkah from the Community cookbook, and having garden chats with Emily.

This is our last episode of 2026. Thank you for being here. It means the world.