The Roots, Wings and Other Things Show

The Stuff We Love One: And just like that, we're at episode 12 and the end of season 5. Where on earth does the time go?! Summer is well and truly here with great growth in the hedgerows, vegetable patches, flower beds and wild flower meadow. With the warm sun, more light and occasional rain you can turn your back for just a moment and in that time you've got flowers (and weeds!) everywhere. It's joyful. In this episode, to wrap up season 5 Kathy and I share our favourite things from the garden and kitchen, and there's one final opportunity to win that amazing bag of goodies worth over £130. Happy summer, everyone!

The Gluts One: Gluts! So many gluts. Every summer Jez grows enough tomatoes to rival Italy's national export, and can't keep up with soups, roasting, and experimental tomato face creams. Kathy's had more cucumbers than you could poke a courgette at - and we know we're not alone! Don't despair, it's a special episode with expert advice on exciting ways to manage your glut!

The Health One: Yet again Kathy's brought food and on behalf of you, dear viewer, we're testing the commonly-banded around health benefits of fruit. In this episode Kathy and Jez plead Nigel Slater to kidnap them, Jez discloses he once weighed a baby squirrel, and a large bowl of fruit is picked apart so once and for all we can categorically know how many we have to eat for it to be good for us.

The Gadget One: Welcome to "the Gardget Show"... One of our listeners, Jim, asked about gadgets for the garden and the kitchen, which Kathy and I thought was a great idea for a special episode! Can you guess which gadget Kathy loves so much that she keeps it in her handbag, and takes it with her everywhere? She could possibly be the only person alive who does this...

The Danger One: Jez and Kathy are eating (again), and this time it’s mushrooms. Fortunately Kathy knows her mushrooms but Jez’s dog Woody had a very lucky escape recently. Which brings us to other dangerous things in the garden, and how to avoid them.

The Underground One: Kathy's been cooking again and if the cake was the pinnacle of the mountain, the root veg soup and homemade sourdough is the snow - or something. It's incredible, and incredibly simple, too. When things come together like this (growing and eating and enjoying) it really does make things in life fall into place. From turmeric, to plastic grass, and from underground bugs to bees wax - this was such a fun (and tasty!) episode to record!

The Cost Cutting One: Gardening can be expensive, so this week Kathy and I sat down to share some super simple ways to enjoy your outdoor space, or the joy of growing your own fruit, vegetables and flowers, both for free and for as little investment as possible. Kathy shares an AWESOME recipe for a cauliflower shepherd's pie (which was EPIC - yes, we ate it for dinner!), which has got me thinking about how simple it is to live for less if we put our minds to it. Please share your cost cutting recipes below! Congratulations to last week's winners who win a 100% cotton jute bag jam-packed with over £130 worth of goodies from True Grace Candles; Aspall's Cider Vinegar; Seed Ball; Kathy, myself, and The Really Wild Company. More chances to win coming soon, so keep listening - and don't forget to subscribe to the YouTube channel!

The Growing One: The joy of growing something is unparalleled, but this week it’s a controversial one! Seeds or plugs? Expect growing tips and inspiration for your garden and vegetable patch makeover. Congratulations on this week’s winners of the 2 goodie bags! Keep listening for the next opportunity coming soon!

Episode 4: In this very special edition of Roots, Wings & Other Things it's Jez's Birthday!... well, almost. We record for Monday but this year Jez's Birthday is on Wednesday but ANY excuse for more cake! AND as a special Birthday treat there's another chance to WIN one of 2 very special goodie bags full of over £130 worth of exciting products from True Grace; Seed Ball; Jez, Kathy, Ebury Publishing; Aspall's and The Really Wild Company. See Instagram (@ThatJezRose) for competition entry details!

The Nature Healing One: This week Kathy lets Jez's puppy Woody in with muddy paws, and tells everyone to remove their clothes and sit in ice cold water. What is the power nature has over us to improve health, wellbeing and our behaviour, and what can the rest of us do to benefit while Kathy has an ice bath? Watch on YouTube (@ThatJezRose) and subscribe to be the first to know of new episodes.

Episode 2: Gardening Gobbledygook. In this episode Jez Rose (@ThatJezRose) springs an unexpected quiz on co-host Kathy Slack (@gluts_gluttony) as they explore weird, bizarre and odd garden terminology. Jez has a rhubarb revelation and Kathy has a rhubarb recipe.

Episode 1: The Cake One. I'm back with series 5 and joined by my series co-host Kathy Slack for an all-new Roots, Wings & Other Things SHOW! We're a show now! Join us for the next 12 weeks wherever you get your podcasts and over on YouTube @ThatJezRose to watch Kathy and I chat all things growing, gardening, nature, tea, cake, cooking and life. Enter the competition to win over £130 worth of incredible prizes with 6 opportunities to win throughout the series!

Then & Now: The season 4 finale comes with a BIG announcement about the end of Roots, Wings & Other Things as we know it. But exciting news about the future! News about that, plus how winter forces us to face patience; choosing slow growing methods; our innate draw to be with nature, garden plans and parsnips! Subscribe to my channel on YouTube to be the first to know about the new show! Happy festive season to you all, and THANK YOU for being part of the journey!

Working through John Coutts' book has made me especially curious about him and his work, so in this episode I travelled to London to speak with Simon Toomer, Curator of Living Collections at Kew, about John, and the future of gardening. There's news about the brand new series and an update on the garden renovation, plus autumn chat!

Complicated & Simple: Nature is as simple as it is complicated, but also, aren't we, too? This month I chat with the brilliantly practical and down-to-earth Christine Walkden about the delicate topic of peat-free and keeping things simple; have an exclusive listener special offer and share my thoughts on a really big idea that could help the cost of living crisis. If you'd like to hear more episodes, please do consider donating at thatjezrose.com/donate

When is native not native? And when should we not go native?! It's a thought provoking discussion I'm having with my special guest this month; the plantsman Colin Ward from Swine's Meadow Nursery in Lincolnshire. Plus updates on the garden renovation, Jonathan the blackbird and the anxiety induced by comparing gardens. Do you get that? Let me know on Instagram. Thank you so much for listening! As you'll know, the podcast doesn't have a sponsor, which means that it's ultimately funded by me. If you like the series and you've been enjoying it so far and you'd like to hear more in the future I've made a really easy for you to make a contribution at www.ko-fi.com/roots - for all the videos that accompany this series (and more!) head over to my Youtube channel (search Jez Rose) and subscribe - there's so much new content being uploaded almost daily!

The meadow is growing! It's exciting to see the seeds finally germinating, which means I can now turn my attention to the kitchen garden - just in time for the good weather... although you watch us have the wettest summer yet now as soon I've finished it! This week I share my favourite wild seed combinations; chat fruit and vegetable plans; reveal my secret to effective pocket planting and called Gardener's World regular Nick Bailey to get his take on my plan to garden as they did in 1931. Don't forget to share your garden and nature journeys with me on Instagram @thatjezrose

Join me this episode for a wildflower meadow special! I'm back from my trip to the US, but caught covid and am finding I don't have the energy or strength to do what I want. It's frustrating, but I've now sown the wildflower meadow and some of the other meadow areas: I'll explain how to do it properly and why it can be a wonderful and cost effective solution for instant colour and biodiversity to almost any garden area!

Episode 1: It's great to be back, and to share with you my new garden: a half acre of overgrown grass. We'll need a quick tour of the garden so you can follow along, and with each area I design and begin to dig out I'll be returning to my trusty copy of Everyday Gardening from 1931 for guidance from ex curator of Kew, John Coutts. For my video diary of the garden as it unfolds, head to my YouTube channel and for regular updates on Instagram @thatjezrose and @rootswingspodcast - if you enjoy the podcast and want to show your appreciation by donating to Greenfingers, this season's podcast charity, head to ko-fi/com/roots

Season 4 launches next week - here's what's in store for this exciting season, packed full of new features! Don't forget to subscribe, follow on instagram @rootswingspodcast and subscribe to my YouTube channel for the special garden updates video diary.