Why Women Grow

For many around the world right now, the green spaces that hold so many memories are caught in conflict. This is the case for the activist, writer and chef Olia Hercules, who has seen the garden her mother made occupied by Russian soldiers during the invasion of Ukraine. Now based in East London, Olia has built a garden of her own that she feels has an ancestral connection to the one she knew as a child. Together we drink tea brewed from the plants that Olia has grown here and talk about how, after war has affected every generation in your family, the earth can point to a kind of future.Olia's memoir Strong Roots is out in paperback now. Olia is also on Instagram @oliahercules. This podcast is inspired by my book, ⁠Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival⁠, which is available in all good bookshops. We’ve also been photographing our guests and their gardens and you can see the beautiful images captured by India Hobson ⁠on my website⁠ and instagram account @⁠⁠⁠alicevincentwrites⁠⁠⁠. Thank you to our friends at ⁠Niwaki⁠. You can get 10% off your order with the code WHYWOMENGROW.We’ll be back later in the year with more episodes. If you’re new to the Why Women Grow podcast, do check out our previous episodes, including guests such as Michelle Ogundehin and Daisy Johnson. And if you’ve enjoyed this episode, it would mean so much if you could rate and review the podcast on whichever platform you’re listening in on, or share it with someone you think may enjoy it.This episode was produced by Holly Fisher. The theme music is by Maria Chiara Argiro.  

With a clutch of medals from RHS Chelsea and Hampton Court flower shows, a bestselling garden design book and more than half a million social media followers, Pollyanna Wilkinson has gained a well-earned reputation for making elegant, contemporary and liveable gardens accessible to all. But while hundreds of thousands of people look to Polly’s approach for inspiration and guidance, her own garden is a retreat for a scant few: her family, her design team and herself. We meet Polly on a clear, crisp morning in her studio garden in Surrey, to talk about how her life, career and motherhood have intertwined with her design practice in ways that might surprise her fans. Pollyanna Wilkinson's book, How to Design a Garden, is one of my go-tos, so do check it out. Find out more about her design practice at Studio Pollyanna. She’s also on Instagram, @pollyanna_wilkinson, substack and TikTok. Next up, we speak to activist, author and chef, Olia Hercules. This podcast is inspired by my book, ⁠Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival⁠, which is available in all good bookshops. We’ve also been photographing our guests and their gardens and you can see the beautiful images captured by India Hobson ⁠on my website⁠ and instagram account @⁠⁠⁠alicevincentwrites⁠⁠⁠. Thank you to our friends at ⁠Niwaki⁠. You can get 10% off your order with the code WHYWOMENGROW.If you’re new to the Why Women Grow podcast, do check out our previous episodes, including guests such as Claire Ratinon and Robin Wall Kimmerer. And if you’ve enjoyed this episode, it would mean so much if you could rate and review the podcast on whichever platform you’re listening in on, or share it with someone you think may enjoy it. This episode was produced by Holly Fisher. The theme music is by Maria Chiara Argiro.

When you become known for your garden - and what you grow there - what does it mean to up peasticks and move? ⁠Milli Proust⁠ is a gardener, writer and floral designer based in a remote corner of West Sussex. She spent a decade transforming her garden, but when we visited her she was just about to leave it. We met Milli - and her gorgeous whippet Jimmy - under the shade of an enormous oak tree to reflect on what has been, and imagine what is still to come. Milli’s latest book, ⁠How Does Your Garden Grow⁠, is available now and shares practical guidance and encouragement for anyone wanting to grow flowers. She can also be found posting wisdom and inspiration on Instagram: @⁠milliproust⁠.This podcast is inspired by my book, ⁠Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival⁠, which is available in all good bookshops. We’ve also been photographing our guests and their gardens and you can see the beautiful images captured by India Hobson ⁠on my website⁠ and instagram account @⁠⁠⁠alicevincentwrites⁠⁠⁠. Thank you to our friends at ⁠Niwaki⁠. You can get 10% off your order with the code WHYWOMENGROW.Next up, we hear from author and columnist India Knight. If you’re new to the Why Women Grow podcast, do check out our previous episodes, including guests such as Jamaica Kincaid and Sarah Raven. And if you’ve enjoyed this episode, it would mean so much if you could rate and review the podcast on whichever platform you’re listening in on, or share it with someone you think may enjoy it.This episode was produced by Holly Fisher. The theme music is by Maria Chiara Argiro. 

There’s a school of thought that believes the garden to be an extra room of the house - albeit, outside. If that’s the case, then India Knight is a masterful host. The author and columnist, who has written 13 books, is a homemaker with an unabashedly joyful approach to how we make our lives beautiful.In the days when the quinces are beginning to ripen, sitting in the doorway between her green and pink house and abundant garden, India tells us about how coming to gardening as a total beginner transformed how she lives.You can read more warm and witty insight into homemaking in India’s latest book, HOME, as well as on her substack as India Knight. This podcast is inspired by my book, ⁠Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival⁠, which is available in all good bookshops. We’ve also been photographing our guests and their gardens and you can see the beautiful images captured by India Hobson ⁠on my website⁠ and instagram account @⁠⁠⁠alicevincentwrites⁠⁠⁠. Thank you to our friends at ⁠Niwaki⁠. You can get 10% off your order with the code WHYWOMENGROW.Next up, we hear from garden designer Pollyanna Wilkinson.If you’re new to the Why Women Grow podcast, do check out our previous episodes, including guests such as Paula Sutton and Anna Jones. And if you’ve enjoyed this episode, it would mean so much if you could rate and review the podcast on whichever platform you’re listening in on, or share it with someone you think may enjoy it.This episode was produced by Holly Fisher. The theme music is by Maria Chiara Argiro.  

It's been a bleak old winter, but spring is upon us and with it comes a brand new season of the Why Women Grow podcast. This Spring, we’re exploring what it means to leave behind a garden that changed your life, how can we start again, and how can we connect with lost loved ones in a time of war? Once again, we’ve been talking to brave, inspiring and witty women about their lives and gardens. Join Alice Vincent for all-new episodes of the Why Women Grow podcast, with Olia Hercules, Milli Proust, India Knight and Pollyanna Wilkinson, launching on the 24th March. Made in partnership with Niwaki.

Daisy Johnson made headlines when she became the youngest person ever shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2018, when she was 27. But, as she tells us in this episode, her shortlisted novel Everything Under was born of a time of great transition and growth. Water ripples throughout Daisy’s work, from the remote rain-lashed house in Sisters to the ambiguous murk of Fen, with its shapeshifting characters who are inseparable from their landscape. On the banks of the Thames in Oxford, the author explains how water has accompanied her throughout her life, from the fenlands of her adolescence to the canals and rivers of her adulthood and matrescence. Daisy Johnson's latest publication, The Hotel, is a collection of short stories that offer the perfect accompaniment to autumn evenings. Long Wave, her next book, will be out next year.This podcast is inspired by my book, ⁠Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival⁠, which is available in all good bookshops. We’ve also been photographing our guests and their gardens and you can see the beautiful images captured by India Hobson on my ⁠website⁠ and instagram account @⁠⁠⁠alicevincentwrites⁠⁠⁠. Use code WWGAUTUMN at ⁠⁠⁠Crocus.co.uk⁠⁠⁠'s checkout to save 20% on full priced plants. It is valid when you spend a minimum of £50 on full priced plants and / or bulbs. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other codes or offers.

Today we are at the Knepp Estate - a huge rewilding project across 3500 acres of land, undertaken by the writer and conservationist Isabella Tree and her family.As she outlines so beautifully in her bestselling memoir Wilding, when Isabella moved into Knepp, then her husband’s family estate, she inherited more than just a castle. A crumbling property and a financially precarious farm were part of the package too. By the late 90s the couple found themselves in debt and realised they needed to stop farming - but what to do with all this land? Well that’s when they decided to try an experiment to bring back wildlife that would become their life's work. 25 years later the result is Knepp Wildland. The site, part of which is open to the public, now plays host to all sorts of species including roaming pigs and ponies alongside some of Britain’s rarest animals: turtle doves, nightingales and purple emperor butterflies.We join Isabella among the golden fields of ragwort and beneath nesting storks to learn what makes a woman tear up a rule book for the sake of ecology’s survival - before being taken to one of the estate’s best-kept secrets: the walled garden at the castle. As the sun sets, she tells us about the courage and conviction needed to make real change.If you’d like to find out more about Knepp, head to www.knepp.co.uk for information on how to visit and to sign up to the Knepp newsletter for events, the Rewilding Garden Blog, safaris and the Knepp Wilding podcast, which Isabella hosts. This podcast is inspired by my book, ⁠Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival⁠, which is available in all good bookshops. We’ve also been photographing our guests and their gardens and you can see the beautiful images captured by India Hobson on my ⁠website⁠ and instagram account @⁠⁠⁠alicevincentwrites⁠⁠⁠. Use code WWGAUTUMN at ⁠⁠⁠Crocus.co.uk⁠⁠⁠'s checkout to save 20% on full priced plants. It is valid when you spend a minimum of £50 on full priced plants and / or bulbs. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other codes or offers.

What is it that makes a home? Interior design may not seem the first port of call to consider when we think about our gardens, but Michelle Ogundehin’s approach to how our environments affect us shows just how important the outside world can be on our wellbeing. Michelle, who is a series judge on Interior Design Masters, describes herself as a homes therapist. After training as an architect, she was the Editor in Chief of Elle Decoration for over a decade. Now, through books such as Happy Inside, Michelle’s approach encourages a holistic and thoughtful way to live that shrugs off trends for emotional insight. At Bedgebury Pinetum, where Michelle comes to walk, we speak about the life changes that helped her reassess how to live - and how bringing the outside in can change how we do, too. Glean more of Michelle's wisdom through her book, Happy Inside or her subscription service, the Happy Insiders Club. Michelle is also on Instagram and Substack, @michelleogundehin. This podcast is inspired by my book, Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival, which is available in all good bookshops. We’ve also been photographing our guests and their gardens and you can see the beautiful images captured by India Hobson on my website and instagram account @⁠⁠alicevincentwrites⁠⁠. Use code WWGAUTUMN at ⁠⁠Crocus.co.uk⁠⁠'s checkout to save 20% on full priced plants. It is valid when you spend a minimum of £50 on full priced plants and / or bulbs. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other codes or offers.

Leaves are falling, the sunsets are glowing, and we’re taking every moment we can to reflect here on the Why Women Grow podcast. This autumn, we’re exploring beyond the garden: into the stories crafted alongside fairytale rivers in Oxford, beneath the wingspan of storks flying over rewilded land in Sussex and getting lost in the woodlands of Kent.  We’re delving even deeper into the matters that make us human: what it is to mother, what it is to make a home, what it is to change our landscapes for the future with three incredible guests: author Daisy Johnson, conservationist and writer Isabella Tree and author and broadcaster Michelle Ogundehin.Stay tuned for new episodes of the Why Women Grow Podcast, with me Alice Vincent, coming on 30th September.It can be confusing knowing what to plant or how to look after your garden, which is why I’m so glad we’ve partnered with our friends at Crocus this year. Crocus is the country’s most trusted online gardening brand, with a website that’s packed full of advice, inspiration and products to help bring your dream garden to life. Do check out Crocus’s website to find out more, and if you see something you like, use the code WWGAUTUMN to enjoy 20% off all full-priced items for Why Women Grow listeners. Check the show notes for full Ts & Cs. 

When Jeany Cronk moved her young family from London to the south of France, she did so on a mission to not only make delicious wine, but shake up the whole rose tradition in the process. The co-founder of Mirabeau, Jeany and her family decided to put sustainability at the heart of their company. After waking up on the vineyard, we are treated to a tour of Jeany’s farm, which is the first Regenerative Organic Certified accredited vineyard in France. There, along with meeting a couple of pigs and llamas, we learn more about the risk and reward of taking the plunge to work with the outside world.A huge thank you to Jeany Cronk, who has recently released At Home in Provence, a book that charts a culinary and family journey in the region along with life on the farm and its regenerative practices. Mirabeau has recently welcomed a new Rose to the family, called One Day. This podcast is inspired by Alice's book, ⁠Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival⁠, which is available in all good bookshops. We’ve also been photographing our guests and their gardens and you can see the beautiful images captured by ⁠Sophie Epto⁠n on ⁠Alice's website⁠ and instagram account @⁠⁠⁠alicevincentwrites⁠⁠⁠. Use code WWGSUMMER at⁠ ⁠Crocus.co.uk⁠⁠'s checkout to save 20% on full priced plants. The code is valid until 11.59pm on August 31st, 2025, It is valid when you spend a minimum of £50 on full priced plants and / or bulbs. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other codes or offers.  

What does it mean to be split between two places? Where we come from, and where we work? For actor Louise Pascal, putting on a character is part and parcel of her daily life, but one that relies on her returning to her childhood garden to ground herself in the realities of a landscape weathering the climate crisis. We meet Louise in the village of Cucuron, over an Orangina, next to a pretty, tree-lined pond. There, she tells us about how to live a life caught between the bustle of Paris and the expanse of Provence, and how she connects with nature to give her hope in a changing world. Louise’s latest film just premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, and is called Colours of Time, but you can see more from behind the scenes of her acting and gardening on Instagram - @louisepascal.  This podcast is inspired by Alice's book, ⁠Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival⁠, which is available in all good bookshops. We’ve also been photographing our guests and their gardens and you can see the beautiful images captured by ⁠Sophie Epton on ⁠Alice's website⁠ and instagram account @⁠⁠⁠alicevincentwrites⁠⁠⁠. Use code WWGSUMMER at⁠ ⁠Crocus.co.uk⁠⁠'s checkout to save 20% on full priced plants. The code is valid until 11.59pm on August 31st, 2025, It is valid when you spend a minimum of £50 on full priced plants and / or bulbs. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other codes or offers.  

It’s easy to dream of building a whole new life, but it’s quite another to actually do it. Jamie Beck is a woman who knows - the American artist, photographer and author swapped her high-flying career as a fashion photographer in New York to live simply and slowly in Provence. Since 2016, Jamie has amassed a following of over 400,000 people for her beautiful portrayals of life in the South of France. In the shade of the Chateau de Mille, looking over idyllic rose gardens, we meet Jamie after she has been gathering flowers for one of her shoots. Here, she tells us about changing her life in the pursuit of art, how gardens, flowers and nature never fail to inspire her practice and how it really feels to start your life again.You can enjoy Jamie’s sumptuous original artwork on her website jamiebeck.co, where you can also sign up to her free weekly newsletter, Sunday Flowers. Her New York Times bestsellers, An American in Provence, and its follow-up, The Flowers of Provence are out now. This podcast is inspired by Alice's book, Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival, which is available in all good bookshops. We’ve also been photographing our guests and their gardens and you can see the beautiful images captured by Sophie Epton on Alice's website and instagram account @⁠⁠alicevincentwrites⁠⁠. Use code WWGSUMMER at⁠ ⁠Crocus.co.uk⁠⁠'s checkout to save 20% on full priced plants. The code is valid until 11.59pm on August 31st, 2025, It is valid when you spend a minimum of £50 on full priced plants and / or bulbs. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other codes or offers.  

Summer is upon us - and the Why Women Grow podcast has gone on tour in Provence. Among the lavender fields, chateaux, rose gardens and town squares of Southern France, we meet three women who have made dramatic and inspiring life choices to work with nature in a different way. If you’ve ever dreamed of giving it all up for a wilder way of being somewhere warm, our guests have plenty to offer in this new series: The French Life. Stay tuned for new episodes of the Why Women Grow Podcast, with me Alice Vincent, coming on 10th June.

Few Chelsea Flower Show gardens are designed by women. Fewer Chelsea Flower Show show gardens are created by the people they are intended for. And there has never before been a Chelsea Flower Show garden inspired by and made for female prisoners. But The Glasshouse Garden, garden designer Jo Thompson and founder of social enterprise The Glasshouse, Kali Hamerton-Stove, have done exactly that: created a show garden that breaks boundaries. Behind the duo’s beautiful show garden, in the heart of the Chelsea Flower Showground, we were joined by Jo and Kali and a live audience for a special press day recording of this powerful conversation. You can find out more about The Glasshouse at theglasshouse.co.uk, or follow them on Instagram, @theglasshousebotanics. Jo Thompson can be found via her brilliant substack, The Gardening Mind, on Instagram @jothompsongarden. She’s also the author of books including The New Romantic Garden and The Gardener’s Palette.This podcast is inspired by my book, ⁠Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival⁠, which is available in all good bookshops. We’ve also been photographing our guests and their gardens and you can see the beautiful images captured by India Hobson on my website and instagram account @⁠⁠⁠alicevincentwrites⁠⁠⁠.Use code WWGSUMMER at⁠ ⁠Crocus.co.uk⁠⁠'s checkout to save 20% on full priced plants. The code is valid until 11.59pm on August 31st, 2025, It is valid when you spend a minimum of £50 on full priced plants and / or bulbs. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other codes or offers.   

Some people move house for the location, some people move for the fireplaces: for Ula Maria, it was a neglected, overgrown garden in South London that confirmed her future home. The Lithuanian garden designer is arguably the most celebrated of her generation: Ula became the youngest person to ever win Best In Show at Chelsea in 2024 - and only the third woman to take the prize in the Flower Show’s century-long history.But behind the scenes of a skyrocketing career, Ula was navigating considerable personal struggle and loss - and, all the while, she was building her own garden from that overgrown plot. It’s here that we speak to her about all of it: her achievements, her designs, her life, and what it’s actually like to be in the middle of a Monty Don media storm. Find out more about Ula's work on her website, ulamaria.com, and her instagram, @ulamariastudio. This podcast is inspired by my book, ⁠Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival⁠, which is available in all good bookshops. We’ve also been photographing our guests and their gardens and you can see the beautiful images captured by India Hobson on my website and instagram account @⁠⁠⁠alicevincentwrites⁠⁠⁠.Use code WWGSUMMER at⁠ ⁠Crocus.co.uk⁠⁠'s checkout to save 20% on full priced plants. The code is valid until 11.59pm on August 31st, 2025. It is valid when you spend a minimum of £50 on full priced plants and / or bulbs. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other codes or offers.

Sarah Price is a landscape gardener who’s always seemed to exist on another plane. Her designs work with the environment to create something that feels both otherworldly and of the earth. After undertaking a degree in Fine Art, Sarah went on to design gardens for the London Olympic Park, Manchester’s Whitworth Gallery and a Maggie’s Centre in Southampton. But she’s also made some of the most remarkable - and memorable - gardens on the Chelsea Flower Show Main Avenue, winning two gold medals in the process. We meet Sarah in her garden at home in Abergavenny, Wales, which once belonged to her grandparents. As we walk the paths, streams and tunnels that she had played in as a child, Sarah tells us some of the stories that her garden has carried, how this precious and magical space informs her practice, and what we often overlook when we make gardens. Sarah Price can be found online, www.sarahpricelandscapes.com, and her instagram, @sarahpricelandscapes. She is supported by gardeners Keri Schofield, Jacky Mills and Ian Mannal; Rachel Seaton Lucas in her studio, and Crocus, who she has worked with since 2011.This podcast is inspired by my book, Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival, which is available in all good bookshops. We’ve also been photographing our guests and their gardens and you can see the beautiful images captured by India Hobson on my website and instagram account @⁠⁠alicevincentwrites⁠⁠.Use code WWGSUMMER at ⁠Crocus.co.uk⁠'s checkout to save 20% on full priced plants. The code is valid until 11.59pm on August 31st, 2025, It is valid when you spend a minimum of £50 on full priced plants and / or bulbs. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other codes or offers.

It’s the biggest gardening show on earth - and this spring, the Why Women Grow podcast is finding out what it’s really like to be a female designer at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. This is The Designers, our Spring miniseries, which has taken us from dappled shade of South London gardens to the foothills of Welsh mountains and straight to Main Avenue. We’re troubling gardening’s toughest glass ceiling - and learning about grief, joy, survival and creation on the way.  Join me, Alice Vincent, for all-new episodes of the Why Women Grow podcast, launching on the 20th May. 

How to capture the sound of something humans can’t hear? How to make a song about a mushroom? That was the challenge put to Scottish musician, Hannah Read, in the wake of her father’s death. Hannah, who lives in California, fell into an earthy world of mycelium in 2020, and her album, The Fungi Sessions, captures a growing fascination with fungi in through beautiful folk music.We were fortunate enough to catch Hannah while she was in her Edinburgh hometown before she went on a UK Tour. At the city’s Botanic Gardens, she told us about falling in love with music on the Isle of Eigg, her relationship with the landscape and what she’s learned from the earth - as well as treating us to an al fresco performance. To find our more information, tour dates and join Hannah's mailing list, head to Hannahread.com. Sign up to her Bandcamp to listen to and buy her music. All of Hannah’s music is streamable on all platforms. She's on Instagram @hanread and Facebook: /hannahreadmusic.Use code WWGSPRING at ⁠Crocus.co.uk⁠'s checkout to save 20% on full priced plants. The code is valid until 11.59pm on May 30th, 2025, It is valid when you spend a minimum of £50 on full priced plants and / or bulbs. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other codes or offers.

Today we are on an adventure - to the sticky, secret depths of Wales’s peatlands. This intriguing landscape could be the answer to the climate crisis, but it also hold so many stories in its mysterious history. One artist who is trying to unravel them is Manon Awst, whose art, performance and poetry explores how peat bogs can teach us how to live in ways that are more connected with the earth we depend on.Manon is a Welsh artist who explores how we connect to more-than-human environments - what we notice, what we miss, and how our coexistence might flourish. When we visit her, on a freezing early January day at Crymlyn Bog, outside of Swansea, she opens our eyes to the power and potential of these incredible landscapes - before breaking through the ice to go beneath their surface.Manon's Future Wales Fellowship and creative work on peatlands is supported by Arts Council Wales and Natural Resources Wales. To learn more about the Fellowship and her peaty practice check out www.manonawst.com or @manon_awst on Instagram.Use code WWGSPRING at ⁠Crocus.co.uk⁠'s checkout to save 20% on full priced plants. The code is valid until 11.59pm on May 30th, 2025, It is valid when you spend a minimum of £50 on full priced plants and / or bulbs. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other codes or offers.

As Henrietta Courtauld and Bridget Elworthy explain in our first Earthly Matters episode, people come for the flowers but they stay for the soil. Since forming their company, The Land Gardeners, in 2011, they have combined their cut flower-growing and landscape design businesses with a mission that fuels them on a daily basis: researching the earth beneath our feet to better understand how to repair the soil that feeds nearly everything we build our existence upon.Their work has seen them transform unloved gardens and agricultural plots into hives of thriving, promising productivity - and Henrietta and Bridget are always looking towards the techniques that the less courageous will take years to deploy. This year, their insight is being shared in a major exhibition at Somerset House, called Soil: The World at Our Feet. Amid drifts of snowdrops in the garden of Henrietta’s Cornish home, we spoke about how The Land Gardeners’ persistent commitment to soil health has taken them all over the world, learning, speaking and spreading the secrets of soil. Use code WWGSPRING at Crocus.co.uk's checkout to save 20% on full priced plants. The code is valid until 11.59pm on May 30th, 2025, It is valid when you spend a minimum of £50 on full priced plants and / or bulbs. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other codes or offers.