To celebrate the launch of Arthur Parkinson’s Planting a Paradise: A Year of Pots and Pollinators, Arthur is joined by Kate Bradbury, author of The Bumblebee Flies Anyway, Wildlife Gardening, and How to Create a Wildlife Pond, to highlight and celebrate how every garden space, no matter its size or location, can still be buzzing, scent-filled, and colourful refuge for creatures through all the seasons.
The talk was chaired by award-winning garden designer Jo Thompson, whose recent RHS Wildlife Garden at RHS Hampton Court re-framed the idea of re-wilding and the notion that gardens have to be left to ‘go wild’ for them to be beneficial for wildlife.
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Arthur Parkinson
Bio »Arthur Parkinson
Arthur Parkinson is the author of The Pottery Gardener and The Flower Yard, and the co-host, with Sarah Raven, of the popular Grow, Cook, Eat, Arrange podcast. His writing and photography are regularly featured in the Daily Telegraph, and have appeared in The Times, Country Life and Country Living, among other magazines and newspapers; he has also featured in BBC Two’s Gardeners’ World.
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Kate Bradbury
Bio »Kate Bradbury
Kate Bradbury is an award-winning author, journalist and TV presenter, specialising in wildlife gardening. She edits the wildlife pages of BBC Gardeners World Magazine and has a Country Diary column in The Guardian, and writes regularly for RHS magazine The Garden and BBC Wildlife magazines. She presents wildlife gardening segments on BBC Gardeners’ World and made several films for BBC SpringWatch as part of their Garden Watch campaign. She lives and breathes wildlife gardening, and lives in Brighton with a garden full of frogs, toads, slow worms, hedgehogs, birds and bees.
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Jo Thompson
Bio »Jo Thompson
Jo Thompson’s designs are wide ranging: from residential family gardens, historic landscapes, public spaces and country estates to restaurant roof gardens, rooftop terraces and urban boltholes. The gardens are notable for the way in which they sit beautifully within their surroundings: rather than following fashions, Jo uses her innate understanding of a place to ensure that the landscapes she creates both work seamlessly within their locations and perfectly for her clients. Her exquisite planting has led her to be considered one of the UK’s leading plantswomen. Current projects include working with Iford Manor in Wiltshire, the restoration of Highgate Cemetery in London with Gustafson Porter + Bowman, and the regeneration of the walled gardens at Water Lane in Kent.
Jo is the recipient of four Gold and five Silver Gilt medals from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and gained the coveted People’s Choice at the first RHS Chatsworth Flower Show in 2017. She is a member of the RHS Gardens Committee and is Garden Advisor for RHS Rosemoor, as well as being an RHS Shows Judge. Jo writes ‘The Gardening Mind’ on Substack, and her book ‘The Gardener’s Palette’ was named by the Sunday Times as one of the top gardening books of 2022. She speaks both nationally and internationally, and also tutors at The London College of Garden Design. She is a Fellow both of the Landscape Institute and of the Society of Garden Designers.