~ 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. ~

Merlin Sheldrake is a mycologist, biologist, writer, and speaker with a background in plant sciences, microbiology, ecology, and the history and philosophy of science. He received a Ph.D. in tropical ecology from Cambridge University for his work on underground fungal networks in tropical forests in Panama.

His book, Entangled Life, dives deep into the magical, mysterious and stranger-than-fiction world of fungi, explaining how they can show us lessons in resilience, cooperation and transformation. Entangled Life has sold more than a million copies worldwide, and what followed is a documentary called Fungi: Web of Life, narrated by Bjork.

If you're lucky enough, you can catch Merlin across Australia and New Zealand as part of The Secret Life of Fungi. Tickets for this evening of storytelling and science are on sale now.

Before we get to Merlin's chat, we're drinking our mate's Sticky Chai with a dash of Frangelico. Yum yum!

Emily is giving her indoor plants some annual love. She's ticked off three trees on her random list (snowball viburnum, smoke bush and tai haku cherry!).

Emily is continually searching for tube stock, and is loving Phil Dudman's tips on controlling stink bugs with a vaccuum cleaner. Her daughter Phoebe is the reigning queen of carrots.

Emily is recommending Urban Nanna (aka Anna Matilda's) book Everyday Permaculture, illustrated by Brenna Quinlan.

Maddie is up in arms about nurseries selling non-native Pig Face (hear why this is such a disasterous thing in this episode with Mindy Woods), she's creating a spanikopita garden, and has some bull chat - having just agisted a new animal in Quarter Pounder - a big, beefy Belted Galloway who has been tasked with one job.

And she's gushing about Entangled Life (hardcopy or narrated audio version. Both are spectacular.)

Thanks for being here!

~ 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. ~

Tim Pilgrim has become synonymous with his own naturalistic style of garden design, one that's plant-driven and subscribes to the maximalist aesthetic.

With gardening in his blood, and after working at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, he returned home to work on one of the Digger's Club's most famous gardens, St Erth.

Tim and his wife Hadley started TP Gardens back in 2013, and since then he's worked on some of the most jaw-dropping gardens in the country including Du Fermier in Trentham, Paul Bangay's Stonefields and at Bress, a biodynamic winery in the Central Victorian goldfields.

Tim's debut book Wild By Design has recently been released, shooting straight to the best sellers list. And deservedly so.

Tim draws his inspiration from the beauty of wild landscapes and other creative gardening minds.

Tim lives, gardens and designs on Dja Dja Wurrung Country, sharing his home with his wife, and three young sons.

Before we get to Tim's chat, we're drinking Walnut Liqueur made from green walnuts macerated with alcohol - a Slovenian specialty. Emily is going great guns with her seeds - rudbeckia, violas, edamame. Her orchard understory is blooming with cornflowers, walking onions, rosemary, thyme, wormwood, queen anne's lace, cosmos, calendula, and strawberries!

The sorrel is still a pest.

Emily's loving Banskia (it's giving May Gibbs vibes). Maddie recommends growing Correa Alba from cuttings.

Maddie + Emily did a beautiful bushwalk - the Freycinet Circuit, and picked up reading tips from our very great mate Franzi.

Emily's recommending Platypus Spinach from Dimity May at Tiny Farm Tas.

Maddie wants baby lamb energy, vs tired mutton energy.

Maddie's trying to grow shelling peas, and has made a huge (although not catastrophic) mistake with her flannel flowers.

And we're trying to manifest Juvenile Grandma phase.

Thanks!

~ 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. ~

Mindy Woods is a chef, restaurateur and author, and the first female Indigenous chef to become hatted by the Australian Good Food Guide. A proud Bundjalung woman, Mindy was pursuing physiotherapy when she barged onto our screens in on Masterchef in 2012.

Since then she's created an impactful career around food and education with Native ingredients being at the centre of everything she does. Mindy was named a Champion of Change at the 2025 World's 50 Best Restaurants Awards, and she's recently reimagined her award-winning restaurant, offering a full experience on country in the Byron hinterland. At Karkalla on Country, guests can take cooking classes or immersive dining experiences.

In 2025, Mindy released her first book, Karkalla at Home. Mindy forages, gardens and cooks on the lands of the Bundjalung people in northern New South Wales.

Before we get into this beautiful chat, Maddie and Emily are enjoying a Native Pepper Whisky Sour (Native Pepper syrup made with leaves + water + sugar).

Emily is obsessing about Euphorbia, lamenting her plant tag organisation system, and is curious about how Dahlias just multiply.

Maddie bought her very first rose (an earth angel floribunda), and is obsessed with the old world shape.

We're also talking processing tomatoes, Emily's tomato relish, the best honey ever.

And then it's into our chat with Mindy. This is a cracker. Hope you love it!

~ 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. ~

Brenna Quinlan is an illustrator and educator with a keen focus on permaculture and sustainability.

Her special skill is putting her energy, creativity and passion into making the world a better place. She's not afraid to take hard, uncomfortable or challenging subjects, but she always has humour at the core.

Through her art she has collaborated with the likes of Costa, Milkwood Permaculture, David Holmgren and the CSIRO.

Brenna lives, creates art and permacultures in a strawbale house that she built from reclaimed materials on Bibbulmun Menang boodja, in an intentional community in Denmark, Western Australia.

Before we get into this highly delightful, educational and entertaining chat with Brenna, Emily and Maddie are drinking a Joshua Cooper 2024 Pinot Noir, Maddie is talking about chickens and accidentally discovered the most delicious eggs she's ever tasted. She's making lots of homemade marshmallows with those bad boys.

We go deep into potatoes: Pink Eyes and King Edwards, and Maddie's planted out a bunch of cuttings from Emily's succulent garden - including Blue Chalk Sticks and something else whose name we don't know.

Maddie is recommending Wintering by Katherine May, and is embarrassed by her lack of chlorophyll knowledge. We also explore the abscission zone (of leaf and brain variety).

Emily's spending wholesome days with the kids at Birches Bay Art Farm, where she recently purchased some Native Pepper Berry. She's also experimenting with thornless blackberry.

Brenna is a wealth of information and recommends the following:

• Rewilding the Urban Soul by Claire Dunn

• Everyday Permaculture by Anna Matilda, aka Urban Nanna

• Koren Helbig's 'The Power of Quarterly Rest'

• Retrosuburbia, by David Holmgren

Follow Brenna here, and consider supporting her on Patreon here.

Katie Finlay is a third-generation orchardist who grew up on the family farm she now calls home. She received a Bachelor of Science from Monash Uni majoring in botany and genetics - which came in very handy when she returned to the farm 15 years later

Katie and her partner Hugh are on a mission to help backyard growers and orchardists alike to create the abundant fruit trees of your dreams.

Katie and Hugh run Grow Great Fruit, an education hub that combines their decades of fruit growing experience into practical lessons through webinars, online courses, annual subscriptions and in-person sessions. They also have a nursery with more than 200 varietes of fruit including apples, stone fruit, heritage varieties and multi-grafted trees.

Katie lives and farms on Djaara country at the foot of Mount Alexander in central Victoria

To kick the episode off we're drinking a cup of chamomile tea and honey, with a dash of Poor Tom's Gin. Maddie's tree dahlia didn't quite go off like she'd have hoped, but her ranunculus from seed are going great.
She's still planting things too close together.
Emily is in her espalier era, with 7 trees about to go into the ground. We ask - What can't you espalier?
We acknowledge we've been pronouncing bougainvillea like Aussie bogans - boganvillia. Whoops.
Emily has secured herself a Charles Jolly Lilac.

Maddie is recommending The Plant Hunter's Atlas

In our chat with the amazing Katie, we cover all this and more:

• bud swell
• pruning
• pests and pest control
• grafting
• storing fruit
• preserving fruit
• cooperative farming models
• succession planning
• Grow Great Fruit

Thanks for listening. We'd love it if you could rate, review and share Avant Gardeners with your friends.

Follow us on Instagram or check out our website.

Scott Whitaker is a visual artist and former art gallery owner who now runs Hinterland Bees with his wife Allyson Reynolds. They got their first hive back in 1996, and now manage more than 250 of them across orchards and rainforests in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland.

Scott produces pure, natural raw honey and has become synonymous with swarm removal. His social videos are mesmerising to watch, opting for no protective gear when handling thousands of them.

Scott lives, gardens and bee keeps on Jinibara and Kabi Kabi country in the Sunshine Coast hinterland in Queensland.

If you love or loathe bees, or eat anything pollinated by bees, this is a great listen!

Before we get there, we're drinking a Hartzview Honey Mead. Emily is talking about all the positive impacts on her gardening journey including Terry Memory, Milkwood Permaculture, Emma Bowen @ Rising Farm and Hannah Maloney. She's also about to plant all her peonies.

Maddie is trying to grow Hollyhock, she's reneged on her idea of building her own chicken coop, and she's on the snail warpath. She's also recommending Danielle Alvarez's Cheesy Cauliflower Soup. Yum!

Scott recommends the book Honey Bee Democracy by Thomas D. Seeley.

NOTE: We interviewed Scott about 8 weeks ago, and since then varroa has been detected in several of his hives.

Thanks for listening. We'd love it if you could rate, review and share Avant Gardeners with your friends.

Follow us on Instagram or check out our website.

Nikki Husted, aka Purely Chickens on Instagram, has been on our Dream Interview List for a very long time.

Nikki is a former public school teacher turned chicken guru, who educates and entertains a community of like-minded chicken fanatics about all things poultry and homesteading.

In 2023 she released her book Chicken Keeping Pure and Simple, bringing together more than two decades of chicken know-how into a really practical resource.

Nikki lives in Ohio with her husband, two young kids, and a menagerie including dogs, cats, goats, geese and - of course - dozens of chickens! Whether you have chickens or not, you're going to love Nikki's chat!

Before we get there, we're drinking a Lindt Ball Hot Chocolate (which you can make adult by adding a shot of whisky or similar). Emily is sharing her compost palace update, her Arborteum experience and she's getting around to spraying her fruit trees. Maddie is obsessed with her $4 zero turn mower and she's upskilling on avocado pollination types.

Recommendations: Emily is loving her mulch fork, while Maddie is obsessed with top quality hazelnuts. Specifically Crooked Tree (hard to source if you're not very local) or Hazelbrae Hazelnuts if you're looking to purchase some online. Yummm bloody yum.

Thanks for listening. We'd love it if you could rate, review and share Avant Gardeners with your friends.

Follow us on Instagram or check out our website.

Welcome to the first episode of our little mini winter series. We'll be talking about the birds and the bees, the mind and fruit trees. Thanks for being here.

First up, we're having a fan girl moment chatting to Sue Stuart-Smith. Sue is a psychiatrist, psychotherapist and author of The Well Gardened Mind – a Sunday Times Bestseller. Sue originally saw gardening as 'outdoor housework', but it was the veggie garden that drew her in.

She originally studied English Literature at the University of Cambridge before qualifying as a doctor and working in the NHS, where she went on to become the lead clinician for psychotherapy in Hertfordshire.

Sue and her husband, celebrated garden designer Tom Stuart-Smith, have together spent almost four decades cultivating the Barn Garden – a place that inspired much of her writing. Her book explores the relationship between gardening and mental health.

Sue lives, works and gardens in Hertfordshire in the UK from where she shares widely her deep appreciation for the natural world.

Before we get to this beautiful chat with Sue we're drinking a Sailor Seeks Horse Chardonnay.

Emily is dishing up why she's not a fan of carnations.

Maddie boldly states she's going to build her own chicken coop.

We've discovered (unpalatable) native blueberries. We've found all of the apple info at Pomiferous. And Emily's decided what to plant in her future espalier bed - including a Plum Scrumptious - an interspecies plant that is plum and peach. Yumbo!