[Interview] The Thousand Year Old Garden: Inside the Secret Garden at Lambeth Palace with Nick Stewart Smith

Nick Stewart Smith spent seven years as Head Gardener at Lambeth Palace. Here he tells Ben Dark about his hidden life as a link in thousand-year horticultural chain, about his unique philosophy of place-making and about how to work in dialogue with a garden.

Nick's book: https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/publication/the-thousand-year-old-garden/9781803993041/

Wild Times in a London Park by Nick Stewart Smith: https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/wild-times-in-a-london-park/

Support Dear Gardener on Kofi: https://ko-fi.com/bendark

Episode Breakdown:

[00:00:03] Podcast intro: introducing Nick Stewart Smith, author of "The Thousand Year Old Garden"

[00:04:07] The personal nature of the book.

[00:06:23] Gardeners and garden features as links in a very long chain.

[00:09:38] Creating a dialogue with the garden.

[00:13:26] Life at Overbecks, the eccentric National Trust garden of rock face and banana.

[00:16:07] Exploring the book’s focus on the forgotten gardeners of Lambeth Palace

[00:21:50] The Glades, Nick’s signature effect with colourful perennials and nomadic annuals.

[00:27:56] Gardening, finding balance, small scale focus.

[00:29:33] Awareness of nature crisis, positive gardening, adaptation.

[00:32:36] Tolstoy, Levin and the transcendental power of scything.

[00:35:57] Van Gogh & Dürer - painters as inspiration.

[00:40:51] Farewell and thanks to guest, Nick.