City Bumpkin Podcast

On July 4th, the bizarre and fabulous Trashcatchers’ Carnival will hit Tooting high street! Some months ago, I spoke to David and Malsara Thorne of Transition Town Tooting to find out about the Transition Town movement and how the plans for the carnival were coming along.  It is going to be a fantastic event, so … Continue reading "City bumpkin podcast 7 – Transition Town Tooting"

This month I spoke to Theo Pike, Chairman of the Wandle trust. I met up with Theo during one of the trust’s monthly Wandle cleansing sessions.  Over fifty local volunteers were working hard to haul all sorts of rubbish including shopping trolleys and scooters out of the river.  Here’s a selection of some of the … Continue reading "City bumpkin podcast 6 – Theo Pike"

Here is the latest installment of the City Bumpkin podcast.  This month, I spoke to Seb Mayfield, of Food Up Front. Have a listen: Or click here to listen in a new window And while you’re doing that, vote in the BSGL poll! The City Bumpkin podcast map!

In previous City Bumpkin podcasts, I’ve spoken to container gardener Penelope Bennett, guerrilla gardener Richard Reynolds, and the project manager of Deen City Farm, Ben Cheetham.  Each podcast features an interview with someone pioneering a green initiative in London.  It will be considerably easier for me to find such people from now on, as Nick … Continue reading "City bumpkin podcast 4 – Project Dirt"

I was amazed to discover Deen City Farm just down the road from my house last year, and have been keen to find out more about it ever since. It’s a riding school as well as a farm, with some lovely ‘growing gardens’.  The site used to be used as a dumping ground, so the … Continue reading "City bumpkin podcast 3 – Ben Cheetham"

This is Richard Reynold’s original guerrilla garden.  It’s not actually his, it belongs to the tower block he lives in.  Richard cleared it of dead plants, litter and rubbish in 2004, replanted it, and has been looking after it ever since. It is just 2×2 metres –  even smaller than the Penelope Bennett’s window-box allotment … Continue reading "City bumpkin podcast 2 – Richard Reynolds"

Despite my frequent rants on the subject of getting out of The Big Smoke and away to the countryside where I can keep chickens in the garden and expand on my allotmenteering adventures, I still love life in the city. What is particularly fascinating is the frequent stories about Londoners bringing a bit of ‘green’ … Continue reading "City bumpkin podcast 1 – Penelope Bennett"