Gardening
Cultivating Creativity:
Unearth 2024’s Greenest Podcasts, Audiobooks and Apps
Gone are the days when the only way you could get gardening tips was through books, the local gardening club and Countryfile. New media has taken over, and with it has come a broad range of accessible options to choose from. Spotify, the world’s #1 music streaming platform, has recently joined the world of audiobooks, bringing a huge array of gardening classics to the modern age. This seems appropriate, as there’s already a playlist for plants on Spotify, Music for Plants, which has seen a streaming increase of 1,400% over the last two years.
Audiobooks aren’t the only way to explore your love for the garden, though. The recent craze for podcasts (which currently sits at six million shows on Spotify alone) has also struck the gardening community, with many trending in the home and lifestyle category.
Hayter
Gardening apps have also seen a huge increase in popularity, with 1/5 of gardeners relying on apps to keep their plants happy and healthy. The amount of gardening content in new media is seemingly endless, begging the question – how much of it is actually worth your time?
Here, gardening experts Hayter offer insight into which gardening podcasts, audiobooks and apps will actually help transform your garden.
Gardening podcasts
There are already too many podcasts out there, so let’s break down the best of the best when it comes to gardening.
Two Minutes In The Garden
The Two Minutes in the Garden podcast is hosted by husband and wife duo, Melissa (aka the Empress of Dirt) and Gary Will. It’s informative, fun and an intimate series of bite-sized 10-minute episodes.
The short length is excellent for binging through a series while on a drive, having a quick work break or even listening while in the garden! But don’t just take our word for it, Two Minutes in the Garden has a perfect five-star review score.
The Joe Gardener Show
Gardening author and Emmy Award-winning PBS host Joe Lamp’l’s podcast is another that has gone down a treat with listeners. With a perfect review score of 175 five stars, these hour-long episodes feature famous guests, tips and tricks of the trade.
With 135k followers on Instagram, this experienced gardener has taken gardening to a modern audience in his stride.
Gardening audiobooks
Audiobooks are fantastic, especially for a nighttime listen before drifting off to sleep. But they’re also great for accessibility, helping those with dyslexia to experience new and old gardening gold without having to rely on vision. With approximately 15% of people living with dyslexia, we thought it was important to highlight the best audiobooks you should turn to for top-quality gardening content.
Planting a Paradise: A year of pots and pollinators
As of writing this, Planting a Paradise by Arthur Parkinson is currently one of the top trending audiobooks in Science & Nature on Spotify. Its popularity is in part down to its accessibility, it’s a down-to-earth and relaxed audiobook that gently explores the magic of dramatic floral plants.
If you want your garden to not only look but smell beautiful, this audiobook will walk you through the steps to achieve a perfumed, sustainable paradise teeming with local wildlife.
My Garden World
Featured on Audible’s best seller list at the time of release, My Garden World is the audiobook adaption of the Sunday Times bestseller, written and performed by gardening legend, Monty Don. Full of gardening tips and wholesome anecdotes in equal measure, this audiobook is as enjoyable in the garden as it is to fall asleep to.
The book is made up of thoughts, passages and experiences from Monty, which he kept in a series of notebooks throughout his life. A down-to-earth celebration of our natural world, this audiobook is a must for those with a love for gardens and the outdoors.
Hayter Product Manager, Chris Cooper, is a big fan of Monty Don’s work. He had this to say about My Garden World:
“Monty Don is a gardening legend for good reason! I loved this book when it first came out, but the audiobook is just perfect for a nighttime listen or even when you’re doing a spot of gardening yourself. It also helps that Monty has such a relaxing voice to listen to – I couldn’t recommend it enough.”
Gardening Apps
1/5 gardeners rely on their smartphones in the garden, which is just about as modern as it gets! We can’t blame them, though. Especially when apps as useful as these are available for free:
PictureThis – Plant Identifier
With over 922.3k ratings and an average score of 4.8/5, it goes without saying that gardeners love PictureThis. Currently #3 in the Apple store’s education section, this app allows gardeners to identify over a million plants simply by taking a picture of them with their smartphone.
If that wasn’t useful enough already, PictureThis can also set you daily reminders on which plants to water at which times, diagnose plants which are struggling and propose a cure, give warnings for toxic plants harmful to pets and provide one-on-one consultations.
Planta
Planta
Planta is similar to PictureThis, only with a few unique features which mustn’t be overlooked. Planta has a healthy average rating of 4.7/5 stars and over a million downloads on the Google Play Store – Planta was also an editor’s choice winner on the Apple store in 2023!
As well as the same plant logging, identification and reminder features found in PictureThis, Planta has an impressive light metre which utilises your smartphone’s depth perception camera. This feature allows you to analyse a room and strategically place your plants to maximise light consumption. Now that’s clever.
Planta also takes advantage of the connectivity features of your phone with a community feed, letting you chat with fellow gardening enthusiasts, share tips and post photos of your garden for others to interact with.
“Planta has been a lifesaver for my indoor plants,” says Cooper. “We all have that odd plant that just can’t seem to get comfy, with browning leaf tips that put you in a little panic. Being able to diagnose the problem easily with your phone cuts out those hours of scrolling on message boards trying to find where you’ve gone wrong.”
Are you planning on taking advantage of new media in your garden routine? There’s plenty to choose from, so there’s never been a better time to get stuck in!
