Why Women Grow
Why Women Grow is hosted by Alice Vincent, who explores why women turn to gardening and growing. She speaks with designers, chefs, entrepreneurs, and writers in their gardens about what cultivation means in their lives. The show is not only about gardening; it also covers resistance, motherhood, spirituality, and environmental care. These intimate conversations aim to change how listeners think about growth and nature.
Episodes
Cynthia Fan on how plants work
Cynthia Fan was undertaking a pHD in plant molecular biology when her colleagues at the Edinburgh Botanics noticed how much she loved being in the greenhouses - and how she could do amazing things with a flower frog.She’s now an artist and researcher, weaving together scientific inquiry and visual expression through one persistent question: why does a plant do that? We were delighted when Cynthia
Mary Keen on a lifetime of gardening
Mary Keen has worked in, documented and designed gardens all over the world for decades. But it’s the garden she’s made at home, during her ninth decade, that she writes most affectionately about. In her seventh book, Diary of a Keen Gardener, she reflects on both a life shaped by plants and her more recent years, when she has weathered grief, illness and aging. It’s an honest love letter to what
Yazmin Lacey on gardening as muse
When singer-songwriter Yazmin Lacey found herself adrift after the release of her first album, Voice Notes, she discovered an unlikely muse in the earth. And she decided to study for her RHS Level 2 qualification in horticulture at the Walworth Garden in London. What started as an unlikely affinity bloomed into a new way of living and creativity - and in turn inspired others to stop and listen.Te
Maggie O'Farrell on gardening for stories
I’ve long been fascinated by roots - and the crossover between our families and the land that we are raised on. And it seems I’m not alone: Maggie O’Farrell was drawn to the Wild Atlantic Way after hearing stories about her heritage. Years later, and her latest novel, LAND, is inspired by her own family history and the potent mythology of the Irish landscape. Maggie O’Farrell has sold more than fo
Season 7: summer trailer
The sun is high, the ground is warm, and we’re inviting you to take a moment to pause this summer with the Why Women Grow podcast. This season, we’re speaking to women who have boldly ventured beyond what’s expected of them - and made incredible things happen in the process. From writing to floristry, soul music to garden design, our guests have trodden new paths to do things the way they want.Joi
Olia Hercules on gardening for survival
For many around the world right now, the green spaces that hold so many memories are caught in conflict. This is the case for the activist, writer and chef Olia Hercules, who has seen the garden her mother made occupied by Russian soldiers during the invasion of Ukraine. Now based in East London, Olia has built a garden of her own that she feels has an ancestral connection to the one she knew as a
Pollyanna Wilkinson on designing a life-proof garden
With a clutch of medals from RHS Chelsea and Hampton Court flower shows, a bestselling garden design book and more than half a million social media followers, Pollyanna Wilkinson has gained a well-earned reputation for making elegant, contemporary and liveable gardens accessible to all. But while hundreds of thousands of people look to Polly’s approach for inspiration and guidance, her own garden
Milli Proust on building a garden
When you become known for your garden - and what you grow there - what does it mean to up peasticks and move? Milli Proust is a gardener, writer and floral designer based in a remote corner of West Sussex. She spent a decade transforming her garden, but when we visited her she was just about to leave it. We met Milli - and her gorgeous whippet Jimmy - under the shade of an enormous oak tree to r
India Knight on making home in a garden
There’s a school of thought that believes the garden to be an extra room of the house - albeit, outside. If that’s the case, then India Knight is a masterful host. The author and columnist, who has written 13 books, is a homemaker with an unabashedly joyful approach to how we make our lives beautiful.In the days when the quinces are beginning to ripen, sitting in the doorway between her green and
Season 7: trailer
It's been a bleak old winter, but spring is upon us and with it comes a brand new season of the Why Women Grow podcast. This Spring, we’re exploring what it means to leave behind a garden that changed your life, how can we start again, and how can we connect with lost loved ones in a time of war? Once again, we’ve been talking to brave, inspiring and witty women about their lives and gardens.
Daisy Johnson on how landscape shapes us
Daisy Johnson made headlines when she became the youngest person ever shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2018, when she was 27. But, as she tells us in this episode, her shortlisted novel Everything Under was born of a time of great transition and growth. Water ripples throughout Daisy’s work, from the remote rain-lashed house in Sisters to the ambiguous murk of Fen, with its shapeshifting charac
Isabella Tree on rewilding a garden
Today we are at the Knepp Estate - a huge rewilding project across 3500 acres of land, undertaken by the writer and conservationist Isabella Tree and her family.As she outlines so beautifully in her bestselling memoir Wilding, when Isabella moved into Knepp, then her husband’s family estate, she inherited more than just a castle. A crumbling property and a financially precarious farm were part of
Michelle Ogundehin on finding home
What is it that makes a home? Interior design may not seem the first port of call to consider when we think about our gardens, but Michelle Ogundehin’s approach to how our environments affect us shows just how important the outside world can be on our wellbeing. Michelle, who is a series judge on Interior Design Masters, describes herself as a homes therapist. After training as an architect, she w
Beyond the Garden: new season trailer
Leaves are falling, the sunsets are glowing, and we’re taking every moment we can to reflect here on the Why Women Grow podcast. This autumn, we’re exploring beyond the garden: into the stories crafted alongside fairytale rivers in Oxford, beneath the wingspan of storks flying over rewilded land in Sussex and getting lost in the woodlands of Kent. We’re delving even deeper into the matters that m
Jeany Cronk on ripping up the rule book
When Jeany Cronk moved her young family from London to the south of France, she did so on a mission to not only make delicious wine, but shake up the whole rose tradition in the process. The co-founder of Mirabeau, Jeany and her family decided to put sustainability at the heart of their company. After waking up on the vineyard, we are treated to a tour of Jeany’s farm, which is the first Regenerat
Louise Pascal on gardening in a time of crisis
What does it mean to be split between two places? Where we come from, and where we work? For actor Louise Pascal, putting on a character is part and parcel of her daily life, but one that relies on her returning to her childhood garden to ground herself in the realities of a landscape weathering the climate crisis. We meet Louise in the village of Cucuron, over an Orangina, next to a pretty, tree-
Jamie Beck on starting a new life in Provence
It’s easy to dream of building a whole new life, but it’s quite another to actually do it. Jamie Beck is a woman who knows - the American artist, photographer and author swapped her high-flying career as a fashion photographer in New York to live simply and slowly in Provence. Since 2016, Jamie has amassed a following of over 400,000 people for her beautiful portrayals of life in the South of Fran
The French Life: new season trailer
Summer is upon us - and the Why Women Grow podcast has gone on tour in Provence. Among the lavender fields, chateaux, rose gardens and town squares of Southern France, we meet three women who have made dramatic and inspiring life choices to work with nature in a different way. If you’ve ever dreamed of giving it all up for a wilder way of being somewhere warm, our guests have plenty to offer in th
Jo Thompson and Kali Hamerton-Stove on strong beauty
Few Chelsea Flower Show gardens are designed by women. Fewer Chelsea Flower Show show gardens are created by the people they are intended for. And there has never before been a Chelsea Flower Show garden inspired by and made for female prisoners. But The Glasshouse Garden, garden designer Jo Thompson and founder of social enterprise The Glasshouse, Kali Hamerton-Stove, have done exactly that: crea
Ula Maria on making space for loss
Some people move house for the location, some people move for the fireplaces: for Ula Maria, it was a neglected, overgrown garden in South London that confirmed her future home. The Lithuanian garden designer is arguably the most celebrated of her generation: Ula became the youngest person to ever win Best In Show at Chelsea in 2024 - and only the third woman to take the prize in the Flower Show’s
Sarah Price on inheritance in the garden
Sarah Price is a landscape gardener who’s always seemed to exist on another plane. Her designs work with the environment to create something that feels both otherworldly and of the earth. After undertaking a degree in Fine Art, Sarah went on to design gardens for the London Olympic Park, Manchester’s Whitworth Gallery and a Maggie’s Centre in Southampton. But she’s also made some of the most remar
The Designers: new season trailer
It’s the biggest gardening show on earth - and this spring, the Why Women Grow podcast is finding out what it’s really like to be a female designer at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. This is The Designers, our Spring miniseries, which has taken us from dappled shade of South London gardens to the foothills of Welsh mountains and straight to Main Avenue. We’re troubling gardening’s toughest glass ceil
Hannah Read on making music through the landscape
How to capture the sound of something humans can’t hear? How to make a song about a mushroom? That was the challenge put to Scottish musician, Hannah Read, in the wake of her father’s death. Hannah, who lives in California, fell into an earthy world of mycelium in 2020, and her album, The Fungi Sessions, captures a growing fascination with fungi in through beautiful folk music.We were fortunate en
Manon Awst on being peat compatible
Today we are on an adventure - to the sticky, secret depths of Wales’s peatlands. This intriguing landscape could be the answer to the climate crisis, but it also hold so many stories in its mysterious history. One artist who is trying to unravel them is Manon Awst, whose art, performance and poetry explores how peat bogs can teach us how to live in ways that are more connected with the earth we d
The Land Gardeners on the power of soil
As Henrietta Courtauld and Bridget Elworthy explain in our first Earthly Matters episode, people come for the flowers but they stay for the soil. Since forming their company, The Land Gardeners, in 2011, they have combined their cut flower-growing and landscape design businesses with a mission that fuels them on a daily basis: researching the earth beneath our feet to better understand how to repa
Earthly Matters: new season trailer
Introducing Earthly MattersA new season of Why Women Grow is coming soon - and this time, we’re getting dirty. After two years of celebrating the bold and the beautiful, we’re back - and we’re going under the surface to explore what lies beneath. In Earthly Matters, the first of four brand new miniseries for this year, we’ll be exploring the powerful possibilities of soil, peatlands and fungi with
Hazel Gardiner on gardening to heal
Floral designer and broadcaster Hazel Gardiner has been part of the Why Women Grow sisterhood long before we hit record: she was the first woman I interviewed for the book. I’d been aware of Hazel’s distinctive approach to floristry and her advocacy for diversity and inclusivity in horticulture for some time. But when I learned of how gardening had helped her when she was undergoing treatment for
Robin Wall Kimmerer on gardening as love
Robin Wall Kimmerer is a is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She’s a rare example of someone who straddles the world of academic science and indigenous teaching; by crossing the gulf between the two, she’s transformed how people understand the outside world. Her book, Braiding Sweetgrass, is a remarkable example of wisdom that thrives
Anna Jones on taste in the garden
Chef and bestselling author Anna Jones has inspired the way hundreds of thousands of people cook for years - and we were delighted to be invited into her courtyard garden in East London for this episode of Why Women Grow.
Anna won’t profess to being a great gardener but her approach to food extends far beyond the kitchen. She works with edible flowers, seasonal produce and has written whole b
Why Women Grow: mini series trailer
Why Women Grow is back with a new mini series, featuring three women who have fundamentally changed how I think and live. This summer's mini series features the chef and bestselling author Anna Jones, botanist and Braiding Sweetgrass writer Robin Wall Kimmerer and floral designer Hazel Gardiner.
Jamaica Kincaid on gardening as writing
Bonus episode: Writer and novelist Jamaica Kincaid redefined garden writing with books such as My Garden (Book) and Among Flowers, as well as changing perspectives on the post-colonial experience through titles such as A Small Place and Lucy. We meet the Antiguan-American author in the halls of Charleston House, Sussex, where Bloomsbury Group artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant made art, a home,
Paula Sutton on gardening in the pursuit of happiness
The creative mind behind Hill House Vintage and author of Hill House Living, Paula Sutton is a stylist, writer and - perhaps most of all - a purveyor of joy. After navigating a career in the fast-paced and glamorous world of fashion magazines, Paula relocated from the streets of South London to Hill House, an idyllic Georgian home in Norfolk 12 years ago. There, she decided that she was going to l
Margaret Howell on a life inspired by nature
Margaret Howell has been designing men’s and womenswear for five decades, prioritising understated quality over trends: she makes beautiful clothes that work well. Fifty years after she started to design and sell clothes from her home in Blackheath, South London, there are now 80 Margaret Howell stores across the globe, from Paris to Tokyo, and she has been appointed a CBE for services to the reta
Rukmini Iyer on growing to nurture
One simple concept, a million cookbooks sold: Rukmini Iyer’s Roasting Tin recipe books have transformed dinner times around the country. But the writer and food stylist is also a keen amateur gardener, growing first on a balcony and, later, in a garden on a quiet street in leafy South London. Iyer’s adventures in growing food to eat collided with the arrival of her first child, and gardening has g
Salley Vickers on a life lived in gardens
Sally Vickers is a Jungian psychotherapist and the author of books such as Miss Garnet's Angel, The Other Side of You and, most recently, The Gardener. The daughter of two communists, Salley was a teacher before she retrained as a psychotherapist, and her writing delves into the stuff that makes us human. She is also a keen gardener, especially at her country home in Wiltshire. In the midst of the
Sarah Raven on growing a whole new approach to colour
If you’ve ever bought plants or seeds online, or through mail order, you’ve probably encountered Sarah Raven. The gardener, writer and teacher is also a nursery-owner and businesswoman, developing, trialling and selling plants to Britain’s home gardeners. Over the course of three decades and seven books, including A Year Full of Flowers, Sarah has changed how British gardens grow, ushering bold co
Claire Ratinon on growing for reclamation
Claire Ratinon is a food-grower, speaker and writer. In 2022, she released Unearthed, a powerful memoir about understanding what it is to become a custodian of the earth as a Black woman, and how the process of doing so helped her gain a sense of belonging in a post-colonial country. In 2012 Claire was working as a documentary producer in New York when she stumbled upon Brooklyn Grange, a rooftop
Poppy Okotcha on gardening to save the planet
Poppy Okotcha describes herself as an ecological home grower working to inspire reconnection to the land and the living world through the story of food and herbs. She came to gardening after a shift in her personal life: having moved between the UK and South Africa during her childhood, Poppy had a career as a model. When she was left burnt out by the fashion industry, she began to cultivate a slo
Why Women Grow: guest reveal trailer
Introducing the line-up for the first season of Why Women Grow:
writer Claire Ratinon
designer Margaret Howell
chef Rukmini Iyer
gardening gamechanger Sarah Raven
novelist Salley Vickers
environmentalist Poppy Okotcha
and stylist and influencer Paula Sutton
We talk about everything, from motherhood, to gardening for a better planet and finding your place in the world.
The first season kic
Why Women Grow: teaser trailer
The first listen of the forthcoming Why Women Grow podcast, launching February 2023 from Alice Vincent.
This podcast is inspired by my book, Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival, which is out on March 2nd and available to pre-order now.
The Why Women Grow podcast is produced by Holly Fisher, and theme music is by Maria Chiara Argiro. Thank you to our partners at Seedlip. We’ve
