35: Bob Flowerdew

In this episode Bunny talks to Bob Flowerdew in his Norfolk garden. They talk about his previous work before he started gardening professionally which include chicken giblet washer (advancing to chicken box counter), council care-home cleaner, dog impersonator, glass fibre laminator, houseboy & cook in house of ill repute, festival security lighting engineer, marine engineer, museum attendant, nude model, Parisian guide, theatrical gofer, vitreous enamel applicator, arcade mechanic & pinball wizard. Bob though, is most at home performing. He approached the producer of BBC Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time some 28 years ago, where he had been in the audience and said he could do a better job, and was subsequently taken on by the producer. On the program, with its 2 million listeners a week, Bob has consistently promoted organic gardening and had a big influence on the way people garden. Hear why he was booed off stage at Glastonbury , why he is not a big fan of hedgehogs in his garden and why he disagrees with George Monbiot about growing pineapples in the UK. He also has boycotted Tesco’s over their ‘Bags for Life’. For his present Bunny took him a fig, ‘Desert King’ which is extremely cold tolerant with beautiful, large, melt in the mouth fruit. Not widely grown, but in Bunny’s opinion superior to ‘Brown Turkey’. To see Bob in his garden watch Bunny’s YouTube video ‘Bunny and Bob Flowerdew bicker in Bob’s Norfolk Garden’.