MATT BIGGS BIO
Matt Biggs, a graduate of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, is a well-known British gardener, broadcaster, and author of fifteen gardening and plant related books.
He has presented numerous television programs, notably Channel 4’s Garden Club, stepped behind the camera to direct Meridian Television’s popular gardening series Grass Roots and worked as Horticultural Consultant for a garden design series on Channel 5.
Matt contributes to several magazines, including the Royal Horticultural Society Journal The Garden, BBC Gardeners’ World, Countryfile, and Gardens Illustrated and leads gardening tours worldwide.
He lectures at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Oxford University Botanic Gardens, the Cookery School of Michelin starred chief Jean-Christophe Novelli, and is course Director of the Plants and Plantsmanship course at the English Gardening School.
Matt is also a regular panelist on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Gardener’s Question Time’. You can learn more about Matt by visiting his website.
SHOW NOTES
Memories with his parents gardening and loving nature
How watching gardeners inspired him to persue horticulture
Learning how Akebia quinata (chocolate vine) needs two different clones for fruit set
Experiences in the park’s department and developing work ethic
Applying to Kew Gardens and the interview process
An example of being adaptive as a gardener with gooseberries
Working at Kew Gardens in the Temperate House and the Princess of Wales Conservatory
Meeting people like Alan Cook and George Benjamin and learning about his conservation work on St. Helena
Lessons learned at Kew Gardens about building up a knowledge of plant habitat, size, and spread; if doing design go and garden first; microclimates in the garden; don’t get too caught up about Latin names; and the importance of plant stories
Edward Bunyard and his writings about fruits, roses, and dig for victory, an approach to grow more food if Britain experienced a blockade
Monet’s gardens, documenting waterlily varieties, and walking through a living impressionistic painting
Matt’s books The Secrets of Great Botanists and Lessons from the Great Gardeners
The story behind Ganna Walska and Lotusland
The efforts of Rae Selling Berry in plant conservation
The impact of André Le Nôtre on the design of Versailles
Leonhart Fuchs using plants at appropriate doses to treat illnesses and writing the first herbal in color
How famous gardeners and botanists are willing to adapt growing conditions to fit the plants
Matt’s excitement about his recent book A Home for Every Plant illustrated with Lucila Perini
Trying to overcome plant blindness
Myriopteris viscida (viscid lip fern), a fern that grows in the desert and likely has a sticky top to trap sand and reflect light
Carlos Magdalena’s The Plant Messiah
Lignotubers on eucalypts and the kindness of Professor Kingsley Dixon proofing the botanical facts in the book
Highlighting mountaineers and the plants that grow at the highest altitudes in the world
The role of Trachycarpus fortunei (windmill palm) in the conservation of the lesser short-tailed bat
How Amorphophallus titanum (titan arum) warms to help the odor spread
The double dispersal mechanism of emus and ants with Petalostigma pubescens (quinine bush)
Practices that Matt uses to be more efficient including using drip irrigation, mulching at the right time of the year, making your own compost, putting the right plant in the right place, and using less sprays
Books that Matt returns to including the four volumes of RHS Encyclopedia of Gardening, specialist books, and the books of Beth Chatto
How we can propagate more gardeners by sharing the importance and benefits of plants and give people a plant to get them started