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OGA Podcast host Liv James visited Taw Valley Organics in North Devon, one of only a handful of certified organic ornamental plant nurseries in the UK. Although growing plants with nature should be the norm, what these guys are doing seems pioneering. Some of the exciting conversation Liv had with Liz, Dave and Sam included: Growing without pesticides, chemical fertilisers and peatReducing plastic use by using cardboard pots to sell their plantsHow they sell their plantsDiversifying their business to include art exhibitions, farm tours, workshops and moreOrnamental plants being a luxury product versus vegetables being an everyday product and the mindset difference in customersNot watering their stock garden (ever) and seeing how their plants faired in the 2026 droughtTaw Valley Organic growers are aiming for a closed loop system and it is more of this systems thinking approach to growing we need.   Guests Liz, Dave and Sam - Taw Valley Organics https://www.tawvalleyorganics.com  Episode chapters 00:00 - Setting expectations for a live-recorded conversation  00:59 - Introducing Tall Valley Organics in North Devon  01:55 - Why the nursery was started in the first place  02:39 - How Dave joined the business and family links  03:29 - Liz and Sam’s paths into plants and design  04:45 - Dave’s horticulture background from allotments to landscape work  05:25 - Learning on the job versus formal horticulture training  06:38 - Why they chose organic certification  07:25 - Why ornamental horticulture should follow organic principles  08:00 - What organic nursery growing looks like day to day  08:42 - How the stock garden and mother plants support propagation  09:27 - The three-year ground period and organic plant status  10:41 - Why growing everything in-house matters for adaptation  11:14 - Selling plants at a better stage, not just in flower  12:27 - Why feeding style affects rooting and drought resilience  13:53 - How the summer drought affected watering and sales timing  15:23 - The changes they are planning for shade, routing, and watering  17:19 - Getting peat-free compost to rewet properly  18:14 - Sand beds and capillary watering for pots  19:24 - Plans for more outdoor beds and possible Efford sand beds  21:11 - Moving from plant fairs to open days and online sales  22:13 - Why online sales work well for small pots and plant info  23:58 - Diversifying with tea, coffee, events, and seasonal experiences  24:59 - Turning part of the barn into an art space  25:24 - A sold-out foraging course and seasonal education  26:59 - Best and worst performing plants in the heat  28:07 - Tough-love gardening and what the display garden revealed  29:22 - Early mistakes, water access, and how the nursery improved  30:24 - Knowing when to throw away unsold plants  32:50 - Rethinking how much covered space the nursery really needs  34:03 - Why it is still just the three of them on the nursery  34:27 - What happens to plants over winter  35:28 - Compost costs, buying in peat-free mix, and the closed-loop dream  38:19 - Winter slowdown, admin work, and seasonal planning  39:44 - The difference between selling vegetables and ornamental plants  41:57 - Using vegetables and orchard produce for value-added products  42:57 - The VED-1 visit payment and the challenge of getting groups on site  44:45 - Why uptake is difficult and how word of mouth helps  46:28 - Selling plants in cardboard pots instead of plastic  48:13 - Why the cardboard system costs more but feels right  49:05 - Keeping prices competitive while still being organic and plastic free  49:47 - Why the organic USP matters most online  50:38 - Closing thoughts on the business and what the episode covered This podcast is brought to you by the Organic Growers Alliance, the UK's only grower-led organisation providing technical and practical advice and support on organic growing. For more information about the OGA head to www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk and become a member. Liv James is taking the reins from James Butterworth as host in 2026. Liv has been a grower for 10 years mainly at Down Farm Market Garden in Devon and is now a storyteller at Soil Association. Alongside this Liv is a plant nut, wordsmith, music lover, life enthusiast, surfer and Mum.

In this episode, OGPod host Liv James revisits East Neuk Market Garden to explore their journey over two years of merging farms, scaling up production, seed saving, soil health, and adapting to climate challenges in Scotland. Guests Tom Booth Connie Hunter Nat Dixon Chapters 00:00 Introduction to East Nuke Market Garden and Liv James 02:11 Background of the farm and initial farm merging 06:10 The first year of farm collaboration and shared vision 08:03 Transition from two farms to one site 11:54 Scaling up production and crop diversification 15:54 Decision-making, roles, and teamwork in farm management 20:05 Seed saving practices and crop stewardship 25:47 Crop performance and crop-specific insights 30:11 Soil health, testing results, and amendments 34:03 Climate challenges and water management 45:10 Reflections on farm success, challenges, and future plans Music licensed through Soundstripe. Code: O1QORQQUTZEZ7LOF, NCXAYLOD0RN3L9C9 This podcast is brought to you by the Organic Growers Alliance, the UK's only grower-led organisation providing technical and practical advice and support on organic growing. For more information about the OGA head to www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk and become a member. Liv James is taking the reins from James Butterworth as host in 2026. Liv has been a grower for 10 years mainly at Down Farm Market Garden in Devon and is now a storyteller at Soil Association. Alongside this Liv is a plant nut, wordsmith, music lover, life enthusiast, surfer and Mum.

Show summary In this episode, OGPod host Liv James interviews from Groundswell Agricultural festival. Guests include Anne Rees, Head of Horticulture at the Soil Association, Michael Kennard, founder at Compost Club and Rebecca (Bee) Laughton, Horticulture Campaign Coordinator  at Landworkers' Alliance. The interviews cover the importance of organic farming, land access, and the role of horticulture in regenerative agriculture. They explore innovative land-sharing models, market gardens, and the significance of local produce. Bee Laughton gives an update on the current horticulture policy landscape and the hopes for the future within an ever evolving political world. Michael Kennard dives in to compost; why it is important, what makes good compost and the science behind it. Guests Anne Rees Anne Rees | LinkedIn Instagram Michael Kennard Instagram Rebecca Laughton Instagram Resources Soil Association - https://www.soilassociation.org/ Groundswell Festival - https://groundswell.org.uk/ Landmatch England - https://landmatchengland.org/ Organic Growers Alliance - https://organicgrowersalliance.co.uk/ Landworkers Alliance - Landworkers' Alliance This podcast is brought to you by the Organic Growers Alliance, the UK's only grower-led organisation providing technical and practical advice and support on organic growing. For more information about the OGA head to www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk and become a member. Liv James is taking the reins from James Butterworth as host in 2026. Liv has been a grower for 10 years mainly at Down Farm Market Garden in Devon and is now a storyteller at Soil Association. Alongside this Liv is a plant nut, wordsmith, music lover, life enthusiast, surfer and Mum.

The Organic Growers Alliance Podcast is BACK! Join new host Liv James for a deep dive in to all things growing in the horticulture sector. Nerdy natters into growing operations from growers across the UK plus more about the people in growing...what's it like to be a UK grower in 2026?  If you are grower with a story, we want to hear it. Get in touch [email protected] Follow us on Instagram @organicgrowersalliance  Support our Patreon page to keep this podcast going: https://www.patreon.com/TheOrganicGrowerPodcast  More info visit our website: https://organicgrowersalliance.co.uk/ This podcast is brought to you by the Organic Growers Alliance, the UK's only grower-led organisation providing technical and practical advice and support on organic growing. For more information about the OGA head to www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk and become a member. Your host Liv James has been a grower for 10 years mainly at Down Farm Market Garden in Devon and is now a storyteller at Soil Association. Alongside this Liv is a plant nut, wordsmith, music lover, life enthusiast, surfer and Mum. @LivJames This podcast is brought to you by the Organic Growers Alliance, the UK's only grower-led organisation providing technical and practical advice and support on organic growing. For more information about the OGA head to www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk and become a member. Liv James is taking the reins from James Butterworth as host in 2026. Liv has been a grower for 10 years mainly at Down Farm Market Garden in Devon and is now a storyteller at Soil Association. Alongside this Liv is a plant nut, wordsmith, music lover, life enthusiast, surfer and Mum.

In this episode, James goes back into the archives to find some of the best deep dives on growing specific crops. This one features radicchio, herbs, celtuce, leeks, peas and beetroot. Whether you're sowing in the greenhouse, harvesting outside or driving around, there's plenty of growers and wisdom to keep you company in this one. So let's get to it. This podcast is brought to you by the Organic Growers Alliance, the UK's only grower-led organisation providing technical and practical advice and support on organic growing. For more information about the OGA head to www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk and become a member. Liv James is taking the reins from James Butterworth as host in 2026. Liv has been a grower for 10 years mainly at Down Farm Market Garden in Devon and is now a storyteller at Soil Association. Alongside this Liv is a plant nut, wordsmith, music lover, life enthusiast, surfer and Mum.

In this episode, James responds to listeners questions about running a plant sale as an add-on to a vegetable growing enterprise, based on his experience of developing a profitable plant sale enterprise at Cotswold Market Garden/Conygree Farm. What are the best flower varieties to try and what perennials can you sow in the spring? What if you have limited greenhouse space? What if your site isn't suitable for holding events - how else could you sell plants? What are the labour requirements prior to the plant sale itself? Is one-day enough, a weekend or all spring long? This is a follow-up episode to episode 24 where James dives deep into 5 reasons you should consider running a plant sale and 10 tips for success. This podcast is brought to you by the Organic Growers Alliance, the UK's only grower-led organisation providing technical and practical advice and support on organic growing. For more information about the OGA head to www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk and become a member. Liv James is taking the reins from James Butterworth as host in 2026. Liv has been a grower for 10 years mainly at Down Farm Market Garden in Devon and is now a storyteller at Soil Association. Alongside this Liv is a plant nut, wordsmith, music lover, life enthusiast, surfer and Mum.

In today’s episode, I talk to Dan Betterton of The Kitchen Garden People, based at FarmEd, Oxfordshire. Dan shares the challenges and advantages of operating within a mixed farm environment, the ins and outs of their community-supported agriculture (CSA) scheme, and the pros and cons of growing a business slowly and organically. The conversation also touches on the significance of volunteers, finding value beyond the financial, using caterpillar tunnels and lining up crop plans with sales. Towards the end we also discuss squash failures, strawberry successes and looking after your back. So let’s get to it. This podcast is brought to you by the Organic Growers Alliance, the UK's only grower-led organisation providing technical and practical advice and support on organic growing. For more information about the OGA head to www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk and become a member. Liv James is taking the reins from James Butterworth as host in 2026. Liv has been a grower for 10 years mainly at Down Farm Market Garden in Devon and is now a storyteller at Soil Association. Alongside this Liv is a plant nut, wordsmith, music lover, life enthusiast, surfer and Mum.

James is in a reflective mood, offering up a review of the season just gone...the highs and lows, lessons learned, and areas for improvement. Hopefully you find it useful and  can use it as a springboard to think about things wherever you are growing. This podcast is brought to you by the Organic Growers Alliance, the UK's only grower-led organisation providing technical and practical advice and support on organic growing. For more information about the OGA head to www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk and become a member. Liv James is taking the reins from James Butterworth as host in 2026. Liv has been a grower for 10 years mainly at Down Farm Market Garden in Devon and is now a storyteller at Soil Association. Alongside this Liv is a plant nut, wordsmith, music lover, life enthusiast, surfer and Mum.

In today’s episode, I am delighted to share my conversation with Jamie Carr from Blacklands Organics in Oxfordshire. We chat about the pros and cons of taking on land already used for organic veg production, developing a library of field-scale machinery and adapting crop plans to new market streams. A large chunk of the podcast focusses on how Jamie has fostered a skilled and dedicated team, based on principles of delegation, cross-training across tasks and roles and allowing employees space to develop their own ideas and learn from their mistakes. We delve deep into growing chard in the field and aubergines in the polytunnels and finish up with some brilliant advice about the importance of keeping going through the season, maintaining and optimising crop performance after the spring and summer sprint. It was really useful for me to hear about what Jamie and his team have developed at Blacklands and has given me loads of ideas to think about over winter. I am confident you will feel the same, so let’s get to it. This podcast is brought to you by the Organic Growers Alliance, the UK's only grower-led organisation providing technical and practical advice and support on organic growing. For more information about the OGA head to www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk and become a member. Liv James is taking the reins from James Butterworth as host in 2026. Liv has been a grower for 10 years mainly at Down Farm Market Garden in Devon and is now a storyteller at Soil Association. Alongside this Liv is a plant nut, wordsmith, music lover, life enthusiast, surfer and Mum.

In today’s episode I’m delighted to share with you my conversation with Jez Taylor, Head Grower at the famous Daylesford Organic in Gloucestershire. It is a wide ranging conversation where you’ll get a sense of the rather atypical scale and complexity of the wider farm business. According to Jez, the market garden is ‘the jewel in the crown’ of Daylesford. Jez manages the 34 acres of organic horticulture with a team of 8 plus a few more in the main season. We discuss the seasonal flow of produce with 14 different ‘in-house’ customers and the bias towards growing for chefs. Jez talks about managing a large team in the context of a highly diversified operation. We delve deep into weed management from using a treffler tine weeder to the art of hand weeding, as well as growing plentiful leeks and rocket. Towards the end, Jez reflects on how he would approach growing differently if he were on a smaller scale. I will warn you that Jez was recording on site so there is some background noise, as well as Jez’s noisy elbows. But, as ever, even though we only really scratched the surface, there’s so much food for thought that you can take into winter where I hope you will have more time to reflect on your own growing journeys. This podcast is brought to you by the Organic Growers Alliance, the UK's only grower-led organisation providing technical and practical advice and support on organic growing. For more information about the OGA head to www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk and become a member. Liv James is taking the reins from James Butterworth as host in 2026. Liv has been a grower for 10 years mainly at Down Farm Market Garden in Devon and is now a storyteller at Soil Association. Alongside this Liv is a plant nut, wordsmith, music lover, life enthusiast, surfer and Mum.

I speak with Sinead Fenton of Aweside Farm about the the inspiring job she has done in building a business around organic edible flowers. We get into all the nitty gritty of production methods, market development and the various changes that happened to get the business to where it is now. In the latter part of our conversation, and I think this section will be of real importance to the sector as a whole, we discuss Sinead’s (and my own!) recent health struggles and how this affects the business. This podcast is brought to you by the Organic Growers Alliance, the UK's only grower-led organisation providing technical and practical advice and support on organic growing. For more information about the OGA head to www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk and become a member. Liv James is taking the reins from James Butterworth as host in 2026. Liv has been a grower for 10 years mainly at Down Farm Market Garden in Devon and is now a storyteller at Soil Association. Alongside this Liv is a plant nut, wordsmith, music lover, life enthusiast, surfer and Mum.

So today, I thought I would share with you my 2025 spring review. What’s gone well and what’s gone less well? How are sales going? What's up, what's down?What are the top crops and why? What improvements can be made for this year and next? And, stay tuned to the end, to hear how our third annual spring plant sale went.. So, plenty to talk about…let’s get to it. This podcast is brought to you by the Organic Growers Alliance, the UK's only grower-led organisation providing technical and practical advice and support on organic growing. For more information about the OGA head to www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk and become a member. Liv James is taking the reins from James Butterworth as host in 2026. Liv has been a grower for 10 years mainly at Down Farm Market Garden in Devon and is now a storyteller at Soil Association. Alongside this Liv is a plant nut, wordsmith, music lover, life enthusiast, surfer and Mum.

In today’s episode I speak to farmer, educator and my own business partner, Jonty Brunyee. As I was preparing to change careers 7 years ago, I approached Jonty and his wife, Mel, to see if there was scope for setting up a market garden here at Conygree Farm. To cut a long story short, we went into partnership and the rest is history! Inspired by Jonty and Mel, I have become evangelical about partnerships and I have been keen for a while to sit down with Jonty and get him talking. Anyway, we sat down last week, in between lambing, calving, harvesting, blow-drying the water pump and setting up for our big spring plant sale weekend. We talked about being enterprising, enterprise stacking and synergy, the ins and outs of joint ventures, partnerships and the importance of business planning. Jonty, as he says himself, is a big picture person and a people person. As well as running a successful farm business he has taught and inspired thousands of people - farmers and the general public alike, including at the Royal Agricultural University and at FarmEd. And hopefully there’s lots in our conversation to inspire you today, so let’s get to it.  This podcast is brought to you by the Organic Growers Alliance, the UK's only grower-led organisation providing technical and practical advice and support on organic growing. For more information about the OGA head to www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk and become a member. Liv James is taking the reins from James Butterworth as host in 2026. Liv has been a grower for 10 years mainly at Down Farm Market Garden in Devon and is now a storyteller at Soil Association. Alongside this Liv is a plant nut, wordsmith, music lover, life enthusiast, surfer and Mum.

In this episode, James dives into the topic of protected cropping and share ideas to make the most of the space that you have in an organic system.  He talks about the role of protected cropping through the seasons, rotations, balancing long-season repeat-harvesting crops with quick-growing catch crops and the importance of aligning your crop plan with your sales plan. James also goes into detail about how you can underplant, intercrop and relay crop to maximise production and revenue undercover. This podcast is brought to you by the Organic Growers Alliance, the UK's only grower-led organisation providing technical and practical advice and support on organic growing. For more information about the OGA head to www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk and become a member. Liv James is taking the reins from James Butterworth as host in 2026. Liv has been a grower for 10 years mainly at Down Farm Market Garden in Devon and is now a storyteller at Soil Association. Alongside this Liv is a plant nut, wordsmith, music lover, life enthusiast, surfer and Mum.

In today’s episode, I speak to Ruth Hancock from Fresh and Green Vegetables in Devon. Ruth’s business is 22 years old so she has a huge amount of experience of organic veg production as well as earning a living from doing it. In many ways, Ruth has kept things simple by developing a 75-strong veg box scheme that operates weekly through most of the season and fortnightly through the late winter and spring, minimising the need to buy in produce from elsewhere. We talk about lessons learned from running a veg box scheme over two decades both in terms of dealing with customers and growing the veg. Ruth has some important reflections on pricing and financial viability and the challenges that small-scale, organic growers can face when they under value themselves and the fruits of their labour. We end on another critical topic, which is looking after your body. Ruth is also a yoga instructor, which she sees as pivotal to her longevity as a grower and hopefully she might get you thinking about your body as your most important tool. So, let’s get to it. This podcast is brought to you by the Organic Growers Alliance, the UK's only grower-led organisation providing technical and practical advice and support on organic growing. For more information about the OGA head to www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk and become a member. Liv James is taking the reins from James Butterworth as host in 2026. Liv has been a grower for 10 years mainly at Down Farm Market Garden in Devon and is now a storyteller at Soil Association. Alongside this Liv is a plant nut, wordsmith, music lover, life enthusiast, surfer and Mum.