Outlook Mixtape: How does your garden grow?

Three tales exploring the wonder of gardening.

"You've gone viral with your spuds!" A social media post about his potato crop turned Gerald Stratford into a gardening superstar, as he told Outlook in 2021. The British gardening enthusiast earned the nickname "the undisputed king of giant veg" when he started sharing his garden bounty during the pandemic.

Spanish botanist Carlos Magdalena is known as "the Plant Messiah" because of his ability to save plants that are at risk of extinction. While working at The Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, he successfully protected a rare Rwandan water lily. The tiny plant is the smallest water lily in the world - and it was so precious that one specimen was stolen. He spoke to Outlook in 2017.

British pianist and composer Helen Anahita Wilson has long been fascinated by making music with everyday objects – turning books, bowls of water, and reclaimed materials into tools for music‑making. Classically trained as a pianist, Helen built a career exploring experimental and minimalist music, influenced by composers like Steve Reich as well as by rhythmic traditions from South Asia. But when she was in her mid‑30s, her life was abruptly derailed by a diagnosis of breast cancer. Helen went into intensive treatment, coinciding with the start of the Covid pandemic. During long, isolating periods in hospital, she noticed new rhythms all around her and turned that medical data into sound. When Helen discovered that many chemotherapy drugs are derived from plants, she travelled to London’s Chelsea Physic Garden, and in the oncology section she recorded the bioelectrical activity of medicinal plants. She translated those readings into music, treating the garden like an orchestra, with each plant playing a distinct role or specific instrument: a periwinkle became a harp, the bark of a yew tree became a viola. She called the composition Linea Naturalis.

Presenter: Jo Fidgen
Producer: Vibeke Venema

Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com or WhatsApp +44 330 678 2707

(Photo: A transparent 60-minute cassette tape with a white label with the words: The Outlook Mixtape. Credit: Getty Images)