Nick Hamilton talks peat-free, his father Geoff's legacy and the future of Barnsdale

Nick Hamilton, of Barnsdale Gardens in Rutland, has written an autobiography, The Right Genes, about his relationship with his father Geoff Hamiton, the pioneer in peat-free organic gardening, who presented BBC Gardeners World for 17 years.They worked together for several years before Geoff’s untimely death in 1996. Nick talks about why Geoff is still recalled so fondly and how and why they are so similar.Bankruptcy and hard times hit the Hamiltons when he was a teen, before Geoff's big break into garden journalism and TV. Nick recounts this as well as his experience training at Writtle College, Darby Nursery Stock and Raveningham Hall, the home of Sir Nicholas Bacon, and going into business father at Barnsdale Gardens.Geoff's organic and peat-free ethos was ahead of its time and Nick mulls over a feud between Geoff and the late Peter Seabrook about their different gardening philosophies,Meanwhile, Barnsdale Gardens, where Adam Frost started work, is under threat from a solar farm and Nick talks about his concerns. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.