Ep82: A Good Ol' Chit-Chat With... Carlos Magdalena

Hola, sweet pea.

Hola, mummy bear.

We have the last in this series of chit-chats.

We do.

The conclusion of conclusions, and it is with the absolutely amazing Carlos Magdalena.

You're right.

He is absolutely amazing, and this was a fascinating chat.

In fact, this wasn't so much a chit-chat as a chit because- [laughs]

[laughs]

...

there was very little chat from us, as Carlos had so many stories to tell.

Yes.

We chatted for nearly three hours.

We did.

It was very hard to edit it down.

So-

Mm

... what I've done it is just keep, uh, just a couple of Carlos' stories, and perhaps we can publish a bonus chit-chat-

Mm-hmm

... episode or something like that with the rest of his stories because I really wouldn't want people to miss them.

He's, he's full of life and-

Yeah

... has lived a huge life as well.

He has.

He had the most incredible stories.

I remember actually it was in kind of late afternoon, evening that we were recording it after work.

Yeah, in early June.

Mm.

And so it was very much like being told a three-hour bedtime story.

[laughs] Oh, lovely.

Oh, no.

Were you falling asleep? 'Cause you used-

No

... to fall asleep.

[laughs]

No, no.

Okay.

Not said like that, but like-

[laughs]

... a really nice bedtime story where you're just-

Yeah

... listening.

Like when you're with your grandfather and you're listening intently to-

Aw

...

the stories of his great travels or whatever he's done.

Yes.

Yeah

...

it, it felt like that with Carlos because he just had all these ideas.

He was like a true sunshine in the gardening world.

I like how you describe that because I would say he was one of the most positive people-

Mm

... to listen to.

Yeah.

You, you come away from this feeling like anything is possible.

Yes, exactly.

Wouldn't you say? Where you just d- don't h- if you've got doubts about something, just go do it.

If you're told you can't do something, see that as a challenge rather than a statement of fact.

Yeah, exactly.

Uh, [laughs] and that's precisely what Carlos has done.

Mm-hmm.

So we get to hear a lot more about the, uh, the smallest and rarest water lily in the world.

Mm.

How it was discovered, how Carlos brought it back from the brink of extinction.

Yes, his eureka moment.

Exactly, yeah, whilst cooking tortellini.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Um, we hear more about the Café Marron.

Mm.

Um, and I say more because these were both things that were covered by Arit Anderson on Gardener's World.

That was Gardener's World this year, episode one-

Yes

...

when Arit visited Carlos at Kew Gardens.

So we got another Kew kid, second in a row-

Oh, we have a Kew kids

... after Kevin.

[laughs]

Oh, cool.

And so yeah, we, we hear a lot more detail about those things.

Yeah.

There are qui- the noises, um ...

Well, really all the way through it just sounds like there's bad s- mm, not static, but just bad background noise.

But actually what it is, is Carlos is sitting next to the most beautiful and huge aquarium.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

So you've basically got the running of that aquarium.

Mm-hmm.

That's what you can hear in the background throughout all of this.

Yeah.

[laughs] So, but once you can get past that and just get into the atmosphere of sitting next to a big, beautiful aquarium with lots of beautiful tropical fish in it-

Yes

... that's basically where we were.

Yeah.

Also, I think he must be under a flight path 'cause there were one or two planes going over.

Yeah.

We could hear some traffic, some kids.

Mm-hmm.

It was summer.

It was hot.

Doors were open.

Uh, so quite busy at Carlos's end, but-

Yeah

... bear with the sound.

It's all good.

It's very chill.

Also, new thing I should mention is we've started putting transcripts on-

Mm

...

the various episodes.

You can find those anyway, I think, on Apple Podcasts if you listen through there.

Yeah.

Or if you watch it, when I say watch it, you just see the image, but on YouTube you can see the s- subtitles.

Yeah.

But we're now slowly going through each episode and putting in transcripts, sort of historical ones and current ones.

So we will be putting Carlos' transcript on so you can follow along with everything he's saying through that.

Yeah, exactly.

And that will be on our website where we put all the links.

So if you go to notjustagarden.co.uk, some of the links that I've put in for Carlos' episode, there's the Curtis Botanical Magazine that he mentions.

Mm-hmm.

There's also botanical artist Lucy Smith is on there.

A little about, bit about Asturias, which he talks about-

Yes

...

but with real affection.

Yeah.

He mentions those patios in Córdoba.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, you can see some im- imagery of those on there.

Also, Asturian cider was another thing that was mentioned, so we've got some links-

Yes

... for that.

Fantastico.

So if you go to the website, click on podcast, click on chit-chats, on Carlos's face, you'll get all of that there.

Mm-hmm.

So sweet pea, tell us the format.

So for Carlos' dream garden we have garden boundary, shed or greenhouse, five ornamentals, five edibles, one statement tree, pond or pool plus one pond, and finally favorite seating area, drink, and one plant for that area.

And as always, if you have any questions or comments on anything that we've chatted about, please do get in touch.

Mm.

You can do that either through the contacts page on the website, which is-

notjustagarden.co.uk

... or via our email, which is-

Hello.

[laughs]

Uh, notjustagarden.co.uk.

[laughs] So let's jump into this episode.

I think we should.

This is episode 82, a good old chit-chat with Señor Don Carlos Magdalena.

Vamos.