91Èȱ¬

91Èȱ¬ Radio Cornwall is delighted to welcome two new horticulturalists to its team of gardening experts on its Sunday morning Gardenline programme. Joining existing panellists Tracy Wilson MBE, Alistair Rivers and Nigel Pascoe will be Matt James and George Kestell.

Matt James is a gardener, garden designer, broadcaster, gardening columnist and lecturer.

Trained at Merrist Wood and then Writtle College, Matt went on to present Channel 4's The City Gardener. Two series about urban garden design in the US soon followed and most recently he filmed a series about environmental challenges and their affect on our gardens. Matt also guests on Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time.

Currently Matt is teaching on horticulture degree programmes at Duchy College, Cornwall, and the renowned BA (Honours) Garden Design course at University College, Falmouth.

George Kestell can trace his horticultural pedigree through at least five generations of Cornish gardeners, fruit growers, or plantsmen so it's no surprise that he has been planting things since the age of four.

His career began with industrial landscaping for the china clay industry followed by formal training at Cannington College of Horticulture in Somerset. He went on to work in various well known gardens and with landscape companies before starting his own business in 1990.

Alongside his current educational work at Duchy College in Cornwall and Schumacher College in Dartington, George is now Head Gardener at Pine Lodge Gardens in St Austell. He is a well known gardening speaker across the south west and is honorary secretary of the Cornish branch of Perennial – the gardeners' benevolent charity.

Each week one of the team joins award-winning presenter Tim Hubbard to answer listeners' gardening questions.

Tim said: "I'm delighted that George and Matt are joining the team. Having them on board will really add to the richness and range of the programme."

Gardenline is a popular Radio Cornwall programme with hundreds of callers ringing the programme for advice, texting, emailing or using the Gardenline With Tim Hubbard Facebook page.

The gardening team at Radio Cornwall is always busy. In the past they've built a listener designed garden at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, worked with Cornwall Council on the design and planting of a traffic roundabout, and appeared at countless gardening shows, question-and-answer sessions, and horticultural festivals.

Listen to Gardenline on 91Èȱ¬ Radio Cornwall 95.2fm or 103.9fm on Sundays from 9.00am, or on . Listen again to Gardenline for the following seven days on iPlayer.

NL2