10 Nov 2026, 6:30pm - 7:30pm

Garden Museum

Booking information

£25 Standard
£20 Friends
£20 Young Fronds
£10 Livestream

All our live streams are recorded so you have the choice to watch the event live or enjoy at a later time that suits you on the same link. When you make your purchase, you will be sent the viewing link and password in your order confirmation email.

Book Tickets BOOK LIVE STREAM
James Alexander-Sinclair and Joe Swift debate whether it is better to garden in a city or in the wilds of the country. 

Both began as landscapers in London and have now migrated to the country (Joe to Dorset and James to Oxfordshire). Do they miss the urban bustle? What are the best and worst bits of sprawling acres? For a start there are no deer in London (yet) and the rural foxes have much better manners.

Nobody is absolutely sure where they will end up but expect a conversation about vertical gardening, sit on lawn mowers, how much ground elder is too much, is it possible to carry compost bags on the tube and similar existential dilemmas.

There will also be time for questions although there are two very strict rules:

  • No dead plants – if it is dead, you killed it: take some responsibility.
  • No dull questions.

We are here for questions about revenge, tattoos, historical fantasies, design, and anything that requires counselling.

It will be a fun evening. As Mary Keen says “I love the James and Joe show, because they always manage to say some quite profound things, while being seriously silly.”

Speakers