Our Chat with Muddy Boots: Australia's #1 Gardening Podcast

If you haven't wrapped your ears around Muddy Boots, then now is the time to check them out. Elisabeth and Keith have been talking all things garden since 2021 but their experience streches even further back.

Keith is a landscape designer with over 40 years experience and Elisabeth aka Garden Girl brings in her own knowledge from her hands on experience in her own garden. These two neighbours started the podcast at the behest of Keith's nephew, and haven't looked back since. The Muddy Boots Podcast encaputlates both the host passion for all things gardening, and we have been lucky enough to support them and give away a prize to their listeners each month for the past couple of years.

Dunc sat down with Keith and Elisabeth for a chat about the Plant Runner on Muddy Boots (you can listen here) but thought it would be nice to ask them both a few questions of their own.

Our chat with the Muddy Boots duo

Dunc: What inspired your love for gardening and landscaping, and how did it
evolve into hosting the Muddy Boots podcast?

Elisabeth: My love of gardening comes from the sense of peace it brings me amidst a busy and active life. It’s always been my escape — a place to slow down, reconnect, and create something beautiful.

Our previous home was an old 50s house which was very comfortable but not particularly attractive so I set out to soften and transform it by growing a pretty garden around it. It was a massive task but taught me so much about gardening and, in the end, I created something I was very proud of.

Keith lived just a few doors away and would walk past every day with his dogs. We struck up a friendship due to our mutual love of gardening and I haven’t stopped asking him questions since! At thetime, I had started an instagram page, @elisabethgardengirl, to document my gardening pursuits. Keith occasionally featured in my gardening videos which followers seemed to enjoy. After seeing one of these videos, his nephew suggested that we start a podcast as we had a good rapport in front of the camera. Hence Muddy Boots was born.

Keith: I have always been involved in Gardening, started off making Pocket Money, mowing neighbours lawns. From there it became a journey from Horticulture schooling to being a Curator of 28 acres, Design, Turf Research, Landscaping, Irrigation, Commercial and Residential construction to working at the Diggers Club. I have just loved being able to share my knowledge with others and so our friendship with Elisabeth and Brett began.

You both have such a wealth of knowledge—can you share one essential gardening tip that every beginner should know?

Elisabeth: Keith is really the knowledgeable one in this partnership and has taught me so much over the years! The most important tip that I’ve learnt from him is that a healthy garden begins with the soil. When the soil is healthy, plants are healthier, more productive and better equipped to resist pests and disease.

Keith: Gardening success is all about from the ground up. Get your soil right and the rest will enable you to have success in the garden and be rewarded.

What trends in gardening or landscaping have excited you the most
recently, and why?

Elisabeth: With Keith’s fabulous design help, we are currently building a brand new Mediterranean style garden around our new home of two years. This garden is totally different to anything I’ve ever had before with granitic sand replacing lawn and ornamental grasses, olive and bay trees, herbs and lots of flowering plants all growing
through the sandy landscape. It’s definitely a modern look which suits our modernist style home and I’m loving it!

Keith: I love using Perennial plants and trialling new varieties in my own garden. If they perform I love using them in my designs. I love the fact that so many people of my clients are so interested in growing their own food in their gardens, from vegetable gardens to food forests.

For readers who might feel daunted by larger landscaping projects, how would you recommend they start small yet meaningful in their own spaces?

Elisabeth: I’ve often felt daunted by the amount of work required, especially when starting a garden from scratch. I think the best way to cope with that is by concentrating on one area at a time and enjoying and appreciating every stage as the garden starts to grow. Then move onto the next area.

Keith: Designing gardens is my love and my profession, so my designs are a clients total garden layout. This then allows them to build their own garden (or have it done professionally) at their pace and budget. A plan gives you a place to start and by following the specifications, do it right.

Sustainability is a big topic—what are your go-to eco-friendly gardening practices, and how can listeners incorporate these at home?

Elisabeth: On Muddy Boots, we bang on constantly about the benefits of organic gardening as opposed to using harmful chemicals in the garden. There are so many things that we can do naturally to build a healthy garden. Growing your own food, composting kitchen waste, owning a worm farm, mulching, planting native and pollinator
friendly plants and using organic pest control are a few of those practices which are easy to do and all positive for our gardens and the environment.

Keith: Elisabeth says it all. We are always pushing the sustainable ways togarden.

Over the course of the podcast, what has been your most memorable or impactful conversation with a guest?

Elisabeth: That’s a difficult question as we’ve had so many wonderful guests since the podcast began four years ago, each with a particular gardening passion. One guest that does stand out for me though is Bec Djordjevic from Munash Organics. The amount of
passion that shone from Bec as she waxed lyrical about soil health and plant nutrition was incredible. She is a fabulous girl who, with her partner, Shan, has created an amazing business!

Keith: I have enjoyed so many of our guests, but the standout for me was Matt King from FD Ryan gardening tools. With his wonderful son James they make Handmade gardening tools here in a factory in Melbourne that was part of the family business many generations ago with its beginnings as a Blacksmiths. They make the best range of
long lasting, innovative and old fashioned tools that are the test of time. Hand forged, ergonomic, tempered steel heads with thick eucalyptus handles for the next generation to use and enjoy.

How has hosting the Muddy Boots podcast influenced your approach
to gardening or landscaping?

Elisabeth: Thanks to my clever partner, Keith, I learn something new from every podcast we record. From the very beginning, I decided that I would play the role of the home gardener (which I am!) asking the questions of the professional gardener and landscape
consultant. My approach to gardening hasn’t changed but I hope it’s improved significantly.

Keith: Sharing my gardening knowledge with listeners to help them enjoy
their efforts in the garden.

Is there a moment from the show that you found particularly funny or
surprising, whether from a guest or your own experiences?

Elisabeth: We are always having funny moments or bloopers! I do remember Keith having a little run in with a listener about something slightly negative he may have said about Jim’s Mowing. As a result, we had the owner, Jim Penman, on the show a few weeks later. Keith apologised and we ended up having a fabulous chat with Jim.

Keith: Listening to guests and always learning something new.

What do you see as the future of sustainable gardening, and how
can everyday gardeners support this movement?

Elisabeth: I believe that gardeners should choose organic methods of gardening by
composting, mulching, using natural pest deterrents like Neem oil,companion planting and insect-attracting plants. Avoid using synthetic fertilisers, herbicides, and pesticides. These can harm beneficial insects, leach into waterways, and degrade soil health.

Keith: Discovering new products that offer a real impact for the gardener and can change a way to garden. Lignite Humate is just one example that is front of mind. This is best known as Brown Coal, that dirty coal from the Yallorn/Moe area. Used as a soil amendment this product can change the way we garden. 20% is Carbon which can increase soil moisture by 200%, hold and lock in nutrients, while the other 80% is Humate, which is the building block for life. This product has the ability to build a soils capacity for food production in so many ways and in so many of the poor soils we have in this country.

Indoor plants have become incredibly popular —what are your absolute favourites in your own homes, and why?

Elisabeth: I love my indoor plants as they add colour and life to our home. They are all very happy and healthy because they are well loved and fed with the fabulous products from our great friends at The Plant Runner! My absolute favourite is the Chinese money plant or pilea peperomioides. I love the circular shape of the leaves, the way they fall and bounce and the fact that they are so easy to divide and share with friends.

Keith: I love the large leaves of Cardamon, Galangal and Turmeric plants,
which we rotate in large pots in the house and the hothouse.

How do you incorporate greenery into your home decor, and do you have any tips for striking the right balance between aesthetics and thriving plants?

Elisabeth: We recently had a book shelf built as a room divider. The plants look fabulous placed amongst the books and we can view them from all angles. We are still looking for paintings and furnishings to add to the house and there is one corner that is crying out for some greenery. I think a large plant might work. A fiddle leaf fig perhaps?

Keith: The indoors is my wife’s domain, she is the stylist and uses plants in cast iron urns, large antique jardinières and other antique reciprocals such Copper trays. The plants and their pots are the whole of a display.

If a beginner wanted to add just one indoor plant to their space, which one would you recommend and why?

Elisabeth: I would definitely recommend the Chinese money plant. It is so tough, so easy to care for and it keeps on giving.

Keith: I love the Cardamon plant for its strong vertical leaf emphasis, and a crushed leaf added to a Gin and Tonic is a taste bonus.

If you were a plant, which would best represent your personality and why?

Elisabeth: This is a challenging question! I adore all varieties of hydrangeas, especially the mop head or macrophylla variety, so would hope to be likened to these beautiful plants. They have their moments of quiet while dormant in Winter and then spring to life through Spring and Summer. I tend to be active and busy in spurts and then crave peace and quiet. The lush green leaves of the hydrangea create a sense of softness and shelter around the flowers just as I try to create a feeling of peace and calm around our home. The huge stunning flowers stop people in their tracks with their magnificent beauty. Not sure that I do that but I’d like to!

Keith: Kalanchoe beharensis. Structural and tactile and both a plant and a pet with soft velvety leaves and textured trunk. Lovely in the wet weather with its leaves catching water and channelling it down in single mini waterfalls. There’s a lot going on.

Do either of you have a 'green confession'—a gardening habit or plant care myth you believed in for far too long?

Elisabeth: I have multiple boxes of Epsom salts in our shed as I believed it was useful for various gardening jobs including nutrient absorbency, leaf health and as a pest deterrent. I’ve since learnt that there are better alternatives for these things but I’ve held onto
them…just in case!

Keith: I have a very large and very expensive mulcher that I justify having instead of a Green Bin. I mulch all my perennials, fruit tree pruning’s and return this back into the soil.

Ok, final question. If a reader could only take away one piece of advice from
everything you've learned and shared, what would it be?

Elisabeth: My one piece of advice is to give gardening a go as you will love it! It allows you to nurture life, create something beautiful and find peace in the simple, hands-on act of growing.

Keith: Soil is life.