Listeners to our podcast will likely really love this. There’s a great free event taking place on the first bank holiday here in the UK, from April 30th to May 2nd 2022. Planted Country is being hosted at the beautiful National Trust property here in the UK, at Stourhead with its 600 year old chestnut trees. It’s free to attend, and if you love nature, love design, good food and you love beautiful spaces, then come to Planted Country, you're going to love it.

Based around the principles of biophilic design, Planted Country will be exploring the health and creative benefits of connecting with nature, presenting sustainable design, a high-calibre talks programme entitled Save our Soil, nature-based workshops and a botanical market. The event will be exploring the importance of looking after the land for farming, for food and for nature, and the role that design can play in designing spaces which are much more sympathetic and empathetic to nature and part of our city and wildlife.

We speak with the co-founder Sam Peters and biophilic design advisor, Oliver Heath to find out how the event builds on their inaugural event, Planted Cities, which they held last year in London’s Kings Cross, and what Planted Country will explore in this more Rural setting on the Wiltshire-Somerset border.

The theme is Save our Soil

We are in a climate emergency. Planted Country is also going to be looking at things from literally what is the land beneath our feet, what is soil? Why is it so important, why should we protect it? What does it give us? What does it give the planet? What can we store in it? Conversations around carbon capture, biodiversity, water. What does farming look like in the future? How can farmers be part of the huge solution here?

There will be a series of talks, looking at regenerative farming, rewilding and more. Also exploring how architects and designers are really starting to look at local vernacular materials and the role they play in mitigating embedded carbon, as well as the beauty and sense of place they bring.

As Oliver says at the end: “It's essential. If we strengthen that connexion to nature, there are benefits for the way that we live in cities and the resilience that it can bring to the spaces that we live in, but also how it can support our physical, mental and social wellbeing. Nature plays such a fundamental role in how we're going to shape happier, healthier, more resilient futures.”

To book tickets and find out more visit:

https://planted-community.co.uk/events-country

For more information about Oliver Heath visit our previous podcasts with him, such as this one: https://journalofbiophilicdesign.com/podcast-journal-of-biophilic-design/oliver-heath-designing-a-healthy-home and https://www .oliverheath.com And our previous interview with Sam Peters who gives us a background on what Planted is all about: https://journalofbiophilicdesign.com/podcast-journal-of-biophilic-design/planted-cities

To scroll through our other podcasts, have a look here on our main podcast page.

(photos below by Ellis Reed, and Jake)