Journey through the 35-year evolution of the O'Mahony Garden, a stunning landscape on the Cork-Limerick border that transforms an ordinary plot into five distinctive garden spaces, each with its own personality and purpose.
Siobhan O'Mahony shares her gardening journey that began with essential shelter planting and gradually expanded into a thoughtfully designed landscape. The original garden focuses on low-maintenance shrubs and trees punctuated with seasonal bulbs, while the aptly named "kitchen garden" outside their kitchen door bursts with vibrant hot colours year-round. Perhaps most remarkable is the transformation of their sons' football pitch into borders with distinct colour themes – cool calming blues and pinks in one area contrasting with rich wine and magenta tones in another.
The garden continues to evolve with newer areas including a practical raised bed vegetable garden featuring container-grown raspberries and a young woodland planted with 28 Himalayan birches (Betula jacquemontii) underplanted with specialist snowdrops and spring flowering bulbs. Adjacent to this, an annual wildflower meadow delivers spectacular summer colour without demanding maintenance.
Siobhan's practical wisdom resonates throughout the conversation – from her colour-themed planting approaches to her strategic use of containers to maintain continuous displays near the house. Her advice for new gardeners is refreshingly realistic: focus on trees and shrubs for structure and lower maintenance, then concentrate colourful, higher-maintenance planting in smaller areas where it can be enjoyed daily.
The garden welcomes visitors three times annually and hosts workshops on container gardening, vegetable growing and flower arranging. Whether you're starting your own garden journey or looking for inspiration to refine an existing space, this episode offers practical strategies for creating beautiful, manageable gardens that bring joy throughout the seasons.
Visit O Mahony Garden information here:
If there is any topic you would like covered in future episodes, please let me know.
Email: info@mastermygarden.com
Master My Garden Courses:
https://mastermygarden.com/courses/
Check out Master My Garden on the following channels
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mastermygarden/
Instagram @Mastermygarden https://www.instagram.com/mastermygarden/
Until next week
Happy gardening
John
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
how's it going everybody, and welcome to
episode 272 of master, my gardenpodcast.
Now, this week's episode is isone that I've been looking
forward to.
So we mentioned every time,every year around this time we
start to get back into the opengarden features and, as I
mentioned, open gardens are kindof inspirational for people who
are gardening at home.
They go to these beautiful opengardens, they generally speak
(00:35):
and talk to the creators ofthese gardens and they see
things that they can sort oftake home and replicate or you
adapt to their own gardens.
So, as I said, areinspirational these open gardens
, and this week I am headingdown to the Cork Limerick border
and I'm talking to Siobhan fromthe O'Mahony garden.
(00:56):
So the O'Mahony garden isdeveloped by Siobhan and Mossie
and it's a garden that has beendeveloped over 35 years.
It's a garden that I haven'tvisited, but really looking
forward to hearing the story.
Siobhan and mossy run coursesdown there as well, so they run
things like the container, thesummer container course, the
vegetables for beginners course,a christmas reed making courses
(01:20):
and, I'm sure, many, many more.
So, yeah, the garden itselfseems to be, from looking on
Instagram, huge amount of colorand you know all the different
windows, but there seems to be abig mix.
So we have a new woodland area.
From what I can see, there'sthe color of the tulips at the
moment and there seems to bevarious different areas.
So Siobhan is going to tell usall about that now.
(01:43):
So, siobhan, you very, verywelcome to Master my Garden
podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Thanks, john, and thanks for thanks for inviting
me.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Yeah, so yeah, we were just talking before we
started recording about thebeautiful weather we're having,
so we're all having a greatstart to the gardening year.
I'm sure it's the same with youguys.
Your garden looking at yourpictures on Instagram is awash
with color even at the moment,but it's not something I guess
that has just popped upovernight.
As your website says, you'redeveloping this for 35 years, so
(02:13):
maybe give us a little bit ofthe kind of backstory of of the
O'Mahony garden and we'll takethrough the talk to the various
areas then.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
OK, well, we were here about 35, 36 years um, and
when we, when we started reallywe just started we needed to put
in shelter because we're, youknow, we're quite, we're quite
um open.
So our first, our first taskreally was to put in our shelter
.
So we put in lots of trees andwe put in hedging and then then
(02:45):
we started with the main area ofthe garden.
We have five areas to thegarden.
We have what we call theoriginal garden and then we have
a little area at the back, andthen we had a little vegetable
patch and then we took over theBayes football pitch there a few
years ago, and the latestproject is the woodland
vegetable patch.
And then we took over the Baezfootball pitch there a few years
ago, and the latest project isthe woodland.
(03:07):
But, um, I suppose we started.
We started gardening reallyfrom the, you know, from the
first year that we came in um I.
It was developed over the years.
I didn't have a lot of time, um, at the beginning I was working
in Cork, so I was commuting toCork and so really I was a
summer gardener until about fiveor six years ago.
And then I got really interested.
(03:28):
I did Jimmy Blake's PlantsPerson's course about five years
ago and previous to that I didsome classes with Helen Dillon.
Helen actually was my idol.
I started watching her 35, 36years ago on television and I
(03:51):
loved her planting style and Iloved her colour combinations
and my colour.
I garden by colour and Isuppose it started really from
seeing Helen's garden youmentioned there.
You know about visiting othergardens and getting inspiration
and that's where my inspirationcame from.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Yeah, yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a great story, it's
it's.
I suppose it's it's a kind ofcommon theme that I hear on the
podcast, not necessarily withopen garden features on the
podcast, um, not necessarilywith open garden features, but
with people who are you know whoare who are doing nice gardens
and at their own homes.
And you start off, you have asite that's open and you get the
(04:35):
trees around it in the shelterand a lot of people, actually a
lot of the open gardens, havesaid that that was the first
thing and the the so at thestart you didn't have much time,
which is kind of common at themoment and probably even more so
at the start.
You didn't have much time,which is kind of common at the
moment and probably even more soat the moment.
You know there's so much goingon for, I suppose, especially
younger families, they've somuch going on running around
(04:55):
with football and work and allthe different things that are
going on and time.
You know people, people aresummer gardeners essentially
because of that.
But were you interested ingardening from day one, or is it
something that has developedover the years?
Speaker 2 (05:11):
no, I was interested from day one.
My mother actually had a lovelygarden and, um, she, she was
always gardening and even Iremember having, you know, I
think, even just a tiny patch.
I just wanted a tiny patch athome so I could set my own
flowers yeah and so it.
It stems from there.
I was just the minute.
I was more.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
I was more, probably more interested in the garden
than I was in the houseinitially yeah but made lots of
mistakes along the way and sowhen you started out, there was
no grand plan.
So you're, you're on about anacre and you got the.
You got the shelter built inoriginally, but was there?
Had you?
(05:51):
Did you have a vision sort ofhow it would develop?
Or has the vision changed overthe years?
Speaker 2 (05:56):
we were actually, I suppose we were gardening for
three or four years and, um, Isuppose I lost.
I lost a lot of stuff, like Istarted by putting in two beds
of roses, um, and I lost everyone of them because of the you
know the wind, um, so we, afterabout three or four years, we
went to late brian cross and hedrew up a plan just for the
(06:19):
original garden.
So at least we had a plan thento work on and that was, uh, you
know, again, putting in.
We could put in beds then, andborders as we could afford them,
and and mossy, mossy did allthe, the building and the hard,
the hard landscaping, and itreally stemmed from there.
So the first few years that'swhat we were working on.
(06:41):
We had a plan for just that onearea and then I suppose that
gave us confidence then to startworking on the other areas and
developing the other areasourselves yeah, that's a
brilliant point that you knowyou you started off.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
You don't have a sort of grand plan for the place,
but you you start planting inroses.
You figure out that that's notworking.
But then you go off and get your, your, your overall plan done
or a sort of a vision done forthe place, but you, you start
planting in roses, you figureout that that's not working.
But then you go off and getyour, your, your overall plan
done or a sort of a vision donefor the place and then you add
in the beds as you can afford,as you said yourself at that
time, and that's absolutely andthat's quite typical of you know
(07:18):
people in this situation, andit is it is a really good thing
to do is to get a design plan, aplanting plan, even if it's
only a sketch of your, of yourown doing that you have and it
can change and it can maneuverover the years.
But if you, if you do have akind of a grand idea of this is
what I'd like in 10 years timeand this is what we can start
with and it gives you somethingthat there's a kind of a
(07:40):
progression plan and, as yousaid, you do one bed, it's
successful, and then yourconfidence grows and you're able
to do more.
Then maybe you're able to startpropagating your own plants, so
it becomes easier to do.
These beds are more accessibleto do these beds.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
So, yeah, that that's a great point um, well, I found
at least when you have a planlike that, originally, like I
was going, we originally I wasgoing to put the pond in at the
bottom of the garden, but in theplan he put it in at the front
of the garden so that you couldsee it, and so at least where we
didn't stick to the exactly tothe planting plans but we stuck
(08:19):
to where we should put the bedsand I think that was that was a
great help yeah, and obviouslythen you started with roses and
they didn't do well.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
So Helen Dillon has famously said right plant, right
place.
I'm not sure if it was if itwas her phrase originally.
But she, she always said thatin her, you know, in her writing
and in her, in her, in her tvwork she always said right plant
, right place.
And I suppose you started tofind out that and that's kind of
different for every garden tooyou, I think you learn.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
You learn as you go along and you know a plant um
might do very well in a place umyou know, and uh, it mightn't
do very well in another place,and then you could buy the same,
the same plant and put itsomewhere else and it might do
really well.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
So it's trial and error really yeah, and that can
be within a garden as well as indifferent gardens, so you could
have a spot in your garden thatsomething just doesn't do well
in, move it to another spot withmore suitable conditions and
away it goes and it can be verysuccessful.
So, and it does take a littlebit of time probably to figure
that out in your own garden.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
And, yeah, it's, it's important, it's important piece
as well I remember actuallybuying a verbena, um, and you
know, I really at the time I Iwasn't really into putting the
right place at the, the rightplant to the right place, and I
planted this verbena in a damp,shady corner and wondering later
why it died.
Now I understand yeah yeah.
(09:44):
So now I always, I would, I mayalways um check the the label of
a plant and check to seewhether it's a a sunny or shade,
or whether it is dry or wetyeah, yeah, no, it's, it's
hugely important and I thinkthat is that's something maybe
that gardeners beginnergardeners maybe fall down on.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
As well as that, they they go into a garden center
and they shop with their eyesand this looks beautiful.
I'll stick that there.
This looks beautiful.
I'll stick that there.
As you say, flip around theback of that label, just see,
yeah, I prefer full sun.
Well, am I getting that whereI'm putting it?
And it's just little basicthings like that can help a lot.
So the garden as it is today,pretend I'm going to go on a
(10:25):
virtual tour now and arrive atat your front door and maybe
talk us through the areas of thegarden okay, so, um, the, as I
said, the original garden um isabout maybe, maybe half an acre
and, as I said, we originallyput in hedging and trees.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Now the hedging back then was lalande and we've
started to take that out becauseit's starting to die back, and
so in this area it's mainlyshrubs and trees, because I want
low maintenance here, becausethere's there's high maintenance
in two of the gardens, you knowwhere you have the herbaceous
(11:09):
beds.
So, I'm trying to cut down andwork in this area.
So we have a pond and which issurrounded by azaleas and
rhododendrons.
We're lucky enough, actually,we're neutral to acid soil so we
can grow these plants.
So my spring borders thesewould be mainly my spring
(11:33):
borders I concentrate on some.
You know I don't have springbulbs in all the borders.
I concentrate on some of theborders and plant these up with
bulbs.
So then there's another bedthat it's actually a bed of
white hydrangeas and box ballsand blue salvias.
(11:56):
So that starts in February withlots of snowdrops and then it
has the crocus in February andthen we're on to the tulips.
At the minute Now I'm buildingthe layers of bulbs in these
beds.
So we'll say, at the moment Isee the tulips, you know it
needs more tulips, so I'll plantin more tulips next year.
(12:19):
And then it's followed by a bedof blue alliums, globemaster I
find Globemaster a really goodone because it's really good in
the wind, it's got good strongstems and then it's followed on
by the white paniculatahydrangeas.
So I suppose that's theoriginal garden.
And then the next garden is whatwe call our kitchen garden.
(12:44):
Now, it's not veg, it's notfruit and veg.
We call it our kitchen gardenbecause it's just outside our
kitchen door and the color themeit's circular.
It was a curved garden.
This is quite a small area so Iwas looking, you know.
Again, you talk aboutinspiration.
I was looking at a magazine oneday and I see this beautiful
(13:08):
circular garden.
I think it was Joe Thompson'sgarden in Chelsea and I went out
and I changed the lawn to acircle so it gave us more
planting space.
So the color scheme really forthis garden is all vibrant
colors.
You know, the oranges, the reds, the yellows, the purples,
really vibrant, a mix of colours.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Kind of your hot border, as they call them these
days.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Yes, because we're looking out at this all the time
.
So you know it's important tohave colour here all the time.
And just outside the patio doorwe have a little pond, a little
water feature, a small littlecircular water feature.
Again, I was in Chelsea what?
30 years ago, and this is theone thing I brought home from it
(13:52):
.
I saw this little.
I still have the photograph.
I brought home this picture ofthis little pond.
So that's what we have there.
So that's the circular garden,that's what we have there, so
that's the circular garden.
And then the other big garden,really the main one, is what we
call the pitch, and this was theboys football pitch up to about
(14:16):
five years ago.
So we started by putting in onebed and taking a goalpost and
then we put in and then tookanother goalpost and put in
another bed, and so the in thisborder.
It's quite a big, quite a bigarea.
And again, I started with mycurved borders and initially I
(14:38):
grew lots of herbaceous.
As you know, it's quiteexpensive to buy plants to fill
a big border.
So I grew lots of the plantsfrom seed, lots of lupins and
achilles and things like that.
And again, watching TVGardener's World one night I was
looking at this lovely gardenrectangular with borders on both
(15:05):
sides.
So I again went out with thebamboos and the twine and
straightened my borders.
So uh, it's here.
Then I decided to um, you know,put in different colored borders
.
So one border, probably myfavorite border, is this lovely,
cool, cool colours the palepinks, the pale blues and the
(15:27):
whites, so it's really calmingborder.
And then on the other side weput in peach and peach and
salmons, and then to contrastthat, we put in, you know, whiny
and magenta colours.
And so again we're building onthese beds and adding more
plants all the time.
And also in this border then,or in this garden, is a white
(15:52):
border.
So it's quite difficult togarden in the white border
because there's a line of limetrees.
As I said, it was never meant tobe a garden and if we knew it
was going to be a garden, we'dnever have put in these lime
trees.
But anyway, the ground isreally really poor and dry.
(16:12):
So I really it's survival ofthe fittest here.
So I try to put in whateverwill grow.
Well, I just add more and moreof it.
So, and then there's a bigpatio, is where we, you know,
where we sit out and we have a areally good size um patio and
(16:34):
um in front of that, then goingonto the lawn of two narrow beds
, and I was hoping that we couldhave lavender.
You know two, two beds oflavender, but obviously we're a
heavy clay tile so lavenderdoesn't really do well, so I've
put in Nepata Persian Blue.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Oh yeah, brilliant.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
It gives the same effect.
It's like a bed of lavender.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
So again in these beds, actually, I have lots of
roses, believe it or not, butthey're the shrub roses and they
do really well here, the shrubroses.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Yeah, Can we take a?
We're going to reverse back tothese three gardens first.
So on these borders, youmentioned the white border,
which is a little bit difficultunder the lime trees.
You mentioned the salmon typecolours, so maybe just give us a
flavour of the plants thatwe're going to find in the
salmon colour border, in themagenta purple border, and was
(17:30):
it a bluey calming border thatyou mentioned?
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Yeah, yeah, so in the cool colours, in the pale pinks
and the blue border at themoment I'm looking out here at
the moment, at the moment thereis.
I don't have a lot in any ofthese borders at the minute
because I concentrate on summercolour.
So the pink border there isn'ta lot there, there's just
(17:53):
Brunnera really at the minute,and following on from that then
I have Peonies and LupinsTeletrum and lupins telictrum,
and then following on from thatI would have the roses, olivia
Rose Austin, which is a lovely,really pale rose, and lots of
(18:14):
phloxes in here.
I love phlox.
You know, the lovely pale pinksand the pale blues and lots of
dahlias in here.
So at the moment I have all thedahlias potted up in the tunnel
and I put them out the end ofApril.
So lots of the pale pinks andthe mauves and the white dahlias
(18:36):
in here and I also growanterinum from seed.
Actually I planted some of themout now the other day.
So I have the pale pink and thewhite in the pale pink border
and I would have fox gloves inthere as well and I also have
for next month I would have thesweet rocket and I grow that
(18:58):
from seed as well.
So that's they're the mainplants and then I've dotted.
Actually, in that particularbed I have a very special plant
and it's um a diorama that I gotfrom Helen Dillon's garden wow,
angel, swish and rod yes, yes,yeah yeah, brilliant, and you
got that as a little plant, wasit?
um, I got it on her sales tableat one of her you know one of um
(19:22):
one of when I was up therebrilliant, yeah, yeah, no, that
that'd be nice, and they'rebrilliant plants notoriously
slow to grow oh, yeah, yeah,yeah, yeah.
They have to.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
They have to light the the spot they're in yeah,
you know, I saw them from seed afew years ago and um I'm not
very slow I'm not the mostpatient person, and they were
sold at the same time, as youknow, loads of other things like
uh, achillea and uh what elsewas there for being a bonner?
eight boranians and all of thoseat the same time, and I was
(19:56):
looking at this little little,tiny little green stem coming up
out of ground for months andmonths and months.
So no, very, very.
You need a lot of patience forthem, but they're when they're
when they're fully formed,they're beautiful they are
amazing and I love actually, um,I love there's a really dark
one called blackbird okay it's areally, really dark one.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
I like these dark colors as well, but I have one
of them.
I bought two, actually, but onewas you know it didn't.
They're only across from eachother, only a metre from each
other.
But one did really well and theother just died on me.
So yeah, they are finicky.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Yeah, definitely finicky.
Funny it does.
About 100 metres away fromthere's an old cottage, it's
actually there's about 100meters away from there's an old
cottage, it's actually there'snobody living in it anymore, but
there's there's, uh, five orsix clumps of angels fishing rod
up on, up on kind of old stonewalls.
Yes, they're absolutely class.
Uh, yeah, I don't know how longago they're planted, but
(20:56):
they're just class there.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Yeah, beautiful yeah, they do like poor ground,
actually, because oneself-seeded on my gravel yard
right, yeah, and grew away there, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Um, stepping back into the very first garden you
mentioned, so you were going forthe lower maintenance shrub
type rather than the perennialborders, but you're utilizing
you're obviously utilizing bulbsto give you that color and and
some hydrangeas yeah, yeah um,how do you find you mentioned
that you're?
At the moment, your tulips areout but you're looking to build
up the stock there.
Are you sort of planting tulipsevery year, are you?
(21:31):
Are you looking for the themore long-term tulips?
Speaker 2 (21:35):
or the perennial tulips, and I in there at the
moment I have um ballerina and Ithink negrita is probably the
best.
Negrita is brilliant to comeback and I have I think it's
national velvet, which is a youknow.
So I wanted all these umvelvety colors, but I found that
there was something lacking.
So actually I added um, youknow, I grow them some, I grow,
(21:59):
I grow tulips in pots as well,so I'll take them when they have
finished flowering in the pots,I'll put them into the bed.
But I've put in.
I think it's a daydream.
Is it daydream?
I can't think.
Yeah, I think daydream is kindof an orangey yellow and I have
tried it now, you know, puttingit into the border and it's
after lifting the colours.
(22:20):
But I just need to add more,like I have.
I've more negrita in pots formy pot display.
So, um, I'll transfer them intothe beds when they finish
flowering and they'll be therefor next year yeah, yeah, yeah,
and it is.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
I think that's important.
I know a lot of people usetulips for for that spring color
and obviously they're, theylook class.
But the the ones that, the onesthat are dying off after one
year it's kind of hard to seehow that's.
You know you really should belooking for the ones that are
going to come back, theperennial type ones.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Definitely the perennial ones for the borders.
And I buy the you know thefancy ones for the pots, but I'd
also grow the perennial ones inthe pots.
But I'd also grow the, theperennial ones in the pots, so
that I can add to my borderswherever there's gaps yeah, and.
I do the same with the.
You know the daffodils, andactually daffodils.
I only plant the miniaturedaffodils in in the borders
(23:14):
because you know the way youhave to wait for their leaves to
die back yes and the big leavesare to take too long so you
actually don't notice they.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
They they miniature leaves yeah, and and if you're
in a windy garden, which I'msure you're not at this stage
with your, with your um it'spretty windy enough at times
it's windy enough, is it?
Yeah, then, the smaller onesare obviously they do, you do
better, they're a little bitsturdier.
Yeah, for sure.
Um, you mentioned globebemasteras your allium.
(23:43):
That's another brilliant one.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Yeah, I did put in Purple Sensation.
And Purple Sensation didn't youknow?
Some people talk about PurpleSensation being even a weed,
that is.
You know it spread so much.
But I didn't find it did wellwith me at all but, the dope
master is coming back you knowit's coming back now for the
(24:06):
third year, so yeah, it's a goodtest, brilliant.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
So, and then the the pitch that got that got changed.
You mentioned the differentborders there, so we're heading
for the fourth garden after that.
So where are we heading for now?
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Oh, yes, it's the vegetable area which is raised
beds.
There's six raised beds inthere and I have a little glass
house as well.
So I'm just getting ready now,really the beds, to plant out a
lot of the you know the veg, toplant out a lot of the you know
(24:42):
the veg.
Again, I have the brassicas,the legumes, and then the roots,
the roots and alliums together.
So I think you know the croprotation is important.
And then in the other beds Ihave, I actually have a
miniature or a small or acontainer grown raspberry and
(25:03):
it's doing really really well.
I did have raspberries out inthe ground and, as you know,
they just go.
They just go everywhere.
They were coming up everywhere.
So I got container grownraspberries from Mr Middleton
online and they're doing reallywell.
I actually had them in a bucketfor the first two or three
years because I had no place forthem and they still survived.
(25:25):
So they produce lots of fruit.
And then I have another onewith blueberries and another one
with strawberries.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
And these are all containers.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Sorry, raised beds actually.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Raised beds yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Yeah, they're container grown, you know
they're suitable for containers,but they're grown in raised
beds.
Raised beds, yeah, yeah,they're container grown, you
know they're.
They're containers, but they'regrown in raised beds.
I find the, the raised beds umreally easy to um to garden and
in the in the glass house, thenI grow the tomatoes and the
cucumbers and the um what else?
Speaker 1 (25:58):
as peppers yeah, yeah , brilliant, and the, the
raspberry that you mentioned.
So that is that is.
That is one that like, anytimeanyone puts it into the garden,
especially the autumn one, itgoes, it goes wild.
And you do have to like.
I was only doing that lastsaturday myself.
I have three autumn gold in ain a ground bed and they're
popping up three, four, fivemeters away, yeah, yeah so I'm
(26:22):
chopping the chopping the groundin between and trying to pull
them up.
But yeah, it does.
It takes a little bit of workto keep manners on them.
But container grown ones thethe standard varieties in
containers.
They can be hit and miss, butif you have a variety that's
specifically for containers thisis the bush variety now and,
(26:42):
like I, get fruit every yearbrilliant.
And yeah, you probably have togive it a little bit of a feed,
I presume earlier in the seasonum, well, I I the feed I
normally use.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
I I feed um all the borders, I feed everything with
a style renew, feed the styleyou know to improve, the style
improve or style renew.
I find that really good becauseour soil would have been quite
poor here and this is my fourthyear using it and I find it
really good.
That's interesting now.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Yeah, the reason, the reason it's interesting is I've
seen the product before, butI've never, I've never, used it.
And a couple of weeks ago atthe, the glda conference, I was
talking to the, the man there,and he gave me a sample bag to
try.
Yes, so I have tried it on twovegetable beds, just I didn't
put it on them all, I wanted totry it on two, just to see.
Was there?
Speaker 2 (27:28):
could I see any kind of a difference?
Well, I'm using it now withfour, about four years, and
there's a huge improvement in mystyle.
Um, and you know, it's a bucket.
A 10 kg bucket is theequivalent of spreading three
tons of manure, so this is mucheasier.
This is much easier, you'regetting the benefit.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
You're getting the benefit of the microbes and so
on, but obviously with a lotless material.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Actually, where I first heard of it was Helen
Dillons, and when I did classeswith Helen, I suppose five or
six years ago now, and she wasusing it and she said that they
used to use it in the botanicalgardens.
So if they, she said, if theyuse it, there must be good.
But I do.
I've like the, the soil nowwhere I use it, like there's
(28:16):
lots of worms and activity andthe soil has really loosened up.
So, as well as that, then I usemy seaweed as well, and I use
the liquid seaweed quite a lot,and then for the vegetable beds,
I would give them an organicfertilizer about a fortnight
before I'd start plantinganything.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Yeah, brilliant, yeah , so in that.
So that's the.
So we've kind of four of thegardens covered then and there's
a fifth garden.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
That's the newest area.
It wasn't even there this timelast year At the end of April.
Actually we put it in.
It's a woodland and it's twoareas in one really, because
it's the woodland and there'salso a wildflower meadow and
actually there's also.
We put in a.
Really I also do cut flowergarden and I do a cut flower
(29:11):
garden workshop, so I grow allthe, we do the workshop in
February, so we grow all theseed in February and then it's
ready to go out at the end ofApril.
So this year or last year I'veput the cut flower garden into a
very long raised bed.
So that's in this area as well.
So the wildflower meadow we'llprobably set the seed now, in
(29:34):
another week or two, but I likethe wildflower meadow, the
classic one, the poppies, thecornflowers.
There's no grass in the mix,it's just all flowers.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
So are you going with an annual mix or are you going
with an annual and perennialAnnual?
So you're going to do annualand so on a yearly basis.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Yeah, last year.
You know we did a small testthe year before with just a very
small area.
But now what I did last year, Iactually collected a lot of my
seed, so I have a lot of seedfrom from last year.
I'll just probably buy, maybeyou know, a packet or two of
seed, but I have a lot of theseed gathered from from last
(30:22):
year and um also.
Here then is the woodland Ilove.
I love woodland and springplants.
So we put in 28 um birches,jack monti, yeah, and that's
under planted then and likethere's, there's only a very
light canopy on it at the minute.
So I'm sure it will take fouror five years, you know to to to
(30:43):
look to look anything.
So that's under planted thenwith lots of spring bulbs, again
hellebores and um, lots ofwoodlandy plants that like shade
and so that's the newest area.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
We might go back to the wildflower meadow in a
second.
So it's from looking at it onon your, on your instagram page.
You have uh, I think it's woodchip pathways through the
woodland, is it?
Speaker 2 (31:07):
um, just uh, no, there's.
There's wood chip actually onthe on the the side borders oh,
is that what it was down thewide, the weeds yeah yeah, so
you have these 20-somethingJackmontais gone in.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
They're going to grow beautiful over the next few
years, tall white stems andunder-planted.
You have helibores.
What else have you got in there?
Speaker 2 (31:31):
It starts again with snowdrops.
I like gathering snowdrops, Ilike the different varieties,
not just for the sake of havingso many different varieties, but
I just like the different ones,particularly the yellow ones
like Spindlestone, surprise andMadeline in these.
So I have about 20, I suppose20, 25 varieties of Snowdrop.
(31:53):
So I've planted them all inhere.
And then it starts again withthe crocuses.
Put in Species Crocus, and I'veput in what else?
Lots of hellebores, yes, andferns.
actually, what I've put in aswell for the summer is a
(32:14):
miniature hydrangeas I didn'twant the big hydrangeas because
they would be too big, because Ido love hydrangeas, but I've
got a miniature ones which Ithink will only grow about two,
two feet high.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Time will tell yeah, yeah, that'll be nice, yeah, and
that'll be.
That'll be something that willchange over the next few years
and, as you say, as the canopyfills out and it becomes more
shaded as a woodland, you'll seethe changes.
Brilliant, yeah.
And wildflower meadow is annualmix, you know poppies,
cornflowers and so on.
Yeah, that'll be a real, realpop of colour.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Oh, it was amazing last year.
A real pop of colour.
Oh, it was amazing last year.
Now we did make, I suppose, amistake last year in that we
tore back all the sile from thetop sile, but actually we're
very rocky.
There was rock jutting up inparts of it.
So, we actually had to bringback in some of the sile for
(33:11):
this year.
So we actually had to bringback in some of the soil for
this year.
So we brought in another inchor two of soil this year.
But, it was amazing.
Last year it was probably myfavourite, one of my favourite
parts of the garden.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
you know, mid-summer- yeah, yeah, and we didn't even
necessarily have a wonderfulsummer weather-wise for
wildflowers, but still, yeah,you'd have a lot of flower in in
year one with all that, allthose annuals, and you mentioned
earlier the taken out of thelalandais um yes, and I think
you said it's kind of stillongoing or there's some taken
(33:45):
out, but not them all yeah, we,there was a lalande um.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
It was actually dividing the original garden and
the football pitch, and so westarted taking it out in this
area and by the time we got downto the corner of the football
pitch it was a really windy dayand we said if we took the rest
of it we'd have had no shelter.
So we took out this area justin the dividing the pitch and
(34:14):
the original garden, and we putin a double beach.
And so now when we look out ofour living room, we're looking
down as a seat, we look throughthe double beach and there's a
seat at the bottom, whereasbefore we were just looking out
this big green blob.
Yeah, so um.
So in the meantime then, we'veplanted a white torn um, a white
(34:35):
torn hedge on on the farm sideum of the, of the rest of it,
and when this, when this matures, then we'll take the rest of
the, the lalande yeah, yeah,yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
So, yeah, I was only talking to somebody about
yesterday, but they were takingout lalande as well, yeah, so,
yeah, I was only talking tosomebody about yesterday, but
they were taking out lalande aswell.
And uh, yes, they were all togo and they were recommended by
everybody at the time, but butthere wasn't anything available
back then.
Really, it was either greenlalande or yellow lalande yeah,
private that was very littlechoice yeah, there wasn't much
choice and and I suppose whatpeople were looking for at that
(35:11):
time was they were looking toscreen areas quickly, and it
definitely did that because itwas so fast yeah, yeah, sure you
could.
You could plant a hedge andhave it fully formed in three or
four years it was.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
It was, it was giving shelter in three or four years
yeah, yeah, which which is kindof unheard of really.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
Now, you know you, there's very little else, yeah
well, well, the beach we bought.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Actually we, we um bought beach, um what?
Five foot high.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
So we've been instant hedge, instant hedge, yeah,
yeah we're buying time at thisstage yeah, and we mentioned at
the start that some of thecourses that you're doing, so
tell us about some of those.
I know you have quite a nicekind of classroom.
Is that purpose built or isthat something that was really?
Speaker 2 (35:54):
it all just happened, accidentally, really.
Um, I was a computer teacherand, uh, for adults, adult
education and, um, I suppose wewere always at break time, we
were always talking aboutgardening or whatever, and a few
of the girls asked me would Igive gardening classes?
So it was at the back of mymind.
(36:15):
So then one day one of thegirls said Siobhan, would you
really start these gardeningclasses?
We'd love it.
So I went off that day and Iorganized it and we started in
the hay barn.
So actually I had one.
So actually I had one class.
I had one class done beforeCOVID and then COVID hit.
(36:37):
So then the hay barn was idealbecause it was, you know, well
ventilated and people just camedressed for the occasion.
And so after a year or two thenwe see that, you know, the
numbers were getting bigger.
So we well, mostly converted anold shed into a classroom.
(37:04):
So the main course that I runreally is it goes from February
until October, just once a month, one morning a month, and the
idea behind this is that peoplewould see the progression in the
garden.
Going back, I did Jimmy'scourse myself and it was ideal
because I thought it was a greatidea.
(37:25):
You actually see theprogression in the garden and
you know people can see actually, rather than just um, you know,
just hearing about it.
So that's, that's that's themost popular um course.
And in a class I start with thema slideshow, so it might be
something on designing or itmight be maybe feeding plants
(37:48):
this month, and I also take agroup of plants that might be
annuals or biennials.
So we do a slideshow for thefirst hour and then we spend an
hour outside around the garden,you know, seeing what's in
flower this month.
And then we have we do somepracticals.
So whatever's to be done thismonth, like I have a class now,
(38:10):
tomorrow, and we'll be pruninghydrangeas, we'll be pricking
out seedlings that we did lastweek we'll be taking basil
cuttings from lupins, and so wedo some practical every month as
well.
And then, of course, we havethe tea.
So it's quite.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
It's quite a social occasion as well yeah, yeah,
brilliant, sounds great andother courses that you mentioned
earlier.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
On your uh vegetable for beginners the workshops,
then workshops are just once off.
You know, if somebody wants toconcentrate on something.
So we start in in february withthe cut flower garden, because
that's really when you startplanting your seeds for your cut
flowers.
And I used to do weddingflowers, you know, years ago I
(38:55):
used to do the, you know, do thechurches and the bouquets and
things.
So I always had an interest inflower arranging so, and you
know, nowadays it's been moresustainable to grow your own.
So we have that workshop inFebruary.
So it covers really from sowingseed going right through to
arranging your flowers andmaking a hand-tied bouquet.
(39:16):
And then in May which, oh yeah,last weekend and the weekend
before then people were askingme would I do something on
vegetable gardening?
So I did a vegetable gardeningfor beginners workshop a
vegetable gardening forbeginners workshop and then in
May, coming up next month, Ihave summer container gardening.
(39:37):
Again, you know I thinkcontainer gardening is great for
people.
You know they might not havethe time or they might not have
the health for your normalgardening, so you can still have
a garden with your containergardening.
So we concentrate on summercontainers and, you know,
putting the colors together andthe different flowers that we
(39:59):
can use.
And then in September I have abulb workshop because, again,
september is the time you buyall your bulbs for spring.
So we have a bulb workshop andthey create their own bulb
lasagna to take home.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
Brilliant.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
And then last year I started, somebody asked me,
would I do Christmas reeds?
And that went down a bum.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
Good.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
So, yeah, brilliant.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
Yeah, the container basket one is an interesting one
, isn't it?
Because all of the open gardens, or any of the open gardens
that you can think of, they allutilize containers very well,
even though they have huge andfabulous gardens as well.
So, like I think of, you know,tj Marr's garden.
The pots in the courtyard thereare phenomenal, so they all
(40:53):
utilize those.
So it is container gardeningand staging of pots, as you say.
It's a lot easier to do and youcan have something that looks
different, probably three orfour times a year, different
windows, different plants, andyou can swap them in and out and
you can always have somethingthat looks beautiful right
outside your, your your backdoor or your your patio door or
(41:17):
your window or whatever the casemay be.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
So, yeah, so I normally plant into plastic pots
and then place the plastic potsinto the ceramic pots yeah, so
when something has gone over,like some of the tulips are gone
over already, so I just takeaway that, take away that pot,
and pop in another one and popin another one.
Yeah, so I have two for the forthis time of the year.
I would have just two main umpot pot displays, really one
(41:41):
outside the kitchen door and oneoutside my living room door,
and one is pink.
Um, again, I I garden by color,and one is a yellow display and
one's a pink display.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Yeah, brilliant.
So it sounds like loads to seedown there, something for every
month as well.
And then the different stylesof gardens, so your lower
maintenance, but still withcolor, shrub and bulb, I guess
mix.
Then your vegetable garden,your your pitch, which is now
(42:14):
converted into several differentcolored borders, and now your
new woodland and and wildflowermeadow.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
so there's loads of kind of different types of
gardens, areas of interest therewell, the thing is, somebody
can come and say, well, somepeople come and they say, well,
I like the circular garden, I'dlike to bring that one home.
Some people would say they, youknow, they like the woodland.
More people would like the.
You know they can take asection of the garden and create
(42:41):
it in their own space.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
Yeah, and just given that you started and you know
you said you made your mistakeswith the roses at the very start
Any tips for someone that willbe kind of starting out on
creating their garden?
What would you, what would yousay?
Speaker 2 (43:01):
Well, you know, in my classes at the moment I have a
really good mix of people.
I have people that have justretired that want to cut down on
maintenance, and I have youngerpeople that are just starting
from scratch, but they may havenot have a lot of time.
So what I suggest is peoplestarting off that don't have a
lot, or anybody that don't havea lot of time, put in, put in
(43:24):
your some nice trees and put innice shrubs and I like beds of
shrubs as well.
The same shrubs, maybe a bed ofhydrangeas, you know, the mop
head, or a bed of thepaniculatus, because these are
easy maintenance and you canmulch them and then keep an area
of colour Around your house.
It can be a bed around yourpatio or it can be a container
(43:48):
garden In your patio and you canconcentrate on your colour and
your work and your work there.
But there's no point in puttingin all these colourful fancy
borders if you can't maintainthem.
Put in one colourful borderthat you can maintain and the
rest put in your trees andshrubs that are low maintenance.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
That's brilliant.
That's brilliant advice.
It's actually something thatwe've probably talked about a
good beyond some of those thingswe've talked about on the
podcast.
Quite a lot is, you know, the,the staging, where you're
slipping in and out the pots ofyour ceramic pots and getting
color close to where you can seeit, you know, so that you, you
can, you can always be lookingat something nice, but it's
easier to maintain.
(44:29):
And definitely what you said atthe very start there was to add
in trees and and shrubs to givea kind of a structure initially
and so yeah, they're all.
They're all brilliant tips andthen you can.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
You can add little areas of interest, like you can
pop in a board bath or you canpop in.
I have lots of um seats.
I think it's.
It's nice to have seats orbenches around the garden that
you can just sit and enjoy yeah,yeah, for sure, yeah, that, I
think that's that is.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
Another important one is that you can have this
gorgeous garden, but to haveseats and somewhere where you
can sit down and enjoy it andtake it in is quite important as
well.
Yeah, some brilliant, brillianttips there.
Where can people find them atthe garden?
So so tell us about you know,open days, courses coming up,
how people can contact you tofind out more, or whatever.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
Actually, John, all the information is on
o'mahonygardencom.
We have a website and in thereis a list of all the classes and
actually what's.
You know what's the contents ofeach class, and there's also a
section there on open days andactually what's the contents of
each class and there's also asection there on open days.
We just have three open days inthe year at the minute, so
(45:41):
there's the first Sunday of July, the first Sunday of August and
the first Sunday in September.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
Okay, so three open days, and do you need to
pre-book or do you just arrive?
Speaker 2 (45:53):
no, no, no, um again, and I we're also on instagram
and facebook.
So, coming near the time, I'llput up um you know, an
advertisement that it is openedand at 11 to 4 on these three
sundays.
So, no, you don't have to book,just just turn up.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
Yeah, brilliant.
So I'll put the link to thewebsite in the show notes anyway
, but keep an eye on the website.
Speaker 2 (46:19):
Instagram and Facebook, yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
And you'll get more information as the time goes on
around.
Courses and open days and so onSounds like a garden really
worth visiting for everyone.
There's loads of practicaladvice there as well.
So, yeah, it's uh been a reallyinteresting chat to Vaughan and
thank you very, very much forcoming on.
Master, my Garden podcastthanks, john thanks a million.
So that's been this week'sepisode.
Huge thanks to Siobhan forcoming on um, really interesting
(46:48):
information and lots of kind oftips and things that we would
have actually previouslymentioned on the podcast, which
is great to hear.
You know, setting up yourstructure initially, getting a
sort of a master plan to work to.
That can change over time, butat least it gives you something
that you're you know, getting alittle bit of structure and you
have something to be workingtowards all the time Sounds like
(47:09):
a beautiful garden.
The different areas there'ssomething of interest for
everyone.
So the new woodland area, thewildflower meadow, annual
wildflower meadow, and then thedifferent borders, all with the
different colours and colourthemes through it.
The planters area and the lowmaintenance one I think is one
that's going to be interestingfor people as well.
A lot of the shrubs creating asort of a structure there, and
(47:34):
then the bulbs giving you thatlittle pop of color and interest
at various times of the season.
So loads of interesting stuffthere and definitely definitely
a garden worth checking out.
So that's been this week'sepisode.
Thanks for listening and untilthe next time, happy gardening.
how's it going everybody, and welcome to
episode 272 of master, my gardenpodcast.
Now, this week's episode is isone that I've been looking
forward to.
So we mentioned every time,every year around this time we
start to get back into the opengarden features and, as I
mentioned, open gardens are kindof inspirational for people who
are gardening at home.
They go to these beautiful opengardens, they generally speak
(00:35):
and talk to the creators ofthese gardens and they see
things that they can sort oftake home and replicate or you
adapt to their own gardens.
So, as I said, areinspirational these open gardens
, and this week I am headingdown to the Cork Limerick border
and I'm talking to Siobhan fromthe O'Mahony garden.
(00:56):
So the O'Mahony garden isdeveloped by Siobhan and Mossie
and it's a garden that has beendeveloped over 35 years.
It's a garden that I haven'tvisited, but really looking
forward to hearing the story.
Siobhan and mossy run coursesdown there as well, so they run
things like the container, thesummer container course, the
vegetables for beginners course,a christmas reed making courses
(01:20):
and, I'm sure, many, many more.
So, yeah, the garden itselfseems to be, from looking on
Instagram, huge amount of colorand you know all the different
windows, but there seems to be abig mix.
So we have a new woodland area.
From what I can see, there'sthe color of the tulips at the
moment and there seems to bevarious different areas.
So Siobhan is going to tell usall about that now.
(01:43):
So, siobhan, you very, verywelcome to Master my Garden
podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Thanks, john, and thanks for thanks for inviting
me.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Yeah, so yeah, we were just talking before we
started recording about thebeautiful weather we're having,
so we're all having a greatstart to the gardening year.
I'm sure it's the same with youguys.
Your garden looking at yourpictures on Instagram is awash
with color even at the moment,but it's not something I guess
that has just popped upovernight.
As your website says, you'redeveloping this for 35 years, so
(02:13):
maybe give us a little bit ofthe kind of backstory of of the
O'Mahony garden and we'll takethrough the talk to the various
areas then.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
OK, well, we were here about 35, 36 years um, and
when we, when we started reallywe just started we needed to put
in shelter because we're, youknow, we're quite, we're quite
um open.
So our first, our first taskreally was to put in our shelter
.
So we put in lots of trees andwe put in hedging and then then
(02:45):
we started with the main area ofthe garden.
We have five areas to thegarden.
We have what we call theoriginal garden and then we have
a little area at the back, andthen we had a little vegetable
patch and then we took over theBayes football pitch there a few
years ago, and the latestproject is the woodland
vegetable patch.
And then we took over the Baezfootball pitch there a few years
ago, and the latest project isthe woodland.
(03:07):
But, um, I suppose we started.
We started gardening reallyfrom the, you know, from the
first year that we came in um I.
It was developed over the years.
I didn't have a lot of time, um, at the beginning I was working
in Cork, so I was commuting toCork and so really I was a
summer gardener until about fiveor six years ago.
And then I got really interested.
(03:28):
I did Jimmy Blake's PlantsPerson's course about five years
ago and previous to that I didsome classes with Helen Dillon.
Helen actually was my idol.
I started watching her 35, 36years ago on television and I
(03:51):
loved her planting style and Iloved her colour combinations
and my colour.
I garden by colour and Isuppose it started really from
seeing Helen's garden youmentioned there.
You know about visiting othergardens and getting inspiration
and that's where my inspirationcame from.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Yeah, yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a great story, it's
it's.
I suppose it's it's a kind ofcommon theme that I hear on the
podcast, not necessarily withopen garden features on the
podcast, um, not necessarilywith open garden features, but
with people who are you know whoare who are doing nice gardens
and at their own homes.
And you start off, you have asite that's open and you get the
(04:35):
trees around it in the shelterand a lot of people, actually a
lot of the open gardens, havesaid that that was the first
thing and the the so at thestart you didn't have much time,
which is kind of common at themoment and probably even more so
at the start.
You didn't have much time,which is kind of common at the
moment and probably even more soat the moment.
You know there's so much goingon for, I suppose, especially
younger families, they've somuch going on running around
(04:55):
with football and work and allthe different things that are
going on and time.
You know people, people aresummer gardeners essentially
because of that.
But were you interested ingardening from day one, or is it
something that has developedover the years?
Speaker 2 (05:11):
no, I was interested from day one.
My mother actually had a lovelygarden and, um, she, she was
always gardening and even Iremember having, you know, I
think, even just a tiny patch.
I just wanted a tiny patch athome so I could set my own
flowers yeah and so it.
It stems from there.
I was just the minute.
I was more.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
I was more, probably more interested in the garden
than I was in the houseinitially yeah but made lots of
mistakes along the way and sowhen you started out, there was
no grand plan.
So you're, you're on about anacre and you got the.
You got the shelter built inoriginally, but was there?
Had you?
(05:51):
Did you have a vision sort ofhow it would develop?
Or has the vision changed overthe years?
Speaker 2 (05:56):
we were actually, I suppose we were gardening for
three or four years and, um, Isuppose I lost.
I lost a lot of stuff, like Istarted by putting in two beds
of roses, um, and I lost everyone of them because of the you
know the wind, um, so we, afterabout three or four years, we
went to late brian cross and hedrew up a plan just for the
(06:19):
original garden.
So at least we had a plan thento work on and that was, uh, you
know, again, putting in.
We could put in beds then, andborders as we could afford them,
and and mossy, mossy did allthe, the building and the hard,
the hard landscaping, and itreally stemmed from there.
So the first few years that'swhat we were working on.
(06:41):
We had a plan for just that onearea and then I suppose that
gave us confidence then to startworking on the other areas and
developing the other areasourselves yeah, that's a
brilliant point that you knowyou you started off.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
You don't have a sort of grand plan for the place,
but you you start planting inroses.
You figure out that that's notworking.
But then you go off and get your, your, your overall plan done
or a sort of a vision done forthe place, but you, you start
planting in roses, you figureout that that's not working.
But then you go off and getyour, your, your overall plan
done or a sort of a vision donefor the place and then you add
in the beds as you can afford,as you said yourself at that
time, and that's absolutely andthat's quite typical of you know
(07:18):
people in this situation, andit is it is a really good thing
to do is to get a design plan, aplanting plan, even if it's
only a sketch of your, of yourown doing that you have and it
can change and it can maneuverover the years.
But if you, if you do have akind of a grand idea of this is
what I'd like in 10 years timeand this is what we can start
with and it gives you somethingthat there's a kind of a
(07:40):
progression plan and, as yousaid, you do one bed, it's
successful, and then yourconfidence grows and you're able
to do more.
Then maybe you're able to startpropagating your own plants, so
it becomes easier to do.
These beds are more accessibleto do these beds.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
So, yeah, that that's a great point um, well, I found
at least when you have a planlike that, originally, like I
was going, we originally I wasgoing to put the pond in at the
bottom of the garden, but in theplan he put it in at the front
of the garden so that you couldsee it, and so at least where we
didn't stick to the exactly tothe planting plans but we stuck
(08:19):
to where we should put the bedsand I think that was that was a
great help yeah, and obviouslythen you started with roses and
they didn't do well.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
So Helen Dillon has famously said right plant, right
place.
I'm not sure if it was if itwas her phrase originally.
But she, she always said thatin her, you know, in her writing
and in her, in her, in her tvwork she always said right plant
, right place.
And I suppose you started tofind out that and that's kind of
different for every garden tooyou, I think you learn.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
You learn as you go along and you know a plant um
might do very well in a place umyou know, and uh, it mightn't
do very well in another place,and then you could buy the same,
the same plant and put itsomewhere else and it might do
really well.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
So it's trial and error really yeah, and that can
be within a garden as well as indifferent gardens, so you could
have a spot in your garden thatsomething just doesn't do well
in, move it to another spot withmore suitable conditions and
away it goes and it can be verysuccessful.
So, and it does take a littlebit of time probably to figure
that out in your own garden.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
And, yeah, it's, it's important, it's important piece
as well I remember actuallybuying a verbena, um, and you
know, I really at the time I Iwasn't really into putting the
right place at the, the rightplant to the right place, and I
planted this verbena in a damp,shady corner and wondering later
why it died.
Now I understand yeah yeah.
(09:44):
So now I always, I would, I mayalways um check the the label of
a plant and check to seewhether it's a a sunny or shade,
or whether it is dry or wetyeah, yeah, no, it's, it's
hugely important and I thinkthat is that's something maybe
that gardeners beginnergardeners maybe fall down on.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
As well as that, they they go into a garden center
and they shop with their eyesand this looks beautiful.
I'll stick that there.
This looks beautiful.
I'll stick that there.
As you say, flip around theback of that label, just see,
yeah, I prefer full sun.
Well, am I getting that whereI'm putting it?
And it's just little basicthings like that can help a lot.
So the garden as it is today,pretend I'm going to go on a
(10:25):
virtual tour now and arrive atat your front door and maybe
talk us through the areas of thegarden okay, so, um, the, as I
said, the original garden um isabout maybe, maybe half an acre
and, as I said, we originallyput in hedging and trees.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Now the hedging back then was lalande and we've
started to take that out becauseit's starting to die back, and
so in this area it's mainlyshrubs and trees, because I want
low maintenance here, becausethere's there's high maintenance
in two of the gardens, you knowwhere you have the herbaceous
(11:09):
beds.
So, I'm trying to cut down andwork in this area.
So we have a pond and which issurrounded by azaleas and
rhododendrons.
We're lucky enough, actually,we're neutral to acid soil so we
can grow these plants.
So my spring borders thesewould be mainly my spring
(11:33):
borders I concentrate on some.
You know I don't have springbulbs in all the borders.
I concentrate on some of theborders and plant these up with
bulbs.
So then there's another bedthat it's actually a bed of
white hydrangeas and box ballsand blue salvias.
(11:56):
So that starts in February withlots of snowdrops and then it
has the crocus in February andthen we're on to the tulips.
At the minute Now I'm buildingthe layers of bulbs in these
beds.
So we'll say, at the moment Isee the tulips, you know it
needs more tulips, so I'll plantin more tulips next year.
(12:19):
And then it's followed by a bedof blue alliums, globemaster I
find Globemaster a really goodone because it's really good in
the wind, it's got good strongstems and then it's followed on
by the white paniculatahydrangeas.
So I suppose that's theoriginal garden.
And then the next garden is whatwe call our kitchen garden.
(12:44):
Now, it's not veg, it's notfruit and veg.
We call it our kitchen gardenbecause it's just outside our
kitchen door and the color themeit's circular.
It was a curved garden.
This is quite a small area so Iwas looking, you know.
Again, you talk aboutinspiration.
I was looking at a magazine oneday and I see this beautiful
(13:08):
circular garden.
I think it was Joe Thompson'sgarden in Chelsea and I went out
and I changed the lawn to acircle so it gave us more
planting space.
So the color scheme really forthis garden is all vibrant
colors.
You know, the oranges, the reds, the yellows, the purples,
really vibrant, a mix of colours.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Kind of your hot border, as they call them these
days.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Yes, because we're looking out at this all the time
.
So you know it's important tohave colour here all the time.
And just outside the patio doorwe have a little pond, a little
water feature, a small littlecircular water feature.
Again, I was in Chelsea what?
30 years ago, and this is theone thing I brought home from it
(13:52):
.
I saw this little.
I still have the photograph.
I brought home this picture ofthis little pond.
So that's what we have there.
So that's the circular garden,that's what we have there, so
that's the circular garden.
And then the other big garden,really the main one, is what we
call the pitch, and this was theboys football pitch up to about
(14:16):
five years ago.
So we started by putting in onebed and taking a goalpost and
then we put in and then tookanother goalpost and put in
another bed, and so the in thisborder.
It's quite a big, quite a bigarea.
And again, I started with mycurved borders and initially I
(14:38):
grew lots of herbaceous.
As you know, it's quiteexpensive to buy plants to fill
a big border.
So I grew lots of the plantsfrom seed, lots of lupins and
achilles and things like that.
And again, watching TVGardener's World one night I was
looking at this lovely gardenrectangular with borders on both
(15:05):
sides.
So I again went out with thebamboos and the twine and
straightened my borders.
So uh, it's here.
Then I decided to um, you know,put in different colored borders
.
So one border, probably myfavorite border, is this lovely,
cool, cool colours the palepinks, the pale blues and the
(15:27):
whites, so it's really calmingborder.
And then on the other side weput in peach and peach and
salmons, and then to contrastthat, we put in, you know, whiny
and magenta colours.
And so again we're building onthese beds and adding more
plants all the time.
And also in this border then,or in this garden, is a white
(15:52):
border.
So it's quite difficult togarden in the white border
because there's a line of limetrees.
As I said, it was never meant tobe a garden and if we knew it
was going to be a garden, we'dnever have put in these lime
trees.
But anyway, the ground isreally really poor and dry.
(16:12):
So I really it's survival ofthe fittest here.
So I try to put in whateverwill grow.
Well, I just add more and moreof it.
So, and then there's a bigpatio, is where we, you know,
where we sit out and we have a areally good size um patio and
(16:34):
um in front of that, then goingonto the lawn of two narrow beds
, and I was hoping that we couldhave lavender.
You know two, two beds oflavender, but obviously we're a
heavy clay tile so lavenderdoesn't really do well, so I've
put in Nepata Persian Blue.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Oh yeah, brilliant.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
It gives the same effect.
It's like a bed of lavender.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
So again in these beds, actually, I have lots of
roses, believe it or not, butthey're the shrub roses and they
do really well here, the shrubroses.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Yeah, Can we take a?
We're going to reverse back tothese three gardens first.
So on these borders, youmentioned the white border,
which is a little bit difficultunder the lime trees.
You mentioned the salmon typecolours, so maybe just give us a
flavour of the plants thatwe're going to find in the
salmon colour border, in themagenta purple border, and was
(17:30):
it a bluey calming border thatyou mentioned?
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Yeah, yeah, so in the cool colours, in the pale pinks
and the blue border at themoment I'm looking out here at
the moment, at the moment thereis.
I don't have a lot in any ofthese borders at the minute
because I concentrate on summercolour.
So the pink border there isn'ta lot there, there's just
(17:53):
Brunnera really at the minute,and following on from that then
I have Peonies and LupinsTeletrum and lupins telictrum,
and then following on from thatI would have the roses, olivia
Rose Austin, which is a lovely,really pale rose, and lots of
(18:14):
phloxes in here.
I love phlox.
You know, the lovely pale pinksand the pale blues and lots of
dahlias in here.
So at the moment I have all thedahlias potted up in the tunnel
and I put them out the end ofApril.
So lots of the pale pinks andthe mauves and the white dahlias
(18:36):
in here and I also growanterinum from seed.
Actually I planted some of themout now the other day.
So I have the pale pink and thewhite in the pale pink border
and I would have fox gloves inthere as well and I also have
for next month I would have thesweet rocket and I grow that
(18:58):
from seed as well.
So that's they're the mainplants and then I've dotted.
Actually, in that particularbed I have a very special plant
and it's um a diorama that I gotfrom Helen Dillon's garden wow,
angel, swish and rod yes, yes,yeah yeah, brilliant, and you
got that as a little plant, wasit?
um, I got it on her sales tableat one of her you know one of um
(19:22):
one of when I was up therebrilliant, yeah, yeah, no, that
that'd be nice, and they'rebrilliant plants notoriously
slow to grow oh, yeah, yeah,yeah, yeah.
They have to.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
They have to light the the spot they're in yeah,
you know, I saw them from seed afew years ago and um I'm not
very slow I'm not the mostpatient person, and they were
sold at the same time, as youknow, loads of other things like
uh, achillea and uh what elsewas there for being a bonner?
eight boranians and all of thoseat the same time, and I was
(19:56):
looking at this little little,tiny little green stem coming up
out of ground for months andmonths and months.
So no, very, very.
You need a lot of patience forthem, but they're when they're
when they're fully formed,they're beautiful they are
amazing and I love actually, um,I love there's a really dark
one called blackbird okay it's areally, really dark one.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
I like these dark colors as well, but I have one
of them.
I bought two, actually, but onewas you know it didn't.
They're only across from eachother, only a metre from each
other.
But one did really well and theother just died on me.
So yeah, they are finicky.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Yeah, definitely finicky.
Funny it does.
About 100 metres away fromthere's an old cottage, it's
actually there's about 100meters away from there's an old
cottage, it's actually there'snobody living in it anymore, but
there's there's, uh, five orsix clumps of angels fishing rod
up on, up on kind of old stonewalls.
Yes, they're absolutely class.
Uh, yeah, I don't know how longago they're planted, but
(20:56):
they're just class there.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Yeah, beautiful yeah, they do like poor ground,
actually, because oneself-seeded on my gravel yard
right, yeah, and grew away there, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Um, stepping back into the very first garden you
mentioned, so you were going forthe lower maintenance shrub
type rather than the perennialborders, but you're utilizing
you're obviously utilizing bulbsto give you that color and and
some hydrangeas yeah, yeah um,how do you find you mentioned
that you're?
At the moment, your tulips areout but you're looking to build
up the stock there.
Are you sort of planting tulipsevery year, are you?
(21:31):
Are you looking for the themore long-term tulips?
Speaker 2 (21:35):
or the perennial tulips, and I in there at the
moment I have um ballerina and Ithink negrita is probably the
best.
Negrita is brilliant to comeback and I have I think it's
national velvet, which is a youknow.
So I wanted all these umvelvety colors, but I found that
there was something lacking.
So actually I added um, youknow, I grow them some, I grow,
(21:59):
I grow tulips in pots as well,so I'll take them when they have
finished flowering in the pots,I'll put them into the bed.
But I've put in.
I think it's a daydream.
Is it daydream?
I can't think.
Yeah, I think daydream is kindof an orangey yellow and I have
tried it now, you know, puttingit into the border and it's
after lifting the colours.
(22:20):
But I just need to add more,like I have.
I've more negrita in pots formy pot display.
So, um, I'll transfer them intothe beds when they finish
flowering and they'll be therefor next year yeah, yeah, yeah,
and it is.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
I think that's important.
I know a lot of people usetulips for for that spring color
and obviously they're, theylook class.
But the the ones that, the onesthat are dying off after one
year it's kind of hard to seehow that's.
You know you really should belooking for the ones that are
going to come back, theperennial type ones.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Definitely the perennial ones for the borders.
And I buy the you know thefancy ones for the pots, but I'd
also grow the perennial ones inthe pots.
But I'd also grow the, theperennial ones in the pots, so
that I can add to my borderswherever there's gaps yeah, and.
I do the same with the.
You know the daffodils, andactually daffodils.
I only plant the miniaturedaffodils in in the borders
(23:14):
because you know the way youhave to wait for their leaves to
die back yes and the big leavesare to take too long so you
actually don't notice they.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
They they miniature leaves yeah, and and if you're
in a windy garden, which I'msure you're not at this stage
with your, with your um it'spretty windy enough at times
it's windy enough, is it?
Yeah, then, the smaller onesare obviously they do, you do
better, they're a little bitsturdier.
Yeah, for sure.
Um, you mentioned globebemasteras your allium.
(23:43):
That's another brilliant one.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Yeah, I did put in Purple Sensation.
And Purple Sensation didn't youknow?
Some people talk about PurpleSensation being even a weed,
that is.
You know it spread so much.
But I didn't find it did wellwith me at all but, the dope
master is coming back you knowit's coming back now for the
(24:06):
third year, so yeah, it's a goodtest, brilliant.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
So, and then the the pitch that got that got changed.
You mentioned the differentborders there, so we're heading
for the fourth garden after that.
So where are we heading for now?
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Oh, yes, it's the vegetable area which is raised
beds.
There's six raised beds inthere and I have a little glass
house as well.
So I'm just getting ready now,really the beds, to plant out a
lot of the you know the veg, toplant out a lot of the you know
(24:42):
the veg.
Again, I have the brassicas,the legumes, and then the roots,
the roots and alliums together.
So I think you know the croprotation is important.
And then in the other beds Ihave, I actually have a
miniature or a small or acontainer grown raspberry and
(25:03):
it's doing really really well.
I did have raspberries out inthe ground and, as you know,
they just go.
They just go everywhere.
They were coming up everywhere.
So I got container grownraspberries from Mr Middleton
online and they're doing reallywell.
I actually had them in a bucketfor the first two or three
years because I had no place forthem and they still survived.
(25:25):
So they produce lots of fruit.
And then I have another onewith blueberries and another one
with strawberries.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
And these are all containers.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Sorry, raised beds actually.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Raised beds yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Yeah, they're container grown, you know
they're suitable for containers,but they're grown in raised
beds.
Raised beds, yeah, yeah,they're container grown, you
know they're.
They're containers, but they'regrown in raised beds.
I find the, the raised beds umreally easy to um to garden and
in the in the glass house, thenI grow the tomatoes and the
cucumbers and the um what else?
Speaker 1 (25:58):
as peppers yeah, yeah , brilliant, and the, the
raspberry that you mentioned.
So that is that is.
That is one that like, anytimeanyone puts it into the garden,
especially the autumn one, itgoes, it goes wild.
And you do have to like.
I was only doing that lastsaturday myself.
I have three autumn gold in ain a ground bed and they're
popping up three, four, fivemeters away, yeah, yeah so I'm
(26:22):
chopping the chopping the groundin between and trying to pull
them up.
But yeah, it does.
It takes a little bit of workto keep manners on them.
But container grown ones thethe standard varieties in
containers.
They can be hit and miss, butif you have a variety that's
specifically for containers thisis the bush variety now and,
(26:42):
like I, get fruit every yearbrilliant.
And yeah, you probably have togive it a little bit of a feed,
I presume earlier in the seasonum, well, I I the feed I
normally use.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
I I feed um all the borders, I feed everything with
a style renew, feed the styleyou know to improve, the style
improve or style renew.
I find that really good becauseour soil would have been quite
poor here and this is my fourthyear using it and I find it
really good.
That's interesting now.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Yeah, the reason, the reason it's interesting is I've
seen the product before, butI've never, I've never, used it.
And a couple of weeks ago atthe, the glda conference, I was
talking to the, the man there,and he gave me a sample bag to
try.
Yes, so I have tried it on twovegetable beds, just I didn't
put it on them all, I wanted totry it on two, just to see.
Was there?
Speaker 2 (27:28):
could I see any kind of a difference?
Well, I'm using it now withfour, about four years, and
there's a huge improvement in mystyle.
Um, and you know, it's a bucket.
A 10 kg bucket is theequivalent of spreading three
tons of manure, so this is mucheasier.
This is much easier, you'regetting the benefit.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
You're getting the benefit of the microbes and so
on, but obviously with a lotless material.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Actually, where I first heard of it was Helen
Dillons, and when I did classeswith Helen, I suppose five or
six years ago now, and she wasusing it and she said that they
used to use it in the botanicalgardens.
So if they, she said, if theyuse it, there must be good.
But I do.
I've like the, the soil nowwhere I use it, like there's
(28:16):
lots of worms and activity andthe soil has really loosened up.
So, as well as that, then I usemy seaweed as well, and I use
the liquid seaweed quite a lot,and then for the vegetable beds,
I would give them an organicfertilizer about a fortnight
before I'd start plantinganything.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Yeah, brilliant, yeah , so in that.
So that's the.
So we've kind of four of thegardens covered then and there's
a fifth garden.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
That's the newest area.
It wasn't even there this timelast year At the end of April.
Actually we put it in.
It's a woodland and it's twoareas in one really, because
it's the woodland and there'salso a wildflower meadow and
actually there's also.
We put in a.
Really I also do cut flowergarden and I do a cut flower
(29:11):
garden workshop, so I grow allthe, we do the workshop in
February, so we grow all theseed in February and then it's
ready to go out at the end ofApril.
So this year or last year I'veput the cut flower garden into a
very long raised bed.
So that's in this area as well.
So the wildflower meadow we'llprobably set the seed now, in
(29:34):
another week or two, but I likethe wildflower meadow, the
classic one, the poppies, thecornflowers.
There's no grass in the mix,it's just all flowers.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
So are you going with an annual mix or are you going
with an annual and perennialAnnual?
So you're going to do annualand so on a yearly basis.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Yeah, last year.
You know we did a small testthe year before with just a very
small area.
But now what I did last year, Iactually collected a lot of my
seed, so I have a lot of seedfrom from last year.
I'll just probably buy, maybeyou know, a packet or two of
seed, but I have a lot of theseed gathered from from last
(30:22):
year and um also.
Here then is the woodland Ilove.
I love woodland and springplants.
So we put in 28 um birches,jack monti, yeah, and that's
under planted then and likethere's, there's only a very
light canopy on it at the minute.
So I'm sure it will take fouror five years, you know to to to
(30:43):
look to look anything.
So that's under planted thenwith lots of spring bulbs, again
hellebores and um, lots ofwoodlandy plants that like shade
and so that's the newest area.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
We might go back to the wildflower meadow in a
second.
So it's from looking at it onon your, on your instagram page.
You have uh, I think it's woodchip pathways through the
woodland, is it?
Speaker 2 (31:07):
um, just uh, no, there's.
There's wood chip actually onthe on the the side borders oh,
is that what it was down thewide, the weeds yeah yeah, so
you have these 20-somethingJackmontais gone in.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
They're going to grow beautiful over the next few
years, tall white stems andunder-planted.
You have helibores.
What else have you got in there?
Speaker 2 (31:31):
It starts again with snowdrops.
I like gathering snowdrops, Ilike the different varieties,
not just for the sake of havingso many different varieties, but
I just like the different ones,particularly the yellow ones
like Spindlestone, surprise andMadeline in these.
So I have about 20, I suppose20, 25 varieties of Snowdrop.
(31:53):
So I've planted them all inhere.
And then it starts again withthe crocuses.
Put in Species Crocus, and I'veput in what else?
Lots of hellebores, yes, andferns.
actually, what I've put in aswell for the summer is a
(32:14):
miniature hydrangeas I didn'twant the big hydrangeas because
they would be too big, because Ido love hydrangeas, but I've
got a miniature ones which Ithink will only grow about two,
two feet high.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Time will tell yeah, yeah, that'll be nice, yeah, and
that'll be.
That'll be something that willchange over the next few years
and, as you say, as the canopyfills out and it becomes more
shaded as a woodland, you'll seethe changes.
Brilliant, yeah.
And wildflower meadow is annualmix, you know poppies,
cornflowers and so on.
Yeah, that'll be a real, realpop of colour.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Oh, it was amazing last year.
A real pop of colour.
Oh, it was amazing last year.
Now we did make, I suppose, amistake last year in that we
tore back all the sile from thetop sile, but actually we're
very rocky.
There was rock jutting up inparts of it.
So, we actually had to bringback in some of the sile for
(33:11):
this year.
So we actually had to bringback in some of the soil for
this year.
So we brought in another inchor two of soil this year.
But, it was amazing.
Last year it was probably myfavourite, one of my favourite
parts of the garden.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
you know, mid-summer- yeah, yeah, and we didn't even
necessarily have a wonderfulsummer weather-wise for
wildflowers, but still, yeah,you'd have a lot of flower in in
year one with all that, allthose annuals, and you mentioned
earlier the taken out of thelalandais um yes, and I think
you said it's kind of stillongoing or there's some taken
(33:45):
out, but not them all yeah, we,there was a lalande um.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
It was actually dividing the original garden and
the football pitch, and so westarted taking it out in this
area and by the time we got downto the corner of the football
pitch it was a really windy dayand we said if we took the rest
of it we'd have had no shelter.
So we took out this area justin the dividing the pitch and
(34:14):
the original garden, and we putin a double beach.
And so now when we look out ofour living room, we're looking
down as a seat, we look throughthe double beach and there's a
seat at the bottom, whereasbefore we were just looking out
this big green blob.
Yeah, so um.
So in the meantime then, we'veplanted a white torn um, a white
(34:35):
torn hedge on on the farm sideum of the, of the rest of it,
and when this, when this matures, then we'll take the rest of
the, the lalande yeah, yeah,yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
So, yeah, I was only talking to somebody about
yesterday, but they were takingout lalande as well, yeah, so,
yeah, I was only talking tosomebody about yesterday, but
they were taking out lalande aswell.
And uh, yes, they were all togo and they were recommended by
everybody at the time, but butthere wasn't anything available
back then.
Really, it was either greenlalande or yellow lalande yeah,
private that was very littlechoice yeah, there wasn't much
choice and and I suppose whatpeople were looking for at that
(35:11):
time was they were looking toscreen areas quickly, and it
definitely did that because itwas so fast yeah, yeah, sure you
could.
You could plant a hedge andhave it fully formed in three or
four years it was.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
It was, it was giving shelter in three or four years
yeah, yeah, which which is kindof unheard of really.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
Now, you know you, there's very little else, yeah
well, well, the beach we bought.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Actually we, we um bought beach, um what?
Five foot high.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
So we've been instant hedge, instant hedge, yeah,
yeah we're buying time at thisstage yeah, and we mentioned at
the start that some of thecourses that you're doing, so
tell us about some of those.
I know you have quite a nicekind of classroom.
Is that purpose built or isthat something that was really?
Speaker 2 (35:54):
it all just happened, accidentally, really.
Um, I was a computer teacherand, uh, for adults, adult
education and, um, I suppose wewere always at break time, we
were always talking aboutgardening or whatever, and a few
of the girls asked me would Igive gardening classes?
So it was at the back of mymind.
(36:15):
So then one day one of thegirls said Siobhan, would you
really start these gardeningclasses?
We'd love it.
So I went off that day and Iorganized it and we started in
the hay barn.
So actually I had one.
So actually I had one class.
I had one class done beforeCOVID and then COVID hit.
(36:37):
So then the hay barn was idealbecause it was, you know, well
ventilated and people just camedressed for the occasion.
And so after a year or two thenwe see that, you know, the
numbers were getting bigger.
So we well, mostly converted anold shed into a classroom.
(37:04):
So the main course that I runreally is it goes from February
until October, just once a month, one morning a month, and the
idea behind this is that peoplewould see the progression in the
garden.
Going back, I did Jimmy'scourse myself and it was ideal
because I thought it was a greatidea.
(37:25):
You actually see theprogression in the garden and
you know people can see actually, rather than just um, you know,
just hearing about it.
So that's, that's that's themost popular um course.
And in a class I start with thema slideshow, so it might be
something on designing or itmight be maybe feeding plants
(37:48):
this month, and I also take agroup of plants that might be
annuals or biennials.
So we do a slideshow for thefirst hour and then we spend an
hour outside around the garden,you know, seeing what's in
flower this month.
And then we have we do somepracticals.
So whatever's to be done thismonth, like I have a class now,
(38:10):
tomorrow, and we'll be pruninghydrangeas, we'll be pricking
out seedlings that we did lastweek we'll be taking basil
cuttings from lupins, and so wedo some practical every month as
well.
And then, of course, we havethe tea.
So it's quite.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
It's quite a social occasion as well yeah, yeah,
brilliant, sounds great andother courses that you mentioned
earlier.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
On your uh vegetable for beginners the workshops,
then workshops are just once off.
You know, if somebody wants toconcentrate on something.
So we start in in february withthe cut flower garden, because
that's really when you startplanting your seeds for your cut
flowers.
And I used to do weddingflowers, you know, years ago I
(38:55):
used to do the, you know, do thechurches and the bouquets and
things.
So I always had an interest inflower arranging so, and you
know, nowadays it's been moresustainable to grow your own.
So we have that workshop inFebruary.
So it covers really from sowingseed going right through to
arranging your flowers andmaking a hand-tied bouquet.
(39:16):
And then in May which, oh yeah,last weekend and the weekend
before then people were askingme would I do something on
vegetable gardening?
So I did a vegetable gardeningfor beginners workshop a
vegetable gardening forbeginners workshop and then in
May, coming up next month, Ihave summer container gardening.
(39:37):
Again, you know I thinkcontainer gardening is great for
people.
You know they might not havethe time or they might not have
the health for your normalgardening, so you can still have
a garden with your containergardening.
So we concentrate on summercontainers and, you know,
putting the colors together andthe different flowers that we
(39:59):
can use.
And then in September I have abulb workshop because, again,
september is the time you buyall your bulbs for spring.
So we have a bulb workshop andthey create their own bulb
lasagna to take home.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
Brilliant.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
And then last year I started, somebody asked me,
would I do Christmas reeds?
And that went down a bum.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
Good.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
So, yeah, brilliant.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
Yeah, the container basket one is an interesting one
, isn't it?
Because all of the open gardens, or any of the open gardens
that you can think of, they allutilize containers very well,
even though they have huge andfabulous gardens as well.
So, like I think of, you know,tj Marr's garden.
The pots in the courtyard thereare phenomenal, so they all
(40:53):
utilize those.
So it is container gardeningand staging of pots, as you say.
It's a lot easier to do and youcan have something that looks
different, probably three orfour times a year, different
windows, different plants, andyou can swap them in and out and
you can always have somethingthat looks beautiful right
outside your, your your backdoor or your your patio door or
(41:17):
your window or whatever the casemay be.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
So, yeah, so I normally plant into plastic pots
and then place the plastic potsinto the ceramic pots yeah, so
when something has gone over,like some of the tulips are gone
over already, so I just takeaway that, take away that pot,
and pop in another one and popin another one.
Yeah, so I have two for the forthis time of the year.
I would have just two main umpot pot displays, really one
(41:41):
outside the kitchen door and oneoutside my living room door,
and one is pink.
Um, again, I I garden by color,and one is a yellow display and
one's a pink display.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Yeah, brilliant.
So it sounds like loads to seedown there, something for every
month as well.
And then the different stylesof gardens, so your lower
maintenance, but still withcolor, shrub and bulb, I guess
mix.
Then your vegetable garden,your your pitch, which is now
(42:14):
converted into several differentcolored borders, and now your
new woodland and and wildflowermeadow.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
so there's loads of kind of different types of
gardens, areas of interest therewell, the thing is, somebody
can come and say, well, somepeople come and they say, well,
I like the circular garden, I'dlike to bring that one home.
Some people would say they, youknow, they like the woodland.
More people would like the.
You know they can take asection of the garden and create
(42:41):
it in their own space.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
Yeah, and just given that you started and you know
you said you made your mistakeswith the roses at the very start
Any tips for someone that willbe kind of starting out on
creating their garden?
What would you, what would yousay?
Speaker 2 (43:01):
Well, you know, in my classes at the moment I have a
really good mix of people.
I have people that have justretired that want to cut down on
maintenance, and I have youngerpeople that are just starting
from scratch, but they may havenot have a lot of time.
So what I suggest is peoplestarting off that don't have a
lot, or anybody that don't havea lot of time, put in, put in
(43:24):
your some nice trees and put innice shrubs and I like beds of
shrubs as well.
The same shrubs, maybe a bed ofhydrangeas, you know, the mop
head, or a bed of thepaniculatus, because these are
easy maintenance and you canmulch them and then keep an area
of colour Around your house.
It can be a bed around yourpatio or it can be a container
(43:48):
garden In your patio and you canconcentrate on your colour and
your work and your work there.
But there's no point in puttingin all these colourful fancy
borders if you can't maintainthem.
Put in one colourful borderthat you can maintain and the
rest put in your trees andshrubs that are low maintenance.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
That's brilliant.
That's brilliant advice.
It's actually something thatwe've probably talked about a
good beyond some of those thingswe've talked about on the
podcast.
Quite a lot is, you know, the,the staging, where you're
slipping in and out the pots ofyour ceramic pots and getting
color close to where you can seeit, you know, so that you, you
can, you can always be lookingat something nice, but it's
easier to maintain.
(44:29):
And definitely what you said atthe very start there was to add
in trees and and shrubs to givea kind of a structure initially
and so yeah, they're all.
They're all brilliant tips andthen you can.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
You can add little areas of interest, like you can
pop in a board bath or you canpop in.
I have lots of um seats.
I think it's.
It's nice to have seats orbenches around the garden that
you can just sit and enjoy yeah,yeah, for sure, yeah, that, I
think that's that is.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
Another important one is that you can have this
gorgeous garden, but to haveseats and somewhere where you
can sit down and enjoy it andtake it in is quite important as
well.
Yeah, some brilliant, brillianttips there.
Where can people find them atthe garden?
So so tell us about you know,open days, courses coming up,
how people can contact you tofind out more, or whatever.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
Actually, John, all the information is on
o'mahonygardencom.
We have a website and in thereis a list of all the classes and
actually what's.
You know what's the contents ofeach class, and there's also a
section there on open days andactually what's the contents of
each class and there's also asection there on open days.
We just have three open days inthe year at the minute, so
(45:41):
there's the first Sunday of July, the first Sunday of August and
the first Sunday in September.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
Okay, so three open days, and do you need to
pre-book or do you just arrive?
Speaker 2 (45:53):
no, no, no, um again, and I we're also on instagram
and facebook.
So, coming near the time, I'llput up um you know, an
advertisement that it is openedand at 11 to 4 on these three
sundays.
So, no, you don't have to book,just just turn up.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
Yeah, brilliant.
So I'll put the link to thewebsite in the show notes anyway
, but keep an eye on the website.
Speaker 2 (46:19):
Instagram and Facebook, yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
And you'll get more information as the time goes on
around.
Courses and open days and so onSounds like a garden really
worth visiting for everyone.
There's loads of practicaladvice there as well.
So, yeah, it's uh been a reallyinteresting chat to Vaughan and
thank you very, very much forcoming on.
Master, my Garden podcastthanks, john thanks a million.
So that's been this week'sepisode.
Huge thanks to Siobhan forcoming on um, really interesting
(46:48):
information and lots of kind oftips and things that we would
have actually previouslymentioned on the podcast, which
is great to hear.
You know, setting up yourstructure initially, getting a
sort of a master plan to work to.
That can change over time, butat least it gives you something
that you're you know, getting alittle bit of structure and you
have something to be workingtowards all the time Sounds like
(47:09):
a beautiful garden.
The different areas there'ssomething of interest for
everyone.
So the new woodland area, thewildflower meadow, annual
wildflower meadow, and then thedifferent borders, all with the
different colours and colourthemes through it.
The planters area and the lowmaintenance one I think is one
that's going to be interestingfor people as well.
A lot of the shrubs creating asort of a structure there, and
(47:34):
then the bulbs giving you thatlittle pop of color and interest
at various times of the season.
So loads of interesting stuffthere and definitely definitely
a garden worth checking out.
So that's been this week'sepisode.
Thanks for listening and untilthe next time, happy gardening.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.