Master My Garden Podcast

The quickest way to waste money on a hedge is to choose with your eyes first and your site second. With bare-root season around the corner, we walk you through a simple decision process that stops costly mistakes and helps you pick hedge plants that actually suit your garden, your soil and the amount of maintenance you can commit to over the years.  We start with the big questions: what do you nee...

Timber raised beds rot. Cheap metal ones can rust, bow, and end up in the skip just as you’re getting the hang of growing. So what does a raised bed look like when it’s designed as a product for life? I’m joined by Brian O’Hara from East Cork, who built the Mia Grow Bed, an Irish-made aluminium raised garden bed with a 30-year warranty and a design that goes together in minutes.  We talk about the...

This weeks sponsors:  Seeds Ireland High Quality Seeds: See link below for listener offer.  https://seedsireland.ie/master October gardening is a strange mix of momentum and endings: the weather can still feel warm, growth can still be strong, yet the shortening days quietly shut the door on many sowings. We talk through a clear, realistic October seed sowing guide that focuses on what still deliv...

This weeks sponsors: Better Plants  See special offer here  https://betterplants.ie/product/seaweed-soil-conditioner-2-x-10kg-buckets-special-offer/ Bats are flying over our gardens every night, doing a job most of us never see, and too many people still think they are blind, dangerous, or somehow “out to get you”. We sit down with Dr Niamh Roche, Senior Project Manager at Bat Conservation Ireland...

This weeks sponsors: Better Plants  See special offer here  https://betterplants.ie/product/seaweed-soil-conditioner-2-x-10kg-buckets-special-offer/ Autumn colour can be breathtaking, but it can also disappear in a flash. One week your garden is glowing red and gold, the next it feels flat and bare because the weather shifts and the best leaf colour drops fast. We want a better plan than hoping a...

Join The Perennial Grow Along here  https://master-my-garden-perennial-grow-along.subscribepage.io/ A full perennial border can look like something only open gardens and big budgets can pull off, until you do the maths and realise you can grow the bulk of it yourself. We’re outlining the 2026 perennial grow along plan and showing how a few packets of seed, a handful of trays, and a bit of organisa...

The fastest way to make next spring feel brighter starts right now with a bag of bulbs and a spade. We walk through spring flowering bulbs from the ground up: what to buy in September, where they shine in borders, pots, lawns and under trees, and how to get a display that comes back year after year with almost no fuss.  We cover the classics and the standouts: tulips for bold April colour themes (...

This weeks sponsors:  Seeds Ireland High Quality Seeds: See link below for listener offer.  https://seedsireland.ie/master September is the month where a small, well-timed sowing list can make your whole winter feel easier. We’re looking at what to sow right now for steady, dependable harvests, especially if summer heat, holidays, or a brief pause in sowing has left gaps in your beds or polytunnel...

Grow Your Own Herb Workshop Looking Forward To Seeing You here:  https://subscribepage.io/growyourownherbalgarden The weather doesn’t just “turn” anymore, it swings. One season can feel like weeks of soaked ground and flooding risk, followed by a fast flip into heat, drought and stressed plants. We’ve felt it in everything from delayed sowing to polytunnels that need watering at dawn, and crops th...

Grow Your Own Herb Workshop Looking Forward To Seeing You here:  https://subscribepage.io/growyourownherbalgarden Hosepipe bans, cracked soil, and then a day of rain so heavy it vanishes into runoff: if your garden has felt like it’s lurching between extremes, you’re not imagining it. We step back from the week-to-week frustration and look at what the data actually says about Irish weather, using...

Grow Your Own Herb Workshop Looking For To Seeing You here:  https://subscribepage.io/growyourownherbalgarden Your garden can look “fine” in August while quietly running on empty. With weeks of heat and very little rain, plants lose that fresh, lush look, new plantings stall, and even reliable beds start to struggle. We talk honestly about what prolonged drought looks like on the ground, from yell...

You can grow a lot of things in a kitchen garden, but fruit is where the difference hits hardest. A homegrown apple or strawberry can make supermarket fruit taste flat, and that’s why we pull together our 10 essential fruits for a kitchen garden, with a focus on what actually works in Ireland and what still works when space is tight. We start with the reality of gardening life: coming back from ho...

This weeks sponsors:  Seeds Ireland High Quality Seeds: See link below for listener offer.  https://seedsireland.ie/master August arrives and the seed sowing list shrinks, but that does not mean the growing season is over. We talk through a practical August sowing guide that keeps your veg patch productive, especially if you garden in a UK or Ireland climate where late summer can still deliver ple...

If you had to cut your kitchen garden down to just ten vegetables, what would you keep and why? We take on that exact challenge and build a list that is practical, flavour-led, and realistic for busy gardeners who want maximum results for the least fuss. We start with the five filters we use when deciding what deserves space in a bed: taste (does it beat the supermarket?), effort versus reward, ea...

If your herb bed could only earn space for ten plants, which ones would actually make your dinners better week after week? We take a listener request from Ivy in Connemara and build a clear, usable shortlist of essential herbs for an Irish garden, balancing everyday cooking with what genuinely grows well in our climate. We start with the hardy, low-effort staples that keep giving: rosemary, sage a...

A big garden can be a gift, right up to the day it starts to feel like a second job. We’re joined by American garden writer Rhonda Fleming Hayes to talk about her book *Gardening for Life* and the practical reality behind a question many of us avoid: how do you keep gardening as you age without letting the work take over the joy? We dig into strategies that make a garden more manageable without st...

This weeks sponsors:  Seeds Ireland High Quality Seeds: See link below for listener offer.  https://seedsireland.ie/master July is where a lot of edible gardens quietly lose momentum and it’s exactly why so many plots run out of steam in autumn. We’re keeping it simple and practical with a July seed sowing guide that helps you stay productive well beyond summer, even if your beds look full and you...

Carlow Garden Festival is back better than ever in 2026 with an amazing line up of speakers: a pick-and-mix week where you can build your own perfect gardening break. We’re joined by Eileen O’Rourke, CEO of Carlow Tourism, to walk through the programme day by day so you know exactly what’s on, where it’s happening, and how to choose the events that match your garden and your curiosity.  We talk bi...

June 2026 consultations available to book here  https://mastermygarden.com/consultation/ You can spend months staring at your garden and still not know what to do first, especially after a new build, a renovation, or a big change in how you want to use the space. We’re sharing a short, practical announcement episode about a service we’ve brought back: online garden consultations that help you move...

This weeks sponsor:  Crann From  Probio Carbon  https://www.probiocarbon.i e Your seeds are not “mysteriously bad” overnight. When carrots, peas, and lettuce fail again and again, the real culprit is usually the same thing we have all been living through: wild swings in soil temperature and moisture, plus bursts of intense sun followed by heavy rain. We break down what those swings do at the exact...

This weeks sponsor:  Crann From  Probio Carbon  https://www.probiocarbon.i e Rain that never seems to end, sunshine that vanishes in minutes, and wind that flattens the best-looking borders can make this June feel like a constant battle. We’re not trying to “beat” the weather, but we are determined to stop it stealing the best part of the gardening year, especially when roses, peonies and early su...

This weeks sponsor:  Crann From  Probio Carbon  https://www.probiocarbon.i e Conifers have spent years stuck in the “dated garden” box, but we’re starting to see them differently and for good reason. After spotting standout examples in show gardens and design work, we talk through why conifers are quietly making a comeback and how a single well-chosen evergreen can add structure, texture and calm...

A good garden festival should leave you inspired, better informed, and itching to get back into your own patch and Buds and Blossoms in County Laois aims to do exactly that. We’re right in the heart of garden festival season, so we record this bonus guide to help you decide if the Laois Garden Festival is worth the trip and how to plan it properly, especially if you want to turn it into a full wee...

This weeks sponsors:  Seeds Ireland High Quality Seeds: See link below for listener offer.  https://seedsireland.ie/master June is where gardeners quietly win the year, or accidentally drift into gaps, gluts, and empty beds. With April and May running unusually cold, I’m using this June seed sowing guide to reset the clock and show what still makes sense to sow now, especially once soil temperatur...

This weeks sponsor:  Crann From  Probio Carbon  https://www.probiocarbon.i e Slugs and snails can turn a thriving spring garden into a patchwork of chewed seedlings almost overnight, especially when a mild, wet spell meets rising temperatures. We talk through how we handle that pressure in a way that protects young plants now and reduces damage over time, without pretending there’s a magic switch...