Master My Garden Podcast

In this weeks episode John chats to Orlaith Murphy all about the subject of edimentals. What is edimentals?  I hear you ask. Edimentals are essentially a crossover between ornamental and edible plants. It is a really eye opening episode in which we chat about many but still only scratch the surface of the possibilities with edimentals. For example did you know all parts of a dahlia are edible ? or...

The Autumn is a great time to sow perennial seed to have flower next summer. Temperatures through September and early October can be good and daylight levels are reasonable which is good for seed sowing. On top of that our propagation areas may not be fully utilised at this time of the year so its great to use the space to produce our abundance of flowers for next year. What perennials can you sow...

In this weeks episode John chats with Hugh Cassidy or Horti Hugh as he is better known online. Hugh is a master of container gardening and give lots of superb tips so you can be successful with your containers. Hugh's garden is from a gardening perspective not ideal its a north facing front garden but that doesn't stop Hugh from having year round colour and interest all from containers a...

Painting it is one of the few jobs that every gardener will do at some point in time. Whether it is painting a fence, rejuvenating old furniture or changing the style on a patio we will all do it. However some of us do this with great results while others will end up very quickly with a flaky mess. Many times this has got to do with poor prep or poor paint. So in this weeks episode of the podcast...

In this weeks episode of Master My Garden podcast John looks at what to sow in the August vegetable garden. August is generally is a month great harvests in our vegetable gardens. When it comes to what we can sow the number of seeds that we can actually sow is reducing dramatically. So what can we sow? We can still sow lots of salad leaves lettuce, spinach, winter purslane, mizuna and others. We c...

In this weeks episode John chats with Rory Newell Forest Moon Plants.  Rory is an expert plant propagator, nurseryman and plants person. We chat about the different plants Rory propagates on his nursery and some of the techniques he uses to get more plants from less material. He also talks about some plant collections and stocks that he is planning to build up on his nursery over the coming months...

In this weeks episode of the podcast John chats about his gardening thoughts from Tuscany after a recent family holiday there. How good it is to be back able to travel on family holidays again and we went to Tuscany to a camp site for 13 days. What a beautiful place it is and we all had a great time. The gardens, plant selection and they way they grew and sold vegetables was really interesting to...

In the past month John has visited the Gaffa trade show in Cologne Germany and the Glee show in Birmingham UK. It was interesting to see what products are coming down the tracks and what trends we can expect for the coming seasons in gardening products.  There will be a blog post on this episode very soon on my website. This blog and previous blogs along with all podcast episodes are be available...

In this weeks episode of Master My Garden podcast John is joined by the wonderful June Blake to chat about some plant combinations that June uses in her garden. Creating beds packed with colour and great performing plants are all covered in this super episode with one of Irelands best gardeners and creator of June Blake’s Garden in Wicklow. You can find June on her website here http://www.juneblak...

In this weeks episode of Master My Garden podcast John looks at what to sow in July and other gardening jobs. July is a month when all our vegetable beds are heaving with produce and space for new crops can be at a premium. It is also holiday time and a combination of holidays and full beds mean that people generally stop sowing their seed at this time of the year. However if you can keep sowing a...

As gardeners do we strive too much for perfection and as a result we often don't start jobs ? Or are we so focussed on what needs to be done that we struggle to find joy or happiness in what we already have in our gardens. All of these things rob us of the everyday joys that are and can be present in our gardens. In this weeks episode John chats with Niall McCauley gardener and Youtube creato...

In this weeks episode of Master My Garden Podcast I chat with Clare Rooney from Willowpatch Farm. Clare is a breath of fresh air through her Instagram and new YouTube channel (links below) where she talks about her success's and failures in her garden. Keeping it very real that everything is not always perfect. We have a great chat about growing pumpkins, tomatoes and lots of other veg as wel...

In this weeks episode of Master My Garden podcast John chats with Head Gardener of Ballymaloe House Hotel Mags Coughlan. Its a great episode where Mags chats to us about her role in Ballymaloe managing to bring food & cut flowers into the Hotel pretty much all year round. Mags tells us about her favourite vegetables to grow. What vegetables to use for all yer round supply and lots more. Ballym...

In this weeks episode of Master My Garden podcast,  John looks at what we can sow in June?  and chat about other gardening jobs for June.  June is a month where we are harvesting quiet a bit from our gardens & greenhouses and it is great to have these fresh vegetables & fruit. For me I am harvesting spinach, lettuce, spring onion, chard, radish, broccoli, cabbage, leeks, strawberries &...

Bloom, Bord Bia's Gardening festival returns to the Phoenix Park Dublin from Thursday 2nd to Monday 6th June.  On this weeks episode of Master My Garden Podcast I am joined by Carol Marks senior horticulture manager with Bord Bia who will tell us all what Bloom 2022 has in store.  Now in its 16th year, Bloom has become Ireland’s largest gardening event and a great family day out it includes s...

In this weeks episode of Master My Garden podcast John chats to world renowned microbiologist Dr. Elaine Ingham who has been one of the leading voices in soil health for 4 decades.  What is going on in the soil is something that we all need to understand more and become in tune with, because a healthy soil has amazing benefits for the plants which grow within and also the foods that we consume fro...

Weeds the constant in every garden and the battle between gardener and weeds is an ongoing one of which there never seems to be a winner. If this is you then you will have to understand them first and then maybe you will be able to control them as they can never be eradicated. How do I control weeds in my garden? So that's what we cover in this weeks episode of Master My Garden podcast how to...

If you want to have perfect hanging baskets this year there are some essential tips to ensure you are the envy of your neighbours. This is what we look at in this weeks episode.  Every year thousands of hanging baskets go out up and down the country however many never look as they should and after often taken down prematurely through neglect.  So what do you need to do to ensure your baskets look...

In this weeks episode we look at what can we sow in May in our gardens and other gardening jobs for this very busy month. May is the month we can get outside with our sowing and although frost can still be an issue for another few weeks it is the month when temperatures rise and growth really kicks off after a cold spring. Sowing of successional veg can begin outside sowing spinach, radish, spring...

Listener question answered for this weeks episode of the podcast. The listener asked how can I extend the harvest period of strawberries? Its a great question because strawberries are the number 1 soft fruit for grow you own but they are really fleeting, and if you only grow one variety then chances are you will only have fruit for 2-3 weeks. So can we extend it and how? Firstly by growing differe...

In this weeks episode of Master My Garden podcast I chat with Mark Cooke all about a fantastic new allotment set up in Enniscorthy Community Allotments. It is great to see allotments being set up that have the right ethos and are all about community. Allotments that foster a spirit of helping and supporting each other this are the type of allotments that will bring joy their allotment holders and...

How to protect your plants from different threats this spring is the topic on this weeks episode of Master My Garden podcast.  John looks at how to mind all those seedlings you have been minding and growing on your windowsill or greenhouse. At this stage your seedlings are really looking for more space and looking to get into the ground, but the weather and the different weather threats such as fr...

In this weeks episode of Master My Garden podcast John looks at the top 10 bulbs to plant now for abundant blooms this summer. From Dahlia's to Croscosmia and much more find out where to plant, use and much more. John also talk about his in person grow your own vegetable course which is on Saturday 23rd of April detail below and the booking link is here. https://mastermygarden.com/courses/ I...

In this weeks episode of Master My Garden podcast John looks at what we can sow in April. April is the month when seed sowing and gardening in general ramps up but its also a month to exercise caution around sowing and planting outside. In some areas and especially in colder parts of Ireland frosts are still prevalent and will be until perhaps mid May so all sowing and planting should be done with...

In this weeks episode John chats to Canadian Author Stephanie Rose about her new book "the Regenerative Garden" Its a great chat talking about Stephanie's story about how gardening became an important part of her healing when she suddenly became unwell in 2006 and how that journey has led to many books and of course the newly released "the Regenerative Garden" . We chat ab...