Master My Garden Podcast
Master My Garden Podcast
- EP253 Best Christmas Gifts For Gardeners 2025 With Gardeners & Christmas Lovers Rosie Maye & Paula Byrne
Rosie Maye, the Insomniac Gardener, and Paula Byrne Kilgar Gardens join us for a joyful and festive episode of Master My Garden Podcast! With Christmas around the corner, we promise to unwrap the best gardening gifts for 2025, catering to every gardener's wish list and every budget, from the thrifty to the extravagant. Rosie and Paula bring their shared love of gardening and holiday spirit, sharing insightful tips and personal stories that highlight the perfect balance between practicality and festive cheer. This episode is brimming with laughter, great gift ideas, and a shared passion for both gardening and Christmas
Our conversation takes off with a spirited debate about the trusty leaf blower, offering insights into selecting the right brand for interchangeable batteries, a must-have tip for any gardener. From practical tools to lavish, dream-worthy presents, our guests share their personal favorites and experiences, ensuring a well-rounded guide for all your gift-giving needs. Whether you're seeking practical advice or dreaming of the perfect gift to delight the gardener in your life, Rosie and Paula's wisdom, humor, and love for Christmas provide a delightful and informative experience. Tune in and let us guide you through a garden of gift ideas that promise to bring holiday joy and inspiration to gardeners everywhere.
The episode is packed full of gift ideas so many its hard to add links to them all but here are links to a few of the items discussed on the episode.
Buy Tickets For The Dublin Garden Trail:
https://www.kilgargardens.ie
http://www.dublingardengroup.com
Hori Hori Knife:
https://www.bellmeadowireland.com/seedsandgarden/p/niwwakihorihori?rq=hori%20hori
The Irish Garden Subscription:
https://subscribe.garden.ie
Rosabell plant Supports:
https://www.rosabellplantsupports.co.uk
RHSI Membership:
https://rhsi.ie/membership-3/
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
How's it going, everybody? And welcome to episode 253 of Mastermind Garden Podcast. Now, this is an episode that we've done for the last few years, so it's Christmas Gifts for Gardeners the 2025 edition. So I've done it for the last few years. First year I did it on my own and then, since then, I've been bringing guests on to to do it at this time of the year, and this year I'm delighted to be joined by two returning guests. So I have rosie made insomnia gardener, and I have paula, who was on the podcast from kilgar gardens back in june of this year, so rosie was on the podcast as well back in October 22, which is a long time ago, and, as I say, paula from June this year. So this is a great combination for tonight. So we have two exceptional gardeners, but we also have two self-confessed lovers of Christmas and they're also sort of partners in crime on the gardening scene and they go to plant fairs together. So I think this will be a lot of fun, so you're both very welcome back to Master my Garden podcast.
Speaker 1:Thank you, yeah, so it's a. It's a an unusual type of an episode, but it's one that goes down really well every year. I, for the last couple of years, the first year I did it. When listening back to it I could see that it was a very male dominated list of gifts. So there was there was things like leaf blowers on it.
Speaker 1:So since then I've tried to bring a bit of balance to it and it's interesting because different guests on different years and a lot of the same thing comes up and but there's a lot of different stuff comes up every year and I think, um, it'll be interesting to see, as I says, two, two great gardeners, but also two lovers of christmas. So I think this is going to be interesting. So what we'll do is we'll kind of we'll, we'll move from one to the other and we'll chat about what might be a nice gift. Then we might say we'll sort of aim for money, no object gift and uh, you know some other ones that might be on budgets and things like that. So, rosie, I might start with you. So you said yourself, confessed lover of gardening and the lover of christmas yes, absolutely both in fact.
Speaker 3:uh, I'm chomping at the bit now to get the decorations up, but I've promised my son I'm going to wait until December. But now my first. You've already ruined my first idea A leaf blower.
Speaker 1:A leaf blower.
Speaker 3:I mean for crying out loud. A leaf blower, fantastic present.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:We actually, in fairness, we have about three or four of them and we interchange them. But if you are buying a leaf blower, um, try and buy something that it like stick with the same um, you know brand, because then you can interchange the batteries, because a lot of those you know battery leaf blowers, yeah, do run out of juice. And if you have say like, uh, poric now has every tool known to man and need to have, like torches and chainsaws and all that, but they all use the same you know the same battery, so that's always a good idea. So there you so, leaf blower. You took the flipping words right out of my mind that's a brilliant.
Speaker 1:That's a brilliant. There's a couple of good tips there, actually, because, right, I, I um men, love tools, as you know, power tools of any sort, but um the one. There's a couple of things there. Um, I suppose I got a gift a couple years ago of a leaf blower, and I suppose this is the same for all presents.
Speaker 1:I wanted a leaf blower yeah but the brand that I got as a present I would never have bought myself, right? So I suppose this is going to kind of ring true when you, when you're looking at any of the presents. So I would, as I say, I would never have bought it for myself. It's fine, but it's not the one I would have bought myself. And I think what you've said. There is a very good idea that if you are going now, mine is petrol but if you are going battery, definitely try and stick with a brand, whatever that is and there's so many good brands out there now and there's actually more and more coming on the scene all the time. But there's so many really solid brands and if you're able to stick with them, then, as you said, your batteries are interchangeable. Yeah, you can sort of build your collection over time and you can end up with all the bits and pieces that you might need.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, that's a good. That's a good tip. I mean we have, we've a lot of leaves here, we've a lot of old trees, we're very lucky, um, but we've literally just finished making, you know, putting all the leaves into. You know, bags for leaf mold, but we have the backpack one, but then we have the the hand one. So the backpack one is a petrol one, but the other one, the other ones there, you know it's, it's a battery one. It's fantastic because I can go in and rob batteries from other things, you know yeah, and what brand?
Speaker 1:what brand are you using?
Speaker 3:um, that is a very good question and I wish his him indoors was here. It'll come back all right um, hello, it's not still.
Speaker 1:Anyway, it'll come back to me yeah, no problem, there's pretty good ones out there yeah, it is very good how would you feel, paula, if you got a leaf blower as a christmas present?
Speaker 2:would be impressed. Now, to be honest, now that we are on tools, though, I do have a favorite. Yeah, couldn't be without, and definitely over the last few years, like my way of thinking is how do I make life a little bit easier for myself? Take the hardship out of what I'm doing? Yeah and the right tools are definitely like a godsend. Yeah, um, I have one.
Speaker 2:Um, it's, it's, uh, a chain, little hand chainsaw oh yeah I mean it's just amazing for really hard pruning it really cuts through anything. So, yeah, that makes light work. I don't have to use a saw anymore.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's brilliant. So for anyone just listening rather than watching, that's a steel handheld chainsaw, so it's like operated off a little five volt battery and has like a six inch blade or something, so that's.
Speaker 2:Yeah, light and thing. And my next favorite is like I used to do, I do all my cutting back with a hedge trimmer, so all the perennials just down to the ground with a hedge trimmer and for years.
Speaker 2:I was using a Petra. Yeah, I was just down to the ground with a hedge trimmer and for years I was using a Petra. So every time you're stopping and starting, and you're stopping and starting and you're pulling the cord to start it. So I got myself a battery one and I wasn't clever enough to get all the same tools the same way. The Dewalt one.
Speaker 1:Oh Dewalt yeah.
Speaker 2:Fantastic. All the same tools, the same way. The d-waltz one fantastic. Like you can just stop it and start it and clear away as you're going around, and it's quick and easy and fairly powerful. So, yeah, my go-to things I think.
Speaker 1:I think they're great. Now, it's brilliant that we're on tools so early, because last year I was getting slagged for talking with tools but, um, yeah, no, this is brilliant and it makes sense, because a lot of the battery stuff now is light, um, but it's extremely powerful. So if you are, as you said, cutting back perennials, it's light, you're not needing petrol, you're making no noise, which is another thing. In fact, it's a factor here, anyway, because I know I like to get up early on a Saturday morning and make lots of noise with tools and I get it for it. So battery power yeah less fumes as well.
Speaker 2:Less fumes from the petrol, a wide range. Now they're taking over, I think, from the petrol machines, so yeah, you can use them.
Speaker 3:For you know I'm always going in and robbing some of the tools, like I use hedge trimmers sometimes, for you know, every three years for cutting rose bushes, for cutting epimediums, I just cut the whole lot at the end, you know. So it's really handy having the battery.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah, definitely so. And like there's so much you can get now your streamers, your hedge cutters, your chainsaws um, there's a bit literally every tool that you could want. Uh, you can get now.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, that's brilliant so we're off to a good. You're delighted with your, with the tool, yeah we're off to a great start. On the tools, will we get on to um robot lawnmowers now will we?
Speaker 1:no, no, that's on the list. That's on the list. I don't think it's a christmas present, though, really like in your christmas yeah, I'd be delighted with it, absolutely delighted that's your therapy gone, though, yeah yeah, is it?
Speaker 1:yeah, um, I yeah. It's funny, it's we're going off topic now, but I talked when you talk to people about lawns. Some people absolutely love cutting their lawn. They love going out and sitting on the lawn more they love going out and putting the stripy bits on them. I like a lawn, but I can't stand cutting it. I really can't yeah, yeah, yeah it's just. Well, everyone's different. Yeah, but it's. I would be delighted with a robot.
Speaker 3:Now I have to say well, you know, I think it's always good to change from tools, so here's one that I want to show you. Yeah, I mean, I have a list here as long as my arm Good Between you know different gifts for and, like you said in the introduction, it depends. It depends on the person. Obviously it depends on the recipient. I can be guilty of giving some of my best friends who are maybe not as passionate about gardening as I am, and I tend to give them plants and I give them pots and I but sometimes you can. You can actually pot up bulbs, like we were talking about tulips earlier on. Last year a friend of mine who's a nurse I potted up. I found a tulip called health care and.
Speaker 3:I bought a whole load of them and I bought her a really nice pot, planted them in it and gave them to her because and then it was like a living present it came up and she was thrilled then in the spring because you know it was a nice pot, she could reuse the pot, but she had the tulips then in the spring, you know, which was nice.
Speaker 1:And that's a lovely, lovely idea, because this is not specific now to gardening gifts, but I think at christmas there's so many presents that you know we, we all have our family, chris kendall's, our workers candles are 20 euro present or 50 euro present and people go out with a list and you just check off stuff for the sake of checking it off, but with something like that, there's a little bit of thought in it. You were very lucky to find a name that matches her profession and you know it's a really nice, as you say, living present, but it's a thoughtful present and I think that's, I think that's important on a few levels. It's important, obviously, from the point of view of, you know, giving a gift with a bit of meaning, but it's also important, I suppose, not to be you know when you're, when we're buying and gifting, and that we're we're kind of doing it with a little bit of thought and maybe buying good, good quality stuff that is going to last, so it's not thrown away the week after Christmas and never picked up again.
Speaker 3:So I think that's, that's a brilliant gift and it's funny because, just you know, on bulbs and like you mentioned a name there, um, like you know, obviously I got health care, but, um, I've also given snowdrops as um a gift, because you can sometimes find people's names, you know, in snowdrops. But there's actually a lady I know up the north and I'm going to show you this because Can you see those?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, Class.
Speaker 3:But they're actually resin snowdrops and they're in a lovely crystal vase, you see, yeah, she does various, she does roses, she does muscari and various things like that. So they're online. Rosabelle plant supports.
Speaker 1:Ah, rosie was on a couple of weeks ago, was she Rosie?
Speaker 2:and I yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Because Brilliant she spoke about on the podcast. She spoke about her resin flowers and they are absolutely beautiful, so realistic looking and dainty and yeah, they're gorgeous, yeah so there you go.
Speaker 3:So that's my. And then she does beautiful. I mean, I'm her biggest fan. She does um, or they, they do these wonderful. They made lovely arches for us get um. You know just stakesaks. You know the steaks.
Speaker 1:Sometimes some of them have like a butterfly on the top or yeah, so where where I came across um rosie was at buds and blossoms this year oh, yes, yes and it was.
Speaker 1:It was lashing rain and I passed by the stand and there was nobody. There was nobody on the stand they were gone for lunch or whatever, but it was. They just really caught my eye that they're beautiful. Um, like, there was a lot of real sturdy artists and you know, you see sturdy artists from time to time and they look sturdy, but these just had a little, as you say, a little butterfly on top or a little flower on top, and it just looked classy and and she does ship.
Speaker 3:You know she can. She can post all over the country.
Speaker 1:Yeah, brilliant.
Speaker 3:I was at Buds and Blossoms as well, so I've met her at a couple of different festivals and things like that. She's fantastic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, brilliant.
Speaker 3:And Mark, of course, sorry.
Speaker 1:I don't know Mark, but yeah, I heard he's the sort of she comes up with the ideas and the designs and then he does the, the mechanics of it in the background. So yeah, the teamwork that's.
Speaker 1:I just think that that's really it's a thoughtful gift and I think you know it's also very useful, you know like because fan supports, we all need those yeah, and and again, it's one that's going to be quality, so it's going to be there in 30 years time and you can say that I got that gift you know, from such and such yeah, brilliant, yeah, really good. And I think I'm right in saying, paula, did you, you use some of those plant supports as well? Am I right in saying that?
Speaker 2:I do. Yeah, I have a lot of that steel um running through the garden so I get them made locally. Yeah, um, yeah, it's brilliant like it lasts forever and I don't treat it or anything.
Speaker 1:The rusty look is natural looking and, yeah, I love anything steel like that yeah and again, if you're buying something like that, as you say, it's there for years exactly yeah, it's a really no, it's just no wind yeah, exactly really worthwhile gift. So we'll go back to you, paula, on this list. What else have you got?
Speaker 2:um well, I've got something a little bit more probably. Well, it can be male or female, but um the flower truck. So oh yeah yeah, class so you can get this on.
Speaker 2:On connecting to nature, oh yeah website and they have them already made up with with stuff in them. Um, but you can't just make your own, and so inside I have literally full with stuff. So, um, I have seeds in packets of seeds and my favorite hand cream, yeah, um, so you can have your twine, your labels. I've some aromatherapy stuff, dead sea salts for your epsom salts for your aches and pains after gardening, and these, like I just love these during the winter.
Speaker 1:They're cuffs ah, brilliant yeah, so this is like right. So the trough itself. I thought the trough was initially the, the gift, but yeah the trough can be a gift yeah, the trough it's like a hamper you can make a hamper with it self is lovely.
Speaker 2:You could fill it uh, so many ideas. You could fill it with all your dry flowers. You could fill it with um. If you go to the garden centers now, you can get all the little small pots of the hellebores and your hyacinths and your snowdrops.
Speaker 2:So picture that yeah and full with all those little plants inside them. It'll be lovely. But um, whether you're male or female, I have um beeswax candles in it, aromatherapy stuff, shirley Lankin's book, the Open Gardens of Ireland. So really think outside the box. You can put novelty stuff in it, like a mug in it. You can put a little whiskey bottle for your hot toddy at the end of a really cool day in the garden.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, it's a lovely sturdy basket. If you didn't want to go to that expense, you could just do it in the gift box.
Speaker 1:But I mean, there's so many different things yeah, that's a, that's a brilliant, that's a brilliant package now, because I've things I like, so yeah, no, and it makes sense because and as you said, male or female, because I've I've talked about christmas hampers before and you know you think about.
Speaker 1:You put in maybe secretaries, you put in seeds and different things, but again, not everything in it is going to suit everybody. So if you already have a secretary's, chances are you might want another one. If you grow vegetables and you don't grow flowers, you know the seeds mightn't suit you or whatever, but in there now that's a brilliant one. So the truck itself is a good gift because everybody will use that and as you said, the, the cups. That's a brilliant idea.
Speaker 2:I haven't seen that before yeah, well, if you don't like wearing um gloves, yeah, they're just the best thing for heat. They heat your arm up and keep your body really warm. I just I wear them all winter yeah, that's brilliant kind of fantastic yeah and then the epsom salts.
Speaker 1:That's a good one as well, because yeah, yeah everyone liked that at the end of the day, and the mug is a great idea, so, yeah, that's a lovely, that's a lovely hamper.
Speaker 2:I mean there's so many things you can put in it. You could put tools in it either, um, and if you really want to personalize it and you had your own seed packets or your own little cuttings or whatever your buddies uh snow drops in it, you could really personalize it. So yeah, it's first time yeah, I like that one.
Speaker 1:Now, that's, that's a, that's a very good one. Yeah, for sure, um rosie, what have you on your list next?
Speaker 3:well, actually I received a gift um only recently and they're the best thing ever Kind of leather gloves, because I've got every gardening glove.
Speaker 3:I always am amused if you do look up gardening gifts for Christmas you get all these pictures of you know, little gloves with little pink flowers and then a towel that would break the minute you put it into the soil. Um, so they're no good to me. Um, and I have, I've loads and loads of just work gloves which are, you know, they fit really, they're really they're, they're tight. But when you're trying to pull briars or anything like that out, bitch or nettles or, but particularly briars, or even cutting, you know, gathering up roses, now they're not as flexible. I mean, they look huge but they're not. But they are just fantastic because once you put them on, yeah, nothing is going to get through those. So if, if you do extreme gardening, like I think paula and I both do, just I think they are fantastic and you could always give these and then maybe make it up with a set of you know the more fitted gloves which are fantastic and a friend of mine, that same friend who's the nurse.
Speaker 3:She actually told me a really good tip. She, you know, said to put the um, you know, the little kind of plastic, uh gloves that you see them using in oh yeah settings all the time.
Speaker 3:If you put those under some of your lighter gloves in the winter when you know you're going to get really, really wet, they actually keep your hands dry and you know it doesn't matter then if the exterior gets wet. So you can do a little package of gloves because, let's face it and I don't know about you, but I put one in my. You know the way you take one off to maybe have more dexterity or something, and then you leave down a glove, so you're all. I mean I have gloves all over the, all over the. I'm in the shed, I have them in the polytunnel up in the veg patch, I have them everywhere.
Speaker 1:You know you lose them yeah, yeah, and it is true that you probably need like being realistic, yeah, you need different types of glove as well um, because you do need. If you're a glove wearer and and I generally don't, but if you're obviously, if you're pulling briars or something, you need something. Um, but if you are a glove wearer, then you're going to need something that's. You know, if you're doing any pricking out or something like that, you're going to need something with a bit of dexterity in it. Then you're going to need something, for, you know, if you're digging, you're going to need something tough with a bit of work in, and then, obviously, you need thorn proof for for jobs like that. So, yeah, they're, they're a brilliant gift. Uh, what? What brand are they? Or you, have you used them yet?
Speaker 3:I have. They're kent and stove, so they're good, that's, you know, like they do all and, in fact, um, you know, they, they do the forks and they do.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:That's another thing. Again, I mean I don't want to, you know, have the little pink trowel with the flowers on it. I want to have something that's going to be really good. So back to those again. But like, we use them as a gardener. If you're a gardener, you know that's what you're reaching for all the time For forks, spadesades, you know, trowels, secateurs.
Speaker 3:This is actually one that I use it's spear and jackson and I actually happen to have a small hand, so I find a lot of the secateurs. They I just find them very hard to to to work and you can see this one is well used, but um, but what I really like is that you know when you close them. This actually does work.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It stays in place, and that's another thing that's really good. I actually I can't find it at the moment, it's probably in a flower bed somewhere but my tool belt and it's fantastic If you have a tool belt that you can clip on and, just, you know, put your gloves, put your secateurs and your phone for when you're taking photos, when suddenly the sun comes out, you know, that's just really handy to have, that you know when you're going around the garden. But I just find this particular make see, look, it's just perfect for my, my hand.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah so on my list I would have again. I'm too tool dominated here, but I I have felco on mine and, like they have, I've felt go to since, since I was was in Warrenstown back in the 90s, so that's a long time ago, and I think I've cleaned it a couple of times. I might have changed the blade once, but that's it. Um, but they do, they do arrange. So within that then there is one for kind of small hands. Um, and ladies particularly do like that, because a lot of the other ones they do have that long handle and they're they're a bit clunky, they're, they're, they're nice and they work well, but they're just a bit clunky, and so that's why the the you know small, fitting one is is a really nice one. They also do one for left handers, which is quite unusual. So, um, yeah, so that's that's. That's another another brilliant one. Yeah, for sure. Now, paula, what's next on your list?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're staying on tools for a minute. Oh Lord, this is brilliant tonight. Yeah, so one of my favorite spades, the root slayer, oh, just fantastic. So you see the end of it there. It's a serrated edge and it just really digs into, like if you're moving shrubs or digging into hard ground. It's fantastic. Plus, at the top there, like it has a good, uh, you'll see good top good, good wide wide. You're not like feeling it on your feet when you're when you're really digging it in.
Speaker 2:So um, I think that's fairly new um on the market is there a brand on it? Uh, radius, that is roots there.
Speaker 2:I've never heard of it, but that that looks like a yeah yeah, I'd love one of those definitely recommend that and I'm definitely with you on the tool belt, rosie, especially like if you're going to pay money for a Velcro which you need to do, like the cheap ones, you go through five, six cheap ones for one good decent secateurs. So, yeah, you need a belt or else it'll be going in the wheelbarrow and then going into the compost. So yeah, done that yeah, that's a.
Speaker 1:That's a falco five I think you have, is it?
Speaker 2:yeah, I have big hands, john, long fingers, so yeah it's. It's fairly big. I have a smaller one as well um, but yeah, that's, it's a good, it's, it's bigger for Bruno and Roses and other stuff. So yeah, I love them.
Speaker 1:Class. We're definitely staying very much on tools here.
Speaker 2:I'm finished with tools now. Oh, you're finished with tools, right?
Speaker 1:So we're probably going to soften up here a little bit now. So we'll stay with you, Paula. What have you next on your?
Speaker 2:list Books I mean.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what have you next on your list? Books, I mean, oh yeah. Yeah, I know we're all online now and we're all um, you know, looking up Pinterest and stuff for ideas, but I just there's a few books. I love this one and the Flower Hunter by Lucy Hunter and like, if you're into growing your own flowers, there's beautiful images in it on how to just pick um flowers and foliage from the garden and arrange them in your house and there's nothing complicated in it. They're all just loose and lovely and lovely natural photographs in it. It's mostly, I suppose it is kind of flower farm based based. Yeah, it's a very pretty book.
Speaker 1:I love it and yeah, so what's that name again? The flower hunter the flower hunter by lucy hunter. Was it by lucy hunter? Brilliant, never, never. I haven't heard of, I haven't heard of her, but it sounds good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got it in a book, and another book I love, and I've had it for years, is the thoughtful gardener by jny Bloom, and so it is.
Speaker 1:That book has come up on this on the Christmas gifts before I don't have it, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's a lovely visual book Brilliant Just flicking through and lovely photographs in it and I suppose it's very natural style planting, loose style. Suppose, um, it's very natural style planting, loose style, meadow style planting and um country cottage style. But yeah, I refer to that book a lot yeah, yeah, you definitely like it was.
Speaker 1:I've said it before, I think books in in general, like they're, they're going, you know, onto kindles and audiobooks and so on. But I do think that gardening books is slightly different in that there's the, the imagery is vital and you know people, people really do seem to buy and keep and, you know, keep going back to to a good gardening book over years and years and years, whereas you know other books that you kind of read them and they're done like, but they're more of a reference point for years and years and years, whereas you know other books that you kind of read them and they're done like, but they're more of a reference point for years and years, aren't they?
Speaker 2:And I definitely think like I'm a visual person. So for me, if I'm picking a book, I just, you know, it's the photographs in it that will make me go to it, and those two books are definitely Brilliant, Beautiful.
Speaker 1:Any books on your list, Rosie?
Speaker 3:Oh, a million gardening books. In fact, paula just showed one there. You know I love that Shirley Lanigan book because it is great, you know when you go off for the day and you know gardens to visit.
Speaker 3:But there's definitely, you know, jimmymy blake's book is is fantastic, a beautiful yeah, beautiful obsession yeah um, you know, tj marr recently published a book, so but I have to say, um, a lot of my my favorite uh one is still helen dillons and I don't know whether you can get it or not now, but, um, I I was actually given it by another gardener, and sometimes that's really nice to pass on something that you know, maybe you have used or something. I had a couple of books and they were for small gardens and I passed those on to a friend of mine, seeing as I got my wish and got a big garden. But equally, while we're on the subject of reading and books, you could give a subscription. So I always do this and now I'm a member of the Irish Garden Plant Society.
Speaker 3:That's a really good subscription to give to somebody. You get magazines, you get a newsletter three or four times a year, you get an e-bulletin and then, once a year, you get to request free seeds, because gardeners like me, I donate seeds and then it's just you might get seeds that you mightn't get somewhere else, so it's very good. And then you get to visit gardens with the Irish Garden Plant Society that you wouldn't maybe normally have access to, because a lot of them are private gardens that just open for that, for that.
Speaker 3:So that's just an idea, a subscription that's a brilliant subscription um it's a really good society and it's actually was set up for the um, uh, you know, like to help preserve irish heritage plants. So that's another, another aspect of it that you and when you go to the plant sales maybe once a year I think it's in october, our one in leinster and you get to buy plants and a lot of them are cuttings from a lot of the gardeners you know in ireland that have taken over the years and you can get to buy some of those.
Speaker 3:So that's just a nice. I think it's really, really brilliant. And then the other one, of course, is for the irish garden magazine slightly biased, um, you know, because I write with them, I contribute to them, but it's a great magazine and you get to get you know. You can give a subscription to somebody, you know, because you might forget it one month or something like that, and it's just nice because it just arrives in your door.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that's a lovely gift, and it did come up last year, I think, or the year before, I'm not sure, but it has come up before. I do think that's a nice gift because you know that, as you say, it's going to be a little welcome surprise. Four copies a year and, yeah, a nice surprise coming through the door and something over the course of the year. So it's not just, uh, give it, give it today and forgotten about tomorrow. It's something that's going to arrive again and again. That's nice. Yeah, that's a.
Speaker 3:That's a lovely gift yeah, yeah, and this is my uh. Porick managed to find my um. That's why I was. I was asking him to bring it in. That's my belt oh, the tool belt yeah, tool belt and it's really simple because you can see you have another one of those things in there, but then you could put a pen and you can put. You know, there's a phone and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:So, um, that's our handbag, right, that's it um, seeing as we're on on books, I knew books were going to come up and I was thinking to myself earlier on. So a lot, of, a lot of gardeners in ireland have books is on the agenda for either.
Speaker 3:I keep being yes. Well, I'm being asked quite a lot by a particular friend of mine and I'm like when exactly would I fit that in? But anyway, maybe a hot friend would that friend be here?
Speaker 1:so it's a possibility can you just imagine?
Speaker 3:imagine it'd have to be about that size. I'd never be able to edit it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I suppose that won't be your job. That'll be someone else's job to chop it down, chop it down. So you make it big, and then they'll make it.
Speaker 3:You can keep my feet on the ground, paula. She's going to charge her fortune whoever that is she's going to earn.
Speaker 2:oh, I can tell you uh, what about you, paula? Write a book? No I don't know you illustrate it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I do, I would illustrate it, I write it and you'll illustrate it, because you're an actor okay, that sounds better, that that sounds like a commitment watch this space
Speaker 1:yeah, for sure, for sure. So on, um, just to go on to plants for a second right. So what's your thoughts, both good gardeners, both with well-established gardens what's your thought on receiving, um, a gift of a plant of some sort? And the reason I ask is, I know, if somebody was starting out and, you know, was only starting a garden, then a nice tree or a nice rose or something like that could be a nice gift. But for someone like yourselves I could be wrong. But I think you wouldn't love to get a present of a plant. Am I right in saying?
Speaker 2:I personally think there's a bit of pressure involved in getting a plant or a tree if you're not a good gardener, because what if it dies, you know, and that's being negative. But like, if you are given a tree or a plant to a gardener who's not just somebody who's not an experienced gardener, just doesn't know what to do with it, yeah, that that's a risk. But having said that, like I think getting a tree is an amazing present, I do.
Speaker 2:If I was given a tree, it would be a cornice, one of the cornice cooses cornice yeah yeah, when that flowers every spring, you're going to remember that person and the person who gave you that tree yeah like if you're starting your garden and you know somebody, you know a good gardener who knows knows their plants and knows their trees and they give you something special like that. I think it's a fabulous present.
Speaker 1:Yeah for sure. The reason I said I said that would you like to get it is that I had a very good gardener on the podcast a couple years ago and they mentioned getting presents of and they're quite fussy about what they put into their garden and they mentioned getting presents of plants. And it's a bit like me with the with the leaf blower. I wanted the leaf blower but I never would have bought the brand that I got and and it's a little bit the same. So that's what. That's why I was.
Speaker 1:I was saying that it would kind of need to suit where you're going to put it and you need to, like most people, like you guys, will go, and you'll nearly always have a place for something when you buy it. But it's gifted to you, it's it's kind of pushed upon you as such it is at least.
Speaker 2:It would fill me with dread if my husband went and bought me a tree because God knows what he would come home with. You know you'd have to if you were getting it from somebody who knew what they were buying and knew what it was going to be a spec tree or something that would suit your garden. I think that's a better way to go about it, yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, I've gotten presents, of presents of of plants. Now, sometimes a bit, you know you are it might be a bit dubious, but um, I personally love to buy uh plants as presents, especially for my husband, because then guess what he has to look after it because I end up with the, with the, with the plant, and I have people visiting here.
Speaker 3:I always and I gave this tree to my husband for his birthday and they all look at me and then I say he didn't know, he wanted a tree, he got a tree and then he gets them for his anniversary and in fact one year for Christmas I was so romantic, I bought him a sack truck For moving your pots.
Speaker 3:For moving the pots, I tell you's, that's the most. It's not quite on the tools level, but anyway, but no, I do. I love, and not just for christmas, uh, I love giving um plants, um, in fact, as wedding presents, and like paula the cornice, but I I buy the um cornice.
Speaker 3:Controversa variegata wedding cake tree, which is a bit of a cliche, but um, it seems to be well received and I think it is a lovely thing um to give to somebody, because you know you plant your tree and then hopefully don't kill it and in a couple of years you've got this like yeah beauty in your garden, so it is nice yeah, no, I think so.
Speaker 1:And like, when you guys are picking, you know what you're picking and there's, as you say, a meaning behind it, so it makes sense, um, as opposed to you know someone picking it up on the way out of the supermarket, on the trolley at the door.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I wouldn't recommend that um, there's a, there's um another little thing I just had on this list here which, before I forget it is just before it's on the tools as well. Sorry, but an oscillating hoe, oh yeah. Big crop, you know they do, if they sell them online.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:I was telling everybody, just order them. And God, it's fantastic, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, fantastic, yeah. So, god, it's fantastic you know, yeah, fantastic, yeah.
Speaker 1:So even in the vegetable garden, it is a phenomenal tool. It's, without a doubt, the best hoe that you could get, so easy to use, light, but really effective, really really effective.
Speaker 3:I didn't bring it in. I couldn't put that on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the angle would be difficult. Yeah, no, that is a great a. It's a great gift.
Speaker 3:I would I'd be delighted getting that there you go yeah well, we're sorting your christmas out anyway oh, for sure, yeah for sure um, do you know what's nice as well, and I love them. And my, my long-suffering brother, uh, for the last few years has he's built me up quite a nice collection of. Do you know the? Um gerpoint? You know that crystal, the glass?
Speaker 3:yeah they make these lovely. They make two, two things for the garden, um spheres. And then they make these lovely kind of spirals and they're blown glass in lots of different colors and what I do is I put them on a metal stake and group them together and they can just look absolutely fantastic in amongst your plants. You know your point, crystal. If you look them up, they're fine.
Speaker 1:How? So I know your point, crystal.
Speaker 3:But, yeah, they do all the little tiny section there's just, and it just says garden. I think it says garden ornaments or something, and there's spirals and little glass orbs and they're, but they're brightly colored, they're very cheerful brilliant, and and how big are the?
Speaker 1:are the spirals?
Speaker 3:oh, they're only about whatever, six, maybe six, seven inches, but they're lovely and they kind of come to a point. And then you, just you can either stick them on a bamboo or on a metal uh stake and just stick it into your flower pot or into the bed, you know, and they're frost proof, but maybe the wind might get them in in the winter.
Speaker 1:But I bring them in in the winter yeah, and I'd imagine that they would catch the sun yeah, no, they're fine for that.
Speaker 3:No, they're really pretty and, um, just, it's a nice thing because it's for your garden, but if yet it's, you know you're not going to kill it. Yeah yeah no way of killing it, yeah yeah, brilliant.
Speaker 1:That's nice and definitely not something that we've come up with. That has come on before, so that's a nice one these are.
Speaker 3:These are all the things that I love to get, so uh you know I'll have to.
Speaker 1:I'll have to send episode to your, to your husband, afterwards there you go um. So, paula, what are we next on your list?
Speaker 2:um, I'm moving on to vouchers and um, I've lots of ideas for vouchers. Um, today I was just on with the dublin garden trail. I'm part of the dublin garden trail and this year we're doing up a voucher and where you can visit like three or six of our gardens and most of the gardens on the trail are are on this voucher that you can get. So you can contact me or Dave in the Victory Garden and we can send out these vouchers to you and it's it's a much cheaper way of visiting three gardens or six gardens or as many as as you want on the trail that's brilliant, so so let's just name the ones that are on the trail, just just so people know.
Speaker 1:And like some of them have been on the podcast before and like that's a really good gift. And last year, um, one of the guests actually wondered, as, as we were talking it came up and she wondered was there like a, an open voucher that would do the whole country? And I don't think there is, because the groups are.
Speaker 2:The groups are not all together, but it's a really fantastic idea to be able to we only came up with the idea today, so, um, we didn't get in contact with all the gardens, yeah, but um, you can just go onto the dublin garden trail website. Yeah, all the gardens are listed on that. So there's the Ardan Victory Garden, june Blake's, jimmy Blake's, mine I think there's 14 gardens on it. All together, most of us are on this voucher. So, yeah, it's just a nice way of sorting your summer out. You can have your list of gardens and you'll just get your voucher ticked as you're going around each garden yeah, that's.
Speaker 1:That's a really nice one now and and they are like they're. They're class gardens, but it's a day out for somebody, it's a day out for, you know, a group. Yeah, um, yeah, and you'll have. You'll have fun, you'll see lots of good gardens and you'll see variety.
Speaker 2:In that they're all different gardens and I mean, it's a way of making your list for the summer and you know, giving somebody the voucher, they're going to make that list for the summer and hopefully take, take the gardens off their their list. But the dublin garden trail, they're all exceptional gardens yeah yeah, so that it's a really lovely present for somebody brilliant.
Speaker 1:Uh, you mentioned lots of vouchers. What other vouchers have you?
Speaker 2:I thought of the Snowdrop Gala That'll be coming up in January in Altamont. Altamont are running it, so there's tickets available on the Altamont website. So that's a lovely day out. Workshops Cool Amber. They advertised their workshops this week.
Speaker 1:Saw that actually. Yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so they have a year's plan of all different courses there. There's beekeeping, there's foraging and craft, beginners gardener courses and floristry courses. So there's something there to suit everybody.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a lot of nice courses on that there was, as you said. There's something there to suit everybody. Yeah, there's a lot of a lot of nice courses on that there was, as you said. There's there's a mix. There's there's the gardening ones. Klaus leitenberg was there one of the months. Um, ann marie herself is doing a month by month beginners gardener course. There was beekeeping, as you said. There was reed making, there was wine tasting, I think cocktail making, so there was a lot of variety and something I think that everybody would like.
Speaker 2:Exactly, it's really lovely. It's a lovely place to go just for the day. I think, the places are pretty amazing, apart from the courses, so that would be a really nice voucher.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then, like you have your garden trips tours If you really want to splash out with the travel department, or jimmy blake's tours who wouldn't like that for christmas?
Speaker 1:yeah, for sure, yeah.
Speaker 2:And then like if, if you were really really good and you planted all your bulbs, you could get a ticket for chelsea are you hinting at anyone? I am that hint, that hint has dropped every year, so that's my Christmas present, to be honest.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so a trip to Chelsea.
Speaker 2:Yeah, your ticket for Chelsea or a meeting, with flights or something related to you going to Chelsea. It's something to look forward to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know that's a nice one and that was on my list, as well as a trip to the Tulip Festival in Amsterdam.
Speaker 2:I mean that's just scratching the surface of all the vouchers that's out there and, like it is, it's really important to support all, especially in Ireland, all the you know the gardens and the courses and the things that are going on. Yeah, it means a lot to the garden owners and, like it, it helps them maintain their gardens and keep them at a standard so people can visit. I think this was probably a tough year for some gardens and, due to the weather and stuff, footfall was a bit low. So, yeah, it's a port for visiting gardens.
Speaker 1:People are opening the gardens and I mean they're exceptional. So yeah, they're exceptional and as well as that, for the people that are visiting you know it's it's, they're inspirational as well. So you can go and you can take little snippets and bring them home and, you know, try and translate them into your own place.
Speaker 2:So and it's something that I do, like you keep putting it off and say I'll go next weekend, I'll go next weekend, but then when you do go and you visit like it's such a lovely day out, yeah it's worth it and maybe then if you get a voucher, that's.
Speaker 1:That's the incentive to yeah, yeah for sure, get get to go on. Yeah, there's no doubt a lot of, a lot of the people that we're talking about on these, on these garden trails and open gardens within Ireland particularly. A lot of them have been on the podcast and they're all so, so generous with their information in terms of you know. So if you go to the garden, they're more than happy to chat with you and that's why we do it.
Speaker 2:I mean we love it. It's the interaction with people and the feedback and um, the odd compliment here and there helps. Yeah, it keeps us motivated yeah yeah, yeah, that's something we're going to do forever. So when we do it, we want to really enjoy it and we do it for the love of it, to be honest. So, yeah, and it's making an impact as well, so it is yeah it's very good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, rosie, we'll switch across to you. Have you you vouchers on your list?
Speaker 3:well, I agree with everything. All of us. I was making faces there before and and if you go on some of those travel department trips, you'll probably end up with me as your guide, uh, because I I do a few of them. I'm not doing chelsea but I'm doing Malvern next year, so that should be good. And I agree totally that that's a wonderful idea.
Speaker 3:For the Dublin Garden Trail voucher, I think that's fantastic. There's so many wonderful gardens in this country and you know, you think you've been to a lot of them and in fact my brother the other brother gave me and my sister um gift vouchers to go to a wild side garden down in um uh, wicklow, down towards actually more towards Arklow, and I didn't really know what it was before I went. But oh, my goodness, the passion these people, seven in seven years they've built 30 ponds, planted 13,000 trees, so they're rewilding this. You can get gift vouchers and they bring you on this tour. They're so worthwhile. You know it's absolutely fantastic and I'd never been there. We only got to go there about a month ago, you know. So I heartily agree with Paula on the gift voucher for visiting gardens or for, you know, garden tours.
Speaker 1:I think they're fantastic for sure that's a garden I actually I hadn't come across, or it's rewilding, so it's not. It's not a garden per se, but it's not somewhere I had come across at all up until up until a couple of weeks ago, um and I've just started to follow them online, so I haven't been yet, but it looks. It looks amazing what.
Speaker 3:I couldn't get over was like in seven years they have turned and I think it was used for sheep farming before, so it was really kind of denuded of any nature or anything like that. And I think it's 17 and a half acres. They've built a barn so you get like a slideshow, and they've got those night vision cameras so they've captured all the images of the wildlife that has actually come back in a mere seven years. There's insects, there's hedgehogs, there's frogs, there's bats They've got eight of the nine species of bats in Ireland are actually in that garden now and 30 ponds all around these.
Speaker 3:These you know the place. There's ponds, small ones, big ones, and then 13 000 trees, and then they had a little acorn nursery, which I thought was amazing. So they had oak trees in various stages, you know they had just the acorn sitting on little pots and then they had little tiny ones about this size all the way up to kind of six and seven year old ones ready to plant out support, you know yeah, yeah, no, that's brilliant and I know they're doing a lot of.
Speaker 1:You can do open days and corporate tours and you know every sort of tour. So it's, it's a nice seems like a brilliant place. Must speak to them actually, and at some point.
Speaker 2:There you go. I'm just wondering why I wasn't invited that day.
Speaker 3:My brother bought me.
Speaker 2:I know again.
Speaker 3:Moving swiftly along. Okay, so everybody loves welly boots.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And you know I've been given various shades of different wellies over the years. But you know, when you come in after a really hard day and the boots are nearly stuck onto your foot and you're hot and you're sweaty and you just can't get them off, so get a boot jack.
Speaker 1:Brilliant.
Speaker 3:The best joke, honestly, because you put your foot here. Put the boot here. Yeah, the best yoke, honestly, because you know you can. You put your foot here, put the boot here.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It just. You know, here's what I prepared earlier you know like that.
Speaker 1:Brilliant yeah.
Speaker 2:If you really want to splash out, you can get one with the brushes each side, exactly. Yeah, if you really like the person you're giving it to.
Speaker 3:If you like all the m you're giving it to brilliant?
Speaker 1:yeah, that's a good idea. And what about wellies themselves?
Speaker 3:so yeah I've tried every different uh variety of wellies and I have done lap wellies, I've used the hunter wellies, but they keep cracking. So sorry, um. But uh, what have I got? Um at the moment? Uh, I think they're french, is it idla? Because I got their pot wellies, but by goodness, they're strong wellies and they're brilliant. There's a great um shop near me in navan and in fact I just went in there and they do a lot of hunting and fishing stuff, so really good wellies in there. But I also got an amazing um jacket and it's got about 10 different pockets in it, because I was a gardener. You know the way, jeannie. I mean I have the belt with the, you know the secateurs, but then you have the gloves and sometimes you're too hot, so you take off the hat and if you're up the garden and you end up leaving it on the ground, so I stuff a lot of things into the pockets. So a nice uh, a garden, a gardening jacket with lots of pockets yeah, class um, well, well.
Speaker 1:Well, this has come up before and it's it's a funny one because there is some brilliant ones out there. There's, as you mentioned, like there's the, the ones that you'll see them yeah the, the kind of fancy hunter ones, but they're not really good for working now let's be honest about so.
Speaker 1:But there is some very good kind of neoprene based ones out there and I think they're kind of good. They're strong, they don't, they're warm, they're snug, they're comfortable as well. Um, because some of the wellies can be a bit plasticky and a bit hard to wear, but no, something like a neoprene is nice what one do you wear, paula?
Speaker 2:um, I actually got a pair recently in the decathlon and they're short. I don't like long wellies because I've long skinny legs and they're like spoons in a teacup and they flop and they just really irritate me, so I really don't like wellies as much. I love my echo boots yeah just for walking.
Speaker 2:I always go to them. But, to be honest, when I have a pair of boots for ages and I need to get a new pair, I get stressed because I do not know which ones to buy, because I have so many that I just my feet are so important to me when I'm outside and I've just made mistakes with so many boots. But yeah, I have two pairs at the minute. I prefer a slip-on. The lace ones kind of annoy me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the half ones are definitely nicer to wear when you're inside a garden, but it's off-topic if you can get them. Yeah, yeah, definitely, yeah, definitely. Anything else in the clothing?
Speaker 3:Waders if you've a pond.
Speaker 1:Waders yeah.
Speaker 3:And you know they're really hard to get small waders, I don't know. They must never think that women wear waders or go fishing or anything like that. We can get them and the flipping thing is up here. So, um, anyway, waiters, you know extra small if you're listening target is set yeah the waiters, the waiters with a ticket to chelsea inside. There you go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, perfect. Anything else on the list, Rosie?
Speaker 3:Lots oh lots. That's good, I've got markers for plant pots. You know you can get fancy ones, but like you can, you can get ceramic ones or you can get lovely. I'm back to Rosie again, but see these.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:These are really. You know, if you have a nice tree and you want, you know, if you, if you're certainly for paula and I, when you're walking people around the garden and then somebody says, and what's that?
Speaker 3:and you get a brain freeze and you go, it's a cornice kooza, so tell me or you know again, that's you know rosie and mark who make these, and um, but you can get the, you know, you can get little ceramic ones. You can get, uh, you know various different types and I just think they're very useful. Um, what else have I got here? Um, I've got me two. They're also dog proof.
Speaker 2:Sorry for interrupting. They're dog proof. My, my millie loves labels, so they, yeah, she can't run away with them, so they're perfect, that's good. Well, there you go and and they're are.
Speaker 1:They're blackboard, are they? They're like a little blackboard top on them it's actually just.
Speaker 3:It's a piece of slate oh class like so it's a slate that that is cut and then yeah they drilled a hole in it yeah, yeah, it's really nice yeah so clever and it's very useful, and then they do uh different lengths in the, in the actual um spike there, you know. So I just find that one particularly handy, you know nice.
Speaker 3:Yeah, classy, looking that's again, that's rosabelle plant supports. There I've got solar lights for your garden, if that's your thing. You know that could be a nice gift. You know you can get some really nice ones. Um, the markers for that seed storage, uh, tins, you know, because I don't know when you, when you get your seeds, um, uh, some of them come with little dividers which I would never use. But anyway, I just even just to lump them all in the one place and keep them dry is good. And then, you know, at christmas, um, you know I was talking about the bulbs, but do you know the amaryllis bulbs that you can get and you can get?
Speaker 3:them in every supermarket and I know maybe you think that that's not a lot of thought gone into it, but you'd be glad you know after, because if you plant them up they're fabulous, you know, and within a couple of you know couple of you know, couple of couple of weeks.
Speaker 1:They're genuinely, uh, really yeah, when it flowers, it's, it's it's special.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've managed to keep them. I put them in the greenhouse for the summer, just on the ground, and I let them dry out and then around this. You know well, actually about a month ago I started to water and feed them again, so hopefully they'll flower again in in time for christmas, you know yeah, nice one, yeah, brilliant.
Speaker 1:And paula, how's your list going?
Speaker 2:um, nearly at the end now. Just the rhs membership is a nice one as well. I mean, they're visiting gardens every year, so if, if, that that would be a nice one.
Speaker 1:So that's the rhsi, or rhsi yeah, membership yeah, yeah, brilliant. Yeah, that's a nice one as well and they do a lot of. I think you might know better, but I think if you're a and they do a lot of, I think you might know it better, but I think if you're a member, they do a lot of kind of monthly Zooms and they bring on expert speakers and so on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they're excellent. They're all really really good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's a really nice one. And then obviously you have access to the partner gardens around the country.
Speaker 2:Then, as well, you can come here yeah yeah, yeah, I think that's really it that's, that's your list.
Speaker 1:We'll go back to rosie now, because I think you're you're about halfway through, are you rosie?
Speaker 3:um, no, I was actually. Uh, I did see something there that I hadn't oh yeah, um, back to close, knee pads. You know the way you always see those kneelers and I don't know. But I mean the kneelers are, personally I find them a bit of a pain. But if you are going to be, you know, because you have to keep moving it, yeah, get some some good knee pads.
Speaker 1:And if you can get the ones with the velcro, because then they adjust to whatever size your legs are, yeah, and you know, it just can be handy if you are doing a lot of bull planting or something like that, because you know, if you are down on the, the knees that are getting older and older yeah, no, that's, that's a brilliant gift and there is some really good ones out there that you know that are durable and look a little bit decent as well not that that matters massively, because once you kneel on them, once they're dirty anyway, but um, but they are really good and and, as you said, the kneeling pads, they can look really pretty and all the rest of it. But you, if you're moving around or you're planting bulbs, you're constantly having to stand up to move it or or hooch over to one side so you can move it forward, and it's. They're not ideal, really. No, the knee pads are much better are much better.
Speaker 3:That's what I use, those if I am going to be planting a lot of bulbs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I think that's a brilliant idea If I was to go to both of you now and I might even give you a minute on it. So let's say, gardening gift money, no object. What would that be? And then, if you want to drop a hint for just a normal christmas gift for yourselves for this year, what would those be? Or have we already covered them?
Speaker 3:I think, actually, paula, probably, I think the the idea of gifting somebody a garden trip is wonderful, because then you can visit, you know if whether it's with the travel department or jimmy blake does, does, uh, you know, garden tours, and to go away with a gardener who actually knows a bit about gardening too, um, I think that's just really if you, if you are really into your gardens and there's some spectacular places to visit, so that that would be my. You know, I mean the gardens. I mean I've been to Italy and you know I was in lots of the gardens in England last year and, oh my goodness, the choices are amazing. And then Chelsea, like Paula said, and Kuchenhof is amazing if you've never been. What an amazing place to go. Yeah, 10 million tulips or 10 tulips, all in the one garden.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's unbelievable, isn't it?
Speaker 3:It's amazing.
Speaker 1:I haven't been, have both of you been there?
Speaker 2:I haven't yet.
Speaker 1:So there you go, there's your hint, dropped.
Speaker 2:Well, I had a ride on more on my list, but yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1:So, if it came down to it, which which would you choose? The ride on or the trip?
Speaker 2:I I'd take the ride on first. Yeah, mine's giving trouble, so yeah, I would. I'd take the ride on more, but no, I am in agreement of, you know, getting your garden trip. I've done it. I've been on jimmy one of jimmy blake's tours and I still remember it. I came home so inspired, like I did the Serenity Garden, after seeing the garden on the trip, and it's also, it's such an easy way of traveling. If you're not good at traveling on your own or if you have, you know, a bit of anxiety about booking a trip yourself and booking the gardens, it's all done for you. I mean, you just turn up at the airport and rosie there will look after you for the three or four days and it's, you know, everything's booked for you and you just meet on the bus, you're taken to the gardens and you're back at a certain time and it's just stress-free and you get to see just exceptional gardens that you probably wouldn't see otherwise.
Speaker 1:So it's, it's a special present yeah, no, without doubt, and I suppose it's it's, you know, for gardeners it's it's like the trips that go for farmers that go to agritechnica every year.
Speaker 1:You're getting on a bus with 20, 30, 30, 50 people who are, all you know, the same frame of mind, going for the same reasons, interested in the same things. So even the bus journey will be interesting. And I think that's kind of the same with, you know, with your gardening trip. Everybody's on the same path, they're interested in the same things, they're going to be at different stages, they'll have different types of garden and I think, yeah, as I said, that the chats on the bus will be as good. As you know, the gardens will inspire you, but the chats on the bus will be brilliant as well. So I think that would be a really great gift. And it's a little bit of escapism as well, isn't it you're? You're getting away from the you know the slog of your own garden for a little bit too and you need to do that, even like if you were, you know, opening your garden or whatever.
Speaker 2:You do need to get out there and see other people's gardens, but, um, when you're going on that trip, you're going with like-minded people yeah and you don't have to be with them all the time either. You can just wander off and do your own thing for a while. But the camaraderie is lovely and it is just. You meet lovely people and, yeah's, it's definitely the best present ever.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, nice one.
Speaker 3:Sorry, rosie are from the ride-on lawnmower paula. Depends on what size.
Speaker 2:It is rosie, nice utility. I don't. I don't think my chimney is big enough, so it's not coming this year you can bring the key down and just leave it outside yeah yeah so on on my list and I just I'll go to quickly glance through it see if there's anything that was different.
Speaker 1:So some of the tools um, do either of you use a hori hori knife never heard of that I have.
Speaker 3:I have a. It's a actually poric bought it for me. It's it's like a trowel version of one it's got. It's a serrated edge on one side of the trowel and a really strong handle. So it's not quite the hurry hurry but, um, and if you are buying it, buy the proper one, because a friend of mine got a cheap version and she put it into the ground and it broke the first time.
Speaker 1:So yeah, definitely, it has come up on the on it before. I don't use one, but I I know a lot of people use them and find them fantastic. I think the original one is the new walkie one and I saw today and bell meadow flowers put it up.
Speaker 2:They've just restocked them for christmas um, so that's a night, that's a nice one is it a stocking filler or is it a? Present it's it's uh, I don't I don't think you get away with it as a stocking filler. It's uh, yeah, well, it's okay as a stocking fitter, but it's, it's.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think you'd be looking for something more along the lines of the ride on for the main present yeah, okay yeah.
Speaker 2:I also have this one as well. See, I called it my Adam Frost tool for anybody who's watching Gardener's world. Adam is always on his knees you know planting with one of those. Call this my adam frost trail yeah, especially with raised beds and you're putting in your, your veg or your uh good flowers. The soil needs to be loose, but yeah, yeah really handy. I love it yeah, no, that's.
Speaker 1:That's a brilliant. I can't think of the name of it offhand now um it's well, it's not going to come to me now, but they are brilliant and they're starting to become more popular, as you said, and frost uses the whole time, um, and they are starting to become available in ireland.
Speaker 2:They're a very, very useful tool I actually bought it in chelsea yeah and my sister said how are you going to get that through?
Speaker 1:Security.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I did.
Speaker 3:It's amazing you say that, but here's what I look at. I don't know if you can see this. Do you see it?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:Okay, so you know the way. You're not allowed to bring plants in anymore. Yeah, I don't know if you can see that. Look, it's a metal plant that I saw in Chatsworth in the shop.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And carry that home in my backpack and it was really funny. So I had that and a dragon for my son and I was stopped by security and he told me that it was a weapon of mass destruction. I looked at him and I went, I was so gullible, I was like, oh really.
Speaker 2:No, it's just for the garden.
Speaker 3:And then he just started to laugh and he said go on.
Speaker 2:You know.
Speaker 3:So there you go. So because I couldn't get a real plant, I bought a metal one. It looks really nice.
Speaker 1:It does look nice. It's class looking actually.
Speaker 3:It's in a pot, so, and the pot is the same color, so okay, but I have to try and hold it now, because if I put it on the ground it's going to make a really big bang.
Speaker 1:Um as I glanced through. Then I had clothing on the list, I had a glass house on the list, but that's a tricky one as well because, um, it would be you. You'd need to know the person. That's the where it was going to be situated. Would it suit the garden, would it suit the size and so on. But it would be a class present and has come up before. I had Roosevelt plant supports on it. I had David Aston roses on it. I don't think there's too many gardeners that would turn those down.
Speaker 3:And then, yeah, the question mark on the plants and trees, and we kind of, but just even a gift voucher for your, your if you do know, your friend or your, your sister or your mother or your aunt or you know whoever it happens to be, I mean personally, like a gift voucher for your local garden center that you go to all the time is fantastic yeah, yeah, without a doubt then you get to choose.
Speaker 3:You know, um or somewhere like that sell unusual plants like um, you know, like mount venus nursery or rareplantsie. I mean, my local is ratoth garden center, so I'm always thrilled with the um I love it too.
Speaker 2:It's brilliant. Yeah, it's a guilt-free way of buying plants Absolutely. Who's calling?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Actually my mother-in-law gets it for Christmas. Every year she gets a voucher for the local garden centre and it's her trip. We pick her up and bring her and she has her. She'll get her bed and plants and her bits and pieces. I mean it'll last her all year. I don't know how she does it, like she'll just go bed and plants and her bits and pieces. I mean it'll last her all year. I don't know how she does it, like she'll just go in and get exactly what she wants and she leaves. I'd have it, I'd blow it in.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Ten minutes.
Speaker 1:You want the never-ending voucher, then yes, I do. Right, so that's a good one. To add to the list the never-ending voucher for the local gardeners say I have it already.
Speaker 2:I think yeah it's.
Speaker 1:It's been, it's been a very, very similar list, but with a. Yeah, we were very heavily loaded on tools at the start and and that was that was good, and because they're all very functional, and I do think it's important to buy good quality things because that you're not going to be as you said, you're not going to be throwing them away the following year or and and I think when you get something of that quality as well, it lasts, but you'll also mind it a bit better and you'll respect it a bit better and it's something that you will have for years. So I think when you're, when you are buying by, quality is always the best thing.
Speaker 2:It makes your life easier in the garden.
Speaker 1:If you have.
Speaker 2:If you have good tools, and there's nothing worse. It's like doing any job. If you don't have the right tools, you're just going to get pure frustrated and the work is just going to be harder. So yeah. I'm all for making your life a little bit easier.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it makes sense. Yeah, and next year, on next year's uh version of this, I think I'm looking forward to having your book on it mentioned on it. I'm pretty sure you made a commitment there somewhere in the middle to write write a book. No pressure, no, no whatsoever. It's been, it's been a really, really interesting chat. I loved the the list and very similar in some ways to previous years, but it's great to have the perspective of two good gardeners and two self-confessed lovers of Christmas as well, and two good gardening friends as well. So final question for both of you If you had to buy a question, or if you had to buy a present, a Christmas present for each other, what would it be?
Speaker 3:Well, I can answer that one, because for Paula obviously a corn escousa. That's too easy, Rosie, come on, or a ride on lawnmower if I was being generous.
Speaker 2:I'm lost. I mean, what can you give Rosie in a garden that is just not already in it? That's a hard one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's already there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's going to take me. I mean, every time I go to rosie she gives me plants, but she comes to me to I can't give her. That's where she has it, so she's, she just has yeah, you give her some of your famous cakes.
Speaker 1:Then yeah, I could do that, yeah, you know what she has given me, though she has given me some of her snowdrops.
Speaker 2:You know what she has given me, though. She has given me some of her snowdrops, and that is like. I have snowdrops from my mum, from Rosie, from a lady near me who has an amazing snowdrop garden. They're all planted in different places and I just can't wait to see them coming up.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So that to me is just an amazing present.
Speaker 1:And something like a snowdrop that's going to be there every year with a bit of meaning in it. That is a class present.
Speaker 2:Richard Murphy has given me some as well. You know that that has come from somebody else's garden and it's going to be in my garden, so they're just going on in generations and it's it's a lovely present yeah, without a doubt, without a doubt, it's been uh, it's been, a brilliant, brilliant chat.
Speaker 1:Loved, love, listening to both of your lists and quite long list, but very, very good lists. I think there's kind of something there for every budget. I think the overriding team anyway is to just to try and buy things that are good quality, that last and that, will you know, make your life easier in the garden, as, as paula said there, that they're going to help you in the garden, they're going to make your life easier and it's going to make it more pleasurable being out there and doing it. There's lots of inspirational gifts there with the trips and so on. So, yeah, I think it's a pretty comprehensive list and, rosie and paula, thank you very, very much for coming on. Master, my garden podcast pleasure, john.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much and happy christmas everybody out there looking forward to spring so that's been this week's episode.
Speaker 1:Yeah, christmas gifts for gardeners again, um, really, really interesting list and, as I say, from two exceptional gardeners, so I think there's lots there for everyone. I'll put as many links as I can in the show notes for the various I think the you know the, the voucher for the open gardens. I'll put the link for that in the show notes. And as many other vouchers are, as many other the links that I can find I'll put in there as well so that you can easily get to them. And but there's lots of brilliant things out there brilliant ir, irish, authors of gardening books, gardening courses, vouchers for your local garden centre and so on. So there's loads of ways of, I suppose, supporting local as much as possible and buying quality as much as possible, and a lot of those you'll get inspiration from as well. So I hope that helps you with your shopping list. I hope that Rosie andula get the gifts that they've been dropping serious hints there for. And that's been this week's episode. Thanks for listening and until the next time, happy gardening, thank you.