Master My Garden Podcast
Master My Garden Podcast
-EP259 Rachel Darlington Tells Us About Her Garden & YouTube Channel Gardening At Douentza
Rachel Darlington of Gardening At Douentza joins us to share her unique gardening journey, revealing her informal, yet knowledgeable approach to both outdoor gardening and houseplant cultivation. With a YouTube channel that caters to everyone from cacti lovers to orchid enthusiasts, Rachel brings her expertise to our listeners alongside her work as a columnist for the Irish Garden and her engaging book, "A Journey of an Irish Garden." Come learn Rachel's practical tips on orchid care, including choosing the best Phalaenopsis for ease of care, and why avoiding dyed blue orchids is a must.
We delve into the enchanting world of Douentza, Rachel's garden masterpiece, nestled in the rural landscapes of Wexford. Rachel discusses her creative use of garden rooms, each with distinct color schemes, and shares her passion for unusual plants. Hear how Rachel tackles common gardening challenges, such as box blight, we chat cloud-pruned trees, and how her evolving gardening methods can inspire you to transform your own garden spaces with vibrant themes and innovative techniques like the lasagna method for flower beds.
As Rachel celebrates a decade as a YouTuber, she reflects on her journey from casual gardening enthusiast to a professional and influential voice in the gardening community. Discover how she balances her content creation with the challenges of generating fresh ideas during quieter seasons, and how her travel adventures keep her audience engaged. Rachel also opens up about her writing journey, with her books offering rich insights into her growth as a gardener. Whether you're a novice or seasoned gardener, Rachel's experiences provide a treasure trove of inspiration and education.
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Until next week
Happy gardening
John
How's it going, everybody? And welcome to episode 259 of Master my Garden podcast. So this week's episode is one I've been trying to line up for a while and one I'm quite excited about. So we're heading into the middle of January here now and we're all sort of gearing up for a new year in the garden, and this week's guest is somebody that is worth following on YouTube and somebody that's worth keeping an eye on on her social pages and also as an article writer in the Irish Garden.
Speaker 1:So I'm delighted to be joined this week by Rachel Darlington from Gardening De Winsa, and she's going to tell us all about her garden. It's a garden that I suppose has multi-facets to it. As we record here, there's monstrous house plants in the background, and I know her garden is featured on the YouTube channel and she sort of tells the story and teaches people about what she's doing on any given time. Recently when we spoke, she was planting a huge amount of bulbs, and we might hear a little bit about those as well. So there's lots going on and a very interesting garden. So, rachel, you're very, very welcome to Master my Garden podcast.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much, John. It's great to actually get to talk to you after trying to organize it for so long. Thank you very much for asking me to come on here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. So loads going on for you, so obviously quite a substantial YouTube channel. You're an article, you're a columnist with the Irish Garden, you've written your own book, a Journey of an Irish Garden, and yeah, as I say, a lot's going on. You seem to be kind of an expert in houseplants, as well as everything outside, so tell us a bit about the story of gardening at Duenza.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, first and foremost, I have a complete and utter passion for plants. I love so many different groups of plants. The garden is, I suppose, my main focus and I love working in the garden, especially in spring. I just think there's something wonderful about having all that nature around you. But I also love house plants and I love orchids and I have a glass house full of well, what is in there changes readily over time but a lot of cactuses and succulents and South African bulbs. So that's where I'm coming from a complete and utter passion for plants.
Speaker 2:We have many gardeners who, I think, are more interested in the design side of it and I've seen you interview some of them on here Amazing gardens like Kilgar Gardens I saw your recent podcast and fantastic garden. But I think to have that discipline would be very hard for me, because I just love to have one of this and one of that and let's see if this one will work, and I don't know if this one is quite hardy, but I'll give it a go. So I guess I would be undisciplined in terms of that. In terms of getting kind of coming at the gardening from a landscaping perspective, coming at the gardening from a landscaping perspective.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do you think that that's? I would say that that's something that's you know. Obviously you have 60,000 subscribers to your YouTube channel and do you think that approach is for you know, for the Joe public listening at home, that that approach, that's a more relaxed approach, a less formal approach? Do you think that that is, is that appeals to people?
Speaker 2:well, I think what I tried to do with the YouTube channel was to have like different streams which were of interest to different people. So some people are just interested in cactuses and succulents and I hope, if that's their interest, they'll find enough content on my channel to keep them going. I'd say the majority of people that watch me are interested in outdoor gardening. Um, but uh, yeah. So I think you know, whatever the mix and when I originally started the channel, I posted a lot about orchids, which I do less so, but I hope that the people who subscribe to me to look at the orchids have now I don't know, are now looking at something else on the channel. But, um, that was just kind of the idea behind setting it up, really just to have a broad range of everything to do with gardening. But in terms, like you know, kind of being a bit eclectic and a bit, uh, of a plant lover, I think everybody has some of that in them. Anyone who's passionate about plants has some of that in them yeah, I reckon so.
Speaker 1:Um, funny enough. Um, plants, house plants is probably my weakest area for some reason. I like to look at them, but I don't particularly have a draw towards them. Where any house plants that are in my house, rebecca looks after them and, yeah, I'm not. I'm not, I'm not big into them. I don't know a huge amount about them. But just thinking of just because you mentioned orchids, where, a couple of weeks after christmas now, there's a lot of orchids have to be gifted at the christmas period, sure?
Speaker 2:yeah they're.
Speaker 1:They were all delivered in flower and in lovely planters and in some different baskets and and whatnot, just a few kind of basic tips to keep them looking decent absolutely.
Speaker 2:I mean it's. Many people look on it as the perfect gift for a mammy, or even perhaps for for the your wife. Um, yeah, I mean, the orchids that are generally for sale in the shops at this time of year are moth orchids, so phalaenopsis and they're in flower and they're fantastic.
Speaker 2:I would say, generally speaking, steer away from the blue ones, because any orchid that has a blue colour it's been dyed, so they've put some kind of dye in, and okay. If you're happy for it to revert to white after a period of time, then go for the blue, but yeah, so I think Phalaenopsis are really easy to look after. They will tolerate, generally speaking speaking, the temperatures that we have in our houses, but they do need good light. So in winter I would put a thalonopsis orchid on a south facing window yes, south, so for maximum light. But when the sun starts coming up, somewhere around February, that orchid is going to burn unless you move it. So at that point in time you'd need to maybe move it to an east facing window or even a north facing window.
Speaker 2:And then I mean you just water the orchid whenever it dries out completely. So stick your finger in into the medium and if you can feel that it's dry down to about an inch, then it's time to water, bring it to the sink and flush it with warm water. So I just use tap water and just have it at a warm temperature, because they don't like shock, very fussy little things they are so used to having the best of everything and just pour the water through, letting it come out into the sink. So with orchids they are in such a free draining mix that the water should just wash straight through and then make sure that all of the water has come out so that the plant isn't at any time sitting in water.
Speaker 2:And yeah, I mean very easy plants, and they should flower for months. They can flower for months if treated correctly. So, and when it finishes flowering, don't throw it away. Cut off the spent spike with a sterilized scissors. Maybe you can just pour some boiling water over the blade of the scissors, over the sink, and then just cut it. Um, and it should resprout then if you take care of it well.
Speaker 1:I mean I didn't plan on going there, but seeing as you mentioned orchids and houseplants and we're just so close after christmas, I thought it was a it was a good one to pick up on. You mentioned something else there as well and I only I only spoke about it a couple of weeks ago. What's your thoughts on, on sprayed plants generally?
Speaker 2:I know you mentioned like the um, the, the heathers and the. Yeah, I don't know any gardener or plant person who likes that. I mean, do you like it?
Speaker 1:no, I, absolutely I. I spoke about it a couple of weeks ago and I think I went on a little bit too much about it, but they really annoy me. I just don't understand why. Why you would feel the need to spray a plant in anything. Um, you know and you know what else really annoys me?
Speaker 2:the googly eyes they stick on cactuses, or else with cactuses they have like fake flowers on a, on a pin that they stick into the plant like actually pierce the oh no, I've never seen that have you not? Oh no, lots of places have that now, I mean, you know immediately, like cactus flowers only last a day or so. So you come back to the nursery or to the garden center, and it's still in flower. There's something not quite right there right, yeah, yeah and no.
Speaker 1:And the sprayed headers, the I hadn't seen the cactus, but I'll keep an eye out for them. The, the little conifers that are completely coated in snow well, not not snow, some sort of plastic stuff. I just they really, really irritate me.
Speaker 2:I mentioned a few weeks ago, but yeah, anyway, I'll have to get over that but I mean, there are a lot of nice things for sale at this time of year, for sure I mean the hippie astrums, the amaryllis bulbs. People can easily get their hands on those or paper wipes or whatever to grow in the house for sure, there's enough.
Speaker 1:There's enough of stuff there, yeah, without without spraying. Tell me this um, the garden itself is based, tell us where it's based and tell us a little bit about the garden. So, if we walk through the front gates or take us on a kind of a virtual journey through the garden and maybe talk about some of the kind of highlights or whatever, okay, so the garden is called uh and um.
Speaker 2:It's named after well, we named the house Dwanza. It's named after a place in Mali, in West Africa, where I spent some time a long time ago, and the garden it's an acre in a rural setting, so it was a greenfield site when we moved in, I think 24 years ago. Um, it's not a green field site anymore, I can tell you that. Um, so I mean it's it's built upon the lines of garden rooms, I guess. So in different areas in the garden there are different discrete areas which might have a different look and feel or color scheme from the rest of the garden. So I do have some sections that are good in winter because they rely on box box hedging.
Speaker 2:Oh yes, and I've had the blight as well. Um, but mostly my garden is herbaceous plants, so I love flowers, and the downside of that is that in winter it's well, there's nothing to see because they're all dormant, but when those flowers wake up and spring are pushing up and then get going in summer, then that's when I just in the garden and enjoying things so I mean, I guess, over the course of 20 odd years, a lot of the trees have really matured, because what I find myself doing nowadays is an awful lot of removing branches from trees, so lifting the skirts of the trees, basically, so removing the lower branches so that, um, it allows for planting of perennials etc.
Speaker 1:In the lower areas so these trees, now what, what? What trees the are you using, but in the garden? And how are you using them? Are they used in kind of hedging format, or used in a specimen type tree, or what have you got?
Speaker 2:um well, mostly I plant trees in flower beds, so there would be accent trees in among the flowers.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I suppose my favourite tree that I use a lot of is the old Tetrapanax rex.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Which is great because it looks like a tropical tree, but it's hardy for me here in Wexford and it has kind of big pinnate leaves with I mean, you know it with just enormous leaves. So it looks very exciting and I have small groves of it in various places in the garden so that would probably be my favourite tree.
Speaker 1:And it doesn't block out too much, so you can plant. It lets a lot of light through. It's not a huge canopy.
Speaker 2:Exactly yeah, brilliant, brilliant yeah, as much light as possible.
Speaker 2:I grow a couple of um unusual things. So I have um saracenia, which are north american pitcher plants, so insectivores, ones that eat insects, and I grow these in bog gardens. So so raised bog gardens, surrounded basically a plastic pot, a large plastic pot, I mean really large um, with no drainage holes, or very few drainage holes, because these are bad bog plants, so you want to keep the water in and I've just put stone around the outside, so it looks like a stone planter, but it's just plastic. And the great thing about the saracenia is that they're hardy. In most places in ireland you can leave them out, despite what people think. They die down in winter and then in spring they flower, and they're so because they they flower before they make the pictures, so the pictures track the insects, but if they flower before they send up the pictures because they don't want to eat their pollinators, so, um, yeah, so like I think, of three bog planters in various places of the garden brilliant, and I I'm not familiar with that plant.
Speaker 1:So yeah so it's hardy. It's hardy in most places in Ireland yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And great because of flowers. And then you've got the tall pitchers which would keep going until November, so it looks attractive for a lot of months yeah, brilliant, brilliant, that's.
Speaker 1:That's a good one. Now, you mentioned, you make some mentioned boxes, blight, so you have you had, or you have, boxes around framing some beds, is it?
Speaker 2:that's right. Yeah, so I have an area of what I call cloud pruning, basically a whole lot of boxes, balls planted together and they kind of merge into one okay that's. But I have had the box bl light and I've had it twice and I've dealt with it twice and and I have a video on the youtube channel as well as anybody else? I hope nobody else is facing the same thing, but unfortunately it is quite prevalent in ireland at the moment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's funny that when it, when it kind of so, it was talked about in Europe for a long number of years and there wasn't much, or there wasn't hardly any cases of it here. But it did kind of start in the Wexford, in the Wexford area and then spread up along the east coast first. And the same thing has happened in recent years with the box moth which I think again wasn't in ireland for a long time and was a big problem in belgium, holland, france. But in the last couple years the east coast particularly has been seen a lot of it and I know a couple of gardeners in cork actually hit quite badly in the last 12 months with it as well. So it has spread over time but wexford seems to get it first. The other one was the, the lily beetle, which again the first, I think the first kind of sightings of that were in were in Wexford, and it has since traveled up the country quite a bit it's all our fault, yeah.
Speaker 1:I think it's kind of a gateway, is it? And I think I think it's kind of that people like down there, the sunny southeast there's probably yeah, I don't know whether it's anything to do with proximity or what it is, but the first cases of a lot of these seem to do, you know, seem to be picked up down there first before, before you hear about them up the country. So it's not sure why, but yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So how did, how did you get rid of the box blight. I know you have a. You have a youtube video on it, but how did you? Yeah?
Speaker 2:well, a lot of cutting back, cutting back and removing as much of the plant as possible, and then um spraying with. There's a product called top boxes yeah they don't sponsor me, but it's a really good product and it's good because it it's not really a chemical so much as a fertilizer, so it encourages kind of a healthy growth and new growth in the plant and um yeah, but unfortunately the pathogen can lie dormant in the soil for up to five years.
Speaker 2:That's right so I think that's what happened with me the first time, like I seemed to get rid of it and then, five years later, it it reoccurred because it was still in the soil, and then we had a very wet winter and, of course, a favorite yeah, funny enough if, if, if they are growing well and they're not, they're not hungry or they haven't suffered any sort of stress, they typically are able to keep it away anyway, and it's only really plants that are kind of struggling a little bit um or or have got some form of a shock or other.
Speaker 1:If they're really thriving and driving, then they seem to be OK, even if it is about.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree with you I think. And that's the same for so many diseases and pests that will attack plants.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah for sure. And pests that will attack plants, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, for sure? Um, perennial borders, you said, is your sort of your, your main passion. So, and and you mentioned at the start that you don't necessarily follow a team that you like one of this and one of that. So have you planted in drifts? Have you planted to kind of the normal?
Speaker 2:yeah, I mean I have. I mean I have come towards color coordination, kicking and screaming perhaps, but more so in in later years. I love orange and red in the garden. Um, I know a lot of very uh sophisticated gardeners would be uh, would favor. It's not my favorite now. I would be more for the vibrant colors and just this autumn I have made in a really large new bed in the garden, a big lasagna bed.
Speaker 2:So I use the lasagna, no dig method to make new beds. So I have an enormous new bed to plant up next autumn. I will leave it as is for, like I mean, because it needs uh, it probably needs a year to to digest properly, and then next autumn I will have some nothing to do. So I haven't quite decided whether I'm going to go for a red theme or? Um. Recently I visited the O'Mahony garden down in Limerick and was so taken by a pale pink and white border there that, although that isn't my, my color preference, I'm kind of thinking, oh, maybe I would love to do something like that. So who knows?
Speaker 1:okay, and the the lasagna bed, no-dig bed that you're creating? Tell us about what you've done there to start that you haven't planted yet.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, the lasagna method is the easiest method to get a new flower bed going. My daughter is currently starting her garden, but unfortunately she can't avail of it, because what you really need to to do the lasagna method effectively is you need to have a lot of other perennials in your garden that you're going to cut back. So basically everything that was on the compost heap I'm going to use in the lasagna bed. So marked out the area, put down cardboard over the grass and then brought everything from the compost heap, with a bit of help down and laid it in layers, or you know? I mean, okay, you're supposed to lay it in layers, brown and green, brown and green but, whenever I've done it before.
Speaker 2:That is pie in the sky really. In terms of it's the ideal, but in reality I just put the compost down and if I have a bit of earth to put on the very top, that's excellent. I didn't have this time, but what I will do and then stamp on it, stamp, stamp, stamp and um what. I've left it open now all the winter, so the rain is going in, helping it to break down. In spring, when I cut back everything in the garden, it's all going on this enormous, enormous bed and then for the rest of the season I will cover it up with plastic just to stop weed seeds blowing onto it, yeah, and also just to give them. I don't know, I mean plastic's not a great look in a garden, but if I have guests, I visit garden visitors. I can't be showing them a great big open compost heap like in the primary of the garden, but I can use it.
Speaker 1:I put the plastic on top and I use it as a learning exercise for for for people to come and explain what what I've done and what I'm doing yeah, brilliant and that works really well and even even I don't know if you, if you mow your lawns and collect the grass, but like, even showing the, the grass clippings directly on top of it is all summer, next year will be will be highly effective. I know I've done that here and it really it really helps.
Speaker 1:Don't put it on huge layers, obviously, but it does work right right it's a brilliant, brilliant system yeah and and then you're going to plant a load of bulbs into that then next autumn. Is that the plan, or is that?
Speaker 2:well, no, I'll plant it up with perennials. Next I'll collect the perennials. No doubt some bulbs will go in as well, but I'll collect the perennials over the summer, propagate um and uh yeah, and growing things from seed as well. So hopefully by next autumn I'll be in a position to have enough plants, of whatever type I've gone for, to plant up the border yeah, are you going to propagate these plants yourself from the garden?
Speaker 1:are you going to sow seeds, are you going to buy or what's the? What's the kind of plan for?
Speaker 2:largely. I hope to largely, because I do like the drift. I have come come more towards drifts in in recent years and like you can't be, like I don't know. Okay, some people can go out and buy 20 of the same perennial, but most of us will just buy two and divide them or propagate them to to get what we want.
Speaker 1:And your plant choices for that bed haven't been made yet.
Speaker 2:No, I haven't decided yet but I'm going to have fun deciding.
Speaker 1:Yeah for sure. So elsewhere in the garden. Then tell us about some of the perennials that you use or that you're sort of go to favorites or something that's performing really well or what's. You know what's the kind of team there?
Speaker 2:You mentioned colors, I think oranges and pinks, purples moment Minarda and I've seen in some places like June Blake talks about how she ripped it out in a large area because it was just kind of taking over. And isn't that wonderful. Isn't it great to be in a position where you have to rip out a perfectly beautiful plant just because it's doing too well? So I do favour Minarda's Cambridge Scarlet is the one that does best for me. Alstroemeria, of course, and we all have the Indian Summer one, the one with the dark foliage and the orange flowers, but there are lots of I mean even that series with the dark foliage. There are several varieties of it now. So it's not just Indian summer I can't think of the names now but also there are great alstom areas with green foliage too. So those two would be really strong favourites of mine. And, of course, geraniums. Who doesn't love a geranium? Anne Thompson, you can't go wrong, really. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Anne Thompson's brilliant and just like it's around so long, but it just really does fit the bill and if it's draping over something particularly, it's brilliant.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And so that's Alice, marius Monardasardas, geraniums. Anything else there in the in those beds?
Speaker 2:lilies. I love lilies. I do plant a lot of lilies um. I try not to have.
Speaker 2:The easiest lily to grow really is the white one I have so many different white ones, like concordor is a super one with a yellow throat, but I'm trying now to move away from just having so much white in the garden and so, um, yeah, yeah, I'm martingaling lilies for earlier on in the season, and pinks and whites as well. Yeah, I just find it wonderful. But I usually grow by lilies and keep them in pots for a couple of years and I would have rotating pot displays, as most gardeners do, and then, after a few years, then I'd plant them out in the somewhere in the borders. Yeah, brilliant, and they're really tall.
Speaker 2:I have 10 foot lilies in in my garden. I would. I don't. I don't use the asiatic type, which like the alkaline soil. I'd prefer the other types who prefer acidic soil, because I've got acidic soil and they tend to grow really tall, like about 10 foot, and usually usually don't need staking.
Speaker 1:So that's, brilliant.
Speaker 2:It's good yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you mentioned earlier on about garden rooms that you've kind of created garden rooms as such. Are they? Are they themed? Are they kind of repeats of the of the flowers that you have, you know the perennials that you mentioned?
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, I do my favorite perennials I do use in several garden rooms. Yeah, so I wouldn't just decide I'm not putting a Menard in this garden room just because it's everywhere else. I mean, if I think a Menard will go, it's going in into that particular spot. But I've also one thing that I have difficulty doing and I would love to do is to just leave space in borders for annuals, because annuals are so wonderful, like a cosmos, just a big drift of cosmos. Whenever I create a new border, the first year I'll plant a lot of it up with annuals and they look fantastic and I'd say, oh yes, I must remember not to fill that in with perennials, I must leave it for the annuals. And then, of course, you go and you buy the perennials and you plant them up, and suddenly you've got all these annuals again and you're dotting them in. And I think they never look as good when they're dotted in, among other things, as they do when they're just allowed to have free reign and you know where. You can appreciate them fully.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cosmos. I saw the Cosmos this year and this year was a little bit all over the place. Cosmos this year and, uh, this year was a little bit all over the place. So I was involved with a football team, so I wasn't I wasn't tending to to garden and chores as much as I, as much as I normally would. So I saw these cosmos, quite a lot of them. Yeah, they got a little bit leggy on me in the springtime so, um, I chopped them back anyway and then planted them out when the weather started, eventually started to get good uh, here, which was late in the year, but anyway, planted them out and they were doing brilliantly, growing quite strong, and then we got a really bad stormy night and they kind of all got blown over. But where they where, they cracked over and literally the stem cracked and touched the ground. But where it touched the ground it rerouted.
Speaker 2:Oh goodness.
Speaker 1:It actually worked out. It was pure accident, but it worked out brilliantly. So the stem where I planted grew and put out new shoots, and where it contacted the ground and got broken off, it sent down roots, and so it almost created a for one two for the price of one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, two for the price of one, but it turned out like almost like a hedge of cosmos and it was really big and it was a brilliant flower. I can't think of the name of it now, but it was a thompson and morgan seed and it was. It was absolutely phenomenal and, uh, it was slightly by accident, but it's definitely something that I will repeat because it was just a brilliant flower yeah like it's.
Speaker 1:It's hard to believe the impact you can have from just something as simple as cosmos yeah, absolutely, and I think what you say there is right as well.
Speaker 2:You need to be disciplined and to like pinch them out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you get the nice but bushy plants and then they're less likely to yeah, it was just a pure fluke the way it worked out, but it it was.
Speaker 2:It looked phenomenal in the end, to be honest yeah, yeah, probably saved them in your eyes because maybe you were thinking to yourself, oh, it's not so great like we've had a bad year. Maybe it's not a good plant to grow in a bad year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to be honest, to be, honest, I was definitely blaming myself because I did neglect them and um and uh. Yeah, they should have been cut back and lots of things like that. But once they got the ground, got into the ground, they were happy and then they got knocked over in the storm. They rerouted quickly so they were phenomenal. So I can't remember the name of them, but I'll know them when I see them and it was definitely a thompson morgan seed. So yeah, I'll watch out for it again yeah so in the, in these garden rooms then.
Speaker 1:So we kind of started a virtual journey and we we deviated off of it. So you mentioned these garden rooms and your, your trees and your cloud prune, cloud pruning boxes and so on. Is there any any other kind of features that are sort of important in the garden?
Speaker 2:well, there, I mean there, there are various features, there are lots of features. I suppose a big thing would be my glass house, um, which is at the, the very kind of back of the the garden.
Speaker 2:And when I 15 years it's 15 years old now, the glass house and when I put it up originally I was very determined that the glass house was going to be a thing of beauty, because so many of us we have a greenhouse and it becomes full of, like you know, dirty pots and broken this and that, and you know dirty pots and broken this and that, and you know we just shove things in that we don't know where else to put. And I was absolutely determined I wasn't going to do this. So I planted a large border to the north side of the glass house and that's fine, because the things that the flowers that are in there, they need sun but they get it through the glass house yeah and from the south side.
Speaker 2:And then in the summer, once the bubble wrap comes down because I bubble wrap and heat it in in winter, so in spring sorry, when the bubble wrap comes down then I set it up as a kind of like a show house. So on one side we have shelving with pot plants and on the other side then there's a permanent border where I've planted in the ground and I'd have things like cannas and like bananas and big plants and they kind of shade the greenhouse. And when you sit there at the table then you kind of get a feeling that perhaps you're in somewhere a bit more tropical, a bit more lush, and I love that. That would be my favourite place, I think, in the summer, if it's not too hot, to sit there and just have a cup of tea and just look at the plants in there and feel feel that I'm in some tropical jungle in.
Speaker 1:Borneo. You mentioned earlier on about about YouTube, and I know that a big passion of what you're doing is trying to educate on your channels. So tell us about the channel, how it started, and I know it's documenting your garden and what's happening and you know when, when something pops up or you're doing a new project or whatever. That's what you document, so tell us about it and and about the.
Speaker 2:So I think I have three main streams on the channel. So the one stream would be anything to do with a greenhouse or house plants or orchids, so that's all kind of lumped in there. And then I have another stream that's to do with outdoor gardening, what I do physically in my own garden. And then the third stream would be me visiting other people's gardens and doing a tour of them and if I can get the garden owner to do an interview, that's that is the best. And also in that stream as well, I do a little bit of botanizing.
Speaker 2:So when I visit other countries like I was in Borneo earlier on this year and saw amazing things like the rafflesia, the biggest flower in the world, the big orange, stinky one and so I make videos about that kind of thing. And, yeah, I put it on. Yes, I mean, the reason why I started the YouTube channel and what I really want from the YouTube channel is that it provides information, like good information, to people. So like I research subjects before I make a video about it, I don't want to make a video and just talk off the cuff and make mistakes and give people wrong information, and I won't say I've never done that, because I've been doing YouTube for 10 years now.
Speaker 2:I celebrated the 10-year anniversary there in November and certainly when I started out things were all a little more loosey-goosey and kind of finding my way. But now I think I'm at a stage where I've got a decent camera so I can film things well, I've got a decent mic so people can actually hear what I'm saying and I do research to get good information. And also, I mean, I have access to a lot of great subject matters, so many wonderful gardens in Ireland and if I can bring people along to see those, then that's wonderful. And then, because Dwensa, my garden is, um, you know, like it. It's an acre, like it's a reasonably sized garden. There's lots to do there and there's lots of like learning material there. So, um, I hope that people will get value from the channel that way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. And how often do you put out a video? You're going for 10 years, which is quite an achievement. Well done on that. But is it weekly or is it?
Speaker 2:It's weekly. It used to be twice a week, but it's weekly now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, brilliant, or is it? It's weekly. It used to be twice a week, but it's weekly now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, brilliant.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I found if I was putting out more than once a week, then the quality wasn't good and I prefer to to to do better quality yeah, yeah, well, one a week is a big commitment anyway, and especially because I was having a look there earlier, a lot of them are quite substantial videos. They're not like a 30 second video, so they're they're quite, they're quite long, so there's loads of content there and I think I'm right in saying there's like 50 and 100 videos up there at this point, or yeah, there's a lot up there now at this stage.
Speaker 2:Like I mean, I've covered a lot of subjects over the years. What is absolutely amazing is how much there is to know and learn about gardening. You know, when I speak to non-gardeners and I say, well, I write an article for the Irish Garden magazine once a week and each time I need to come up with five greenhouse related things, and I've been doing it for over 10 years so I can't replicate what I've done before and they say how is there that that much to say? But there is. I mean, there are so many different plants. We are so lucky, we're really so lucky that we have access to um plants from all over the world and um, yeah, and not that you have to kind of reinvent the wheel with every new plant you get. There's a lot of overlap, but, um, there's always something new to do and new to learn and that's what it makes it such a wonderful and fantastic hobby yeah, um, just out of personal interest and do like you're 10 years now.
Speaker 1:You haven't really replicated topics. Do you ever find it difficult to come up with new subject matter?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, yeah, like it well for the magazine and for youtube, certainly especially in winter. Like, yeah, because the interest isn't there from viewers or readers. Generally speaking, in winter they're thinking of Christmas and you know, like they got their bulbs in the ground so they're happy about that, and then you know they've come in until March, so it's nice if I have perhaps gone somewhere during the year and made some footage somewhere else and then I can edit that and bring that out in winter. Yeah, maybe tempt people onto youtube in that way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, because it can be difficult, um, especially if you're doing it weekly to to have new content. It's um, and and to try and not, as you say, not, duplicate something you've done before so yeah, yeah no, it's only interesting from a personal point of view.
Speaker 1:You you create. You wrote a book as well in the last couple years, a book which I haven't seen. I actually didn't realize that you had written a book until until I was having a look this week ahead of this interview. So, journal of an irish garden. So tell us a bit about that um, yeah, well, I've two books actually oh two books the journal of an irish garden.
Speaker 2:It's about gardening and it's a paper, it's a paperback like it's a physical book, and then I have an ebook as well. So the? Um, yeah, it like the it. It basically charts my progress over an eight-year period in becoming a gardener. So when I started off and when I started off in the beginning, I knew practically nothing about gardening. Like, I don't come from, uh, I don't have horticultural qualifications, um, and I learned by trial and error and I think many people don't really come to gardening until suddenly they find that they have one and they realize that, well, actually I better learn something about this or else I'm just going to have a mess out there. So that was the case with me and I very quickly found that I, um, I loved it.
Speaker 2:So, the Journal of an Irish Garden it's very easy read. You can dip in, dip out of it, have it beside your bed, just read a little chapter in the night and put it down and you kind of don't have to remember going forward where you were. So, yeah, so there's that and that's available. I think they have copies in the book center in Wexford town, but mostly you can buy it online from Lulu, lulu, l-u, l-u, and also I'm selling autographed copies when when visitors come to the garden and also by post at Christmas time. And then the other, just very briefly. The other is a bit more specialist. I have an e-booklet on growing cattleya orchids, which is a particular type of fantastic orchid on a windowsill. So I guess quite a specialist, specialized thing for those who are interested in that brilliant.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you. You mentioned about visitors to your garden, so you're are you an open garden, open at certain times of the year, or are you open by appointment only?
Speaker 2:well, um, I'm pleased to say, dwent's has just recently um been accepted as a partner garden in the rhsi, so I'm very pleased about that.
Speaker 1:I open to groups by appointment mostly, but I do have um a few open days um during the year and they'd be published up on the the facebook page or the youtube channel yeah, something I meant to ask you earlier, and when we started lining this up a few weeks ago, you, you told me to hold off for a week or two because you had a big lot of bulbs to plant. What, what were the bulbs, and did you get them all in?
Speaker 2:I have planted hundreds of bulbs four lots of bulbs. So um, I extended my crocus lawn with 1500 crocuses, yeah, this autumn, so I had 500 down before now. It isn't an enormous area, the crocus lawn, but it's an area under trees which is ideal for naturalizing crocuses yeah so, um, the weather was bad when I was did. The weather is always bad when you're planting bulbs, do you not find?
Speaker 2:oh you ordered them because, oh, it's lovely, lovely and dry, and you know. And then when they arrive, it just buckets down yeah, that happened this year.
Speaker 1:The first week in november was lovely and dry and everyone was getting excited. It was even warm and, yeah, by the by the second week, everything had turned and it has been pretty much on the turn since, so sorry, crocuses, anyway, crocuses, yeah, crocuses.
Speaker 2:I also planted dutch irises, a lot of dutch irises, um daffodils, which I'm naturalizing in lawn as well, and all various types of alliums.
Speaker 1:Lovely.
Speaker 2:And I think the thing with bulbs is that when you're doing it it never seems like it was a good idea, like it's just like. Why did I order these?
Speaker 2:But, once you have them in the ground and once spring comes, it's the best thing you could have done. So, like I think, any work that you do in your garden in autumn is work worth twice as much as the stuff that you do in in in march, say, although of course it's very important to do loads of stuff in march too yeah, yeah, no, but the bulbs is one, because, as you say, at that time of the year you're probably a bit lethargic, the weather is not great.
Speaker 1:You're sticking in all these bulbs and you never seem to get to the end of the year. You're probably a bit lethargic, the weather is not great, you're sticking in all these bulbs and you never seem to get to the end of the the bucket that you have them in. And yeah, you're, yeah, but but, as you said, there's nothing that that gives as much for as little effort.
Speaker 1:To be fair so stick them in, and especially the naturalizing ones, like they're getting better all the time um oh, my goodness, john, though the spot I chose to plant the daffodils.
Speaker 2:It was, in theory, a really great spot. The orientation was right. It was um a spot where I didn't mind having the long grass until the foliage of the daffodils dies down, and I had an auger, you know, an auger that you fit on the air so I thought, like I'm quits in here, this is going to be no, no, bother. But oh my goodness, when that auger hit the ground like it was just such a stony spot, I could not get it into the ground.
Speaker 1:Should have did your lasagna there there now well, yeah, yeah, yeah, quite possibly, yeah and started up at a high, but uh anyway, um, I had, I had help.
Speaker 2:I had somebody helping me at the time as well, great young man. Um, together we got them in, but mostly just digging with the, with the, the hoary hoary. I use a hoary hoary yeah and was easier than when the bloom and auger that I'd gone and bought specifically for putting in bulbs yeah, now the auger would be great somewhere, but just not for that to do well, I also, yeah, also, you know, you suppose, to plant them fairly deeply. Look, I covered them, they went in, they got covered by earth yeah, it won't matter?
Speaker 1:it won't matter? I don't think so. Tell people where they can obviously youtube. So tell people your website or any of your social channels where they'll find you. I know a lot of people come across your articles in the in the irish garden as well, so maybe just direct people to all of those things okay, all right.
Speaker 2:So, um, anybody listening? I'd really love if they checked out the youtube channel. It's called gardening at duensa d-o-u-e-n-t-z-a. In fact, if you just put duensa into youtube, you're going to find me, um and like. If you subscribe, just by hitting the subscribe button, then you'll get notified whenever I post a new video. So I think very often people can lose sight of things. They like my videos, they didn't subscribe and then they forget. You know, gardening at Duensa on YouTube. I also have a Facebook page Duensa Garden Facebook page so you can follow that as well. And Instagram Duensa Garden on Instagram as well. And if you're interested in visiting the garden, you should check out the RHSI website, which has a listing for Duensa and a list of my open days as well. So, yeah, that's really it, and if you want to buy my book, then Lulu L-U-L-U or contact me. Yeah brilliant.
Speaker 1:So if anyone sends you a message on any of those channels, you'll give it back to them anyway and the dates for opening dates for next year are on it. What I'll do is I'll put the link in the show notes to the rhsi and to your youtube channel anyway. So if anyone's listening and they want to just click directly through that, they can do that. Rachel, it's been a really interesting chat, as I, as I said, we probably would we kind of gone around a good few different topics and in different directions, but it was really interesting chat and thank you very, very much for coming on.
Speaker 2:Master, my garden podcast thank you so much, john and um, yeah, keep up the great work. It's wonderful to talk to you in person at last and uh, yeah, thank you very much that's been this week's episode.
Speaker 1:A huge thanks to rachel for coming on, so really interesting. Her youtube videos are brilliant, so check those out. Loads of different topics, as we mentioned, 1500 odd videos there now and you'll see. You know, from the old ones through to the new ones, the kind of progression of the garden and the gardener, I guess, as well. So, yeah, really interesting. I wasn't familiar with the book, but it sounds like a great book as well. So check those out. And lots of great tips there, especially for anyone that got orchids as a gift over christmas. A couple of great tips there to keep them looking well as we as we go further and further away from christmas. We don't want to see any of those getting getting chucked out in the coming weeks. So some great tips there and, yeah, that's pretty much this week's episode. Thanks for listening. Until the next time, happy garden. So thanks for listening. Until the next time. Happy gardening you.