In this weeks episode John chats with Paul Smyth Head Gardener of RHSI Bellefield. Paul was previously on the podcast almost a year ago in episode 160 which you can listen to here
In this episode one year on from the episode 160 we chat aboiut how Paul is putting his own stamp on Bellefield after beginning there in December 2022. There are as you would expect lots of developments including a no-dig veg and cut flower garden.
Paul along with the RHSI have lots events and open weekends and days planned for 2024 building on the success of the open days in 2023. New for 2024 is the Bellefield plant fair which will bring many specialist nurseries together for a special event in March.
The season kicks off with the snowdrop weekend which runs at RHSI Bellefield from Thursday 8th Feb until Sunday 11th Feb. These promises to be a great event. RHSI Bellefield has one of the largest collections of snowdrops in the country and is one of the best examples of snowdrops planted in large scale drifts which are nothing short of spectacular.
Also snowdrops mixed with cyclamen coum are one of the beautiful features combinations that will look at its best for the open weekend. Paul will be doing snowdrop tours during the days and lots of other features added for this yea.
In this weeks episode John chats with Paul Smyth Head Gardener of RHSI Bellefield. Paul was previously on the podcast almost a year ago in episode 160 which you can listen to here
In this episode one year on from the episode 160 we chat aboiut how Paul is putting his own stamp on Bellefield after beginning there in December 2022. There are as you would expect lots of developments including a no-dig veg and cut flower garden.
Paul along with the RHSI have lots events and open weekends and days planned for 2024 building on the success of the open days in 2023. New for 2024 is the Bellefield plant fair which will bring many specialist nurseries together for a special event in March.
The season kicks off with the snowdrop weekend which runs at RHSI Bellefield from Thursday 8th Feb until Sunday 11th Feb. These promises to be a great event. RHSI Bellefield has one of the largest collections of snowdrops in the country and is one of the best examples of snowdrops planted in large scale drifts which are nothing short of spectacular.
Also snowdrops mixed with cyclamen coum are one of the beautiful features combinations that will look at its best for the open weekend. Paul will be doing snowdrop tours during the days and lots of other features added for this yea.
How's it going, everybody, and welcome to episode 211 of Master and Recording Podcast. Now, this week's episode, I'm delighted to be joined by Paul Smith again and it's actually almost exactly a year since we spoke the last time on episode 160. And I suppose a year has passed since and we're going to hear a little bit about how he's getting on in Bellefield and, I suppose, the progress that has been made, because I know there has been a lot of progress. But we're also going to talk about the upcoming Snowdrop Festival, which is on Thursday the 8th through to Sunday, the 11th of February, and seeing some of the pictures recently, particularly the picture that Paul posted under some trees. I'm not sure what trees they were, but you had Ciclum and Coom and Snowdrops mixed together and it just looks absolutely amazing. So to see that in the flesh and to have a Snowdrop tour and all that will be amazing. So looking forward to hearing all about that and, paul, you're very, very welcome to Master and Recording Podcast.
Speaker 2:
Thank you very much, Sean. Good to be back. Yeah, full year later, as you say, full year later.
Speaker 1:
yeah, I only look back just to see what episode it was, and it's almost a full year since we last spoke and I suppose at that stage you told us the story of moving into Bellefield and what you'd found and all of that and you were very much looking forward to, I suppose, putting your own stamp on it, while honoring all the elements that were already there. So tell us a bit about this one happening, and I know we spoke just off here about how it has been a kind of a difficult year, gardening wise, just, and we spoke about it a lot on the podcast between, particularly with wet we've just had just a really wet time for the last 12 months. So what's been happening? How's the garden going? How's it looking?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yeah, we've had, as you say, I suppose, challenge in first year, weather wise. I officially started working in Bellefield. I think mid December 2022 coincided with probably the coldest week of weather we had in a couple of years, but went down to minus four or five years, and that did away with a couple of things that I wasn't expecting, because that was a bit sort of shock.
Speaker 2:
And then, as you said, last spring we were just saying there was a lovely, dry spring, lovely. Our open weekends in February were so blessed because a little bit worried about, you know, parking in a field as you normally are, and everything, but that was fine. And then March came and that was grand, got a bit wetter than March and April, and then May and June was lovely, but from July onwards, you know, the heavens opened, maybe enough, though it wasn't necessarily a bad thing in terms of, you know, managing the garden. It meant that I didn't have to waste wait, I wouldn't say waste but spend any time watering, because I hate, you know, doing any more than needed, even well, up to the point of, and you know it's bad. Then the pots at the back door of the house I have lots of terracotta pots and different bits and pieces and I think between July and September, I think I only had to water maybe twice. You know it was that heavy the rain that I didn't even need to water the pots in the middle of summer and it was that kind of, you know, a mad, mad summer. But no, it's been good.
Speaker 2:
Like you say, a learning curve. We've learned a lot. We've made plenty of mistakes, but we've, yeah, come out the other side, I suppose. And the weather is the challenge, but the weather, you know, the weather happens regardless, so we just have to roll with that, I suppose. And yeah, we've made good progress. We've started into a few new projects. We've been working behind the scenes, doing some more important things like funding and that type of thing. We've got ourselves set up in terms of equipment and all of that. So, yeah, we've really pointed ourselves in the right direction. A huge amount of work done, but, yeah, we still have a long way to go, but we're getting there. We're certainly getting there.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, actually I was only just thinking, as you were saying that about the weather, and we'll move off that then, because everyone's sick of it. But actually one of the big things is peonies in Bellefield and last with the wet it must. That must have been horrible on peonies, particularly because the big open flower just holds the water. I can't imagine that they had a nice time of it.
Speaker 2:
No, they really didn't. They really didn't do so well and now they're doing okay, you know, in terms of how they're growing. But the flowers, yeah, they just you don't get the real value out of them. And actually the thing I really noticed that suffered from the wet weather were the dailies. They just didn't seem to have any, you know, lasting in the flower at all. We've mainly single dailies, which I know doesn't help to double, and all those fancy dailies do tend to last a bit longer. But I just felt that single dailies this year were gone and out before you could even get a chance to appreciate them. So, and they came early, they flowered early, we had them in early and they were doing well. And then we had an open weekend in September and I thought, great, you know we're open for the dailies. And turns out, that weekend the dailies probably looked the worst. Two weeks later they were back. But yeah, yeah, that's part of the challenge.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it's all part of the journey and it's gonna be different. The next 12 months will be different again. I guess you mentioned that you're working on some projects in the background. A lot of the last 12 months has been centred around kind of steady in the ship, getting things back, pointing it in the right direction which are working on a couple of projects. So what's the sort of projects that you're working on going forward?
Speaker 2:
So in terms of the garden, kind of physically in the garden, we've been doing a few different pieces and anyone who visits in the next while, let's see. We opened up a new pathway in the north border and will be hopefully open an up similar part of ways through the blue borders and the south side of the garden as the summer progresses. So that's a nice woodland walk in the north border and we had that all done, lovely, edged in properly, and then one of the storms that we've had endless ones of came and it knocked the tree right down to the center of the part. So that knocked us back another week or two, but that happens as well. So that was put in. We dug out the main entrance to the garden as a border as you walk in there. It used to be full of hemorrhachalis and procosmia and, to be honest, not a whole lot else. Solid Aggo, nothing of any real. You know that would blow your mind away or nothing. That was anything really fantastic.
Speaker 2:
So I took a notion towards the end of the summer and we had a day on soil and it was ironic. It was a day on soil and soil health and no dig. And two days before the no dig event. I hired a digger and I dug out the entire bed with a mini digger and we got all the soil that was in the bed because it was full of vetch and among other things and some you know plans. We kept the plans we wanted, obviously, but a lot of plans that we didn't either want or we just had far too many of and a lot of weed. So we took all of that and we piled it up in the corner of the field and we're going to hopefully cover that with plastic and that will hopefully go for a year or two, kill all the perennial weeds that are in that and then we'll use that soil elsewhere and in the meantime then we're adding in some new soil into that area and kind of really re-vigorating the soil that's there. So it's a bit of a drastic way of controlling the weed, but it had a huge amount of problem weeds.
Speaker 2:
We are totally I won't say the word organic, because we're not certified organic, but we garden organically so we don't use any pesticides or herbicides or anything like that. But I just don't want to go down the roof getting it all certified. But I know in my own heart, and everyone who comes there knows that we don't use any of it. So that's good enough for me and, yeah, as a result, I wasn't going to do go down that route. So I said you know what, this is the way to do it and I know Jimmy Blake up in Blessington does that a lot and it's a very drastic way of gardening.
Speaker 2:
But I want this bed to be kind of the first thing you see when you walk in the garden and be a bit of a wow factor, give a bit of impact. So, as a result, it involved digging out the whole thing, which was a bit dramatic, but hopefully, as the year goes on, this no drop time now, the most you might see in some fresh soil, but as the summer progresses, particularly into May and June and July, we're going to try a lot of annuals in there this year. Hopefully you'll see a nice bit of color.
Speaker 1:
So, yeah, yeah, I guess I suppose you're saying dramatic, but given the fact that the garden was neglected for a few years prior, yeah, probably weeds just got a little bit too established and yeah, when you're trying to do things, you know, in a nonchemical way, I guess you have to do things like that because you know there is no other option to clean it up.
Speaker 2:
And hit the nail on the head there with the thing the weeds are getting out of control, and that was something I suppose I knew the weed problem was bad in Bellefield, but I suppose maybe I was a bit naive as to how bad it really was. So we really did find the vetch, in particular in two of the borders and that one included. Three of the borders really are very, is very bad and continues to be, and we can only control that as much as we can. But over the next few years my plan would be to do that same kind of method, if this works, with all of the different beds in the main part of the garden. To really go for it.
Speaker 2:
We found a lot of mares tail around the folly area in the center of the wall garden, which is a bit of a nuisance. I think I know how it got there. I think it came in on much few number of years or good number of years, but even so it's there now and you can't get rid of it. So, as anyone has ever tried to get even mares tail, if you have chemicals you can't get rid of it.
Speaker 2:
That's very, very difficult. It's one that we have, and then we have ground elder, which isn't less of a problem, and actually the ground elder is in one area that we are starting to develop. Now we tried a few things ground elder I heard this thing that oak chippings If you have a freshly cut down oak tree, and oak chippings, whatever, tan and they release as they break down. If you put fresh oak chippings on the ground, elder is meant to reduce them. Now, we didn't have an oak tree, but I did put out fresh chippings and it seemed to have zero effect on the ground. So maybe it has to be oak.
Speaker 2:
But I decided in my wisdom I had, we had just got some tree work done, so I said let's cut down and put all these chippings on top of the ground elder Didn't do anything to it, so at least it looked all right for a few months. And yeah, so that was it. And the other thing that we did then was the no dig veg garden. So we've started an entire herd. Nearly two turns of one area of the main kind of outer wall or outer borders of the wall garden has turned into a no dig veg garden, and the old veg garden that was there will become a no dig fruit and cut flower garden, so we're taking a fairly dramatic chunk of the garden. We've cleared a lot of stuff that was in there. It wasn't really anything, it was kind of like a hole in area or just stuff was thrown in.
Speaker 2:
There was no real rhyme or reason. And now, yeah, it's turned into this no dig veg garden using the cardboard and layering up all the different mulch and bark on itself. That'll be exciting to see that progress.
Speaker 1:
And in terms of the organic matter you use, you're using compost. Is it your own compost, or is it farmyard, me or what are you using?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, we're using our own compost. We're very lucky here, John. We've got I suppose in a way because the garden wasn't garden for a while all the compost heaps which were the old stables from this place. With the stood farm in the 50s, there was loads of old stables in the backyard and Angela started to use them as her compost bins and they work quite well. They do have a concrete floor, which people who are die hard composters will tell you. It's not a good idea, but you do what you make, do what you have.
Speaker 2:
Yeah yeah works and luckily it hasn't been touched in a while. So when we had a machine hired we kind of turned it over. We found out that just two of them that are perfect compost and a good few tons in them. So I'm using that and I also then bought in, you know, composted green waste, which the advantage of that being it's totally sterile our own compost, I know it's been an awful lot of weed flowing into it. So we put the bottom layer with our own compost and the top layer with this composted green waste and hopefully we'll keep the weeds at bay. But where we are putting in the no dig veg garden there was a bit of ground elder, so that would be an interesting I won't say experiment.
Speaker 1:
I hope it works, but yeah, we're going to be interesting to see Veg garden. How big is this? And?
Speaker 2:
I suppose the way to describe it is it's probably bigger than the average suburban garden area that I've tackled, which is probably far more than a bit off, far more than probably should have been chewing in year one.
Speaker 2:
But when you have a big borders in Belfield are 25 foot deep and this is probably nearly 100 foot, so it's probably 100 foot by 25 foot. So it's you know, it's a substantial plot of ground, but it was just along the border, about the third, two thirds of the wall garden edge and, yeah, good size. And we're just going to do bark path grown area, bark path grow and bark path grown in a kind of fairly regimented thing. The main reason as well we're doing this is that we'll clear the ground that we could potentially then start to think about changing it in a couple of years. We may not keep the market garden there forever, and the other reason being a lot of people visited and people who are members of the RHSI said you don't focus enough on veg, which is actually a very fair point. So we said, well, let's make a no dig veg garden here so we can have some focus on veg with.
Speaker 1:
That's what we, that's what we did, and out of interest, like what will happen with the produce. Is that the volunteers? Is that who's going to end up with that? Are you going to be selling it or what's the?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I mean it's not a huge amount. Well, it will be a good bit of produce, but it'll keep me good and healthy for the end of 2024 and the end of volunteers and anyone in the garden, yeah, like it's not going to be massively productive.
Speaker 2:
Part of the plan is to do to trial a few different things. So maybe trial some of the more heritage varieties and different ones. So you know, when I started gardening years ago, the first thing I did was grow fruit and veg. So I kind of I know I can do it. So I'm not out to prove that I can grow fruit and veg. I've done that. I won't call it easy, but it's doable. It's something that you know. Most gardeners come to garden and true, grown veg. So I'd like to try a few different things. So I can't see it been overly productive. But, yeah, certainly volunteers and, as we always say, if anyone wants to volunteer, get in touch with myself or get in touch with the RHSI office, and we're always looking for new people to help and you'll get some veg at the end of the year too.
Speaker 1:
You mentioned there that you had a soil open day and I'd actually forgotten about that. I know it was a group of gardeners calling up an ardent, I believe was one of them, and others from around, and I could be wrong in saying this now, but did it finish in Bellefield then? Was that the last day of it? That's it. Yeah, I know it was all talking about soil health and it was a sort of an information sharing among your different gardeners and you were trying to see what was working. You know soil amendments, composting and all that sort of thing. So maybe just because I actually I was speaking to Colin around that time and I have meant to speak to him since to see how it actually all came together, so maybe you might fill us in a little bit on it.
Speaker 2:
Yeah Well, Connell definitely knows a bit more than I do about it, but I was part of the group and the whole idea was it was a group of keen gardeners and basically all very interested in knowing a bit more about soil. I was, I suppose, okay enough to have when I was in horticulture training in college we did a bit more on soil, but most amateur gardeners, as keen as they might be, probably haven't got that grounding in soil or understanding of it. So it was a whole thing of teaching them. We had different experts in from different areas and different aspects of soil health and, as I said, people from the whole no dig area, people from looking at soil health in terms of the organisms in the soil, all of the you know microorganisms that live in the soil, how the fact that soil is alive, looking at how soil you know, how that's important with the nutrients in the soil and how you can affect that with what you do in the garden. And then looking at composting, which is a huge area, and obviously how to benefit your soil, which mulching and composting, as we all know, are great ways of doing it. So we had a zoom every Monday for a couple of every other Monday for a while all through kind of early spring. Then we took a break in the summer and then later in the autumn we had a few more and it culminated basically with this event in Bellefield where, after learning all these different things, after hearing from a few experts, they had done their bit of research and the group kind of put the theory to practice really and down in Bellefield we did our soil day. So we had people in the coach house.
Speaker 2:
First time we had the coach house actually back in use after Angela had died, so it was great to have that building back and we had people there doing lectures on soil. We had Carl Melody from the Botanic Gardens, Connell and a few of the others gave presentations a bit on the science of it, because that's important, even though you kind of roll your eyes to heaven when you hear soil science at first a little bit. But you have to kind of have a basic understanding. And then we went out and we split into four groups and we did no dig gardening. We did composting on a large scale, composting on a small scale and mulching in looking at how to do it on a practical level. Then we also had the probiotic carbon Caron from there and we had some Renew, we had Mee Hall and we had a few other people who were all involved in the industry and the fruit of the farm dropped down bits and pieces. And Ollie from Seaweed Company, yeah, Lance, yeah Lance, yeah, but he was dropping over bits and pieces.
Speaker 2:
So everyone who was involved kind of in that industry had a bit of a representation there and were just showcasing what they do and just getting people more aware about the soil. And it's sold out. Couldn't believe it. We had a full house, which I just didn't think a soil day in November in the middle of Offaly would be something that people want to go to. But I was very wrong and it literally sold out within a week or two and yeah, it was great, it was a good old day.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it's good and it's good that people are actually taking. I suppose taking heed of it and it's something that I've swung about a lot on the podcast is soil health. As you rightly said, the real deep science element of it can be a bit roll your eyes to heaven and a bit boring, but when you have soil working correctly and with all the microorganisms working the way they should, then everything else is easy after that, or certainly easier. So it's hugely beneficial and I think it's good now that more and more people are talking about it and, I suppose, bringing awareness to it. So, yeah, well done on that Obviously busy year ahead, lots of open days planned and the first one of them is quite soon, so maybe tell us about those snow drops being a huge thing this time of year but also a really, really important feature for Bellefield.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, absolutely. It's probably our main feature, to be honest, in the garden. You know the garden's here lovely most of the year around. I'm lucky enough that I live here on site so I get to see it pretty much every day of the year. But generally speaking, the best time in this garden is from February right through the month of February really, and we are opening early February this year we're not trying to coincide with too many days, so we're open from the 8th to the 11th of February, the Thursday right through to the Sunday of that week, and the garden in Bellefield in snow drop time really comes to life.
Speaker 2:
At the front of the house we have quite literally hundreds of different snow drop varieties, cliffs and carpets of naturalized snow drops, mixed in with sickleman coom, lovely early udder bulbs to the like of iris or ticolata and winter akinites and all of those lovely things that combine together in certain areas to give you a nice tapestry of all that spring planting and then down through the woodland just endless drifts of snow drops which Angela would have planted there over the years, and actually last year after our open days we took two or three different days and occasions. We brought out all our volunteers, which you know, there was nearly 10 or 12 of us and we dug up clumps of snow drops from different parts and we spread them all out through the front lawn. So we're trying to have the whole of the front of Bellefield basically one sheet of white carpets. So when you drive in, as far as you're eye can see, even when you walk down, you can see nothing but white. That's kind of our, that's our objective there and we'll be hoping to do that.
Speaker 2:
So yeah, the winter garden in Bellefield and I won't get into the whole thing of the snow drops and the mad money that's paid for them and the fact that they are so and they are lovely. There's no denying that. Maybe they're not quite worth, but some people will pay for them. But it is a fantastic thing and I suppose it's hope, isn't it? It's the first thing you see in the year, oh yeah absolutely it is.
Speaker 1:
And yeah, I suppose there is a huge collector element and there's a huge collection in Bellefield. I know what. Last year you were trying to get your head around the amount of varieties and I know there was some. Probably you have varieties that are unnamed there and I'm sure still is the case, probably going to be the case for a while until I think I've completed defeat on that.
Speaker 2:
So I've come up with a plan, actually, so anything that I know we can identify, and even some of the experts have been down and have. When the experts can't identify them in my head, well then, nobody can. So, unless something is very easily identifiable or something is very distinct, what we've decided to do is actually get all those ones in the beds that don't have names and just naturalize them into the lawns. So over the years, we're going to have very interesting naturalized lawns with all of these more common snow drops and then all of these slightly different ones, and hopefully, as time goes by, they'll hybridize and who knows what we could have there in future years. So, yeah, watch that space, I suppose. But yeah, our lawns are going to become naturalized with the normal snow drops but also all these different varieties, and that's what makes it interesting. I think you never know what you'll find.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, brilliant. As I said at the start, there you put up a brilliant picture of some trees with sickle and coom and snow drops through it. That is If anyone hasn't seen.
Speaker 2:
that was it, I'm not sure was on the RHS I page or you are actually I did a talk for the RHS I zoom there out I suppose two or three weeks ago and it was put up. It actually went a little bit fire. They've got about six thousand likes, you know, all of a sudden, and a five or six hundred shares, loads of people commenting on it and now, as you say, it is a gorgeous photo and it was just a perfect moment in time. The sunlight was shining perfectly on it. The second boom, which is the hardy spring cycloman, which does very well in the ground there, and people always PP.
Speaker 2:
You know, oh, a sickleman, but don't think a sickleman. The garden center, they're no good at all, the rubbish. You need sickleman coom to get that spring sickleman and combine that with snow drops and it really just a beautiful tapestry and there's a couple of crooks in there too and it's just and, to be honest, it was just. That moment was like today. Today has just been a very beautiful sunny day. Today. Before was horrible. So you just get that lovely sunny day, the sunlight at the right level, and you just got that perfect shot. So, yeah, brilliant.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, no, it's class and it is class. And I suppose the one thing with that photographs you know when you look at it it's a combination of snow drops and sickleman coom and a couple of other bits, but it's, it's very simple. But what is in that photograph that you may not think straight away like there's a good bit of time has passed to get that, you know, to get that naturalized the way it is. I'm sure it was Angela that planted them back whenever and. But time has passed, so that's why it makes it look like it is. It's, it's, it's phenomenal photograph.
Speaker 2:
It's time and persistence actually that did that. So Angela would have every year bought a couple of trays of these sickleman's coom, so she might have been putting in 40 little plug plants every single year. And even when I was a student there back 10 years ago I wouldn't been actually planting in a little bit around there. So she was persistently at it. She never stopped it. She kept adding bits and pieces. She saw they did well and when she saw they did well in that space she decided let's go for it. And as you say, yeah, constant weekend, and even we this year had to do a little bit of work with the IV around it. So, yeah, well, it looks lovely. You do have to be. It's the gentle touch. And that's what I've discovered about gardening in Bellfield, that you know you have to be a gardener, but of course I don't like to be too heavy-handed. So the gentle touch, where appropriate can, can work well and that's a good example, I guess yeah, brilliant.
Speaker 1:
So on the at the Open days. So it's Thursday, thursday the 8th, through to Sunday the 11th, and I know you're doing you're doing snowdrop tours around the garden and there's a few other events plans. So maybe just talk us through a day if someone's coming down to it, because I think for a lot of people, you know, even at this stage, a year on, bellfield is still going to be quite new. For a lot of people, they want to be there, you know, in the last year, or they haven't been there for a while, and so maybe tell us about how that day will run. What's what's planned? I know there's a few kind of events planned and yeah, there's a few bits on.
Speaker 2:
I'd say for anyone who hasn't been there before, you're definitely hopefully going to enjoy the sheets of the cyclamen and carpets as Coom, cyclamen, coom and snowdrops. You know it really is a sight to see and I one of the A few places in Ireland for you to see it on that kind of mass. So hopefully it'll be a treat. If you haven't seen it and what the plan is, then I'll be doing two tours a day in the garden, guided tours, and there'll be I think 12 and two in the day at home. There's coffee shop inside 17 coffee. We'll have plant stalls out in the backyard. I think escrow farmer down from the north, cold blown nursery, claire is over from over the road and I think field of blooms. They're not going to be there every single day but we'll always have a few plant sales of our own there.
Speaker 2:
We'll be selling snowdrops because last year we didn't have Kind of the common snowdrop for sale and people were telling us off.
Speaker 2:
So this year we've got Snowdrops in the green which are just the bags of snowdrops dug up ready to go. Um, we'll be selling bunches of 150 at the end the people and inside as well. Something a little bit different. We're going to be doing lectures on, uh, some of the books in our library here, because a local man, author and historian, george Cunningham, has gotten involved with us here, helping us with our library collection, of which we have a good one, and also amalgamating a few other library collections Uh with angeles here and we're getting working on that, getting that library collection together and then raising money to get the library project kind of up and running so the library will become a thing of the future. So george will be giving lectures on that. We'll also have book sales in the coach house, uh garden and books and other general kind of books as well, but brand new books there. So there's good quality and good value books there as well. So a good bit happening, hopefully for the two days nice one.
Speaker 1:
Um, you mentioned you mentioned there and we spoke about it on the podcast and you mentioned deserter farms. Again, we spoke about it while they were on it snowdrops in the green it's it really is the best way to buy them and so, for anyone that hasn't heard me talking about it before on the podcast, you can get them in. You know you won't get them everywhere, but there is some places Altamount, doodum, you can also get them in in bellfield from the plant sales area, and there's other garden centers, but not many around the country, that doodum, and it's basically where you get the bulb with the green growth up on top, and it really is the the best way and probably the fastest way to start to get establishment of clumps of snowdrops within your own garden, isn't it?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, absolutely the problem with you know you can buy dried snowdrops in the autumn, as we've all seen, and people will often tell me oh, I bought a hundred dried snowdrops last year and maybe 50 came up, or often maybe two or three only came up or none at all. And just the reason being because no drops come up in flower earlier, they're into growth earlier. If they're dried bag in August and September they actually should be in the ground growing, and because they're a bit smaller to, they just don't take dry. Now definitely can try out for months and months and come back to life, no problem. Snow drops just don't like been dried out for that long time at that time of year and, as a result, rarely will a snow drop actually come good after been dried out. So you're far better, I say John, vitamin green and you'll get pretty much a hundred percent success if you buy them in bunches of green like that.
Speaker 1:
I know there's lots of other days as well. You mentioned potentially some. There's a plan fair in March, so maybe tell us about the other other events, other days that are coming up and any sort of teams that they're around. So I'm sure Pines are part of that somewhere along the way.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, absolutely so. The big one and hopefully it will be probably our biggest open day is only for the one day, march 24th. That would be our plan sale. Angela started the plan sales here in Ireland back in Fankroth nearly 25 years ago I think, so we're hoping to come back with a bang. She used to have them here a bit, so we're having a plan sale would probably have about 20.
Speaker 2:
So odd stalls will have some food, tea and coffee will have lectures in one of the coach houses as well, so someone will be lecturing about plants and gardening. The garden will be open. I don't know if we're doing tours that day, because I think we're going to have so many people we probably just won't have the capacity to do tours on that particular day. But yeah, there'll be a bit of life about the place that they were hoping for, a big old crowd and hopefully lots and lots of plants been sold to people getting some of the nice early spring things, because the plan fairs often happen later. But this will be the first real plan fair the year and it'll be down in Bellefield and then after that in May we're open. That will be really for the P&E's in May and the Alliams, I suppose to. So May 18 to 19 June we're open.
Speaker 2:
22nd and 23rd that's going to be for the roses. The roses in Bellefield midsummer are always beautiful. July were open hopefully for the iris and the pond and a couple of other highlights of kind of midsummer. Midsummer in the garden is always lovely. We've got lots and lots looking good. And then the final one of the year is in September 21st, I should say the 22nd, that's Saturday and Sunday, and that final open weekend we're going to be open for dailies and salveas. We've been working a lot on the dailies. Last year we got lots of salveas. Hopefully they survived cold weather we've had, but yeah, we've got lots and lots there, hopefully to show you later on season two. So plenty to see over the year. Definitely, though, our highlights will be just no drops, but the Crepe Annie garden has always got something to show, and Bellefield is no exception to that, I suppose.
Speaker 1:
And tickets for any of these events, or more information on them, is the RHSI website. I will put the website link in the show notes as well, but that's where people can buy tickets on that, isn't it?
Speaker 2:
Yep, it's all on the website. And if you're a non member, I think it's eight zero. If you're a member, you're getting for free. You don't have to book online, but it helps. If you do book online, you can also just turn up on the day if you can't be bothered. Figure all that out.
Speaker 1:
Brilliant. So that's Bellefield. I know that's enough to keep anyone busy, but no one you you probably have other other things on the go, or you're probably busy with other projects and the else happened and that Is interesting at the moment, or is is better if you take it all your focus at this point in time.
Speaker 2:
Bellefield is taking a good bit, although last year myself and German Gavin did a bit of work up in the north where we built a coronation garden for the king. Yeah, and that was a slightly random thing that I got involved in out of not with the blue. I had worked with German for a couple of years. But yeah, you never know what's around the corner is all I say. And at the moment Bellefield is definitely taking up a good chunk of my time. I've often said to people when I first started to work for myself again and come back to Ireland, january was very quiet and you wouldn't hear from anyone and this has been probably the busiest January I can ever remember. It's just been kind of non stop, but not in a bad way. It's great to be busy this time of year. So, yeah, bellefield is a big one, but there's other things brewing and, yeah, plenty to keep busy. Hopefully, watch the space.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, brilliant. And so, yeah, there's, as I say, a lot going on over the next couple of weeks. We I'll put the links in the show notes and definitely, for anyone that's interested in snow drops in, if you want to see that scene with the sickle and boom under the tree and the snow drops, definitely get over there and sales is interesting. The fact that I think that's kind of new now you were starting to get it up and go on last year but the fact that you can buy plants that are, that are on the Are in the garden now, I think that's a huge benefit and I think people will like that as well. So you get all the links in the show notes and, paul, same as last year, it's been a really interesting chat. Lots going on and definitely going to get over this year and didn't get over at all last year, but I will definitely get over at some stage this year.
Speaker 1:
Thank you very much for coming on master my garden podcast. Thank you, john. So that's been this week's episode. A huge thanks to Paul for coming on. Really interesting chat again and it's great to hear and see the developments over the last 12 months and definitely all of those open days. You know, whatever particular Flower is in feature, that's the. Just definitely work getting over. Listening to Paul's talks, seen how the gardens development and as you visit over the year and over the coming years you'll see the changes and the and the. I suppose Paul put his own stamp on it. So yeah, we really really interesting chat and that's been this week's episode. Thanks for listening. Until the next time, happy garden.