The hedgerows are jam-packed with blackberries right now so I made my annual trip to the banks of the Liffey and indulged myself with some much-needed nature bathing and foraging over the weekend. The little one was in tow, he mostly watched but I promised him he’d be taking part before he knew it. It's something I look forward to each year and the crop is the best I’ve seen in a long time. There’s something very primal about heading out with bag in hand and picking those plu

Growing vegetables is one of the most satisfying things you can do and the flavour you will relish from freshly harvested produce far supersedes anything you can buy in the shop. Of course, you do need some space to indulge this hobby but honestly, a kitchen windowsill or even the tightest of balconies can accommodate edible treats you can harvest over the summer. If space is at a premium, herbs and salads are the go-to crops and are relatively easy to grow. Try cut and come

This month is a great time to get your seeds on the go. Get them growing under cover to give them a head start and you can enjoy a garden, balcony or container full of your favourites for months to come. Have you ever stopped to think how it all happens? Seeds are incredible little powerhouses of life. After a plant flowers and attracts its preferred pollinator who in some cases have been flitting from flower to flower, pollination will occur, and the ensuing fruits will matu

Most people think the garden has gone to sleep now and all the important jobs bar those mundane ones like raking leaves and cutting back herbaceous borders are all that are left to do. Apart from taking stock of what worked, what needs to be moved or removed as the case may be and of course bulb planting for spring, there are still some fun jobs that you can undertake, and I hope to do these with my gardening course this month. The task I look forward to most is taking hardwo

This November heralds the start of my new Evening Lecture Series – The Adventures of the Plant Hunters. The first lecture focused on the dawn of the plant hunters following the epic voyages undertaken on the high seas, detailing the treacherous situations the naturalists found themselves in as they circumnavigated the globe. Initially, we looked at the works of Carl Linneaus, the infamous Swedish botanist famed for developing the widely used classification system of binomial