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BBC Radio Ulster


The weekly gardening programme for keen gardeners, with the latest advice, news and visits to gardens large and small around the province. Presented by David Maxwell.


Gardeners' Corner

With warm colours all around, Gardeners’ Corner celebrates the arrival of autumn. At the National Trust’s Rowallane Gardens, David meets head gardener Claire McNally for a walk in the woods where Acers, Sorbus, Birch and Enkianthus are stealing the show. As this year’s harvest is gathered in, Amy Kelly is thinking ahead to what can be planted now for early crops next year. In Moira, David discovers a secret courtyard garden beside the oldest house in the village and he chats to Mary Reynolds about her journey from being the youngest ever winner of a gold medal at the Chelsea Flower Show to the founder of the ‘We are the ARK’ movement which campaigns to restore nature through native planting. In studio, David is joined by Mary Doris who has made best use of the apple and pear harvest. Contact the programme on gardenerscorner@bbc.co.uk

Autumn colour arrives, what to grow now and the backyard bargain garden

Where did the world-famous author Jane Austen find inspiration for her classic novels? Two hundred and fifty years after her birth, Gardeners’ Corner presenter David Maxwell explores the outdoor spaces closely linked to her life and writing. In Hampshire, he visits the cottage garden at Chawton, where Jane lived with her mother and sister, and where she wrote and revised her most famous works. Now the Jane Austen House Museum, its Director Lizzie Dunford reveals how gardens and outdoor life shape Austen’s stories. The new head gardener, Michelle Hickman, shares how the garden around the house has a planting scheme Jane would have recognised, all beneath two venerable yew trees which still stand as living witnesses to her time there. Inside the house, David discovers the horticultural wallpaper that surrounded Austen as she wrote. 
Nearby at Chawton House—once gifted to Jane’s brother—Molly Maslan and Julia Weaver walk him through the grand gardens where she found further inspiration. He also finds a rose bred in her honour called ‘Pride and Prejudice’.
Further north, David travels to Chatsworth in Derbyshire. This palatial home to the Dukes of Devonshire became Austen heartthrob Mr Darcy’s ‘Pemberley’ in a film adaptation of ‘Pride of Prejudice’. Librarian Fran Baker reveals that the 6th Duke was an Austen fan and collected first editions of all her works and head gardener Steve Porter takes David on a tour of the gardens designed to project power.
In all three locations the programme explores how gardens connect us to the past, and how they have been—and continue to be—a source of inspiration.
Email the programme at gardenerscorner@bbc.co.uk

Jane Austen’s gardens: A Gardeners' Corner special

In Magherafelt, David Maxwell visits Yew Cottage garden where Philip Stewart is turning his pond into a sunken garden. He hopes to turn a ‘frost pocket’ into a place for tender plants including bananas. In County Clare, Karoly Torok takes us on a tour of Vandeleur Walled Garden, which is now a thriving community space after years of neglect. Colin Agnew joins David in studio to take questions including one on how to grow asparagus. And a tribute to long-time listener and chrysanthemum expert Herbie McCauley, who has passed away at 86. Email the programme at gardenerscorner@bbc.co.uk

Creating a sunken garden, how to grow asparagus and the bush with a froggy smell?

This week, David Maxwell heads to County Antrim where he meets a Canadian couple gardening in the shadow of Slemish. Judith and Hugh Jackson moved to the area from Vancouver after they both retired. They built a house in a rural area and they quickly realised that gardening at 300 metres above sea level meant they needed plants that can look after themselves. Judith reveals her friendly ‘thugs’ including the tough perennial Persicaria which cuts down on any weeding. 
In County Clare, the programme visits the Irish Seed Savers Association who look after Ireland’s heritage apple collection and conserve heritage seed varieties for the future. 
Ruth Bramley from Farmyard Nurseries shows David some of her favourite indoor plants including Mimosa, also known as the sensitive plant, which moves when it’s touched. In studio, 
Anna Hudson joins David with seasonal inspiration and the answers to questions including how to ripen pairs and what to do with a Kumquat! 
Email the programme at gardenerscorner@bbc.co.uk

How to ripen your pears, the magic of the moving Mimosa plant, and Kumquat curiosity

Carl Wright never intended to make a garden when he bought an old cottage in The Burren. Had he known he’d become smitten with plants he wouldn’t have chosen to live in an area famous for it’s limestone rock covered by a thin layer of soil. But after importing hundreds of tons of topsoil over 25 years he has created a garden like no other. It’s a space that sensitively fits into its unique surroundings and is full of valuable lessons for those wanting to bring an old overgrown garden back from the brink. Also on the programme, Adam Frost chooses cotinus ‘Grace’ as his shrub of the month. Garden wildlife expert Katy Bell brings in her skull collection and chats about mammals to look out for in the garden during autumn. Rosie Maye joins David in studio to answer listeners’ questions and bring some seasonal gardening inspiration. Email the programme at gardenerscorner@bbc.co.uk

Greening the grey in The Burren, Adam Frost’s shrub of the month and have you got Ireland’s smallest mammal in your garden?

David travels to the award winning Farmyard Nurseries in Carmarthenshire where Richard Bramley shows him the large collection of fly eating Sarracenia. Greg Sachno reveals how he’s created a small garden orchard on the windswept Ards Peninsula. It includes an apple unique to the local area called Ecklinville seedling and an apple genetically linked to the very one Isaac Newton sat under when he started thinking about gravity. On White Mountain, David visits Little Green Allotments, a diverse community of keen growers who are producing their own organic food. In studio Claire McNally joins David with seasonal inspiration and the all important answers to listeners’ gardening questions. Email the programme at gardenerscorner@bbc.co.uk

Grow your own fly trap, Isaac Newton’s apple and the allotments with a view

What do you do when your son says he forgot to booking a venue for his wedding ceremony? You offer your garden of course and call in the Gardeners’ Corner experts for a bit of help. This week presenter David Maxwell and garden expert Rosie Maye get their gardening kit and head to Bangor to help mum and dad, Nicola and Sheldon Hinds, get their garden wedding ready. Also on the programme, how can plants help you with those awkward lawn edges and cut down on the need for strimming. What can Sandra do to stop the wasps devouring her apple harvest and Adam Frost chooses his shrub of the month. (Sambucus nigra f. porphyrophylla 'Thundercloud') In studio David is joined by Brendan Little who has seasonal inspiration, plenty of humour and the answers to listeners’ gardening questions. Email the programme at gardenerscorner@bbc.co.uk

Getting a garden wedding ready, plants to cut down on the strimming, and Adam Frost’s shrub of the month

With The Open championship taking place on County Antrim’s north coast, David Maxwell gets some top tips on grass keeping from those who prepared the Royal Portrush course for the world’s top golfers. With Ash dieback now present across the country, a question from a caller prompts the team to look at the latest research suggesting there may be some hope for our Ash trees. Kathryn Gaw reveals the hidden bounty of a forest within Belfast’s city limits when she takes David foraging. As well as discovering that nettles have a gender, there’s a surprising garden use for brambles. Adam Frost reveals his favourite shrub for July and Mary Doris joins David in studio to answer questions. Email the programme at gardenerscorner@bbc.co.uk

How to get golf worthy grass with The Open’s greenkeepers, Is there an Ash come back? Foraging for micro nutrients

With the summer holidays here Gardeners’ Corner gets some inspiration on what to do with the kids in the garden from Amy Kelly. Presenter David Maxwell visits Shaun Boyd’s wildlife garden at Brockagh woods near Ballymoney and is tickling the solution to tackling some of the worst weeds? Ann FitzSimons is deploying a special weeding tool to keep one of her borders weed free after years of trying to combat Ground Elder. Also on the programme, the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise is celebrating 25 years of some of its courses and its walled garden. Head of horticulture David Dowd and graduates spanning that 25 years join David in studio along with Gardeners’ Corner regular Anna Hudson who answers questions from listeners. Email the programme at gardenerscorner@bbc.co.uk

Tickling your weeds away, Brockagh Woods wildlife garden and what to do with the kids in the garden this summer

Gardeners’ Corner celebrates 40 years of the programme with a garden party at Ballyrobert Cottage Garden in County Antrim. Among those attending former presenters and contributors with fond memories of the programme. Presenter David Maxwell chats to Libby Hunter who presented the first programme in June 1985 and to Julie Brown who produced the show for decades. Rich in archive, the programme also explores how gardening has changed. In particular, the much reduced use of herbicides and pesticides. It also touches on how the climate has changed during that 40 years. With so many gardeners on site, Ballyrobert’s Maurice Parkinson enlists the help of two newer gardening experts to help with his new grass border – something the programme wouldn’t have been talking about in 1985. David also chats to Brendan Little and Helen Mark about how humour is part of the programme’s DNA and he gets some 2025 advice for a caller from 1985 who was dealing with rose replant sickness. And it isn’t just people at the garden party, everyone has a plant that they think deserves a mention on this special occasion.

Gardeners’ Corner at 40

With the sunny spring continuing, Gardeners’ Corner visits a 19th century walled garden in Maghera. Once connected to the local rectory, it is now run by the council, and it features several distinct spaces including a large glasshouse and a wildflower meadow. Roy Clark, who knows the garden well, says their secret to planting spring bulbs in a naturalistic way is to get children to do it! The good weather has also lead to increased demand for compost and this week presenter David Maxwell is on the factory floor of one of the biggest suppliers in the country. Also on the programme, a charity in Ballymoney that is building good community relations through growing and Ann FitzSimons will join David in studio to answer questions. Email the programme at gardenerscorner@bbc.co.uk

The surprising secret to naturalistic planting…get the kids to do it and building community with big containers

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