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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk. With Aviva Insurance.
Mary Staunton is with me, gardener extraordinaire. Hello.
Creepers, how are you?
There's an introduction for you. We're talking about trees today. So if you're lucky enough to have the space for a tree outside, it's going to spruce up your garden or you're going to tell us how it will.
Yeah, and I mean, there's so many different types, but I kind of have a list of what I have in the garden and what I've kind of put into other people's gardens that I think would just give it that little bit of wow factor.
But are you planning sort of five to seven years in advance now with trees or can you... But they get expensive when you buy them.
Yeah. So, I mean, ideally, you're looking for something that's about five years old already. Do you know what I mean? So it has a little bit of a height in it and that sort of thing.
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Chapter 2: What types of trees can enhance my garden?
But, I mean, there's no, there's always, just plant one. There's never the wrong time to plant a tree. You know, once it's in a pot, you can plant it any time of the year. They're obviously going to be cheaper between November and February because they're bare-rooted, a lot of them. So when they're bare-rooted, they don't have to look after them in a pot.
They just dig them out of the ground and they kind of put a hessian cloth around them and they're going to be cheaper.
And off you go.
But for small gardens, you know, people forget that there are some really interesting, like Cretagus Paul Scarlet is a hawthorn, but it's got the most beautiful kind of reddish pinky flowers. Is it spiky? It is a bit spiky. Yeah, it is a bit spiky. That could be useful, though, too, depending on what you're looking for. Exactly.
And like there's so many different acers, you know, even if all you have is a patio or a balcony. Acer palmatum dissectum, you know, there's just the most beautiful foliage. And then it goes such a gorgeous colour in the autumn. You know, there's so many different types of gorgeous trees that really deserve a place in your garden. Now, a lot of years ago, we used to grow edibles.
Because you couldn't saunter into the supermarket and be buying all your stuff. Yeah, pears and apples and hazelnuts.
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Chapter 3: How do I select the right tree for my garden space?
Yeah, cob nuts and all that sort of thing. So, yeah, it was a thing to have a number of fruit trees. And obviously your lilac tree was the go-to. Always in May, you know, the lilac tree came into its own. So there was some beautiful trees. But I think what we're not kind of think we're thinking quite low to the ground now. We're not really thinking elevate, you know, the height of your garden.
And there's some very slim trees. You know, you can go for some magnolias that are kind of upright. You can go for...
magnolias they're kind of glamorous aren't they they are a bit glamorous all right yeah they're shiny leaves this listener has bamboo in the garden that they hate yeah i'd love to put trees in there instead my concern is in order to kill the bamboo i think i'd have to put down a lot of weed killer and it's so hard to get rid of would that then destroy the land for the trees or what do you do how do you get rid of the bamboo okay so with bamboo is a grass
So if you are putting a herbicide on it, you'd have to use something like a systemic herbicide, which hits the leaf. It has to be actively growing. The leaf then takes that herbicide into the root system and kills it along the root, all the way along. So because it's a grass, you need a systemic herbicide. That's the main herbicide.
Does that then destroy the ground?
No, it destroys whatever it touches. So it destroys the leaf and it could destroy you if you didn't wear all the gear when you're spraying it.
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Chapter 4: What are the best times to plant trees for maximum growth?
So when you're spraying it, if you are going to use it, you have to spray the leaf. It has to be actively growing in order to take in the herbicide.
So when is Jane to do that?
When is it actively growing now? I have no doubt that the bamboo is actively growing all over the place now. Can you not just pull it out? You can. If it was a clump forming bamboo, like for a guessy eye or something like that, you can take it out of the ground. But if it's a runner, and this is where labelling has to get better. It is getting better, but it has to get really much better.
In the garden centre? Yeah, in the garden centres where it says, this is a running bamboo. You know, if that's not what you wanted to do, don't buy it.
A listener would love to put wisteria around the front door, like in Bridgerton.
I like your ambition.
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Chapter 5: Which trees are suitable for small gardens or patios?
Is it hard to grow?
Well, it doesn't really flower until it's in its seventh year. So realistically, if... Seven years? It's not waiting that long. It can be. So you buy it semi-mature. So you buy it when you see some good growth on it and some flowers on it. So in the garden centres and nurseries, you'll see them...
mature enough and they range at that you know for something like that you're looking at between 90 and 150 for something as mature as that yeah okay so prepare to invest do you remember the lumpy lawn we had in yeah in Kinnagad it was Ken who got in touch with Ken has been back on and Ken has sent us a lovely picture of the chalet thing thingy as he calls it in the garden and which he built for the kids to watch the projector outside gorgeous
He wants to keep the opening open, was thinking of two flower beds on wheels to close it off. Have you any suggestions to keep the rain out and to look good? And the picture, have you seen the picture? Yeah.
Fabulous. So impressive.
Look, have a look at it again.
And what do you think you should do? I'd love one of them myself. It's absolutely gorgeous. So if you have, you know, if you have flower beds on wheels, as it were, that you can wheel in and out. you're looking for something that's going to take up water. So if we get rain like we got the other night, it needs to be something like hydrangea.
You can put in, hydrangeas will soak up huge amount of water and they look good in the summer, spring and summer, but they're not going to look good in the autumn. So then what are you looking at? Something like a pittosporum. So it's like a hedge, but it's silver queen is a lovely one.
It's kind of got silvery green foliage and you can let it go up to a certain height and give it a nice, you know, clip. So it looks very framed. And then when you pull them in, they'll take the rain, you know, screen.
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Chapter 6: How can I incorporate fruit trees into my garden design?
So when he pulls it, pulls those. Good screening and good drainage.
Now, we got a picture as well from a listener who says, my grass looks all like this, which isn't great if you're just listening to the radio, not looking at the picture. It's like everybody's grass. Weeds and moss, though, is how we would describe it and how the listener describes it as well. And there's very little actual grass in this picture. So what do you do?
Okay, you have to kind of do a couple of major things. So it's because maybe it's overlooked by trees and stuff, which makes it, you get a load of moss. We had a very wet winter, very wet spring. We've got a lot of rain there just in the last couple of days. So that contributes to the moss. The compaction is the other reason the grass isn't growing. Now, grass is brilliant. It's very resilient.
But if there's compaction and there's other things, weeds and stuff out competing it, Start again. So you need to scarify it. You need to reseed it. And you need to start feeding it. And that's the trick. Pull it all up. Pull it all up and reseed the bare patches. I mean, it'll eventually spread out.
The good grass seed will... And then the other thing is, if there's kids playing football and stuff, there's different types of grass seed for different types of gardens. So if it's a garden where nobody's playing football on it, you can just get the ordinary grass seed. But if it's one for kids playing football and...
hockey ball around the place or, you know, they're playing at hurls, then get the, it's really tough grass. So it's, you know, really good grass seed for those sort of areas. But I would suggest you need to scarify it and then reseed it and start again.
Okay. Yeah. And what if that doesn't work? No, but what if it comes back is my point.
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Chapter 7: What should I consider when dealing with invasive plants like bamboo?
So if you have, like, as you said, the tree overhead, are you just stuck with it?
You are basically. I mean, I have lots of trees in our garden and we have lots of moss in our garden. So you either kind of say to yourself, that's what I've got. And at certain times of the year, the moss will be really bad, which is we're just coming out of that season now because we're meant to be getting dry weather. And that's that kind of dries up the moss.
And then again in September, October, we get another lot of moss. So it's an ongoing thing. That's that's what happens.
We're not getting dry weather for a little while, I think. So I believe.
Yeah. Eight days of rain coming. I'm going to tell you something. The ground was rock hard. Yes. we are getting a lot of wind, which is taking the moisture away really quickly. And, you know, if you have a garden with a lot of trees and a lot of shrubs and stuff like that, it's soaking up that water. And then we had that dry period. We've got nothing.
So, you know, as much as I mean, I'm I actually I like to look at the really nice weather. I hate working in 24 degree heat. It just doesn't suit me at all. So I actually don't mind this type of weather. Good growing weather. Good growing weather.
Exactly. Listen, thanks so much again for coming in. Official Marie Staunton. Marie Staunton official. Marie Staunton official is how we find you. Loads of useful videos there on Instagram for Marie, which you will find and we will talk to you again very soon. That brings us to the end. Thank you very much for listening and for getting in touch.
Don't forget you can listen back on the Go Loud app. That's where you can find my brand new podcast as well, which launched today. The team, thank you very much to Cormac McDonagh on sound, producers Dee King, Helena O'Toole, Alex Russo and research by David O'Connor. Our broadcast assistant is Anne-Marie Cain.
The Clare Byrne Show. With Aviva Insurance. Weekday mornings at 9. On Newstalk. Conversation that counts.
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