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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

Gardeners' Corner attends Ireland's biggest gardening show, Bord Bia Bloom, as it celebrates its 20th anniversary. Presenter David Maxwell tours the show gardens and plant stands in search of takeaways for the ordinary gardener. Along with regular expert Anna Hudson, he meets Adam Frost and Neven Maguire, who are taking part in the show. Also on the programme are top plant picks from the show and highlights from the postcard gardens, which are created in one day by community groups from across Ireland.

Gardeners' Corner at Bord Bia Bloom 2026

Highlights from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026 with David Maxwell, featuring the gold medal-winning Trussell’s Together Garden — the first Chelsea garden to be relocated to Northern Ireland. David meets women from the Strabane Community Project, where the garden will soon be rebuilt, and its designer, Rob Hardy. He also speaks to Arit Anderson about her show garden for Parkinson’s UK and meets The Traitors star Rachel Duffy, whose late mum lived with the condition. As usual, David catches up with Joanna Lumley and other famous faces, including Sophie Raworth, Timothy Spall, Dame Judi Dench, Alan Titchmarsh, Rob Brydon and Nigel Slater. Inside the Great Pavilion, plant experts offer advice on roses, alstroemerias and vegetables, while David also visits Sarah Eberle’s award-winning garden, On the Edge, which encourages us to garden with nature in mind.

Gardeners' Corner at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026

David visits the GROW community garden at the Waterworks site in north Belfast where members of Anaka women's collective are gaining gardening knowledge and forming friendships at the same time. Gardener Craig teaches them how to split mint plants and sow carrots for a harvest later this year. Renowned garden and landscape designer Dan Pearson chats about his own garden and the value to taking things slowly. In County Antrim, David drops in on Creavery Primary School which was awarded best school garden by the local council last year. Also on the programme Colin Agnew joins David to answers questions on lavender alternatives and getting problem peonies to flower. Contact the programme at gardenerscorner@bbc.co.uk

Dan Pearson on the value of gardening slowly, lavender alternatives and getting peonies to flower

David chats to renowned plantswoman Sarah Raven and royal florist Shane Connolly at the Festival of Gardens and Nature in County Laois. In West Belfast, he meets Paula Kerr who uses every bit of her back garden to produce fresh organic fruit and veg. Adam Frost reveals his favourite bulb for May, and Brian and Amy Kelly talk about the value of gardening even when it becomes more physically difficult to do. Rosie Maye joins David in studio to take questions and provide seasonal inspiration. Contact the programme on gardenerscorner@bbc.co.uk.

Sarah Raven and Shane Connolly on cut flowers, gardening with a disability and Adam Frost's bulb of the month

David Maxwell visits Ballyrobert Cottage Garden where Maurice Parkinson tries to convince him to give the prickly berberis shrub a chance. It's also time to cut back the camellias which have just finished flowering. As the dawn chorus reaches its peak, ornithologist and award-winning author Sean Ronayne extols the health benefits of taking in birdsong at this time of year. In Dundonald, David meets Rory Blight and Sean McDermott in an urban oasis where their Keen 2B Green community interest company is providing a home for nature and a place to benefit the community and those with learning disabilities. Work is underway to create ponds, a bee bank and a species rich grassland. Ann FitzSimons joins David in studio to answer questions on patchy grass, a rowan tree with no leaves and an unruly Rosa rugosa. Contact the programme on gardenerscorner@bbc.co.uk

Garden birdsong with the Nature Boy, giving berberis a go and cutting back camellias

As the spring sunshine brings out the blooms, join David Maxwell as Gardeners' Corner celebrates tulip time. Expert guest Anna Hudson will have some of her favourites in studio and they'll discuss whether the bulbs are worth saving for next year. Also on the programme, David visits Salthill garden in County Donegal where Elizabeth Temple has changed a featureless lawn into a garden full of choice plants and trees. In Dublin, Nicola Kenny visits Taplin''s Field Community Garden where organic food is produced by a diverse group of city dwellers and the programme hears from Paul McHugh who discovered a rare wild flower on his daily dog walk in Portglenone. The live phone-in programme also includes questions on pampass grass, peonies and photinia hedging. Contact the programme on gardenerscorner@bbc.co.uk

Celebrating tulip time, making pampass plume and preventing peony problems

David Maxwell visits a unique, nature-friendly private garden in Falcarragh, created by gardener and author Seán Ó Gaoithín. Crammed full of native trees and plants, it has become a haven for insect and bird life, despite the sometimes harsh conditions on Donegal’s west coast. Further south, in Mountcharles, he visits Dorothy Jervis, whose cottage and garden overlook Donegal Bay. She is the fourth generation of her family to call this exposed hillside home. Despite heavy, wet soil and a plantation of Sitka spruce, she has created a relaxed, cottage-style garden that sits easily in the surrounding wild landscape. Also on the programme, Adam Frost chooses bluebells as his bulb for April, and Brendan Little joins David in the studio to answer questions.
Contact the programme at gardenerscorner@bbc.co.uk

Gardening by the sea, Adam Frost's bulb of the month and celebrating 20 years of a garden trail

Helen Mark is invited to Lisbane County Down where she discovers the work that goes into preparing a garden for public visitors through the National Garden Scheme, and the challenges of gardening on a hill with Olwen Sheridan. With secateurs in hand, Helen helps Joy Caskie on a spring tidy-up, cutting back, moving plants and trimming edges and getting some ideas for her own to-do list. And after a midlife career change, Gary Hegarty swapped designing newspapers for sensory gardens. Here he shows Helen the benefits of these special spaces. Ann FitzSimons joins Helen in studio. Email the programme at gardenerscorner@bbc.co.uk

Sensory gardens, spring tidy-ups, and opening the gates to the public

Presenter David Maxwell finds out what it takes to create a world class exhibit at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Alongside fern expert Billy Alexander, David helps to create the Kells Bay Garden in the Great Pavillion. He also speaks to some of the other designers, landscapers and tradespeople on site working against the clock as judging day looms large. Despite the challenges of time, heat and even a local fox, the garden gets finished and picks up a prestigious gold medal and the president's award.

The Road to Chelsea

As wintry showers return, Gardeners’ Corner heads to the snow-dusted Sperrins where David Maxwell visits Andrew Shannon, whose country garden has a modern creative twist. Known on social media as The Artful Gardener, Andrew reveals how the plot once tended by his grandparents now inspires his seasonal animations.

At Belfast’s Botanic Gardens, David meets Colin Agnew as he reflects on 45 years of gardening there ahead of his retirement next week, including the remarkable cactus he grew from seed as a young apprentice which now almost reaches the glasshouse roof.

In Limavady, Gordon Toner explains his decades-long passion for alpine plants, a fascination that has earned him nearly 250 gold medals. And in studio, expert Anna Hudson brings seasonal inspiration from Ballywalter Estate and answers listeners’ questions on compost and tackling the invasive weed horsetail.

Contact the programme: gardenerscorner@bbc.co.uk

Gardeners' Corner at Bord Bia Bloom 2026

Lyt når som helst, hvor som helst

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