Is it?

Because back in the day, everybody was growing their food.

They needed their food.

And so when they were explaining biblical principles to people, they said, oh, it's like when you prune the vine, you get more.

And everyone goes, oh, of course.

Whereas now you need to explain the gardening and the biblical principles.

Right.

Oh, that's so cool.

But what do you think new vegetable gardeners worry about far too much?

Oh, overthinking it.

The main... purpose of the book is because i've just seen so many um gardeners even back 10 years ago trying to run before they could walk they take on too much they want to do um organic biodynamic moon planting with companion planting thrown in for good measure and maybe in a square foot format you know they take on too much so the premise of the book is just run before you walk before you can run Learn the basics, learn what plants actually need.

The plants don't need our help.

We're just trying to grow them somewhere that they don't normally grow.

And find out what they need, because we're inviting them into our garden.

It's like inviting someone for dinner and not checking their dietary requirements before you serve a vegan beef, you know.

So when we look at new gardeners, what are some of the most common mistakes you see them making, apart from the things we've already talked about, which is trying to grow too many in one go?

Very,

very lucky.

So early childhood was a lot, you know, around the National Park, you know, with the fairy forts up behind our house and park rangers, you know, calling a lot to the primary school.

So, you know, there was an abundance really of nature and plants as a child.

Yeah.

So then I finished school and went off and went down a different path and actually studied business and worked in kind of food and food and health ingredients for a long time but I always had this connection to nature and a real urge and a need to go back and whether it was hiking or walking or you know to be near the coast.

So in my 40s I actually went back and started studying again in the plant medicine school in Wexford and that was a five-year course and So kind of concurrently with my job, I was doing both and qualified in that, you know, recently.

What should people expect? What will a child learn or what will they see when they look at the book?

different in terms of gardening too, right? Yeah,

and it's only 10 minutes up the road.

So we only moved 10 minutes.

Because one of the things that was on our wish list when we moved from the city was hubbies always wanted a sea view.

And there were dolphin tiles in the bathroom because the house ticked and the land ticked all the other boxes except the sea view.

So we promised... that in 10 years we would go and look for somewhere with a sea view.

But then I completely forgot.

plant them yeah i um think that's my problem and even in my big garden without vegetables i've planted everything too close and now it's all like on top of each other um Are there any particular veggies that don't like the other veggie?

and

walk them through that first season.

Because with anything in life, if you have a really good solid foundation, then you can build upon it.

So a lot of new gardeners take on too much.

And all of a sudden, in their first season, they're doing organics, biodynamicing, forest farming.

They're trying to fit it all in.

But if you just take that first season and learn what the plants actually need, and if there's a failure, you can identify it because you're operating with a small amount of content.

And so are you sort of actually actively conscious as you're doing your gardening that you get some sense of inspiration?

So let's start with what are the benefits of converting the attic? Why would you do it?

Well, obviously, it's going to give you an extra room in the house and it depends, I suppose, what you need.

I mean, every home needs something different.

You might need...

A lot of people now are working from home.

So a lot of people are thinking, oh, I need an office.

You know, we could convert the attic and I'll have a home office up there.

What did your attic conversion cost you in the end? Well, you see, this was six years ago.

And The Edge wore some of your outfits for that incredible residency they had in Vegas.

He did, yes.

I was working with their incredible stylist, Sharon.

I was doing some custom leather jackets for him, so custom painted leather jackets.

And I was actually, so I had done this beautiful jacket.

It was all kind of inspired by his kind of Welsh heritage, so kind of leaning into the Welsh kind of mythology world.

and did this beautiful jacket.

Tell me about the design you brought with you today, because this is associated somewhat with Belfast this year, isn't it?

So

I felt a real lack of community myself during COVID.

I'd recently moved back to the area.

I'd had a baby and I knew no one we weren't allowed out it was a very bleak miserable time and I really felt the need to belong to like where I lived and also I wanted to get out and enjoy and discover more about my kind of new area so when we were allowed out again it was really important to me to Find places to go, things to do, groups of people to hang out with.

And yeah, I just found I found it quite difficult to find that.

So I created it myself and also just really felt the need to build something that supported local businesses and made it really easy for people to find work.

places to go and like know what what actually is local because I think a lot of the time people want to support local but they don't necessarily know which cafes are or where to go so I thought well how can I do this how can I make it fun how can I make it engaging how can I use it as a way to bring people together And so I've built it as a rewards platform where you're encouraged to support local because you get rewards when you do.

where do you see it going in the future