I am an amateur gardener living in Waterford which is in the south-east of Ireland. The garden is private; we don’t open to the public and is purely for our pastime and enjoyment. We live just outside the town, surrounded by agricultural land, and the garden is a little over an acre in size (approx 0.5 ha), facing north and looking down on the River Suir. It is quite wet in winter and prone to heavy frosts but dries well in summer and has good fertile, slightly acidic soil. On home ground I am the under-gardener and “works well under direction” is how I have heard myself described.
Our plant interests are general and we are inclined to choose what will grow in our conditions rather than being especially adventurous. We have a vegetable patch which provides a selection of produce in season and I have a particular interest in snowdrops and grow a good range of them.
Plants of Irish origin have always been important to me and I treasure them for their connections with places and people I may know of and I have been a member of the Irish Garden Plant Society for many years.
We enjoy visiting gardens very much and holidays are generally planned around gardens. I am a keen photographer and find this adds greatly to my enjoyment of gardens and also allows me to look back on these occasions to enjoy them again.
Garden reading is a good winter pastime – as is garden writing – and I hope you enjoy my occasional blogs!
I also give talks to garden clubs/societies:
- Mount Congreve – A National Treasure
- The Pearls of Lake Como
- The Gardens of Rome
- Gardens of the Amalfi Coast
- Snowdrops – The Delight of an Irish Garden
- Native Irish Orchids
- The Swiss Alps – Walks and Flowers
- Thirty Years as the Undergardener (our own garden)
- An Introduction to Snowdrops
- Spring Gardens
- The Burren
Paddy Tobin
Paddy Tobin, An Irish Gardener 
Hello Paddy,
Just found your blog after reading your comments recently on the (excellent) Tikorangi garden blog, and now discover that you’re a fellow galanthophile across the Irish sea from us. We’ve never yet made it over the sea to Ireland, so thought I’d better follow your lovely blog, and find our a little more!
Best wishes
Julian
LikeLiked by 1 person
The Rosslare/Fishguard crossing has been a regular route for us as we have spent a number of garden-visiting holidays in the UK so we have passed through Carmarthenshire on a number of occasions. We have visited the National Botanic Gardens of Wales and Aberglasney also.
LikeLike
Thanks Paddy – we had indeed looked at this as the obvious way to get to Ireland – we’re only just over an hour from Fishguard. ABG and the NBGW are both lovely, though very sadly been closed to the public for much of the last year, of course. There’s also a lovely private garden very near to Fishguard – Dyffryn Ffernant, which you may know about? Worth a visit if you’ve never been before,
best wishes
Julian
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s one we have, obviously, driven past in our ignorance. We can note it for a future holiday – and, let’s hope we will be able to travel freely again soon.
LikeLiked by 1 person