Five Minute Gardener

Five Minute Gardener Passionate food and flower grower, sharing tips & tricks, and ideas to get children gardening

11/06/2026

Elderflower season is here, unlocking lots of great recipes and a little bit of magic 🌿✨

These lovely white flower heads are packed with fragrance and have been used for generations in cordials and herbal remedies. It’s also a good reminder that many plants share similar umbelliferous (umbrell- shaped clusters of flower), including common hogweed and the highly poisonous hemlock.

⚠️ Never rely on flower shape alone when identifying wild plants. Take time to learn multiple features and only forage when you’re 100% certain.

Why forage elderflower?

🌼 Delicious floral flavour that’s perfect for cordials and cakes
🌼 Rich in antioxidants and traditionally used in herbal remedies
🌼 Easy to find in the hedgerows in early summer
🌼 It’s free!
🌼 The flowers become elderberries later in the year, so you get two harvests from one tree

I mainly forage elderflower for one reason… the taste!

Next up, I’ll be reluctantly turning some into elderflower cordial (I normally avoid it but apparently mocktails are a thing now). Be sure to forage responsibly!

Do you have a favourite way to use elderflower?

Peony growers, be honest…Do yours bloom one after another, stretching out their short flowering time……or do they all exp...
03/06/2026

Peony growers, be honest…

Do yours bloom one after another, stretching out their short flowering time…

…or do they all explode open at exactly the same time like they’ve received a secret signal?

Ours chose chaos 😂

This month’s bouquet for my wife is made entirely from this sudden peony abundance, picked by me and my son as part of our monthly bouquet tradition 🌸

How is your growing space doing?

26/05/2026

It’s National Children’s Gardening Week, and with the warm weather we’ve been having, it feels like the perfect excuse to get outside with your kids and letting them learn, explore… and make a mess without worrying too much about the cleanup (that can be a lesson for another day) 🌱

For inspiration, we’ve been reading Plants Need Friends Too by Jamie Walton which was kindly to the One Minute Gardener by There was absolutely no obligation to share anything, but we’ve genuinely read it so many times already that I thought it right to share

In fact, when he first got it, he hid it away for a few days so he could read it himself before finally letting me have a look.

It’s such a lovely story that effortlessly introduces children (and adults) to the idea of companion planting, while also sharing some really useful planting combinations.

Inspired by the book, he spent some of his own money at the garden centre choosing companion plants to pot up himself 🌼

In this video, he’s planting marigolds alongside his potted Sichuan pepper tree before finishing everything off with a natural lava topper from

🌱 Easy gardening jobs for children:
• Sowing seeds
• Watering pots & seedlings
• Digging “important” random holes
• Harvesting anything that might be ready
• picking flowers for someone
• Spreading mulch or pot toppers
• Helping cut the grass

22/05/2026

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The smallest details can completely change how a garden feels

From quiet moments to dramatic movement, this year Chelsea showed how water can bring calm, wildlife, sound and storytelling into even the smallest spaces.

Chelsea is not about trying to replicate an entire show garden at your home but taking inspiration and little details that you can bring your own style to

Which style would you add to your own garden?

Featured gardens in order:
🌱 Tokonoma Garden – Sanumaya no Niwa designed by .ishihara
🌱 Lady Garden Foundation ‘Silent No More’ Garden designed by
🌱 The Children’s Society Garden designed by
🌱 The Asthma and Lung UK Breathing Space Garden designed by
🌱 driftwood swan fountain by - it reminded me of the Irish story Children of Lír
🌱 The Whittard of Chelsea Garden, designed by Ollie Pike
🌱 Fettercairn: The Angels’ Share, designed by May Starey

Ad/pr visitThis year I had the great pleasure of being invited to Chelsea Flower Show and had to make a beeline to this...
20/05/2026

Ad/pr visit
This year I had the great pleasure of being invited to Chelsea Flower Show and had to make a beeline to this great garden by my friends Lee & Leigh

These guys are both out there trying to inspire children to garden and more importantly the education system to enable all children to learn more about growing.

They have built a garden that contrasts the old traditional classroom with an outdoors learning environment with wildflowers taking over. There was audio of school kids talking about gardening that complimented these blackboards filled with quotes from kids that was a great read itself.

If you have followed my account you will know this is something I am very passionate about too. I strongly believe that if children get to spend time gardening it can support there mental and physical state, it can teach them about real food rather than processed food, the importance of growing chemical free and working with the environment

My favourite comment from a kid was “hyacinths r peak”… I love that there is a kid out there loves a hyacinth

13/05/2026

Don’t plant out until May is out

This simple saying is way of helping to avoid planting out young seedlings only to have a sudden frost wipe them out.
The Mayflower is actually the flower of the hawthorn which… you guessed it, it blooms in May. It has been seen to be fairly reliable, at least in folklore or old stories

If things fell cold over the 11th - 13th of a May each year, that’s down to the Ice Saints of St Pancras, St Servatius and St Mamertus who for some reason make it cold in their feast days but things heat up afterwards to start sowing seeds outdoors

Have you heard either of these tales before or know of any other interesting ones for May?

07/05/2026

POV: you grow some tasty looking kale only for the pigeons to think it was grown for them!!

02/05/2026

If you are anything like me, potatoes regularly feature in your meals so why not try growing some yourself

Perfect for the beginner gardener and seasoned professional alike. I must confess that the One Minute Gardener plants ours each year and not me, he even chooses the different varieties each year at the Potato Day

You can grow them in the ground if you have space but even if you just have some large pot you can get growing

There is a debate as to whether to chit or not (whether to let it grow shoots or not), if you have the tubers but are not ready to plant them out, then you may as well chit them… in my opinion

Pop them in some soil leaving plenty of space to earth them up as they grow and top it up with more compost.
These are a variety called Cara which we love, partly because it means friend in Irish

22/04/2026

This is why Earth Day is about for me

Nothing polished or forced. Just simple actions.

Getting outside, noticing more, enjoying nature
and doing small things that might make the world a little better

🌱 do some gardening
📚 read a book (maybe something nature or gardening related)
🐝 give wildlife a home
🌱 touch a plant (a moving sensitive plants optional)
💦 refill a water bottle
🐓 cuddle a chicken (highly recommended)
🌱 sow a seed (or many)
🌸 pick a flower
🌲 save a seed
🍞 bake a bread (or something else tasty)
🚲 ride a bike
🪡 make or mend clothes (check out for inspiration)
🍄 tap a mushroom
🌱 scatter wildflowers

It all counts

What’s one small you did today?

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