What we don't sell

What's missing is often as important as what's present. Food is free from gluten, sweeteners, dairy.  Pubs are free from smoke, live sports or canned music. Television shows are free from sex, drugs or bad language. Garden centres should be no exception, and in our opinion there are some nasty things that they too should be 'free from'.

Here is our top five 'free-from' list: 

1. Glyphosate weedkiller. Using weedkiller/ herbicide is the polar opposite of gardening. Gardening is about growing plants and weedkiller is about killing them. At some times of year, plants grow more than you want them to so they need to be cut down, hand weeded or scuffed with a hoe. Using weedkiller leaves an ugly, orange-brown poisoned mess that then turns mossy, lurid, and dead looking. It kills the soil beneath it, contaminates the water beneath that and makes the place look like a poisoned mess. It is expensive to buy, dangerous to use, and the companies that make it are amongst the world's least pleasant. If shops didn't sell it, Ireland would be a much more beautiful country. In Ireland we have a very deep love of spraying weedkiller on our native hedgerows, grass verges, driveways and flower beds. There are lots of easy methods of weed control - some mentioned above - but the most effective way of coping with weeds, or excessive growth, is tolerance. We live on a green, rain-soaked island that stimulates massive growth. Dousing poison on our greeen and pleasant land is not the solution and garden centre owners have an obligation to prevent this stuff being available.
2. Slug pellets containing methaldehyde. Methaldehyde is the 'traditional' ingredient in slug pellets. This poisonous chemical kills the slug. Before dying, the slug can be eaten by a bird or hedgehog that then goes on to die too. Alternatively, the pellet is eaten directly by bird, hedgehog or family pet. An equally effective alternative is slug pellets made from iron phosphate, a substance that occurs naturally in soil and breaks down harmlessly. The brand that we sell, 'Sluggo' is an totally effective slug and snail killer, without the side-effects.
3. Fungicides. These harmful chemicals are poisonous to people and animals and there are better ways to cope with things such as black spot on roses. You can choose healthier, easier varieties and abandon the difficult ones; and balance this through promoting plant health and through feeding and good hygiene (ie collecting and destroying diseased leaves).
4. Chemical fertilisers. Many fertilisers are made from petro-chemical by-products. They feed plants but offer no long-terms improvement to soil structure. Using 'organic' fertilisers (ie fertilisers made from organic materials such as seaweed, manure, animal products) feed the plants and improve soil. This leads to longer term fertility, better drainage, better soil and worm activity, better drought resistance etc. We sell a great selection of fertilisers and soil improvers including ground and dried seaweed fertiliser, liquid seaweed concentrate, fish-blood-bone fertiliser, poultry and seaweed fertiliser, bacterial soil conditioner, horse manure...
5. Tools that fall apart and don't work properly - or anything else that's bad quality for that matter. As hard-working gardeners, we know how satisfying it is to use a solid, well-constructed garden tool. Be it a spade, a broom or a pair of secateurs, it's a pleasure to have a life-long favourite tool for different tasks. Good tools cost a lot more than bad ones. A hand-forged garden spade can cost up to €100.00 but will be effective in its work and will last pretty much forever. A bad one can cost a quarter of this, will be frustrating in use and will be broken and replaced multiple times during the lifetime of the quality one. Most of our tools are made by long-established companies in Germany, Holland or the USA.

Part of our selection of effective but non-poisonous garden fertilisers, lotions and potions.

Weedkiller use on on Wicklow's lovely grass verges.