Meet Brian Burke: Hygeia’s New Brand Ambassador, Gardening Expert, and TV Personality & Brian’s Springtime Gardening Tips

We are delighted to share some exciting news here at Hygeia. TV personality Brian Burke has joined us as our new ambassador for our Hygeia garden care brands.

Brian is an Irish gardening expert with over 30 years of experience in garden design and landscaping. Brian is also well known as a judge on RTÉ’s Super Garden. We are thrilled to be working with Brian, so keep a close eye on our upcoming content for everything related to Brian Burke and Hygeia Garden Care. In Brian’s own words:

“I’m absolutely delighted to be working with Hygeia as their Brand Ambassador. Gardening should be enjoyable and accessible for everyone, whether you have a sprawling garden, are growing your own veg, tending a balcony or just trying to keep a few house plants alive indoors. There are Irish-made brands that genuinely work, and I’m excited to share my knowledge and practical tips to help Irish gardeners get the very best results, every season.”

Brian Burkes Spring-time Tips

The Soil
A priority right now would be to freshen up the soil in your planting beds. Get in there, loosen up the soil, cultivate and aerate it. Apply a good thick blanket of organic mulch if you can. The logic behind cultivation at this time of year is that the weeds are starting to emerge, so if you get in there now, you will nip a lot of them in the bud. Complete the job with an application of Nature Safe soil probiotic, an essential boost for Springtime soil health and vitality.

The Lawn
Firstly, do the simple practical things like getting your lawnmower serviced: sharp blades prevent bruising of the grass and, longer term, will make for a better-looking lawn. Start high with the first cut and then come down little by little for subsequent cuttings. You should never cut your lawn too low, doing so makes it easy for weed seeds to penetrate and take a hold. After the first cut, when soil temperatures rise and the grass is in active growth, apply Nature Safe lawn feed to really get things moving.

Planting
If you have a greenhouse or covered space like a polytunnel or small polydome, you might have planted a few things earlier in the year. You can start planting vegetables outdoors now. Things like carrot, cabbage, parsnip, spring onion, spinach, beetroot, peas and so on. All of those can be sown into finely prepared drills out in the vegetable garden at this time of the year. If you don’t have access to a lot of space, then you could try balcony planting in large pots or raised planters. There’s no excuse not to get your hands dirty, and don’t forget Nature Safe Fruit & Vegetable Feed for mighty yields.

Pruning
The rule of thumb with evergreen shrubs is to prune them from April onwards. The idea of waiting that little bit longer is to avoid the possibility of frost damage to the new growth which pruning will trigger. Lots of familiar shrubs flower on the previous year’s growth so as the season progresses remember to prune these immediately after they have finished flowering. This  allows them plenty of time to put on the growth that will flower next year, meaning a more abundant display. Pruning can be stressful for plants so it’s always good practice to feed immediately after, Nature Safe seaweed enriched feed is ideal for the job.

Feeding
Right now your plants could really use some grub. Roses and climbing shrubs, all shrubs in fact, will benefit from an organic Nature Safe seaweed based feed. Ideally, the time to feed is late afternoon towards evening,  because it gives the soil more time to assimilate the nutrients, making them available to the plant when the sun comes up and photosynthesis begins the next morning. 

This is just the beginning of our journey with Brian, and we’re looking forward to bringing you more tips, inspiration, and expert guidance throughout the gardening season.

Be sure to follow along and see what’s coming next 🌿