iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 9h

A few years ago, I was a gardener without a garden. Then a neighbour gave me a little corner of a Victorian walled garden. Quite a lot has grown from that act of kindness! 🌱 I chatted with Ruth Medjber about it for Sin Scéal Eile. www.sinscealeile.com/365-portrait...

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 17/10/2026

Every acre is Nature's Acre.We just look after it for a while.

Zack at the walled Garden with some of his Woodwork

The wildlife part at the community Garden

Sunflowers of the walled garden with a butterfly

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 17/10/2026

📚 Next stop: Liber Bookshop, Sligo! In the heart of Yeats country, this wonderful independent family-run shop celebrates books, music and local creativity. From Irish writing to vinyl records, it’s a place where culture thrives. Another little treasure worth supporting! ❤️ liber.ie

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 17/10/2026

📚 Next stop: Antonia’s Bookstore, Trim, Co. Meath! A lovely independent bookshop in the historic town of Trim. Books, gifts, friendly faces and that personal touch only a local bookshop can offer. A little treasure in the heart of Meath. ❤️ Keep the magic alive! antoniasbookstore.com

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 13/10/2026

When I wrote Nature’s Acre, I had no idea where it might travel. Conversations about the book have reached people far beyond our little walled garden in County Meath. The kindness and encouragement have been extraordinary. You never know where a seed might land. 🌱 gardeningwell.ie/natures-acre

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 11/10/2026

📚 Next stop: Maynooth Bookshop, Co. Kildare! There’s something lovely about a bookshop in a university town. Students, families and lifelong readers, all searching for their next great discovery. A place fall in love with another story. ❤️ Keep the magic alive! www.maynoothbookshop.com/about-us

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 10/10/2026

📚 McLean & Eakin Booksellers, Petoskey, Michigan 🇺🇸 In Michigan’s charming Gaslight District, this family-owned independent bookshop has been bringing books and readers together since 1992. And they’ve listed, Nature’s Acre! 🌿 mcleanandeakin.com/book/9781919... Keep the magic alive! ✨

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 10/10/2026

📚 The Book Nook & Other Treasures, Perth, Ontario 🇨🇦 In a beautiful heritage building beside the Tay River, this independent bookshop is now stocking and promoting my little Irish memoir, Nature’s Acre. Thank you! 🌿 thebooknookperth.com Keep the magic alive! ✨

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 10/10/2026

📚 Next: The Winding Stair Bookshop, Dublin Overlooking the River Liffey, this beautiful independent bookshop is full of character, Irish writing and unexpected discoveries. www.winding-stair.com Support independent bookshops. Keep the magic alive! 📚✨

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 09/10/2026

📚 Next stop: Kenny’s Bookshop, Galway! A family of booksellers since 1940. Generations of stories, discoveries and conversations. New books, old books, rare treasures — and people who really know their books. 85 years of keeping the magic alive. ❤️ kennys.ie

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 09/10/2026

📚 Next stop: Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, Galway! Over 100,000 books! New, old, rare, forgotten treasures. Shelves everywhere you look. The sort of place where you go in for five minutes and emerge two hours later. A book lover’s paradise. ❤️ Keep the magic alive! charliebyrne.ie

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 09/10/2026

📚 First stop: The Book Centre, Kilkenny! A beautiful bookshop on High Street, in a building with centuries of history. Imagine all the stories that have passed through those doors. Next time you’re in Kilkenny, call in and discover something wonderful. ❤️ Keep the magic alive. thebookcentre.ie

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 07/10/2026

A child who visits this garden calls it “my happy place”. Another described it as “like a dreamland”. We didn’t set out to teach children to garden. We just gave them a place where life was everywhere.

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 04/10/2026

The posts in the thread are chapter titles.

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 03/10/2026

That’s Zack. This is me. We do look alike :-).

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 03/10/2026

In 2020 I was handed the keys to an old walled garden. I thought I was going to grow vegetables. Instead, wildlife returned. People came. Children came. It changed my life. I wrote the story down. It’s called Nature’s Acre. Read the book. 🌱 gardeningwell.ie/natures-acre

Zack stands beside raised beds that he has made from donated scaffold boards cordless drill in his hand.

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 01/10/2026

A few weeks ago this one native plant was covered in life — dozens of butterflies and bees feeding on it. This is knapweed, one of our native wildflowers. Native plants aren’t just decoration. They’re part of the food web. Plant some. Leave some. Make room for life.

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 01/10/2026

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 30/09/2026

You don’t need to save the planet this afternoon. Look after one place.

Ciaran plants native wild flowers at the community garden

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 29/09/2026

The teasel has stopped flowering. Quick, cut it down! Why? What’s it going to do? Steal the car? Kidnap the kids? Leave it standing. It still looks fantastic, it’ll make a great silhouette on a frosty winter morning — and, as this goldfinch demonstrates, the seeds are food. #gardening #gardenSky

A goldfinch feeds from a teasel seedhead in winter

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 28/09/2026

“The garden makes me feel like I’m in my happy place.” A fifth-class pupil’s words about our walled garden in Stamullen. We grow food and make room for wildlife here. Hearing what the place means to the children is something else entirely.

View of the pollinator bed and across the wild garden- it’s a “happy place”!

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 27/09/2026

My kind of garden satisfaction: two full water tanks. 😊 Not the prettiest things in the walled garden, but stored rainwater means less turning on the tap when the plants need a drink. A useful little autumn job: check your water butt is catching what comes off the roof.

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 26/09/2026

Aeonium autumn care: move under cover before frost, somewhere bright and frost-free. Use gritty, free-draining compost and keep air circulating. Let compost dry between waterings, reducing water as temperatures and light levels fall. Keep almost dry through a cold winter.

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 26/09/2026

A little Christmas offer for independent bookshops 📚🌱 If you stock Nature’s Acre for Christmas, I'll send you signed bookplates for your copies. And if you post about the book, tag me — I'll share it with my audience and give your shop a shout-out too. #BookSky #ChooseBookshops 🧵 1/2

Ciaran‘s book natures acre amongst some legends of the book and sustainability industry.

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 25/09/2026

Another tenant - we will have to start charging rent! :-)

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 25/09/2026

I went up to the community garden to cut the grass. This fellow was sitting on the bench beside the pond. That’s one of the things I love about making space for nature. You go there to do one job, and something else entirely stops you. The grass can wait for a minute.

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 24/09/2026

Same garden. About five years apart. I’m here so often that I don’t really see the change happening. Then I look back at an old photograph. A lot can happen to a small piece of land when people keep turning up and caring for it.

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 22/09/2026

A garden is never complete. Gardening completes the gardener!

Flowers above a wildflower meadow with the sun in a blue sky behind.

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 18/09/2026

A Friday evening full of delight… Reading from Nature’s acre tonight… 7 pm at the winding stair… Be there or be square! #speirgorm

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 17/09/2026

A little Dublin outing for Nature’s Acre tomorrow evening. 🌱📚 I’ll be reading at The Winding Stair Bookshop Open Mic, 40 Lower Ormond Quay. Friday 18 September From 6.30pm, readings from 7pm. If you’re around, come along and say hello! #speirgorm

Ciaran stands in a bookshop holding his book!

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 16/09/2026

Six years ago I was handed a key to an old walled garden. I had no idea what I was doing. I grew things. Dug a pond. Invited children in. Eventually I wrote a little book about it. That story is travelling the world. Do the small thing that seems worth doing. You never know where it might grow.

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 14/09/2026

Well, it made it across the Atlantic. 🌱 Rather lovely to open Harrowsmith’s 50th Anniversary Almanac and find the story of our little walled garden in Stamullen inside. Written and photographed by me. Still feels a bit surreal. From Co. Meath to Canada. Gardens travel. #NatureWriting #SpéirGorm

Ciaran is excited to hold a copy of the Harrowsmith 50th anniversary Almanac in which he has an article.

Harrowsmith Almanack with an article from Ciaran

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 13/09/2026

I really appreciate all the reposts folks. Let’s see how far this little book can go.?

Ciaran stands beside his book natures acre in a real bookshop. The famous Charley Burns in Galway.

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 12/09/2026

If you already have a copy of Nature’s Acre, I’d love to see where it has landed. Post a photograph and tell me your town or country. If you haven’t got one yet, tell me where you live and I’ll try to find it for you. I seem to have become a part-time international book detective. 🔎📚

Ciaran at the Lmfm office in Drogheda with his book natures acre

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 11/09/2026

Less than a year ago, I thought: I need to write this story down. Now Nature’s Acre is in around 30 independent bookshops and stockists across Ireland, and can be ordered in at least 80 countries worldwide. 🌍 Want a copy? Tell me what country you’re in and I’ll find you somewhere to order it.

My book natures acre, surrounded by fresh produce from the garden. In fact, everything in the picture was produced by the garden.

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 08/09/2026

9/10 I meant only to look. That’s the plan, just look. A nettle is in front of me, tall, unapologetic. My hand reaches out with a mind of its own. I grab it low near the base and pull. I pull another. And another.

A pear blossoms against an old red brick wall in black-and-white

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 08/09/2026

8/10 Nettles as high as my shoulder blow in the breeze. A bramble snags my trousers. I walk along the old red-brick wall. Time has marked it with cracks, holes, gouges. Ivy clings to it like a shroud. It is a thing of beauty.

A nettle stands against a mackerel sky in black-and-white

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Ciaran De Buitlear | Gardeningwell @gardeningwell.ie · 08/09/2026

#7 I thought I’d continue this story. After that first visit to the Walled Garden, I went back. I have no tools. No gloves. Not even a plan. This time, I come to look. Just to look. The garden does not welcome me.

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