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Irish garden designer and presenter Diarmuid Gavin joined Insights with Sean O'Rourke to discuss his storied career in gardening, his friendship with Charlie Haughey, and a childhood shadowed by tragedy. Listen back above or find it where ever you listen to your podcasts.
Diarmuid Gavin became a household name across both Ireland and the UK thanks to his incredible creations at the Chelsea Flower Show. He presented at nine of the lauded events from 1995 to 2016, winning silver in 2007 and gold in 2011.
These days, his garden design business is thriving, and he has authored a shelf-worth of gardening books, but he says the road to success wasn't always so sweet.
Delving into his thorny past, the TV presenter told Sean that he struggled with loss at an early age. When he was just 6-years-old, his 5-year-old brother was died when he was knocked down by a car.
"That was challenging and I certainly became insular," he said. "I wouldn't say I had a lack of confidence, but I had a lack of social abilities."
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Struggling through his school years, Gavin went on to study at Glasnevin's Botanical Gardens where he found a passion for gardening. Growing up in a "restrictive, dour, pebble-dash, grey society", he wanted to create gardens with a difference.
"I could do twee very well but it wasn't creatively fulfilling," he says.
When the design requests stayed the same, and his creative streak remained stifled, he began to let things slide. With jobs going unfinished and cheques bouncing, Gavin began to feel a lot of shame which took a toll on his mental health.
"I was striving to say something, to get that creative urge out there," he explains. "When you don't have that outlet, for me, it became massively frustrating. I ended up messing everything up."
Kicked out of his flat in Ranelagh, and with rental companies coming to repossess his stereo system, Gavin hit hard times.
"I put all my possessions - just two bags of clothes - in black plastic bags," he says. "My friend came on my bicycle, balanced them on the crossbar, and cycled them off to his dad's garage. I had nowhere to go - nothing. That was a very low point."
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Unfortunately, Gavin says these low points would continue throughout his life, often when he was perceived to be enjoying high-flying success.
One example would be his first foray into the Chelsea Flower Show. Filling in for a drop out, Gavin was expected to raise £60k and create an award-worthy creation in just six months. At this time, he had "less than nothing".
Arriving to London with a friend ("like two Paddington Bears") with two suitcases and £300 between them, the duo had three weeks and three days to create a show-ready garden.
"With nothing - with no tools, no equipment, no place to stay," he lists. "With a glorious naivety verging on foolishness. What happened over the next three weeks was horrible and amazing, but we got a garden built."
This miracle was pulled off despite a comedy of errors including the time that Gavin's 'Paddington Bear' friend, Vincent, managed to hot wire a JCB from a nearby gardener, accidentally flooding their own garden when he hit an underground pipe.
"For all the lack of finesse that it had, it had something," he says of the design.
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With no money, Sean asks, how did he source the flowers? Well, he dug them straight up out of a friend's garden.
Having just proposed to his now-wife Justine Keane, a friend of his soon to mother-in-law offered up a weekend stay at her cottage in Kerry to the happy couple.
Instead of bringing Justine, though, Diarmuid brought Vincent.
"We dug up every plant that didn't move," he laughs. "From her garden, from bogs. We had Irish fertiliser industry bags in Noelle's courtyard at the back of the house filled with plants."
Of course, he had no way of getting them to London. Nor did he have a way to get the pile of stone he owned in North Dublin over. Thankfully, a few wonderful people "chipped in" because at this stage the two had put every last cent into the project.
They didn't eat for the last three days, they slept in the attic of a pub ("we took down the curtains down to use as bedcovers"), and they had to crawl over fences to add finishing touches on show day, but by hell or high-water, Diarmuid and Vincent got their garden over the line.
Listen back to the full interview on Insights with Sean O'Rourke above.
