A DENBIGHSHIRE gardener and TV presenter has spoken of how spending time outdoors in the garden has helped many through the Covid-19 pandemic.

"I never wanted to be a TV presenter. I’d never dreamt of being one, because I was too shy – it just happened,” says Sioned Edwards, who has been a familiar face on S4C for 17 years now.

She began presenting items about flower arranging in the series Clwb Garddio, and today, she is one of the enthusiastic team, along with her husband Iwan, and Meinir Gwilym, who share valuable green-fingered secrets on the popular gardening series Garddio a Mwy (Gardening and More).

On the series, Sioned and Iwan inspire viewers from their magnificent garden at their home, Pont-y-Tŵr near Ruthin, where they live with their children 16-year-old Nanw, Malan (10) and Iolo (5).

They also have the opportunity to explore the countryside and visit other gardens.

As the title of the programme suggests, the series isn’t just about gardening – there are many interesting items about wildlife, the environment and how to make your garden a haven to relax.

“I’m very grateful for the opportunities I’ve had while presenting,” says Sioned. “It’s been so nice to be able to see so many fantastic gardens on Garddio a Mwy – many not open to the public, which are often so much nicer than the public ones. And of course, chatting with people who are also passionate about gardening!”

As a result of the Pandemic’s restrictive lockdowns, Sioned acknowledges that the garden has become more important than ever for most of us:

“I think we’ve all appreciated the area we have outside, whether it’s our garden, or our backyard, or just a window ledge to grow something and see plants growing. I think there’s something very special about that. Home and the garden have become much more important to us all. And hopefully that interest will continue, and many children will have been inspired.”

Another aspect that saw a change as a result of the Pandemic was Sioned’s business of creating flower arrangements for occasions – usually weddings – using flowers grown in her garden at Pont-y-Tŵr.

“Last year in the middle of the Lockdown, I realised that I had gone from working 100 miles an hour to 0 as a result of weddings having to be postponed, and I had no work other than filming. I realised I enjoyed having the weekend off, and spending time with the children,” says Sioned, who, at one time was creating flower arrangements on TV sets and ran a flower shop on Bangor high street before moving on to teach horticulture at Coleg Cambria.

“As I grow a lot of flowers for weddings, I decided to put up an ad on social media saying that I was going to start a service of making bouquets of flowers as gifts for people. So I worked flat out through the Pandemic delivering flowers to people who had lost someone during that time, or people who had a special birthday and couldn’t go anywhere.

“The feeling of enabling people to connect during such a difficult and upsetting time was wonderful. Seeing someone opening the door, looking at the bunch of flowers and just smiling meant so much to me.

“So I doubled the size of the cutting garden so that I could do that, and I’ve carried on. And haven’t stopped. So I’m going to try to do more of that and reduce the number of weddings I do to sell bouquets. It has changed the way I work completely. Who would think it would take a Pandemic for me to realise what I really needed, because I knew I needed to change something, and it has just fallen into place.”

Garddio a Mwy can be seen every Monda at, 8.25pm on S4C.