This paperback ships to Ireland only (for now) It’s spring 2020 in a small Irish town. Ciarán is reading in the greenhouse when the phone rings.
This isn’t a step-by-step gardening manual. It’s an Irish garden memoir, the story of an ordinary one-acre garden that becomes a refuge — for wildlife, for neighbours, and for a mind that has never quite managed to feel at home in the world.
As lockdown closes in, Ciarán throws himself into the work: leaving corners wild, growing food without chemicals, building habitats instead of tidy borders. Along the way he starts to unpick years of exhaustion, anxiety, and not fitting in, and to ask what it means to live well on a damaged planet.
Caring changes us. We find meaning in doing. Collaboration gives us place.
Who it’s for
Gardeners curious about wildlife-friendly, chemical-free growing
Readers who enjoy nature writing and memoir
Anyone drawn to Ireland, lockdown-era stories, and community change
Nature’s Acre is part wildlife-garden diary, part community story, part attempt to steady a nervous system with soil under the fingernails. It’s for anyone who feels overwhelmed by the world, and wonders if there might be another way to live in it.
Book details
Format Paperback
Price €11.99 (shipping included)
Publisher Ciarán De Buitlear
Publication date 10 Dec 2025
Language English
Print length 104 pages
ISBN-10 1919392815
ISBN-13 978-191939-2813
Item weight 154 g
Dimensions 15.24 × 0.61 × 22.86 cm
From the Publisher
“A family discovers the magical world of an old Victorian walled garden. Gardeners will love this book.”
— Temple Grandin, Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People who Think In Pictures, Patterns and Distractions
“Ciaran has a gentle and sensitive approach to gardening with nature in mind, leaving wild space for our shared kin, and growing chemical-free food and native plants. It is the future of landscape design.”
— Mary Reynolds, author, designer and founder of We Are The ARK – Acts of Restorative Kindness to the Earth
“Ciaran has always strived to bring gardening to the people, and people to the garden. His passion for community gardens, space for nature and challenging conventional thinking is a breath of fresh air.”
— Darragh McCullough, Elmgrove Farm and Garden Centre
“I would highly recommend Nature’s Acre … It resonated with my experience of communities coming together to preserve nature and build connection.”
— Brian Gormley, Head of Sustainability Education, TU Dublin
About the author
Ciarán De Buitléar is the husband of Fiona and dad to Sam and Zack. Born and raised in Dublin, he has made his home in Stamullen, Co. Meath for many years. By day he works as a database specialist in the tech world. In his spare time he has spent decades cultivating gardens that are as much about nature as they are about beauty.
He founded GardeningWell, an initiative for wildlife gardening and climate action. A trustee of FreeTrees Ireland, he has helped distribute thousands of native trees across the country.
Nature’s Acre is his first book. It shows how ordinary gardening can sit within Ireland’s tradition of writing about nature—while staying accessible to anyone, anywhere. His writing blends practical, sustainable gardening with expressive storytelling and a wry sense of humour, drawing together plants, a sense of place, and a personal recovery.
