Gardening just for the fun of it!

Helen and Val Dillon hosted a group from the Irish Garden Plant Society in their new garden in Monkstown yesterday afternoon. It was my first visit to the new garden so there was huge curiosity to see what it was like, what Helen had done, how the garden was laid out, what plants she had …

Times and Gardens Pass!

When our children were young we regularly visited the gardens at Ballymaloe Cookery School in Co. Cork. It fitted in with our regular outings to Fota Island and was a pleasant stop on the journey home. We were with the grandchildren in Fota earlier in the week and decided to drop in to Ballymaloe on …

Trentham

Trentham Estate, in Stoke-on-Trent, has experienced great changes throughout its history; change will inevitably continue; and its most recent changes have seen one of the largest garden developments in Britain. The estate dates to 1086; there was an Augustinian Priory on the site, followed by a convent and Trentham Priory. The estate was sold in …

When is it too much?

We visited John Massey’s garden at Ashwood Nurseries last week and some sections of the planting left me wondering if at times we garden to an extent that our gardens can become unnatural. Of course, all our gardens are unnatural to a lesser or greater extent according to how we garden. We take some control …

Playing Air-Guitar on the Lawnmower

It certainly felt as though I was cutting air as there has been no grass growth here for the last six weeks and there was a certain foolishness about being out on the lawnmower this afternoon. There were wisps here and there, a little like the top of my head really and reminded me of …

Domestic Overcrowing

Yesterday’s newspaper reported on a trend in Dublin, an area where it is very expensive to purchase one’s own house, of young people building log cabins and the likes in the gardens of their parents’ houses. For most young couples it is viewed as a stop-gap situation being cheaper than renting and allowing them some …

A Lady of Colour!

I was lead astray, mislead, lead up the new garden path and totally befuddled at June Blake’s garden last week. June has a new entrance route to the garden now, veering to the right of the house, through the yard and left, past the fabulous new café which is absolutely beautifully laid out and furnished …

The Perfect Spot!

When we visit other gardens we sometimes find that perfect spot, that part of the garden that we would love to wrap up and bring home with us. It is the part of the garden to which we are always drawn when we visit and it feels as though we are returning to see an …

Frizzled and Frazzled

It’s gone well beyond a joke; well beyond being passing and enjoyable and well beyond being in any way tolerable. We’re not built for this weather; we’re by nature people of a softer climate with days of soft rain, soft cloud and occasional days of sunshine to break the monotony and dry the clothes. Our …

Huntingbrook

Huntingbrook, Jimi Blake’s garden in Co. Wicklow, has taken a leap forward this year with the redevelopment of a large area of the gardens. That area to the right as one walked into the garden, a quite high bank until this year, has been lowered, new soil added and the whole area replanted. Now, rather …