Marwood Hill Garden

On retirement, my late friend, John Riley, spend some time in Devon before moving to Ireland. John was an East-End boy, of Irish parentage, and there were regular recollections of his evacuation during the Second World War, of summers with his mother hop-picking in Kent, of his days in the Posts and Telegraphs, of fishing …

The Artist’s Garden – A Review.

This is a book of two readerships, for lovers of gardening and lovers of art will both find much of interest in it. I read as a gardener and found the horticultural content appealing, the insights into art and the artists remarkable and was fascinated by the level of cross-over, or should I say “common …

Beth Chatto: A Life with Plants – A Review

There is a photograph of Beth Chatto on page 8 of this book, a black and white photograph, which I imagine is of her in her forties. She has that lean-towards-the-camera pose which was so typical of her. Her bright smile and enthusiastic face light the shot; her hair is in a short, neat perm …

Killerton House

The Ackland family purchased the Killerton estate (2,590 hectares/6,400 acres) in the early 1600s and passed it to the National Trust in 1944. On visiting today, one sees an extensive designed landscape with a comparatively small ornamental garden close to the house. It was John Veitch, of the famous Veitch Nursery family, who laid out …

On the Use of Names.

Just a little rant! Fionnuala Fallon wrote a review of Jimi Blake’s book, A Beautiful Obsession, in today’s Irish Times. As might be expected, she was lavish in her praise – expected because they are long-time friends and also because it is well deserved. I hasten to point out immediately that I expect no blame …

The Pheasant has Landed

We visited an exhibition of sculpture at the Montenotte Hotel during the summer and both of us fell in love with "Running Pheasant" by Anna Campbell. Of course, pheasants have been part of our garden for several years and, I suppose, that made Anna's sculpture especially appealing. Between our initial contact with Anna and our …

Great Gardens of London

Great Gardens of London gives an insight into a selection of the horticultural jewels of the capital city of what is probably the greatest gardening country of the world. England is a treasure store of wonderful gardens and it comes as no surprise that the capital city, London, is home to a significant and most …

The Naked Ladies of Inistioge

Peculiarly, there were no newpaper headlines; nor did it make the news on tv or radio – I had been listening – but this morning some hundreds of naked ladies gathered on the riverside meadows of the picturesque village of Inistioge in Co. Kilkenny. It didn’t seem to bother the local population in the slightest; …

Walking the Property!

“Walking the property” has been our phrase for nearly forty years. We used say it when we arrived home after work and walked the garden, which in the days we began using this phrase was a small suburban garden which could be walked at the slowest pace in five minutes but we imagined it was …

The Old Bog Road

Every county in Ireland has its “Old Bog Road” and everyone who listens to the song will relate it to his own home place for it is a sentimental song, a song of nostalgia and homesickness written by Teresa Brayton(1868-1943), who was born in Co. Kildare, and emigrated, as many others, to America where she …