Paddy Tobin, An Irish Gardener
Our garden, gardens visited, occasional thoughts and book reviews
Gash Gardens are situated a few kilometres outside Castletown, south of Mountrath in Co. Laois. It is now Mary Keenan's garden though I am of an age that I still recall its days as her father, Noel's garden. Noel was an odd man among farmers for few would give over several acres of good dairy … Continue reading Good Golly Gash!
Lismore Castle is on the banks of the River Blackwater in west Co. Waterford. I highly recommend a visit and indeed a full day out as the town itself is very beautiful and interesting. There is a very pleasant walk along the bank of the river and returning via woodland and small roads to your … Continue reading Lismore Castle Gardens in Photographs.
Do we gardeners give a little more importance to plant names than is necessary or sensible; are we obsessed with names? Few things spike a gardener's attention as quickly as the mention of a new plant name. There may be nothing especially good or beautiful about the plant but it is NEW! And we simply … Continue reading No Need to Name It!
The gardeners at Altamont have achieved that almost impossible aim of keeping a garden fresh, vibrant, changing and yet perfectly in tune with the style and ethos of its previous owner. So often we hear the comment of gardens such as this - bequeathed to the state, or in U.K. to the likes of the … Continue reading At Altamont Gardens
Mount Congreve Gardens are on the outskirts of Waterford City and are one of the great treasures of Irish gardening. They were developed by the owner, the late Mr. Ambrose Congreve, with the ground work, design and planting in the hands of the wonderful Mr. Herman Dool, a Dutch landscape architect and gardener. Facebook threw … Continue reading Mount Congreve Gardens
The photo counter on the camera is often a good indicator of an enjoyed garden visit; the higher the count the more I found I considered beautiful, worth photographing, worth looking back on again at home. But, then, there are the occasions when the count is high because I have made such an effort to … Continue reading Delete, Delete, Delete!
WOODSTOCK A garden can fill me with emotions; an old garden with, perhaps, tired emotions for it is replete with history, remnants of days past, days lost, efforts at revival, some successes and some dreadful failures. A view to Inistioge from Mount Sanford Castle, along the woodland walk. The bridge in Inistioge, crossing the River … Continue reading Woodstock
In ancient Rome, a genius loci was the spirit which protected a place, a territorial guardian angel of sorts. Nowadays, it is a phrase used in reference to garden design and was first enunciated by Alexander Pope. He contended that garden or landscape designs must always be adopted to the location for which they are … Continue reading Genius loci
This project at Mount Congreve Gardens was started only last year so it was both a surprise and a huge delight so see it is an immediate success and has already made a huge and beautiful impact on this area of the garden. I had expected it to take a few years to develop but … Continue reading A Snowdrop and Hellebore Extravaganza
A blast from the past: photographs of visits to Helen and Val Dillon's garden in 2003/4/5, came up unexpectedly today. A publication has asked me for photographs of another garden and the search took me to an old external hard drive with photographs dating back to my first digital camera. Browsing such collections inevitably leads … Continue reading The Dillon Garden 2003/4/5
