Explosive performance

THE garden at Lakemount in Glanmire village, Co Cork is the creation of Brian Cross and his mother, Peggy. The undulating two acre garden - which was a poultry farm in an earlier life - is cleverly divided into different areas which flow fluidly into each other. It is a garden of strong: colour and bold shapes, in direct opposition to what Brian Cross calls "the soft campanulas flowing and pastel brigade type of thing".

It is, he claims, a "modern Irish garden" which does not attempt to mimic grand English gardens, like so many of our important gardens. Whether you agree with him or not, Lakemount is certainly worth visiting. It is a garden full of good and arresting scenes: scenes that could be copied in our own little patches. Each scene is milked for all it is worth - as it should be in a garden of this kind, where no punches are pulled and where maximum boom bang is the aim. Mind you it is tasteful boombang: in his compositions Brian Cross uses only stylish plants and classy objects.

To one side of the house, a large paved garden of Liscannor slabs is softened by a massed planting of hydrangeas on the perimeter, making a river of deep purple and clearest blue. Along the back, a border of herbaceous plants is elevated like a stage and a cast of flaming yellow and orange characters - inulaphygelius, penstemon, ligularia and alstroemeria - performs loudly. Their sole audience, a statue of a plump youngster, piddles endlessly and nonchalantly into a pond of startled fish.

NEARBY, alpine plants and blocks of azaleas provide spring interest, as does a little woodland garden where hellebores bloom early under the drooping needles of a silky Pinus patula: In this secret space ferns, including a tree fern, make strong structures during the rest of the year, and a delightful view of the River Lee, far below, is visible through a gap.

A warm and moist plant house once a mundane garden shed, is filled with a tumble of pink, flouncy fuchsias and pelargoniums, pale grey ferns, canna lilies and datura. Lemon trees lend a sharp scent to the heavy air.

In front of the plant house, a very special Restio subverticillatus grows proudly in a big urn. To the untutored eye (like this writer's) it may look remarkably like a grassy horsetail, but this is a very posh plant indeed, and is much admired by gardeners. On the other hand, a magnificent topiary peacock has obvious "wow-factor" - just like the great sea of light green lawn which swoops around behind the house.

The lawn is surrounded by curved, flowing beds from which wickedly strong colours explode: shocking crimson penstemons, neon orange lilies, bright scarlet nasturtiums. All the reds are there, screaming away, counter pointed by the emphatic shapes of foliage plants, conifers, ornamental grasses and trees. It is all splendidly dramatic.

Behind the lawn, gravel paths weave here and there: past a bog garden, a pair of large leaved magnolias and many specimen plants positioned to give maximum impact. At strategic points there are huge ceramic jars, welcoming benches and a little temple re created from bits salvaged from a church.

This "modern Irish garden" is beautifully maintained, impeccably managed and carefully orchestrated. If it weren't all so utterly perfect it would be thoroughly corny.

But it's not, so go and visit.