A garden show suffused with 'unfettered creativity', some art, some entertainment, and not a judge in sight. It's all happening at Emo Court in Co Laois, writes Jane Powers
The Georgian mansion at Emo Court in Co Laois sits stolidly, gazing bemusedly at the giant red balloons, mist machines and graffiti-scrawled panels that have sprung up from the land below. These modern ephemera are part of the first annual International Garden Festival, which takes place in the wackily attractive setting of an oat field behind the historic Gandon house.
The three-month-long event is unlike anything else that has been seen in this country. It's unapologetically contemporary, and pays no heed to mainstream garden events such as Chelsea Flower Show, or indeed, our own recent event, Bloom, in Dublin. So, you won't find tiers of electric-blue delphiniums, clouds of perfumed roses, seas of hazy lavender, or any of the other classic sights and smells of summer garden shows. You won't get the abrasive sniff of competition either, or the accompanying nervy finickiness of exhibitors as they primp and preen plants and paths - because there is no contest, and no medals, and no "best in show".
In fact, what's going on at Emo Court this summer might best be described by a certain serendipitous term, coined in the 1950s (and overused in the following two decades). Yes, what we have in a field in the midlands is an honest-to-goodness "happening": a garden happening, with some art, some design, some entertainment, some experimentation, a smattering of plantsmanship, and a teeny bit of baloney.
All of this means you must pack away your conventional ideas, and give yourself up to the spirit of unfettered creativity that suffuses the 15 oval plots nestling in the field of grain. In a week or two, when the surrounding oats have grown taller and thicker, the experience will be much better, as the feeling of seclusion in each of the gardens will be intensified.
These are spaces that are meant to be walked around and explored - a luxury afforded at most garden shows only to royalty and VIPs, and to the odd chancer who manages to slip under the rope barriers. Participation is imperative here.
It's laughably easy to get into the swing of things in the very first garden - although "playground" would probably be a better word. In "Flower and Roll", designed by French trio Grégorie and Philippe Dutertre and Arnauld Delacroix, five immense, fabric balls roll and bump hither and thither along rails; they are so lightweight that they are propelled by the slightest touch. Printed all over with psychedelic Celtic and floral motifs, and larger than a mature human being, they compel full-grown men to return to their childhoods, and to partake in some rather serious pillow-fighting. The planting in the space is, well, "minimal", with a newly planted carpet of lady's mantle and some haplessly bounced-upon arum lilies. (A more practical choice might have been some wiry Mediterranean plants, such as thyme, sage or santolina, which are more hard-wearing, and which release their scent when grazed.)
There is more colour and more playfulness in "A/Maze: Meeting the World", an installation of dozens of national and other flags, arranged to form a bright and billowing, multi-hued labyrinth. Visitors who bat their way through the shimmering, flapping swatches come upon a clearing where a couple of swings, in the company of some small oak trees, afford a pleasant view of the Laois landscape. Made by UCD landscape architecture students Dominic Griffith and Rebecca Massey, it characterises the slimmed-down rigour that one expects from young designers. Nonetheless, this pair are among the few participants who actually borrow and celebrate the larger landscape. Most choose to ignore the impressive natural environment by turning the visitor's focus inwards.
A notable exception is another Irish designer, Gerard Mullen, whose "Home Abhaile" is a beautifully austere enclosure, offering a near-surreal view of Emo Court's glistening lake through a rectangular "window". On the day I visit the festival, his garden is almost everyone's favourite, among both males and females - unlike many of the plots, where likes and dislikes are neatly parcelled out on either side of the gender divide.
The third Irish garden, Hugh Ryan's"Altar Ego", is an uncompromisingly masculine and cool space with 10 upright limestone slabs - modern-day standing stones - set into honey-coloured gravel and surrounded by a dense ring of birch trees. A large bath or font of polished limestone sits monumentally in front of several convex, mirrored panels, which cast a distorted reflection. Ryan has supplied boxes of oil pastels for visitors to "leave their mark" on the rough sides of the standing stones, and by the end of the first day bright crayoned inscriptions - among them, "Carpe Diem" and "Help! I don't understand!" - are lending some renegade vibrancy to the sombre space.
A final Irish garden is barely started on the day the festival opens and exists only as a few intriguing excavations in the wet, clay soil. For the sake of our national pride - at what is a truly international event - we're hoping this effort is now complete.
But back to the battle of the sexes: when we drop into Emo Court, there are few women who are not moved by "The Family Tree" by Amelie Leroy, from France. Hundreds of jewel-like crystals are suspended from the branches of multi-stemmed cherry trees, making our girlish hearts go pitapat, as we step through the diamond rain. The grass, delicately threaded through with blue lobelia, helps to make this the most romantic corner of the show. And, by the way, if there are any men out there thinking about popping the question, you couldn't choose a prettier place. (Just thought I'd mention it.)
Blokes, however, might prefer Frenchman Maxime Thomas's"A Peek Under Nature's Skirt" for the sturdy, workmanlike, construction of the eponymous garment. By the end of the summer, the stainless steel rods will be dressed with the winding stems and shapely leaves of golden hop, but at present, the climbers are painfully embryonic. Across the way, the bedding plants in Jean Cavanaugh and Virginia Stewart's"American Patch+Work" are also mere babies. But in a month or so, their noisy flowers will throw a showy quilt over the ground and spill out of the blue-painted steamer trunks - the latter symbolising the movement of people to and from that huge country.
Other nations represented at the festival include Portugal, with the contoured "Genetic Landscape"; Australia, with "Kanguroots; Italy, with "O Sole Mio"; and Germany with a living and growing flying carpet, entitled "Flying Visit". Besides the three French gardens mentioned earlier, there are three further offerings from that country, which is not surprising. France, after all, is the venue for Europe's most famous experimental garden festival at Chaumont-sur-Loire, now in its 16th year. The Laois event is merely un enfant in comparison, but its first tottering steps are full of promise.
The International Garden Festival continues at Emo Court until September 23rd, open daily 10am to 6pm. Adults: €13; senior citizens: €11; children: €6 (under fives free); family (two adults and two children): €35. See www.igf.ie