A good garden visit is a tonic to the soul - and a great opportunity to steal ideas, writes Jane Powers
"Garden Open." I just love seeing that sign on a gate. For me it holds a thrill akin to the one that hits other women when they see the words: "Designer shoes, everything half price!"
I mean, shoes are shoes. Nice ones put me in a good mood, but they're still just shoes. But a gate bearing the magical "open" word is an invitation to experience who-knows-what surprises. Inside might lie a rolling velvet lawn, a billowing border, a mound of mighty beech trees, a collection of jewel-like alpines, a parade ground of perfect vegetables, or a distant vista framed by a pair of hedges.
A good garden visit is a powerful tonic for the soul, freeing the spirit and filling the mind with splendid images. There's the practical bonus too, that many ideas can be borrowed and adapted for one's own patch. And to be perfectly honest, in some gardens there may also be other ideas that you wouldn't dream of giving ground space to (but that's valuable too: being able to learn from others' mistakes).
Unlike shoes, no two gardens in our little island are the same. We're blessed with a mixture of terrains, climates and settings. One garden may have a magnificent herbaceous border - as at Altamont in Co Carlow - while another may have hardly any flowering perennials at all, but the largest crowd of tree ferns in the country and a breathtaking setting - such as the garden at Derreen in Co Kerry on the Beara Peninsula. Much of Derreen is sheltered by woodland, shielding the tree ferns from excess wind and from drying out.
How different is the garden at Cois Cuain on the Sheep's Head Peninsula, the next finger of land to the south. There the plants run right down to the rocky foreshore, or in the words of one of its owners, Bob Walsh (which I have quoted before, but they are worth another outing): the garden is "as close to the sea as it is possible to get, without becoming a boat". Wind and salt-proof species are essential in this environment, so the Walshes have relied heavily on the cape flora of South Africa. Grass-like restios, jagged-leaved Melianthus major and mass plantings of bright watsonia and agapanthus add an exotic flavour to this corner of west Cork.
Cois Cuain is just one of 14 gardens that open in June for the West Cork Garden Trail. The others are as different as chalk and cheese, from the Italianate Ilnacullin, designed by Harold Peto at the beginning of the 20th century, to the gardens at Inish Beg, restored in the last decade under the eye of contemporary designer Verney Naylor (and erstwhile guardian of this column).
There are 14 gardens also in the Dublin Garden Group, including the well-known Dillon Garden, and the lesser-known, but well-worth-visiting plot of plantswoman Carmel Duignan, in Shankill. Carmel is a dab hand at combining the fruits of her collecting mania, so that the hundreds of different plants form a beautifully woven and artistic tapestry, instead of the jangly patchwork that some collectors cobble together. The centrepiece of her garden is that rare and labour-intensive thing: a perfect lawn.
The largest of the garden groups is the Wicklow Gardens Festival, with more than 30 members. It's the longest running, and is now in its 18th year. Some of the gardens - such as Kilmacurragh, now managed by the National Botanic Gardens - are in the throes of restoration, while others - Warble Bank, for instance, have been continually cultivated for more than a century. A charming place to stop for refreshments, incidentally, is Hunters Hotel in Rathnew, where you can take tea on the lawn in the company of a number of nearly-tame, crumb-snaffling, small birds.
There are garden trails and festivals all over the island of Ireland (see our panel for some of them). So, if you're travelling somewhere in your car, chances are that there's a garden nearby where you may stop to refresh your mind and refuel your spirit. Just make sure you pack a pair of comfortable shoes in the boot before you set off.
DIARY DATES: Today, 11am to 4pm at St Patrick's College, Maynooth Flower and Garden Club holds a major plant sale in aid of the college chapel restoration fund. May 13th, noon to 3.30pm: garden open day at Coláiste Choilm, Ballincollig, Co Cork (www.colaistechoilm.ie). Transition Year students' projects include a stone arch and spinning top, woven willow fences, vegetable and wildlife beds, and two orchards. Products, plants and expertise will be available from Irish Seed Saver Association, Broc Tools, Future Forests and other horticultural bodies. Admission €3