Irish gardens often have a renegade quality: the owners are more interested in amusing themselves than in creating a visitor attraction. And that's fine with me
No matter how many gardens I visit - and it has certainly been hundreds, if not thousands - I never get tired of snooping around other people's territories. Of course, there is the joy of gratifying my Nosey Parker impulses, but I usually come away a wiser person too. Every garden - no matter how big or small, manicured or unkempt, creative or even deadly dull - offers plenty of food for thought and entertainment.
There are ideas to be borrowed (and others to be avoided at all costs), unknown species to ponder and perhaps covet, plant combinations to admire, vistas to survey, architectural features to examine, flowers to be sniffed, leaves to be stroked (but only if they are robust - and gently, so as not to annoy their owner), and 100 other things that command one's attention.
Of great interest to me - and to other gardeners too, I'm sure - is where the garden I'm visiting has the same kind of soil and conditions as mine. Dry, light soil, and not a lot of rain are my lot, so I'm always intrigued to see how other gardeners deal with this challenge. A notebook (for jotting down names and ideas) and camera are essential pieces of garden-touring equipment.
Some gardens that are open to the public have sales areas, where unusual plants are to be found. There may be only a handful of each, or perhaps just singletons, but often they're varieties that aren't to be found in garden centres (some of my most treasured plants have been propagated by other gardeners). So, if you're garden visiting, be sure to seek out the sales bench or niche, and have a good root around: that special gem might be hiding there.
Which brings me to a slightly disagreeable topic, but one that must be raised - stealing. Those who filch bits of other people's plants are past masters at rationalising their thieving propensities. But there's no excuse really (and if you'll allow me to don a holier-than-thou hat for a moment - or at least a holier-than-they-who-pilfer piece of headgear): the things that are growing in other people's patches belong to them, the people who own the patches. And that includes all those stem tips that are crying out to be made into cuttings, all those seed pods begging to be harvested, and all those lonely seedlings howling for a new home.
In fact, most gardeners are sympathetic and generous souls. They recognise the pangs of acquisitiveness in a fellow plant-lover, and are happy to hand over cuttings, seeds, or baby plantlets. It's better for the parent plant also if bits aren't ripped off it in a hurry, when no one is looking.
And, while we're discussing the sin of theft: pinching plant labels is also verboten, and "honesty boxes" for the payment of garden entrance fees should not be ignored. Okay, that's the end of the stern stuff - and I'm sorry I had to mention it, but thievery, I'm told, can be a serious problem in some Irish gardens.
We have some of the best gardens in the world here, and certainly the best climate for growing the largest possible range of plants: rhododendrons from the Himalayas, bananas from Japan, tree ferns from Australia and New Zealand, agaves from Mexico, bulbs and perennials from South Africa, roses from China. Species from every part of the globe are at home in our temperate climate.
Irish gardens often have a renegade quality: the owners are more interested in amusing themselves than in creating a visitor attraction (as has happened to so many gardens in our neighbouring island). And that is just fine with me: I like nothing better than a garden where the spirit of its maker is palpable.
Right now is prime garden visiting season: when all is still fresh and (I'm chancing my arm with a bit of weather forecasting) before the inevitable summer drought sets in. So, let's show our gardeners we appreciate them and their efforts. Let's go visiting. jpowers@irish-times.ie