“Gardens are so relaxing, but the only garden you never sit in is your own because you’re always working,” says Denise Leahy. Leahy is with her friend Kathleen Byrne, standing in the gardens of Hardymount House in Co Carlow. A huge and ancient Spanish chestnut tree towers overheard.
The friends have made their way to this beautiful rural private house and public garden to hear Oliver Schurmann speak, as part of the annual Carlow Garden Festival.
“We always learn something from the speakers,” Byrne says.
“And if you don’t learn something, you’re always entertained,” Leahy says.
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“A garden is something beautiful to look at, and a place of quietness,” Michelle Powderly says.
“This year, everyone is talking about what plants are surviving the drought and which aren’t,” she adds.
Hardymount House’s own walled garden is a gorgeous, rambling series of grassy paths running under pergolas of blossoms, tumbling with flowers and with something to look at from every angle. It’s organised, but in no way formal.
Walking around, I find myself fantasising abut lying down on a patch of grass there under a tree with a book for the afternoon and doing nothing. I sample a tiny wineberry; a fruit looking the size of a small blackberry, tasting like a cross between a raspberry and a strawberry. There’s been a drive from Dublin in a hot car to get here but, as I walk through the Hardymount garden, I feel any latent stress ebbing away.
Hardymount’s garden was established by Sheila Reeves Smyth, the late mother of the current occupant of the house, Justina McKeever. McKeever lives with her husband Mark. Reeves Smyth was involved with the garden festival from the beginning, and her daughter and son-in-law continue on with the tradition. The McKeevers come up with names of possible speakers themselves through a network of contacts.
More than 230 people attend the Oliver Schurmann event, which is an illustrated talk called It’s Never Too Late about their recent move from Mount Venus Nursery at Ballyboden in Co Dublin to a nearby piece of land with an old quarry within it.
Due to a lengthy technical hitch in which the power goes off, Schurmann gamely improvises by doing the Q&A session at the top of the talk. He reinforces the need to plant for the future and the importance of tree cover in our increasingly hot climate. All around me, people scribble notes and hold their phones up to take pictures of whatever plants he is showing on the screen.
After the talk, people gather on the sunburned lawn to have afternoon tea. Michael and Marian Fairbanks, from Bambridge, Co Down, have driven south in their camper van for three days, specifically to attend as many events as possible in that time during the weeklong festival.
“Being in your garden is a space out of every day where you can just be,” Fairbanks says. The Fairbanks always include Hardymount on their itinerary.
“The speakers are always so good, and so is the afternoon tea,” she says.
I take a closer look at the tables outside the marquee, which are covered with pristine white cloths. Afternoon tea for more than 200 people - “it’s more like 250 here now,” says Mark McKeever, as he passes with a platter of sandwiches - must involve so much preparation.
I swiftly realise why the Fairbanks make a habit of including Hardymount on their garden festival itinerary every year. The care and skill that has so clearly gone into the preparation of this tea, on this scale, is remarkable.
Platters of delicious sandwiches sail through the air. There are tiny home-made scones with cream and home-made jam. There are individual, golden-coloured meringues with a dollop of cream and fruit. There is good coffee and hundreds of beautiful cups and saucers. It is afternoon tea of a kind that you would expect for a small party, not upwards of 250 people.
This is all the work of McKeever, who is clearly an absolute powerhouse in the kitchen. “She went to Ballymaloe,” McKeever’s husband tells me. They also own all the lovely cups.
“I go to a lot of house clearances,” he says.
I drive away with the memory of the hauntingly lovely Hardymount Garden in my head, and a determination to do better with my own small and raggedy urban garden.
The Carlow Garden Festival continues until Sunday, August 2nd carlowgardentrail.com
