Lorna McMahon's garden makes a lot of people very happy. It heals, refreshes, excites. Each year she opens it to the public to raise money for the Galway Mental Health Association, of which she is a founder member as well as a highly skilled horticulturist. More than £8,000 was raised this year which goes towards the association's efforts to promote positive mental heath and helps people experiencing mental illness. On open day, familiar faces and new trail along gravel paths flanked by flowers, trip down steps through ferny bluebell woods, cross and recross boggy streams by rustic bridges.
People stop to greet and admire, murmuring, "She does it all herself, you know". Candelabra glitter by a green pond, firs-timers gasp as each leafy tunnel opens to reveal yet another garden carved out of wilderness and wilderness, too, is honoured.
Perennial visitors return to favourite havens enhanced by another year of growth and what ever "new ground" into which Lorna has sunk her trowel and soul.
Her newest garden is named for her late beloved husband, Harry, and it will take about four years to realise her dream. The primitive and cultivated, light and darkness, struggle and respite - the journey through her four acres tells it all.
For more than 20 years she has shared her horticultural gift with people who are experiencing difficulty on their journey through life; she teaches her skills to patients at the psychiatric unit at University College Hospital Galway.
Her initial project all those years ago, at the invitation of Prof Tom Fahy, was to design a garden for the unit. However, she finds herself still there, growing vegetables and herbaceous plants with the patients and in winter doing flower-arranging, using the wonderful array of foliage from her own garden.
This year, after a long campaign, the unit finally has its own tunnel and Lorna can grow a far greater range of plants and no longer needs to transplant plants to and from her own greenhouse. Fellow garden expert Jackie Keane is working with the day section this year.
"Motivation is most difficult if someone is stressed," says Lorna. "For those who like plants it works tremendously well, for others it is just passing the day."
Of course only those who wish to participate do. For some, the motivation is the satisfaction of converting their efforts into money when plants are sold at the open day, which in turn enhances their facilities.
Money raised at the open day, which is the association's biggest fund-raising event, has been hugely important down through the 15 years or so since it first took place, according to Valerie O'Toole of the association, who has the greatest admiration for Lorna and her garden.
It has helped the association to open six residential support homes, which it runs in conjunction with the Western Health Board, where people who have been in hospital have the opportunity to regain their confidence and skills.
Christmas parties, summer outings and other activities are also funded thanks to money Lorna raises, along with her army of Galway garden club members who help on the day. She thanks the good weather for the success of the event.
Not only Galwegians but also people from all over the world who have had the privilege of visiting her garden thank her in turn for all the joy.