Over the wall

We had far too much weather in May - and it reached a fine operatic crescendo during my visit a couple of weeks ago to Lodge …

We had far too much weather in May - and it reached a fine operatic crescendo during my visit a couple of weeks ago to Lodge Park Walled Garden in Straffan, the home of Sarah and Robert Guinness. Thunder, lightning, wind, rain and hail swelled the air, in between ebullient interludes of early-summer sunshine. It was "your four seasons in one day", to borrow the words of Lodge Park 's gardener, Patrick Ardiff. Fortune smiled however, by providing two interesting greenhouses in which to shelter during the fray.

One, a propagating house which is heated during the winter, is a simple lean-to, filled with resting orchids and other tender specimens. Hundreds of seedlings in trays and pots await their turn in the garden.

The other glasshouse, recently restored, is a much grander affair. Its red-brick facade sprouts a water-spouting head of some indeterminate creature - perhaps a lion, thinks Patrick Ardiff, and agrees that if so, it is a very mild-mannered lion indeed. Inside there is an eclectic mix of greenery - this is a working greenhouse, not just an ornamental showcase.

There are young tomato and brassica plants, as well as the unreal-looking, oriental Clematis florida `Sieboldii' with its papery white flowers carrying a domed boss of dark-purple stamens: "people mistake it for a passion flower," says Ardiff. Another clematis, the New Zealand C. x cartmanii `Moonbeam' - "due for a haircut" - sprawls across the raised bed. An unusual shrub, masquerading as a lilac, is in fact the tender Fuchsia arborescens from Central America.

READ MORE

Outside, in between bouts of angry weather, a mass rally of the tall drumstick onion, Allium `Purple Sensation', glows with rain-washed radiance. It is elegantly set off by a leafy underplanting of Hosta plantaginea, one of the few hostas that doesn't mind a position in full sun.

This delightful combination is just one of the many pretty pictures in this handsome, 18th-century, walled garden. Its couple of acres is divided again and again by fat beech hedges, lines of low box punctuated by globules of yew, and neatly trained cordons of apple. Nothing is revealed immediately, so that every turn leads to yet another appealing vignette: a tiny white garden, a grassy orchard, a sweet-pea walk, rows of healthy potato foliage and baby leeks, a path lined with old-fashioned roses, a pint-sized lawn - just big enough to rest your eye on.

Bulk plantings of a single plant variety - a practice that requires great self-restraint in a greedy plantsperson - are used frequently, to good effect. A geometric salad garden, for instance, is bordered on one side by a thick band of lady's mantle (Alchemilla mollis), on another by catmint and on the third, by throngs of dianthus, ready to burst into flower. Self-control breaks down on the final perimeter, where there is a jolly border of osteospermum, aquilegia, artichokes and poppies.

Hidden in the orchard there is a "rosarie" where scented climbing and rambling roses scramble over an intricate metalwork frame, topped with a finial in the shape of a rosebud. Interestingly, a garden expert chided the Guinnesses for calling this feature a rosarie, so if anyone can provide the correct definition of this word, both they and I would like to know it.

The entire garden is managed by Patrick Ardiff, with seasonal help from a studentworker. Maintenance is huge, and includes supervising a big, blowsy herbaceous border and a new, north-facing patch, where woodland plants such as hardy geraniums, tiarella and lungworts grow happily. The ground is good and loamy - that wonderful, expensive Kildare soil that raises champion race horses.

In such a favourable situation, weeds, if let loose, would soon get the upper hand, but all are whipped out the minute they stick their noses out of the ground. And in the case of perennial nuisances such as bindweed and scutch grass, Ardiff has a special method of killing them off. "Shear off the top layer of vegetation," he instructs. "Put down several sheets of newspaper, and cover that with a three or four inch layer of manure." In a season or two, the weeds will be smothered, and the soil will be clean again.

I'll certainly be trying this in my garden: it's nice to carry home practical advice from a garden visit. But it's far more gratifying to bring home a brainful of memories of a secluded, privileged place that sparkles soothingly in the lulls between the storms.

Lodge Park Walled Garden is open 2.30 5.30 p.m. Tuesday to Friday, and Sundays, during June and July. August: Tuesday to Friday. Other times by arrangement. Admission: £2. There is also a steam museum, a tea-shop and a gift shop selling the National Trust range. Enquiries: 016288412.