Irresistible Outdoors

Tasty bits of the Aromatic Garden starting to hit their stride with the seven minutes of sunshine we've had this Summer ☀️

It's all absolutely fine and totally safe. 🫣

In the middle of some team weeding today and Dave spots a sick leader in an oak tree. Turns out that the entire thing was ringed by squirrels. So armed only with a silkie saw and a ratchet strap Dave shins up the tree and removes the damage. Heroic stuff. Don't tell H&S!

Skies are grey but the garden is full of colour 🌈

Another tour tomorrow and thanks to the rain the all-essential final touches are a bit delayed so I've Kyle AND Lar in the garden making sure the knot hedges are super sharp. I love sharing the garden on the tours, people are always so kind about how lovely it looks. And I always tell them this garden is very much a team effort. I have the plants looking the same all the time but what makes it zing is what the lads do with the hedge trimmers and mowers. Not to mention the HG with the leafblower blasting all the fallen rose petals to the back of the border after I made a huge mess with my pimping earlier in the week! Legits have the best team going.

Today was Snow Gooses turn to chew off my fingers. Last year when I got here single stems were running up each side of the pergola uprights in straight stems. It gave us flower but no real romance and, obvs, I'm all about the romance. And when she's all full and lush she's heaven but after wind and rain she's a bit of a lush mess! So she needed a good tidy up today, when I finally got in the garden after a morning of downpours. She's still got room to grow which is exciting. But actually I don't think she'll ever make it to the top, Snow Goose is a mini rambler so will probs top out at 3m. Sooo I moved the Snow Geese from the end uprights and they're over in Green and White now, and I've added Bobbie James, a true stretchy rambler with similar simple open white flowers but much longer legs. The plan is she'll take care of the top of the pergola and then we'll be covered in flower. Hopefully it'll all come together but we'll find out next year! And the year after, and the year after, such is gardening!

Is it love? Or hate? Nah its love, but at a cost. Aspirin Rose, paid for by big pharma, I guess. And she is an absolute beauty. But the heaviness of her flower clusters at the end of her lovely long stems mean that she needs a lot of structural support or she just lays down on the ground and gets run over by the mower, especially after rain. Days of my life, well today and half of Friday, have been invested in stringing and tying and finickity deadheading to keep her looking this good. I know she's worth it but my poor fingers. I can't wear gloves and tie knots and I'd have spent even more time taking them on and off again. Next year I'm gonna cover my fingers in plasters before I start (tenner says I forget, again).

And I absolutely have to acknowledge how ruddy lucky I am that I get to invest this kind of time in the pursuit of rose perfection. There's so much to do as we prepare for THREE private tours this week but my little quests and foibles are always very kindly indulged. This place is an absolute privilege. It might not be everyone's cup of tea but it makes me, mostly, very happy, despite the scratches. Now, on to Kew and Snow Goose, my next two best girls.

I'm just celebrating long border today, it's gorgeous majestic delphiniums and galega and veronicastrums and thalictrums and beautiful things.

It was getting windy as I left and despite nearly all these darlings been corseted into weapons grade steel structures I'm slightly anxious that a different view will greet me tomorrow....

Simplicity. We chose to clear the front beds of the potager earlier this year and plant up a thyme patio. It's exciting to see the different varieties flowering but I can't wait til they spread into each other and cover the ground fully. I'm a little bit obsessive so it was pretty hard not to create a formulaic matrix for this planting. But I'm glad, it's random, it's relaxed and it looks much better for it.

Have a lovely weekend 💚

Connor's Pass, Vantry and beyond 💚

Glanteenassig 💚

This is Peep by the way. I've two friendly robins in the walled garden. Robin lives in the top half and I usually see him when I'm working in Long Border. He's much more stealthy and risk aware, so I haven't been able to catch a pic of him. He finds his own dinners where I've been disturbing the soil. I'll just catch a glimpse of his tail as he darts behind the plants every time I turn around.

But Peep lives in the bottom half of the garden. He's tried to follow me to Long before but Robin sees him off. Peep sits on my trug when I'm weeding and he's pretty happy taking any accidentally chopped up worms out my hand. I'm a bit concerned about his carefree reckless ways but I watched him catch a butterfly the other day. So skilled. Think he's probs alright whether I'm there or not!

It's nice to have friends. They're all a bit different but they're all special.

Been wading through the back of Long Border this week, weeding and tying in the whippersnappers of rambling rose ready for training later in the year.

This little passageway gets kneedeep in bittercress and dock about now and I rip them out with relish. But I love coming across random self seeders from elsewhere in the garden, like escholzia and cosmos. And obvs I leave the foxgloves and forget me nots, they're very welcome.

I lovean exciting new vantage point from a ladder, looking out across the Tangles. And also looking at the plants from a new perspective too. The Cotinus looks magical with the light behind it.

Have a lovely weekend.

The Portuguese Laurel in the corner by the nursery gate is an absolute beaut of a tree. She might be called a monster because the shade she casts is pretty dense and the soil beneath her is super dry and rock hard because of her roots. But she has a super lovely form of branches underneath, perfect for climbing. With a bit of thinning plenty of plants including ferns and epimediums thrive in her shadow. And she's covered in flowers which smell delicious. Oh and the pigeons nest in her and they make an absolute racket getting through that thick evergreen canopy every time they get spooked! Love em.

Just a few pics of the walled garden ready for a fresh set of eyes this afternoon. Have an amazing weekend 💚

The terrace on the Aromatic Garden has had a bit of a switch around. The tulips all got lifted out and now we've a little AG canapé, like little tasters of what's planted in the borders either side. We've also got two little limes, just for gin. Any day now the renovated benches will be back, all sparkly and shiny. Can't wait!

Knots followed by Tangles. Last year it felt like the Tangles stole the who until July when the hot Knots started to sing. But this year it feels pretty even stevens....

Today was the first of the visits. Not from this guy, but garden visitors. It's always lovely to share the garden with others and see it through new eyes.

The hot knots have been sizzling in the sun today 🌞

The gaps have mostly been filled. This is no longer Med but instead the big house have renamed it the Aromatic Garden, which I love cos it's defo full of aromatics. Only the rest of the sunflowers and colocasia left to go in when they're ready, it's been a very grey spring, even in the polytunnel, but they'll get there.

This border has been in the talks and plans and planting since last Autumn and its so exciting to see it all fit to grow.

Have a great weekend 💚

Sound the alarm!! The first of the Benton End irises (which btw are nigh on impossible, not to mention slightly shady, to get in Ireland) has flowered!! I'm so happy. I've lived these and pined for them since Chelsea 2023 and Sarah Price's Nurture Landscapes Garden. This is Benton Susan. We also have Benton Argent and Benton Caramel. Cannot WAIT to see them flowering.

A Summer update for the dishes on the south steps kept me put of mischiednin the pouring rain yesterday. These were heaving with muscari latifolium and armeniacum and species tulips - soz never took a picture! Now there's some classic violas, a soft and easy campanula and something a bit more experimental, a showcase of some of the HG's smallest aeoniums and succulents. I love these types of plants, so sturdy and honest and straight forward and obvs super beautiful. Just like the man himself, natch!

I feel like I've been all over the garden the last couple of weeks trying to constantly assess and reassess the gaps as things grow and filling where's needed, taking out and dividing where there's too much. It makes it hard to condense what I did that day/week and sometimes it can be exhausting as I wonder if I did anything and forget everything!

Amazing morning/good bit of the afternoon at Claire and Joe's beautiful and inspirational garden learning about the uses of foraged plant materials in kombuchas and fermentation with Theresa.

The garden is incredibly special, you feel nurtured and held as soon as you enter it. It feels safe and relaxed and so connected to the earth. There are birds and insects and creatures everywhere, and they're so welcomed and held safe too. It's genuinely heaven.

Thank you and for an amazing time Xx.

Just a little celebration of my buddy Max. I'm not at work today and I mentioned to him yesto I hadn't checked on the tulips I planted in Library Garden, an incredibly special secret little walled garden that's viewed only from one room in the big house. This is one of Max's spaces and he took the time to go visit it today and send me pics of the tulips so I didn't have to wait til tomorrow to see them.

And my other work buddy, Smokey, went to work on Saturday afternoon to check the sprinklers for me cos I got sudden and overwhelming anxiety I'd left one on and was planning to drive my usual hour commute just to check. It wasn't on btw. But such kindness.

I'm so lucky to be part of such a kind and thoughtful work team. Although it's not really work when you're just gardening alongside your mates all day.

Bit late posting but last week was about the Rectangles, weeding, editing, tinkering, adding, pimping.... some of the dahlias are out now but some are still pushing on in the tunnel but it won't be long before they're all out. A new thalictrum has been added and a campanula. I want a few more delicate spires this year. The cirsium took another division and got spread around a bit more. The stipa gigantia took a slicing and dicing as a few of the clumps had become monsters. The alstroemeria has been thinned to the size of the new supports as it tended toward the flop last year. And speaking of the supports... aren't they gorgeous. Genuinely in love with them, built by a mate down the road and absolutely perfect. Delighted. A couple have already been swallowed up but it's amazing seeing clearly the different rates of growth between the different tangles. Its defo all on its way now.

INS St Fiachra's Garden and the Japanese Garden. Shamelessly used the allure of baby horses to sell a trip to two very different but beautiful gardens. Lush family day. The gardens were super fun and more than enough to make us all want to go again 💚

So.. no biggie... but Med is done! 🥳

Super super happy. The big house wanted a change of vibe from the existing plan of med, which u may remember was about 7000 annuals grown from seed each year. It was very work intensive, lots of watering, lots of deadheading. And the big house wanted a more sustainable plan, something that worked with the existing formal structure of the garden but continued the playful, experimental vibe.

This has been super fun from planning through to planting, mostly thanks to awesome team work and lush collaboration. I can't wait to watch it grow!

The sun shone just enough to get the rosemary hedge finished, the urns moved into the borders and then.... ye rain again. Still, was an absolute joy to get the new plants into the garden at least, and some of them are maybe in their final spots. We'll finish playing tomorrow, then leave it for a couple days to be sure before planting up. Well, if the weather doesn't turn to poo again. Here's hoping!

This weather's proper pants. Was sooo excited to get back to work this week and start placing the plants for our new Med border but just look at the puddles! On gravel! Ridick. Managed to set out the new rosemary hedge - on the path. Can't see us getting anywhere further til the end of the week. If we're very very lucky. Hope you're all staying dry, or maybe taking up wild swimming, whatever floats your boat.

Seems remiss of me not to be celebrating the colour bursting out of the earth at Kilquade as well!

Tulips in the walled garden.

Spring bulbs and primroses, magnolia and eucryphia, rhodies and pulmonaria and a view along aspen walk. All credit to my mate Max who takes care of these lovely spaces.

And just one of the deeply coloured magnolias, a view along to another beautiful magnolia, and the view back across the daffodils to the stunning bark of our own myrtles. These spaces are just a glimpse of the work of my mate Pod.

So, a celebration of friends really as much as colour!

Have a lovely weekend.

Mount Usher 💚

Big old trees, stunning bark, blossom. And legits some of the best hide-and-seek we've seen in a while.