Deep in the heart of West Cork lies a garden unlike any other in Ireland – an immersive 11-acre botanical wonderland where rainforest meets meadow, bamboo forests neighbor natural swimming ponds, and plants from distant corners of the world create a magical landscape that challenges everything you thought you knew about Irish gardens.
When Americans Paul and Daniel acquired Ardea Garden in late 2021, they inherited not just a property but a botanical treasure trove – thousands of exotic plants from New Zealand, Australia, Chile, Japan, and beyond, many having grown undisturbed for 20 years to reach spectacular sizes rarely seen elsewhere in Ireland. As they began clearing years of bramble and bracken overgrowth, extraordinary discoveries emerged: 27-foot hedge plants, explosions of rhododendrons in unexpected colors from blazing orange to purple, and hidden stone pathways leading to serene garden rooms.
What makes Ardea truly special isn't just its plants but its sense of adventure. Standing at the summit offers panoramic views across the Iveragh Mountains and Wild Atlantic before descending through what feels like thirteen distinct gardens within one property. One moment you're wandering through a bamboo forest, the next discovering an ornamental pond surrounded by blooming azaleas, then entering a Chinese-inspired garden complete with waterfall. The garden shifts dramatically with the seasons – December bringing spectacular camellia displays, while spring erupts with thousands of bluebells carpeting the ground beneath towering exotic trees.
Wildlife thrives throughout, with night cameras capturing badgers, pine martens, and deer enjoying this unique habitat. The garden serves as both a wildlife sanctuary and increasingly popular wedding venue, offering couples unforgettable backdrops from druid ceremonies at the stone summit to intimate gatherings by the river's edge. The lovingly restored stone cottage provides five-star accommodation for those wanting to immerse themselves fully in this extraordinary place.
Visit Ardea Garden by appointment through Instagram (@ardea_gardens) and experience what happens when botanical passion meets Irish landscape – a garden that will capture your imagination and change how you see what's possible in Ireland's climate. This is gardening without boundaries, where plants tell stories of distant lands while creating something uniquely, magically Irish.
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Until next week
Happy gardening
John
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
how's it going, everybody, and welcome to
episode 278 of master, my gardenpodcast.
Now, this week's episode, we'regoing back to the open garden
features.
So this is this will be thethird open garden that we
feature this year, and it's anexciting one.
Again, it's a garden I haven'tvisited.
It's quite a new garden interms of you know how long it
has been, I suppose, in themaking, but it's a garden that's
(00:36):
down in West Cork and it'scalled our day a garden and it
has a lot of features that aregoing to be kind of unusual and,
I suppose, different toprevious open gardens that we
would have featured.
So we have a lot of open gardens.
They have, I suppose, manygardens within gardens, but the
scale of this garden is quitebig, the fact that there's a lot
(00:57):
of different elements to it, sosome native, some rainforest, I
guess, and, yeah, it's going tobe an interesting one and
certainly different to previousopen gardens we would have
featured.
And so I'm delighted to bejoined by Paul and Daniel from
Ardea Garden and they're goingto tell us the story of it and
we're going to, you know, hearall about the garden and and
(01:19):
where people can find it andvisit it.
So, paul and Daniel, you'revery, very welcome to master my
garden podcast, thank you thankyou, thanks for having us you
know, problems.
So, yeah, as as I mentioned,it's, it's probably a garden
that's going to be slightlydifferent to the other open
gardens.
A lot of other other opengardens we've featured.
They tend to have, you know,the the traditional borders and
(01:41):
so on, and and this garden, fromlooking at it, has elements of
that.
But there's also it's also, youknow, slightly different and
and it'll be a garden that willcapture people's imagination.
So tell us about it.
I know you're, you guys areonly there three years, so maybe
tell us about the sort oforigins of it and what you found
(02:01):
when you got there on on dayone well, uh, day one, let's see
.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
It was halloween 2021 and I, I, uh, I flew over from
barcelona for three nights anduh lip, who uh, designed the
entire place and was theshepherd of the land since about
2000, took me to a summit thathe had created which, when you
stand on the top of it, you cansee all of the Ivora Mountains
(02:28):
and both Barrow Ranges, 360.
There's the Wild Atlantic inthe distance, the full Kenmare
River and, of course, we havethis incredible view of Le Hood
Harbor, which only a coupleothers get around here, and
that's all surrounded by theLansdowne Trust rainforest.
Our day was a definite stretchof rainforest.
(02:48):
You know, back in the yonderyear, when we arrived, it was
bracken and briar, and trying topeek out through the shrubs we
could see were thousands ofexotic plants that he had
imported from rainforests aroundthe world, especially New
(03:08):
Zealand, australia, tasmania, inparticular.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Chile, Japan, Argentina.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
We have so many things that grow only in Tokyo
and, of course, the westerncoast of the United States, and
they were all about, you know,10 to 20 years old, so very
mature specimens.
We had, you know, mike whofounded Future Forest yeah, he
joked that Flip kept him inbusiness for a few years but
also gardeners and students ofgardening.
(03:36):
If they come, you get to seeshrubs that are normally in
Irish hedges and things andaround the world that have been
untouched for 20 years now.
10, 20 years, they're huge.
I mean, you know things thatshould be three feet normally
are 15 feet tall and they allkind of competed for light, so
it was just like an overgrownjungle.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Yeah, and we can get into it more.
But one of the unique thingsabout our garden is we have some
things that are here that weresold years ago in Ireland and
people weren't sure that theywere going to take.
And they have taken and they'vebecome very mature and
established and blooming and sopeople are shocked to see you
know even the things like bottlebrush we have.
(04:20):
We have some very unusualcolors and varieties of bottle
brush that you wouldn't seetypically.
You know ornamental roadieswhich are popping now, which
just are so stunning that youknow just stuff that you just
don't see.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
But when we first saw it again, you know october, and
then we came back in decemberwe really didn't know.
We knew that, yeah, it was asacred 11 acres, like you know.
You start at the top, you getget a view of, you know old
Ireland.
There's the Ivora and you cansee the tallest peak.
And you know Ireland, it givesgood.
You know commercial Americanswill love the view.
It's perfect.
(04:52):
And this stone cottage is aperfect Irish stone cottage.
We just renovated every inch.
But then you go down 11 acres onthis road.
He carved out this manliterally sculpted 70% of the
land like clay.
He made five drainage pondsdown one side of the land into
the rainforest, with paths thatsnake around like the infinity
(05:14):
sign all the way down, bothsides, all planted, all crazy
shrubs.
There's a Japanese this,there's a Japanese that.
Oh, look at that rare tree,look at that rare pine.
Just, I mean, spent so much onjust plant, over-planting, quite
frankly, over-planting, yeah,yeah.
And then you get to the middleof the.
We have a belt of rainforestthat goes across the land, which
(05:36):
is like a different.
There's kind of like you know,people say, 11 little areas in
the whole, like private parkswithin the parks.
So then you get down to ameadow.
There's an entire bamboo forestthat you can walk through, with
paths and kids could have likea tea I mean tea party and then
there's a huge swimming pondthat he made, a beautiful
(05:58):
swimming pond.
It was a swamp and he dammed upa wall nine feet and it has an
island in it and it's surroundedby stones all the way around
and azaleas line the path androadies above that for full
lines.
And then there's a kind ofChinese garden, which is all
(06:19):
this stonework that he bulldozedin at the very bottom,
stonework that he bulldozed inat the very bottom, including
the Lehud River.
We have a waterfall at the verybottom of the land and another
ornamental pond for, just likehuge yellow and pink lotuses in
bloom all summer, and he reallysculpted this.
(06:40):
He had this vision for thispark and some of the old stone
walls meander through it.
Still we're uncovering those, Imean every week.
Uh, when our head gardener,brendan grant, is here and jacob
hayes is associate, we all fourwork on the land like monster
tyrannosaurus rex is trying tosave plants.
We find like, oh my godchristmas yeah, another
(07:04):
staircase.
Oh look, a stone circle oh, Imean there are.
So he did so much and we'restill like archaeologists
uncovering it every day, butwe've done a brutal cut of the
land of everything now, minuslike one tiny corner.
It's just so much.
Gorse it, it's hard to do.
And this year, really, twoyears now of light, we have
(07:28):
azaleas, rows of azaleasblooming because they've never
had light.
Just like you know, 50 metersof all pink and then all light
pink and then white.
It's just, it's stunning.
It's stunning.
And, as you know, right nowwe've had this incredible April.
Yeah, and as you know, rightnow, we've had this incredible
April.
We're at this weird crossoverwhere we have camellias still in
(07:50):
bloom and we have hundreds ofcamellia trees red, the candy
stripe ones, pink, triple pinks,triple whites, all these weird
exotic camellias that he orderedfrom California, because why
not?
And the azaleas are in fullbloom and the roadies are
popping everywhere and we haveornamental roadies, as paul said
(08:10):
yellow, deep purple, blazingorange, uh, red lipstick red.
Uh, it's a.
It's absolutely.
We cannot believe that we foundthis and now the blue are out
and, yeah, bluebell carpetseverywhere.
You know, uh, we we're sograteful to this man and just
the fact that we can share itwith people now.
(08:33):
And we always said to him whenwe bought it we will honor your
vision, we will be stewards tothe public.
Yeah, you know, and we'vealready had two weddings and
we're starting to have guestsnow and, uh, we do a tea.
You know, tea room and coffee,but it is about the land.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
It's such an amazing piece of land and starting like
from the summit, as youmentioned, it's, it's the, it's
the postcards american view fromthe top of the hill and I
suppose that in itself, from anir, in an ir, an Irish context,
it's probably, on one hand, it'sgoing to be a harsh environment
(09:09):
, but on the other hand, it'sgoing to be an environment where
only a garden like this, in theposition that it's in, can grow
the array of plants that you'retalking about, because you know
, for the rest of the country, alot of what you're talking
about is just not possible.
You have the benefit of thecountry.
A lot of what you're talkingabout is just not possible.
You have the benefit of the.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
The rainforest.
Rainforest, yeah, living hereon vera with a, with a transmit
atlantic breeze, kind of endingits massive cycle here.
Let's hope that doesn't change.
Yeah, global warming terrors um, we do.
We get a whole differentecosystem, especially in the
middle of the land, at the top,because the rainforest breaks at
the bottom of the land.
We, you know, we get nippedevery now and then.
We've lost four mature mimosatrees from mayan since we
(09:51):
arrived it.
You know, moving here as naiveamericans, no one could have
explained to us what the windactually, yeah, yeah, no, like I
said to my mom lesson I thinkI'm like mom the wind is like
lava.
It will destroy everything inits path when it's really salty.
You know, and this yearactually, that the story of the
second storm that hit Galway wasnot as bad for us.
(10:14):
The December storm was muchworse because the wind came from
one day and then, like anotherday later, it came from the
exact opposite way and thingsjust got double.
You know, and we, we actuallyhad to prune about 20 huge
bushes I mean, they shouldn't bebushes anyway, but you know, we
lost a lot.
We lost a lot this year, andyou know, and so we're also
(10:36):
learning about planting and you.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
You mentioned that there was certain plants that
shouldn't be the size they are,but the fact that they've been
left, uh over, overcrowded, overplanted and they have sort of
developed to abnormal type size.
Let's talk about some of those.
What, what plants are wetalking about?
What's?
Speaker 3 (10:55):
well, I mean, the one of the ones which we have to
control is hypericum.
I mean, we have hypericumbushes which are, like you know,
one and a half story buildings.
What is the cranberry plant,palma?
We're not good on our Latinnames.
Everyone can now laugh at us.
We don't know the names of thatplant yet.
We're learning as fast as wecan.
One of the most exciting ones,of course, was the wallamie tree
(11:18):
.
We had a 33-foot wallamie treewe think it was the tallest in
ireland but it fell in the stormbecause we lost that wet soil.
Um what the?
The very common hedge bush inireland.
Forgive me, I don't know thename, but we have a 27 foot
specimen of a hedge bushgrenovia no, I'm getting it
wrong grenicia, um grazilia,grazilia, gracilinia gracilinia
(11:44):
yeah, yeah, yeah and it's what,how tall 27 feet tall.
Oh wow, that's insane.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
And even like some of the giant rhod of of being on a
slope.
Is that oftentimes with theview you're at the treetop,
which you don't often get to bein a canopy?
Yeah, just because you're on ahill, you're looking at it from
a different perspective.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Rather than looking up at the trees, you're looking,
often looking down yeah, wellwhich is pretty interesting yeah
, I said it's amazing and theopportunity now, as you sort of
clear, for under planting anddeep shade planting I'm sure is.
I guess there was underplanting done anyway, but did
(12:35):
all that survive?
Speaker 3 (12:37):
There was a lot of.
You know there's a.
There's a road like anindustrial road that he built
for you know like our tractorgets through to.
So he did a lot.
I mean, we have an entireheather hill but he put heather
everywhere.
There's heather and bloom here365 days a year.
If there's an exotic heather,we have a patch of it.
So there's kind of an underheather on the trail.
Every tree is marked by acamellia.
(12:57):
But it is true with the, withthe kind of out of control
hydrangeas, some of the very outof control New Zealand flaxes
and some exotic ones that onlygrow right on the sea, when you
finally start to clean them up,yes, we've seen so many calla
lilies are coming up that wedidn't know they just haven't
(13:18):
got light.
Whole patches of astilbe, everycolor of astilbe you can
imagine, from the pink to thered to the white chocolate
astilbe.
So there was a lot of borderplanting done and it's just
springing up naturally.
This year I think we must havehad about 500 may apples that
just they hadn't had light andwe, we cleared a brush and
(13:39):
they're like we are here, wesurvive.
Same with the calla lilies,which is, uh, you know, very an
exquisite plant, aren't they um?
Speaker 2 (13:46):
it's also not unusual , when we're clearing, that we
come upon an area where theplants are still in pots yeah,
so he basically bedded them inand left them.
So oftentimes it's, you know,just kind of figuring out how we
get the pot out or do we justlet it go, you know, because
they've naturalized in and andand that.
Um, what's happened with theway that it was?
(14:08):
It was planted was often areaswere planted in the left, so
thus the pots and then thebracken comes in, and then the
brambles come in, and then itjust when we came here, most of
it was almost like a three-footwall of bramble.
So once that got cleared, we'refinding the.
The ivies come in, thebluebells come up.
(14:28):
It's really like this year isprobably the first year that
we've actually seen the lightand the air which was like
really necessary to actually seewhat happens with the canopy um
, and there's a a whole array ofof surprises, then I guess yeah
so that that kind ofundergrowth, that hedge, is
coming in.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
And um, we've also been focusing on, you know,
framing.
There's um, we have about 13different.
We have 27 eucalyptus total butwe've about 13, you know, 13, I
think, different types.
There are all these subtledifferences, like the camouflage
eucalyptus, the papereucalyptus, and then we have um,
we have two cunning hemias.
You know the cunning hehamiapine, yeah, yeah, they look like
(15:11):
Dr Seuss trees.
We've got two of those thatjust needed love, light and help
to be seen and shaped.
We have about forgive me, Idon't know all the names we have
about three other Japanesepines.
They're one-offs, they're fromDr Seuss land and we've had a
few gardeners in saying, okay,we need to get way more light to
(15:31):
that.
Take that oak, branch down.
There's still a lot ofemergency pruning.
Yesterday we have a little.
He built a canyon that runsaround the back garden just
because why not build a ninefoot canyon with stone on both
sides and a stone floor and thenan island of ornamental roadies
that we had never even knownuntil this year.
We were like, wait a second,that island that we is in bloom.
So you know, lifting the trees.
(15:52):
Then you go, oh, there'sanother baby exotic pine which
hasn't got light, you know.
So there's, I think, a few moreyears of discovery.
I mean, you know the, thetenacity of plants to survive
even in horrific, underovergrowth, is amazing.
But, um, we that's the reason weopened in september, our first
day, and I have to say, ourfriends in uh at darine gardens
(16:15):
have been very kind and sent usguests, because we're a great
dialogue, the two of us, youknow.
You can stop by them, have alunch, do the garden, have a
lunch with them great lunch, aswe all know too.
Yeah, uh, go, jamie and uh popover to us in the afternoon.
It's a great, you know.
Or stop at helen's if you wantto even feed the tank.
Um, it's a and they've beengood to us too.
(16:36):
And and, like darine, in certainareas it's you just, it's a
meadow and then a 30 foot, um,you know, giant rhododendron,
it's not, it's not so plantedlike every inch, it's much more
of a wild garden.
And you go, oh, I'm suddenly ina rainforest.
Oh, now I'm in a bamboo area.
Oh, now I'm in this kind of zengarden.
(16:57):
Oh, no, now I'm in a swimmingpond.
It really has, like thesedifferent languages, people who
have looked at it for weddings.
They've all had such differentchoices of what environment,
what weird little fantasy scenethey want for their wedding, and
we think that's the best thingabout the garden is you really
feel like you're visiting 13little parks 13 little gardens
(17:17):
in a larger park.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Yeah, and you have these totally different
experiences across them.
So if you're, if you're in abamboo forest and a few minutes
later you're in the azalea walkor the literally yeah you know,
if you need shade, we have amassive cliff that we've cleaned
off.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
That goes down ornamental pond I call it pride
rock.
You can sit there under a pinetree and just stare at 5 000
dragonflies and fish we got.
We got great little fish and,uh, there's always herons.
And we've got some local duckswho are brave the mink.
They don't sleep here but theybrave the minks enough.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Yeah, incredible wildlife.
Speaking of the mink, yes,incredible wildlife.
We've been urged to get a nightcamera, a night vision camera,
so we've been putting that outjust to see what happens at the
strange hours of the night, andwe've got footage of badgers and
obviously tons of deer comethrough and badgers and pine
martins and incredible birds andducks and herons.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Sometimes our neighbor's cows, and eagles come
by.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
We have eagles in the adjacent.
We've had a visiting pig.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
He enjoyed the greenhouse.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
So it's always a surprise what we see.
That's interesting that you saythat and it was a question that
I was going to come to.
So we always hear this debateof native versus non-native, in
terms of you know, biodiversityand so on, and I wondered how
you know or what you know.
Biodiversity, stroke wildlife,you get in there, but I think
(18:52):
you've created or there has beena habitat created there and
naturally the different birdsand insects and so on will start
to populate that.
So you've mentioned some ofthem there.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
So obviously you have ponds, so I'm sure there's lots
of frogs in the in the area aload yeah, the tadpole season is
adorable and we, the localschool likes us to donate some
tadpoles and, yeah, some eelsand um, there's a great.
There's a few different aquaticwildlife things.
Even around the sunroom we'resitting in right now, he put a
pond all the way around so youcan see that, and that has such
(19:30):
incredible fish and frogseverywhere and, of course, the
birds are.
Therefore, an amazing insects,yeah it helps that, again, the
rainforest is right there, so alot of migrating animals pop
down in the rainforest.
We have a lot of other foodoptions for them to know and,
yeah, yeah, our friend the deerdo love some of our flowers.
Therefore, we have done awalled, we've done a fenced in
(19:53):
garden as well.
He didn't do cutting flowersquite as much, so we've put in a
big cutting flower garden thatwe hope, as they get healthy and
what can survive the snails inthis country and slugs, we'll
move more cut flowers down inthe land slowly.
You know, succession of bloom365 days a year is the goal.
Yeah, we can't have bloom hereyear-round, which is amazing,
(20:14):
but uh, we have found that theuh wildlife lower at the bottom
part of the land, which is muchmore wild, you know.
They run across the stream,they're in the dureen rainforest
where no one can go, andcertainly no one's, you know,
hunting or endangering, and andthere's the odd dog.
But even with all the dogs thatwalk the land, we love to have
dog visitors as well, obviously.
Please just pick up after yourdog and just to get back to
(20:37):
there's wildlife everywhereEvery day it's just teeming and
the migrating birds you know inthe Merlin app.
Yeah, merlin app is brilliant.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Oh Merlin app is brilliant, oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
And you can track the change now with Merlin, when
the new migrations come in.
Yesterday I had I don't knowwhat it is, I'm not a bird
person, forgive me.
I mean I have no knowledge, butthere was a yellow and black
speckled bird in my fruit cage.
Wow, cheeky chatty.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
But I have never seen a bird like this in my life.
I thought you must be passingthrough on your way to aruba or
something, because you do notbelong here.
Wow, um, so yeah, the marylandlap is brilliant.
I've, uh, like we, we don't getwhere I am in the midlands a
lot colder, probably not gettingthe.
We get a different mix of ofbirds, but it is really
interesting to see what's what'sthere and to hear the different
timings and sounds of the birds.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Is is incredible and I'm not sure if it's, if it's
better in the morning or in theevening yeah, it's, it's
different morning and eveningand it's, it's funny, there's,
there's a great tit here.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Uh well, just several of them, but it's almost always
at the same time, between half10 and half 11 in the day, and
it's this particular chirp andit's, it's just incredible, it's
like.
It's like as if it's a clock.
It's, you know, it does themorning sound, it transitions to
the sort of noon sound and thento the evening sound, and it's
(21:58):
different through all of those.
You know, they all have theircircadian rhythms or whatever it
is, and it's it's differenthour to hour and and, uh, yeah,
it's, it's incredible, see, butobviously the mix that you guys
are going to have down therewould be probably a lot
different to what I have hereyou know, our neighbor is a a
(22:18):
birdophile and, uh, he walks theland almost every morning with
his daughter.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Uh, because he says there's just such a rich
collection.
You know, most of the landaround us is farmland.
We just happen to be in thisbelt, so we know that for bird
watchers there's a real, it's anideal situation.
I also want to shout out thatwe have a great selection of
tree ferns as well.
(22:43):
I know there's a lot of peopleout there who love their tree
ferns.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
I imagine, yeah, you hadn't mentioned them up until
now, but yeah, that's what Ithought.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
I should mention also on the opposite side of that
coin, we have some ganera.
We're keeping some of it, butman, we're still wrestling it.
You know, some people are like,are you keeping all that ganera
?
It's like well, do you want toget the shovel and choke it out
from behind?
Yeah, we try not to use anysort of poison, obviously, but
uh, so the the land is still inprocess of there's.
We have years of briar andbracken and ganera to tame, but
(23:12):
the tree ferns, they're amazing.
They all got very singed bythat storm this year.
There was so much salt in theair, but they're all blossoming
with new growth.
All the japanese maples haveopened.
We found so many japanesemaples that were struggling and
now they're glorious.
And, and we also have some goodborrowed scenery.
I have to say our neighbor hasthe most perfect cows and
(23:33):
pastures.
That's what you want.
And then there's lambs andsheep.
And shout out to our neighbor,sean, who does the Nocatee
Creamery and does thataward-winning blue cheese, oh,
yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
So that's our yeah, so it is the perfect postcard
setting and it's well.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
You know, if you want vip homemade cheese, we can get
your local beef, we can getyour local pig.
It's it.
It's an amazing community outhere.
It's an amazing community and,of course, it's great that
kenmare is just right there.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
But so you mentioned quite a few of the plants and
and the surprises that arecoming up.
Um, just to go back to the, youmentioned the natural swimming
pool.
What sort of what state wasthat in, I guess, when, when you
guys got there, and, and, and?
How is it now?
Speaker 2 (24:19):
well, we have um.
When we first came in, we wereso um excited to be able to jump
in and not realizing how coldit was it's straight from
knockety mountain it's pictureperfect now, although we had, um
, we had a battle with parrotgrass, which is an invasive
grass which has a very long rootand floats on the top.
So we're realizing, by the endof the battle with parrot grass,
which is an invasive grasswhich has a very long root and
floats on the top, so we'rerealizing, by the end of the
(24:41):
summer, the parrot grass hasdone its job and is trying to
choke everything out, eat theentire pond.
So we had a massive workday withfriends and basically used
flotations and surfboards andpaddles and went out and
collected as much as we couldwith rakes and have composted it
successfully and we found thatover winter it sort of licked
(25:04):
the problem at all.
Everything that was loosenedcame to the side and it has been
taken out and the pond rightnow is absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Oh, it's black glass.
It's black glass.
You can see all of the azaleablooms, it all reflected around
it, you know.
But let's also have thisdiscussion again in August,
because paragraphs is tenacious,and let's see if we've truly
beat it to the level we thinkwe've beat it, or if it's a
secret monster waiting to rearits ugly head again, sort of
(25:33):
like the American government.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Sorry, but just it's going to peep up anyway, it's
going to have a go at comingback, but still, you probably
have.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
You know, in that swim pond we've also got it.
He's put an amazing patch oflotus flowers, which are
gorgeous yellow lotus.
They're just blooming now andwe've got a bulrush.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
Oh, wait, wait, and around the pond too.
I'm sorry.
September is also a great monthin Ireland, as we know.
I can't choose my favorite yet.
April's pretty good, but he'sdone pink and beige lilies all
around the pond Again, likemirror.
Wow, just so intelligent, sowell thought out in a way, but
(26:12):
just desperate for light andspace.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Was there a plan to the garden originally?
Do you know?
Speaker 3 (26:18):
absolutely not.
No, no, no.
We wish there was and we lovewhere it is now, but and we were
told, like entire hillsides,like that was heather for five
years and now it's you knowmassive road, like he also just
ripped things out and put themin.
And ripped them out and putthem in yeah, right.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Finally, belts of plants uh, sort of as the truck
went down the property and theplants ran out and put them in,
and ripped them out and put themin.
There were definitely belts ofplants, sort of as the truck
went down the property and theplants ran out and then
something else started.
So we've been actually mixingthings up and we're starting
propagation.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
We have a plan sort of for the road to be fair.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
And I did want to shout out.
We also another gargantuanplant.
Sorry when you put me on thespot all my names breeze but our
Pires collection is kind ofunbelievable.
Unusually tall I mean hugespecimens.
We have a mother oak whose Mikeestimates around 250 to 300
years old.
She's the oldest tree on theland.
She has an entire forest ofPires underneath her.
(27:12):
So you know, the Pires is sucha good plant, doesn't it?
You get the flowers pouring outlike that looks like bubbles of
champagne, smells like jasmineto me, and then you get the new
baby white growth and red.
So we have entire walls ofPiri's mixed with redwood and
then azalea below.
It's that those species aresome of the gargantuans that
(27:35):
have just not been touched, thatpeople don't normally let go so
insane, and those seem planned.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Those seem planned.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
I mean there were moments of obviously foresight
with the road, that kind ofconnects it.
But sometimes you're just likeand now?
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Some of it's just mad .
You see two things next to oneanother and you're just like
that's mad.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
But it works.
And you know, mike, again,again, I want to shout out to
mike from future forest.
When he came to the land firsthe said it is mad, but this is
what makes it so unique we neversee two species that mature who
have grown around each other.
He's a giant rota, yeah, so heconifer through the middle yeah,
so he really encouraged us totry to work with the things when
(28:17):
we can and trying to takethings out, and that sometimes
gives you just some crazycombinations of things jutting
out of other things.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
But hey, eccentricity start it sounds like something
that we're we're definitely notused to seeing here.
It's, I would imagine, very,very unique in in terms of
anywhere else in ireland I wouldthink it's an absolute.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
And you know the thing that so many people have
said when they come becausewe've had quite a few garden
clubs already come and a lotthis somehow the french garden
clubs found us and they're allcoming we're very happy.
It's a gardener's garden, ifthat makes sense.
Yeah, and we're so humble whengardeners come because we didn't
dedicate our lives to theknowledge of plants and things.
I mean, I grew up on a sheepfarm.
(29:05):
He ran a sheep farm, but we're,you know, like working class
men from, not from, gardens, andyou know we love people ID
stuff for us.
Or you know, we are alwaystrying to learn about the garden
, but we've had so manyprofessional gardeners come and
go.
Oh my God, I've never seensomething that size.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Take a snip.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
Yeah, yeah.
And also we have.
When we're just finding thisthis year, we realized we have
about nine epic manukas.
We just thought they were treesthat were pretty and flowered.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
And then we learned from a gardener last year.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Like those are manuka bushes, like he's like, but
they're trees and the bees lovethem.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
White and red, yeah, and and we've now all does bees,
yeah.
So, yeah, I saw on yourinstagram you have bees, so
that's one thing the bramble wasprobably good for is the bees
and we've left some of it.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
We've left some of the bramble, yeah yeah, and
you're mixing in.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
You're mixing in manuka now as well.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
So this is this is a supercharged honey it's gonna be
the best honey for all thelocals to keep the colds away
and, yeah, we'll serve it to allthe guests who stay in the
cottage.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Yeah, so tell us about a sort of you're still in
the process, I guess, foranother little while of
uncovering and you're going tofind things popping up and and
and give them more surprises.
What's the kind of plan overthe next two, three, four years,
you know, with, with?
Speaker 2 (30:28):
the garden.
I'd say we finally haveprobably um we've probably
reached the bramble and thebracken.
Um We've probably reached thebramble and the bracken project
is pretty much under control.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
I would disagree.
I would say we'll have itresolved in two to three years.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
And the ornamental roadie was a big concern because
that's a problem down here.
Yeah, we realize now InvasiveI'm sorry the invasive roadie
and we sort of went to a lot ofthe workshops and kind of got
nervous and bit our nails thatwe'd have to cut everything out.
But we realized that mostthings that he's planted is
ornamental.
So we have very few.
So we've been flagging theinvasive species now, so when we
(31:07):
have time we can cut anderadicate that.
And then we're working on apropagation plan so we can
propagate some of these rarethings with softwood cuttings
and seed saving seeds and thenhopefully be able to sell that.
That's kind of yeah, I wouldwant to be.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
yeah I would say in two to three years.
Uh, building on that, um, wereally are working on
propagation and um expanding thesuccession of bloom across the
land.
I want people to walk on thisland at any point and beautiful
things are in bloom, and alsofrom the flower kingdom as well,
not just bushes and trees.
(31:46):
But then that business plan hasto come back to.
This is a garden where wewanted to have community events.
We want to have an open teahouse once a month.
Philip was a jazz player and weknow so many local musicians.
I'm in the music world on somelevel so we'd like to have
community events where peopleare really coming out using the
tea room, the guest house wehope is filled and having.
(32:11):
You know, we know that we'regoing to host some basket
weaving classes because peoplewant the reeds that we have on
the land.
Do you know?
People already asked if theycould come and do flower classes
.
So we're looking at how we haveplanning permission for a kind
of barn garage.
You know we'll have an extracommunity space where people can
be and hopefully we'll be doingunforgettable weddings by an
(32:36):
opera director with flowers andunforgettable stays for people
who really we prefer people comereally, for you know, three or
four nights is what we'd like,because also tusis is a divine
base for all of the ivora andvera peninsula and you know as
an irishman, anything down hereis an hour drive.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
You know.
So to go over to Shell's Garden, Kel's Garden, over in the tip
of the Ivora, you know that's aday trip from here Waterville,
skellig, derry, gaines, sneem,gap of Dunloe, killarney
National Park our perfect littledesigner village, Kenmare, you
know and then even going down toGlen Gariff Gardens or Bantry
(33:18):
House.
Everything's an hour, you know.
So we hope people will see itas a base where they can really
settle down.
But you don't have to also gofar.
We've had a few people come andjust stay here for a week and
just walk the garden everysingle day.
Also, at the end of our road,it's a little cul-de-sac,
there's a coushine, an awesomelittle coushine beach.
(33:39):
I shouldn't give that secretaway, the locals would be upset.
But uh, it gives good, you canwalk along the harbor as well at
the bottom.
So it's not the only place towalk out here, do you know,
there's really speciallandscapes.
And again, darine is rightclose to us.
So hopefully in three yearswe'll have the garden in a place
where, again, the bracken andbriar are totally under control
if that's human, possible to saythose words out loud and the
(34:01):
paths are all cleared and allsafe.
You know, we want to do some were-cement, some old stone cases
, relay some old stone cases.
I do have to say one funnything is he wanted the property
to immediately look ancient.
So all the staircases he laid,which were many, he laid kind of
like ancient rotting stonestaircases he laid, which were
many.
He laid kind of like ancientrotting stone staircases on a on
skellig island.
(34:22):
But the problem for modernguests is going up and down
gravity death trap, even thoughthey look romantic.
So we're gonna have to get johnand the bulldozer and at some
point and redo some amazingstairs.
We're very useful places, butwith a little bit more health
and safety in mind overaesthetics.
So we, you know, and that isyou can imagine we need to
repave the entire road, notrepave but re-turn it, surface
(34:46):
it.
You know it's also about cashand time and energy.
Yeah, and we're not, uh, we'renot retired millionaires, um,
but uh, we work really hard onthe land when we can.
There's also the thing calledrain and no shortage of it, you
know.
So some days are just houseworkand amidst all this, we are
(35:08):
renovating an entirethree-bedroom house, room by
room, slowly.
You know, the Irish renovationin Ireland takes time, takes
years, yeah, takes years yeah,yeah, yeah yeah, but uh, I
really hope in three years wecan look back and go.
We've done it.
It's open to the public.
Other people are coming toenjoy it, especially in the
summers.
The rooms for rent year round.
What's great is, with thesecession of bloom that he
(35:30):
already has.
One of the best months isdecember and january, because
the camellias explode andthere's so there's camellia
paths yeah, of just camelliasthat you walk on, or it looks
like all red hearts above yourhead, like alice in wonderland.
I mean when kids come they'rejust like.
I mean it's like where are thehobbits, where are the elves?
Speaker 1 (35:49):
you mentioned weddings and, uh, your game down
the line to get to get two andthree day events, uh, where's
have you held weddings already?
Speaker 3 (35:59):
yeah, we've had um a wedding.
Uh, one couple wanted to getmarried.
We had a, an old stone benchbend in the river.
It was lovely, all rainforestbehind you, yeah, and one couple
got married there.
And then another couple wantedto get married at the top of the
land, the summit, this lookout,there's this huge.
He had all these massive stonesbrought in like japanese,
sticking up like plinths andlying down like huge stone beds.
(36:23):
So another couple got marriedup there where again, you kind
of do 360 and there's all of theivora back of killarney they
had a druid wedding.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
Yeah, they had a druid wedding.
Wow, yeah, and uh yeah go.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Wow, yeah and yeah, go ahead.
And so you are.
You do you cater for?
For weddings We've had?
Speaker 3 (36:41):
we, we are it's all new to us, but we love that
people want to get married onthe land.
We, we know that we have afive-star honeymoon stone
cottage for them, done with thehighest Swiss finishes humanly
possible.
We loved interior design aswell.
You know a we loved interiordesign as well.
(37:01):
You know, a little bit of newyork comes to, comes to, uh, the
old irish stone cottage.
Yeah, we're very proud of that.
We think it's a really greatintimate space where people can
stay if they want to get married.
But some one of the couplesstayed here when they got
married.
Another couple was staying intown and got married here.
You know we can't sleep thewedding party, but that's great.
They can rent the lake housedown the road.
You know it sleeps 27.
But it's great on the land.
And we have this sunroom, whichwe've redone completely, which
(37:22):
is, you know, 50% glass, with abeautiful vaulted ceiling full
of banana trees and plants thatare always in flower, and that
is also a rain option, yeah,which, for an Irish wedding, is
a must.
It's important.
Yeah, yeah, which for an?
irish wedding is is a, is a amust.
It was important, yeah, yeah,so, and again, no, we wouldn't
do a wedding dinner, but we,we're already so, um, happily,
(37:45):
in dialogue with you know, dearhelen, who runs helen's bar and
she has so many wedding banquetsand parties, so we know that
there's food there.
Again, our two friends now runthe lake house.
I don't know if you know thelake house has been totally
renovated, didn't know?
Yeah, the lake house has beentotally renovated.
You can rent the whole thingprivately full kitchen, games
room.
They, you know, you order thealcohol and it can sleep, I
(38:05):
think, 27 people.
Now, you know, a walk from ourhouse, yeah, and then there's
kenmare, which, of course, youknow, if you, you, you can stay
at the park hotel, you can canstay at Sheen Falls Lodge.
There's so many differentplaces, so we've just found that
it's an we love, um, we.
What's, what's not amazing aboutwhat people wanted to get
(38:26):
married in your garden?
I mean, what's the ultimatecompliment?
That?
That this place can hold thatmemory for people.
And again, when we said to thisman, we're going to open your
garden, we meant it on thedeepest level.
So we really do hope peoplewill continue to seek us out for
weddings and we can be asinvolved with that as possible.
We do local flowers, flowersfor some of the locals, for some
(38:46):
of the businesses, so we canprovide all fresh flowers.
I'm not going to say native, Iwant to get back to that
conversation.
You asked a very importantquestion, but we can provide
flowers and foliage year round.
Do you know something's good?
Speaker 1 (39:00):
on on the wedding.
On the wedding, like if ifthere's some beautiful open
gardens in ireland, as you know,but there's a lot of weddings
go there for for the pictures,and but the a lot of them, the
pictures can end up being thesame, which is it's fine.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
It's still a beautiful picture.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
Some people exactly people want that but the
interesting thing I guess fromfrom your garden is that it's
going to be you're going to takea different picture pretty much
all year round, but also thefact that there's such unique
environments there you knowbamboo and there's going to be
pictures waterfall yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
Waterfall.
Wedding plans yeah.
Giant ready bloom yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
So it is a it is a distinct advantage that there's
so many endless possibilitiesand the picture could be
anywhere in the world, I guess,while still being while still
being here in Irelandireland.
So yeah it, it sounds like aunique selling point for for the
garden.
Speaker 3 (40:03):
So you mentioned getting back to the, the native,
native conversation so, ofcourse, you know, probably
before we moved here, we youknow within reason we had a
small city garden and plants inLondon.
Do you know?
I grew up in Ohio.
He grew up in Rhode Island.
We've been aware of nativeversus invasive, but we moved
(40:24):
here.
Of course, there's a passionatediscussion around native
gardening only and someimportant prizes given to people
who really believe in nativegardening.
Look, we bought a garden withthousands of specimens from
around the world.
we're not cutting them downnative on native yeah we are
doing our duty and cutting downthe invasive roadies.
(40:46):
Those are almost all gone now.
Um, we support rewilding.
We're rewilding an acre of ourland.
All around us is wild.
Um, but we, this is what, likethe gods dropped in our lap and
we are so proud of it.
And you know, one can carefullyand responsibly display plants
(41:06):
from other places and nothing wehave on the land.
Um, besides, ganera, which isnot just uniquely to us, is
going to um blaze across irelandand cause a plague of purple
rhododendrons.
Do you know what I mean?
Yeah, yeah, I really wanted toshout out we support native.
We love our neighbor as kind ofthe king of rewilding.
Um, two of our neighbors justbought a 100 acre farm up the
(41:27):
road and, uh, they're going torewild big chunk of it.
It's such a good response tothe silliness of the soft pines
going up, the pines going up soquickly.
That should have all beenrewilded years ago with oaks.
Um, we got um from.
We got 50 native trees thisyear from the tree project and
free irish trees, yeah, which is, which is a great yeah, so
(41:49):
we've just put 50 native treesin and um.
we're certainly not importing alot of new exotic things from
future forests.
Really, frankly, we don't needto buy plants.
That's the problem.
We haven't there's enough.
The only thing we bought againis a much larger array of bulbs
for spring blooms and summerplants, again for the locals and
(42:11):
if we do weddings, to have aplentitude, the irises are just
coming up with buds.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
And dahlias and peony .
We were putting in, by you know, first year for the peonies oh
my lord, they're amazing.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
Right now, the peonies exploding, yeah and
imagine peony, you're gonna add.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
You're gonna add, yeah, serious color and a
different type of color.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
I guess with, with the that's it and that goes back
to your three-year plan.
I hope that we, in three years,we've got a lot more summer
color at the bottom of the land,just everywhere.
I mean, just turn the cornerand there's a huge packs of uh,
lupine, do you know?
Speaker 1 (42:46):
yeah, yeah it's not simple little things yeah, just
to just to close off on the onthe discussion on native it's.
Uh, I always find thediscussion interesting because
in your scenario, as you said,you're, you're landed in in here
, you're not going to go cuttingout everything, and but I
always find that the the debateis is too polarized.
(43:09):
It's either one or the otherand I think the, the, the truth,
like most things, the truth issomewhere in the middle, and
that's why I asked the questionearlier in relation to nature
and biodiversity, what wasappearing, because I think that
kind of gives you a goodindication of if the ecosystem,
that is, your garden, is workingor not, and it sounds like it
(43:33):
certainly is I totally agreewith you.
Speaker 3 (43:35):
I feel like we provide home and space to
probably way more animals thanall the fields around us, and
the rainforest is there.
They know they're safe here andthere's so many places for them
to be safe here.
And especially when we saw thepine marten twice one at the top
, one at the bottom I thinkthat's one of our rarest
(43:56):
creatures, isn't it?
Yeah, one one of the top, oneat the bottom, I think that's
one of our rarest creatures,isn't it?
Yeah, you know, if pine martinsare saying hi to you when you
walk out the door at night that,uh, it's healthy habitat, I
would argue.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
And yeah, no, it sounds that way for sure.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
It sounds that way for sure I think also to get
back onto the, the nativespecies um topic, I think when
we first came, I think you'llagree that when we first came,
we were very excited about whatwe had purchased here, with all
the imported stuff and thenon-native stuff.
And then we read we startedbeing hardcore reading about the
(44:30):
, this movement to bring thingsback to the old irish,
traditional, native and um.
So immediately we thought, geez, we got to put up nine foot
fences around the whole propertyand, how you know, get rid of
all the invasive stuff and get,keep the deer out.
And you know, in hindsight it'sreally to us it's more about
the balance.
You really live in a place now.
(44:51):
We don't live in Ireland 200years ago.
We live in a place where theclimate is different, the rain
acidity is different, theweather is different, the
temperatures are different andplants that lived a hundred
years ago are not.
They're not all still here.
Things are changing and thedeer are not going away.
We're never going to eradicateall the deer and and so we have
(45:12):
to.
Like you know, it sounds kindof Pollyanna, but we have to
live in a world with with allthis diversity and and yes,
there's invasives and we need tocontrol them, but we're never
going to live in Ireland 300years ago.
Yeah, I don't believe it and Iwould.
Speaker 3 (45:27):
I would support Paula .
You know, I, and I know thatone of the leading gardeners in
Ireland also walks thatbeautiful line of understanding
that there's a duality, there'sa fusion, just as the natural
history of animals is migrationand species, and we do
intermingle and we do intermix.
(45:49):
Nation made even more rich byall of us who have moved here,
and Ireland's borders havealways been so open.
So I think it's, of course, Ithink it's beautiful that you
can come and you can see youknow our soft Chinese pines oh,
one of my favorite things in theland that this kind of droop
and hit the ground like dragonsand grow back up, that you can
come and see that.
(46:10):
And it's not native but it'scontrolled, it's watched after.
And it's not native but it'scontrolled, it's watched after
and it's a piece of, you know,world nature.
We are all citizens of theworld now.
Speaker 1 (46:19):
So I think careful, responsible planting is
definitely what, what, what wesupport yeah, I think that's
well said responsible planting,and if in your scenario it's an
existing, an existing collectionof plants, it's about
stewardship of that and uh, yeah, that means we are slicing all
(46:40):
the invasive brodies down.
Speaker 3 (46:41):
I just, you know we are making an exception, yeah,
yeah, we don't want anyone tocome here and be like you've got
the invasive, like all right.
Speaker 1 (46:46):
Yeah, it sounds.
It sounds like an amazing placeand you know, sounds like
there's more amazing things tocome.
You know, between the, thevariety of garden or the variety
of spaces is phenomenal,because it's definitely not
something that you will seeanywhere else, I don't think in
ireland I do want to stress too,for people with different
(47:09):
physical abilities, the mainroad is a.
Speaker 3 (47:11):
It's a hike, you know .
We also take a few rests on theway up and down.
You can get down in a half hour, you can get back up in a half
hour, no problem.
We've also had people come andspend four hours, if you really
go on every trail and stop andsit and enjoy, which we prefer.
But we also have a series of afew older neighbors, grandmas,
who come with the grandkids, andwe have four paths right at the
(47:33):
top of the house that all wraparound to the Flower Garden
Polytunnel.
He did a shade path that's allstoned.
He did the Island Rhododendronpath and then there's a wisteria
walkway with rose walls that'srestored, and then there's an
all shade camellia path.
And all of these paths all muchmore level or just right near
(47:54):
the parking lot and allintertwined, yeah and all
intertwined and like we'vereally found that for some kids
and and people with less stablelegs they can get around, that
that can be an amazing slow,gentle hour of round.
And I do want to nod out,because we, or in families who
are differently abled, that wealso have a CF moto with you
(48:14):
know, with clear walls, and wetake people up and down who
can't walk all the time andwe're happy by that service If
an appointment is booked.
It's really important to usthat the art, the um, the garden
is open to differently abledpeople.
It's a passionate theme forboth of us in our life.
Speaker 1 (48:30):
Sure, and so the garden is open by appointment.
Is that kind of the preference?
Speaker 3 (48:35):
yeah, please, if you can get us on instagram, ardea,
underscore gardens, uh, or mywebsite and facebook, we're on
yeah, we're on facebook too, mywebsite, daniel kramer director.
Also, you can contact me, butthe instagram is the way to go.
Ardea underscore gardens.
Follow us, send us a messageand, uh, the website's being
built right now because finally,again, we're getting
(48:57):
photographs of the land actuallyin full bloom, yeah, and so the
website will be up and we'll beable to do bookings, a specific
, the calendar will be on thewebsite and you know all those
things connecting to bookingcomand stuff.
Speaker 1 (49:09):
But uh, yeah, and you'll have.
I guess you you're open forgarden groups.
You mentioned some.
I guess you're open for gardengroups.
You mentioned some have visitedalready, so open for garden
groups.
Speaker 3 (49:17):
Yeah, we got the Kinnemare Garden coming on
Saturday.
Speaker 2 (49:20):
We've got two French groups coming in June.
In June, larger groups yeah.
Speaker 3 (49:24):
Yeah, up about 20 people.
I prefer tours of six.
Like me at the front, him atthe back.
Some people don't want a chattyAmerican in their ear the whole
time.
Follow the road, don't fall onslippery rocks, yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:37):
Sounds amazing.
Sounds like you're going to getlots of different experiences
within the garden, not justduring your singular visit, but
over a period of you know, ifyou visit a couple of times
during the year, you're going toget different experiences,
absolutely.
Speaker 3 (49:54):
Yeah, our neighbor ladies.
We got three women who walk theland every single morning and I
think that's a testament toit's a.
It's a chameleon, it's justalive.
It's like a living painting,constantly shifting.
Speaker 1 (50:06):
Yeah I'd imagine from the overview from the, from the
peak where you're looking downon the garden, that look must be
phenomenal at certain times ofthe year as well well, also with
with the shameful knocketyright in the background of it
and the dorine rainforest, andof course you know the birch are
purple in the winter.
Speaker 3 (50:24):
Then you get the bright yellow green of spring
and I mean the whole canopy andthe sky and we can see the top
of hungry hill we saw dolphinsout there.
Yes, yeah, porpoises yesterdayhaving a heyday with some fish
that was migrating.
We keep having a jumping fishin this pond right now too uh,
so sounds amazing.
Speaker 1 (50:43):
It sounds like a garden that everybody should
should visit.
If you are visiting, just uhcontact the guys on instagram,
especially if you're bringinggroups.
And yeah, you're open, open allyear round.
I guess, with that, with thatamount of variety, why not?
Speaker 3 (50:59):
we're open all year round.
There's a little parking lot,no driving on the land, and uh,
give us an email.
If you can give us an instagram, drop into our dms.
I believe that's that's that'swhat we say.
Speaker 1 (51:11):
Yeah, um, it's been.
It's been a really interestingchat.
Sounds like phenomenal garden.
Um, really nice to hear agarden that had, you know, had
been neglected for a period oftime and now getting some tlc,
and to hear of the of the littlesurprises that keep popping up,
and I'm sure there'll be moreof those to come.
(51:32):
So, paul and danielle, has beenreally interesting chat and
thank you very much for comingon.
Master, my Garden podcast.
Speaker 2 (51:37):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (51:40):
So that's been this week's episode.
Yeah, sounds like an amazingplace.
You know there isn't a garden.
I wouldn't think anywhere inIreland that you're going to get
the variety of, you know,different views, different
plants.
Um, while it sounds like theplanting was a little bit
chaotic, that chaos I guess hasled to experiences and views and
(52:01):
pictures that you're not goingto see anywhere else the
different collections of plantsthe you know.
Even in the pond there was thetwo different colored lilies.
I think that go around theoutside.
You know little things likethat.
They sound like reallypicture-perfect moments that you
won't get anywhere else.
I don't think.
So you can check out our day ofgarden on Instagram.
(52:24):
The link is in the show notes.
And that's been this week'sepisode.
Thanks for listening and untilthe next time, happy gardening
(52:44):
you.
how's it going, everybody, and welcome to
episode 278 of master, my gardenpodcast.
Now, this week's episode, we'regoing back to the open garden
features.
So this is this will be thethird open garden that we
feature this year, and it's anexciting one.
Again, it's a garden I haven'tvisited.
It's quite a new garden interms of you know how long it
has been, I suppose, in themaking, but it's a garden that's
(00:36):
down in West Cork and it'scalled our day a garden and it
has a lot of features that aregoing to be kind of unusual and,
I suppose, different toprevious open gardens that we
would have featured.
So we have a lot of open gardens.
They have, I suppose, manygardens within gardens, but the
scale of this garden is quitebig, the fact that there's a lot
(00:57):
of different elements to it, sosome native, some rainforest, I
guess, and, yeah, it's going tobe an interesting one and
certainly different to previousopen gardens we would have
featured.
And so I'm delighted to bejoined by Paul and Daniel from
Ardea Garden and they're goingto tell us the story of it and
we're going to, you know, hearall about the garden and and
(01:19):
where people can find it andvisit it.
So, paul and Daniel, you'revery, very welcome to master my
garden podcast, thank you thankyou, thanks for having us you
know, problems.
So, yeah, as as I mentioned,it's, it's probably a garden
that's going to be slightlydifferent to the other open
gardens.
A lot of other other opengardens we've featured.
They tend to have, you know,the the traditional borders and
(01:41):
so on, and and this garden, fromlooking at it, has elements of
that.
But there's also it's also, youknow, slightly different and
and it'll be a garden that willcapture people's imagination.
So tell us about it.
I know you're, you guys areonly there three years, so maybe
tell us about the sort oforigins of it and what you found
(02:01):
when you got there on on dayone well, uh, day one, let's see
.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
It was halloween 2021 and I, I, uh, I flew over from
barcelona for three nights anduh lip, who uh, designed the
entire place and was theshepherd of the land since about
2000, took me to a summit thathe had created which, when you
stand on the top of it, you cansee all of the Ivora Mountains
(02:28):
and both Barrow Ranges, 360.
There's the Wild Atlantic inthe distance, the full Kenmare
River and, of course, we havethis incredible view of Le Hood
Harbor, which only a coupleothers get around here, and
that's all surrounded by theLansdowne Trust rainforest.
Our day was a definite stretchof rainforest.
(02:48):
You know, back in the yonderyear, when we arrived, it was
bracken and briar, and trying topeek out through the shrubs we
could see were thousands ofexotic plants that he had
imported from rainforests aroundthe world, especially New
(03:08):
Zealand, australia, tasmania, inparticular.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Chile, Japan, Argentina.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
We have so many things that grow only in Tokyo
and, of course, the westerncoast of the United States, and
they were all about, you know,10 to 20 years old, so very
mature specimens.
We had, you know, mike whofounded Future Forest yeah, he
joked that Flip kept him inbusiness for a few years but
also gardeners and students ofgardening.
(03:36):
If they come, you get to seeshrubs that are normally in
Irish hedges and things andaround the world that have been
untouched for 20 years now.
10, 20 years, they're huge.
I mean, you know things thatshould be three feet normally
are 15 feet tall and they allkind of competed for light, so
it was just like an overgrownjungle.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Yeah, and we can get into it more.
But one of the unique thingsabout our garden is we have some
things that are here that weresold years ago in Ireland and
people weren't sure that theywere going to take.
And they have taken and they'vebecome very mature and
established and blooming and sopeople are shocked to see you
know even the things like bottlebrush we have.
(04:20):
We have some very unusualcolors and varieties of bottle
brush that you wouldn't seetypically.
You know ornamental roadieswhich are popping now, which
just are so stunning that youknow just stuff that you just
don't see.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
But when we first saw it again, you know october, and
then we came back in decemberwe really didn't know.
We knew that, yeah, it was asacred 11 acres, like you know.
You start at the top, you getget a view of, you know old
Ireland.
There's the Ivora and you cansee the tallest peak.
And you know Ireland, it givesgood.
You know commercial Americanswill love the view.
It's perfect.
(04:52):
And this stone cottage is aperfect Irish stone cottage.
We just renovated every inch.
But then you go down 11 acres onthis road.
He carved out this manliterally sculpted 70% of the
land like clay.
He made five drainage pondsdown one side of the land into
the rainforest, with paths thatsnake around like the infinity
(05:14):
sign all the way down, bothsides, all planted, all crazy
shrubs.
There's a Japanese this,there's a Japanese that.
Oh, look at that rare tree,look at that rare pine.
Just, I mean, spent so much onjust plant, over-planting, quite
frankly, over-planting, yeah,yeah.
And then you get to the middleof the.
We have a belt of rainforestthat goes across the land, which
(05:36):
is like a different.
There's kind of like you know,people say, 11 little areas in
the whole, like private parkswithin the parks.
So then you get down to ameadow.
There's an entire bamboo forestthat you can walk through, with
paths and kids could have likea tea I mean tea party and then
there's a huge swimming pondthat he made, a beautiful
(05:58):
swimming pond.
It was a swamp and he dammed upa wall nine feet and it has an
island in it and it's surroundedby stones all the way around
and azaleas line the path androadies above that for full
lines.
And then there's a kind ofChinese garden, which is all
(06:19):
this stonework that he bulldozedin at the very bottom,
stonework that he bulldozed inat the very bottom, including
the Lehud River.
We have a waterfall at the verybottom of the land and another
ornamental pond for, just likehuge yellow and pink lotuses in
bloom all summer, and he reallysculpted this.
(06:40):
He had this vision for thispark and some of the old stone
walls meander through it.
Still we're uncovering those, Imean every week.
Uh, when our head gardener,brendan grant, is here and jacob
hayes is associate, we all fourwork on the land like monster
tyrannosaurus rex is trying tosave plants.
We find like, oh my godchristmas yeah, another
(07:04):
staircase.
Oh look, a stone circle oh, Imean there are.
So he did so much and we'restill like archaeologists
uncovering it every day, butwe've done a brutal cut of the
land of everything now, minuslike one tiny corner.
It's just so much.
Gorse it, it's hard to do.
And this year, really, twoyears now of light, we have
(07:28):
azaleas, rows of azaleasblooming because they've never
had light.
Just like you know, 50 metersof all pink and then all light
pink and then white.
It's just, it's stunning.
It's stunning.
And, as you know, right nowwe've had this incredible April.
Yeah, and as you know, rightnow, we've had this incredible
April.
We're at this weird crossoverwhere we have camellias still in
(07:50):
bloom and we have hundreds ofcamellia trees red, the candy
stripe ones, pink, triple pinks,triple whites, all these weird
exotic camellias that he orderedfrom California, because why
not?
And the azaleas are in fullbloom and the roadies are
popping everywhere and we haveornamental roadies, as paul said
(08:10):
yellow, deep purple, blazingorange, uh, red lipstick red.
Uh, it's a.
It's absolutely.
We cannot believe that we foundthis and now the blue are out
and, yeah, bluebell carpetseverywhere.
You know, uh, we we're sograteful to this man and just
the fact that we can share itwith people now.
(08:33):
And we always said to him whenwe bought it we will honor your
vision, we will be stewards tothe public.
Yeah, you know, and we'vealready had two weddings and
we're starting to have guestsnow and, uh, we do a tea.
You know, tea room and coffee,but it is about the land.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
It's such an amazing piece of land and starting like
from the summit, as youmentioned, it's, it's the, it's
the postcards american view fromthe top of the hill and I
suppose that in itself, from anir, in an ir, an Irish context,
it's probably, on one hand, it'sgoing to be a harsh environment
(09:09):
, but on the other hand, it'sgoing to be an environment where
only a garden like this, in theposition that it's in, can grow
the array of plants that you'retalking about, because you know
, for the rest of the country, alot of what you're talking
about is just not possible.
You have the benefit of thecountry.
A lot of what you're talkingabout is just not possible.
You have the benefit of the.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
The rainforest.
Rainforest, yeah, living hereon vera with a, with a transmit
atlantic breeze, kind of endingits massive cycle here.
Let's hope that doesn't change.
Yeah, global warming terrors um, we do.
We get a whole differentecosystem, especially in the
middle of the land, at the top,because the rainforest breaks at
the bottom of the land.
We, you know, we get nippedevery now and then.
We've lost four mature mimosatrees from mayan since we
(09:51):
arrived it.
You know, moving here as naiveamericans, no one could have
explained to us what the windactually, yeah, yeah, no, like I
said to my mom lesson I thinkI'm like mom the wind is like
lava.
It will destroy everything inits path when it's really salty.
You know, and this yearactually, that the story of the
second storm that hit Galway wasnot as bad for us.
(10:14):
The December storm was muchworse because the wind came from
one day and then, like anotherday later, it came from the
exact opposite way and thingsjust got double.
You know, and we, we actuallyhad to prune about 20 huge
bushes I mean, they shouldn't bebushes anyway, but you know, we
lost a lot.
We lost a lot this year, andyou know, and so we're also
(10:36):
learning about planting and you.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
You mentioned that there was certain plants that
shouldn't be the size they are,but the fact that they've been
left, uh over, overcrowded, overplanted and they have sort of
developed to abnormal type size.
Let's talk about some of those.
What, what plants are wetalking about?
What's?
Speaker 3 (10:55):
well, I mean, the one of the ones which we have to
control is hypericum.
I mean, we have hypericumbushes which are, like you know,
one and a half story buildings.
What is the cranberry plant,palma?
We're not good on our Latinnames.
Everyone can now laugh at us.
We don't know the names of thatplant yet.
We're learning as fast as wecan.
One of the most exciting ones,of course, was the wallamie tree
(11:18):
.
We had a 33-foot wallamie treewe think it was the tallest in
ireland but it fell in the stormbecause we lost that wet soil.
Um what the?
The very common hedge bush inireland.
Forgive me, I don't know thename, but we have a 27 foot
specimen of a hedge bushgrenovia no, I'm getting it
wrong grenicia, um grazilia,grazilia, gracilinia gracilinia
(11:44):
yeah, yeah, yeah and it's what,how tall 27 feet tall.
Oh wow, that's insane.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
And even like some of the giant rhod of of being on a
slope.
Is that oftentimes with theview you're at the treetop,
which you don't often get to bein a canopy?
Yeah, just because you're on ahill, you're looking at it from
a different perspective.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Rather than looking up at the trees, you're looking,
often looking down yeah, wellwhich is pretty interesting yeah
, I said it's amazing and theopportunity now, as you sort of
clear, for under planting anddeep shade planting I'm sure is.
I guess there was underplanting done anyway, but did
(12:35):
all that survive?
Speaker 3 (12:37):
There was a lot of.
You know there's a.
There's a road like anindustrial road that he built
for you know like our tractorgets through to.
So he did a lot.
I mean, we have an entireheather hill but he put heather
everywhere.
There's heather and bloom here365 days a year.
If there's an exotic heather,we have a patch of it.
So there's kind of an underheather on the trail.
Every tree is marked by acamellia.
(12:57):
But it is true with the, withthe kind of out of control
hydrangeas, some of the very outof control New Zealand flaxes
and some exotic ones that onlygrow right on the sea, when you
finally start to clean them up,yes, we've seen so many calla
lilies are coming up that wedidn't know they just haven't
(13:18):
got light.
Whole patches of astilbe, everycolor of astilbe you can
imagine, from the pink to thered to the white chocolate
astilbe.
So there was a lot of borderplanting done and it's just
springing up naturally.
This year I think we must havehad about 500 may apples that
just they hadn't had light andwe, we cleared a brush and
(13:39):
they're like we are here, wesurvive.
Same with the calla lilies,which is, uh, you know, very an
exquisite plant, aren't they um?
Speaker 2 (13:46):
it's also not unusual , when we're clearing, that we
come upon an area where theplants are still in pots yeah,
so he basically bedded them inand left them.
So oftentimes it's, you know,just kind of figuring out how we
get the pot out or do we justlet it go, you know, because
they've naturalized in and andand that.
Um, what's happened with theway that it was?
(14:08):
It was planted was often areaswere planted in the left, so
thus the pots and then thebracken comes in, and then the
brambles come in, and then itjust when we came here, most of
it was almost like a three-footwall of bramble.
So once that got cleared, we'refinding the.
The ivies come in, thebluebells come up.
(14:28):
It's really like this year isprobably the first year that
we've actually seen the lightand the air which was like
really necessary to actually seewhat happens with the canopy um
, and there's a a whole array ofof surprises, then I guess yeah
so that that kind ofundergrowth, that hedge, is
coming in.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
And um, we've also been focusing on, you know,
framing.
There's um, we have about 13different.
We have 27 eucalyptus total butwe've about 13, you know, 13, I
think, different types.
There are all these subtledifferences, like the camouflage
eucalyptus, the papereucalyptus, and then we have um,
we have two cunning hemias.
You know the cunning hehamiapine, yeah, yeah, they look like
(15:11):
Dr Seuss trees.
We've got two of those thatjust needed love, light and help
to be seen and shaped.
We have about forgive me, Idon't know all the names we have
about three other Japanesepines.
They're one-offs, they're fromDr Seuss land and we've had a
few gardeners in saying, okay,we need to get way more light to
(15:31):
that.
Take that oak, branch down.
There's still a lot ofemergency pruning.
Yesterday we have a little.
He built a canyon that runsaround the back garden just
because why not build a ninefoot canyon with stone on both
sides and a stone floor and thenan island of ornamental roadies
that we had never even knownuntil this year.
We were like, wait a second,that island that we is in bloom.
So you know, lifting the trees.
(15:52):
Then you go, oh, there'sanother baby exotic pine which
hasn't got light, you know.
So there's, I think, a few moreyears of discovery.
I mean, you know the, thetenacity of plants to survive
even in horrific, underovergrowth, is amazing.
But, um, we that's the reason weopened in september, our first
day, and I have to say, ourfriends in uh at darine gardens
(16:15):
have been very kind and sent usguests, because we're a great
dialogue, the two of us, youknow.
You can stop by them, have alunch, do the garden, have a
lunch with them great lunch, aswe all know too.
Yeah, uh, go, jamie and uh popover to us in the afternoon.
It's a great, you know.
Or stop at helen's if you wantto even feed the tank.
Um, it's a and they've beengood to us too.
(16:36):
And and, like darine, in certainareas it's you just, it's a
meadow and then a 30 foot, um,you know, giant rhododendron,
it's not, it's not so plantedlike every inch, it's much more
of a wild garden.
And you go, oh, I'm suddenly ina rainforest.
Oh, now I'm in a bamboo area.
Oh, now I'm in this kind of zengarden.
(16:57):
Oh, no, now I'm in a swimmingpond.
It really has, like thesedifferent languages, people who
have looked at it for weddings.
They've all had such differentchoices of what environment,
what weird little fantasy scenethey want for their wedding, and
we think that's the best thingabout the garden is you really
feel like you're visiting 13little parks 13 little gardens
(17:17):
in a larger park.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Yeah, and you have these totally different
experiences across them.
So if you're, if you're in abamboo forest and a few minutes
later you're in the azalea walkor the literally yeah you know,
if you need shade, we have amassive cliff that we've cleaned
off.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
That goes down ornamental pond I call it pride
rock.
You can sit there under a pinetree and just stare at 5 000
dragonflies and fish we got.
We got great little fish and,uh, there's always herons.
And we've got some local duckswho are brave the mink.
They don't sleep here but theybrave the minks enough.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Yeah, incredible wildlife.
Speaking of the mink, yes,incredible wildlife.
We've been urged to get a nightcamera, a night vision camera,
so we've been putting that outjust to see what happens at the
strange hours of the night, andwe've got footage of badgers and
obviously tons of deer comethrough and badgers and pine
martins and incredible birds andducks and herons.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Sometimes our neighbor's cows, and eagles come
by.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
We have eagles in the adjacent.
We've had a visiting pig.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
He enjoyed the greenhouse.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
So it's always a surprise what we see.
That's interesting that you saythat and it was a question that
I was going to come to.
So we always hear this debateof native versus non-native, in
terms of you know, biodiversityand so on, and I wondered how
you know or what you know.
Biodiversity, stroke wildlife,you get in there, but I think
(18:52):
you've created or there has beena habitat created there and
naturally the different birdsand insects and so on will start
to populate that.
So you've mentioned some ofthem there.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
So obviously you have ponds, so I'm sure there's lots
of frogs in the in the area aload yeah, the tadpole season is
adorable and we, the localschool likes us to donate some
tadpoles and, yeah, some eelsand um, there's a great.
There's a few different aquaticwildlife things.
Even around the sunroom we'resitting in right now, he put a
pond all the way around so youcan see that, and that has such
(19:30):
incredible fish and frogseverywhere and, of course, the
birds are.
Therefore, an amazing insects,yeah it helps that, again, the
rainforest is right there, so alot of migrating animals pop
down in the rainforest.
We have a lot of other foodoptions for them to know and,
yeah, yeah, our friend the deerdo love some of our flowers.
Therefore, we have done awalled, we've done a fenced in
(19:53):
garden as well.
He didn't do cutting flowersquite as much, so we've put in a
big cutting flower garden thatwe hope, as they get healthy and
what can survive the snails inthis country and slugs, we'll
move more cut flowers down inthe land slowly.
You know, succession of bloom365 days a year is the goal.
Yeah, we can't have bloom hereyear-round, which is amazing,
(20:14):
but uh, we have found that theuh wildlife lower at the bottom
part of the land, which is muchmore wild, you know.
They run across the stream,they're in the dureen rainforest
where no one can go, andcertainly no one's, you know,
hunting or endangering, and andthere's the odd dog.
But even with all the dogs thatwalk the land, we love to have
dog visitors as well, obviously.
Please just pick up after yourdog and just to get back to
(20:37):
there's wildlife everywhereEvery day it's just teeming and
the migrating birds you know inthe Merlin app.
Yeah, merlin app is brilliant.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Oh Merlin app is brilliant, oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
And you can track the change now with Merlin, when
the new migrations come in.
Yesterday I had I don't knowwhat it is, I'm not a bird
person, forgive me.
I mean I have no knowledge, butthere was a yellow and black
speckled bird in my fruit cage.
Wow, cheeky chatty.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
But I have never seen a bird like this in my life.
I thought you must be passingthrough on your way to aruba or
something, because you do notbelong here.
Wow, um, so yeah, the marylandlap is brilliant.
I've, uh, like we, we don't getwhere I am in the midlands a
lot colder, probably not gettingthe.
We get a different mix of ofbirds, but it is really
interesting to see what's what'sthere and to hear the different
timings and sounds of the birds.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Is is incredible and I'm not sure if it's, if it's
better in the morning or in theevening yeah, it's, it's
different morning and eveningand it's, it's funny, there's,
there's a great tit here.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Uh well, just several of them, but it's almost always
at the same time, between half10 and half 11 in the day, and
it's this particular chirp andit's, it's just incredible, it's
like.
It's like as if it's a clock.
It's, you know, it does themorning sound, it transitions to
the sort of noon sound and thento the evening sound, and it's
(21:58):
different through all of those.
You know, they all have theircircadian rhythms or whatever it
is, and it's it's differenthour to hour and and, uh, yeah,
it's, it's incredible, see, butobviously the mix that you guys
are going to have down therewould be probably a lot
different to what I have hereyou know, our neighbor is a a
(22:18):
birdophile and, uh, he walks theland almost every morning with
his daughter.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Uh, because he says there's just such a rich
collection.
You know, most of the landaround us is farmland.
We just happen to be in thisbelt, so we know that for bird
watchers there's a real, it's anideal situation.
I also want to shout out thatwe have a great selection of
tree ferns as well.
(22:43):
I know there's a lot of peopleout there who love their tree
ferns.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
I imagine, yeah, you hadn't mentioned them up until
now, but yeah, that's what Ithought.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
I should mention also on the opposite side of that
coin, we have some ganera.
We're keeping some of it, butman, we're still wrestling it.
You know, some people are like,are you keeping all that ganera
?
It's like well, do you want toget the shovel and choke it out
from behind?
Yeah, we try not to use anysort of poison, obviously, but
uh, so the the land is still inprocess of there's.
We have years of briar andbracken and ganera to tame, but
(23:12):
the tree ferns, they're amazing.
They all got very singed bythat storm this year.
There was so much salt in theair, but they're all blossoming
with new growth.
All the japanese maples haveopened.
We found so many japanesemaples that were struggling and
now they're glorious.
And, and we also have some goodborrowed scenery.
I have to say our neighbor hasthe most perfect cows and
(23:33):
pastures.
That's what you want.
And then there's lambs andsheep.
And shout out to our neighbor,sean, who does the Nocatee
Creamery and does thataward-winning blue cheese, oh,
yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
So that's our yeah, so it is the perfect postcard
setting and it's well.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
You know, if you want vip homemade cheese, we can get
your local beef, we can getyour local pig.
It's it.
It's an amazing community outhere.
It's an amazing community and,of course, it's great that
kenmare is just right there.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
But so you mentioned quite a few of the plants and
and the surprises that arecoming up.
Um, just to go back to the, youmentioned the natural swimming
pool.
What sort of what state wasthat in, I guess, when, when you
guys got there, and, and, and?
How is it now?
Speaker 2 (24:19):
well, we have um.
When we first came in, we wereso um excited to be able to jump
in and not realizing how coldit was it's straight from
knockety mountain it's pictureperfect now, although we had, um
, we had a battle with parrotgrass, which is an invasive
grass which has a very long rootand floats on the top.
So we're realizing, by the endof the battle with parrot grass,
which is an invasive grasswhich has a very long root and
floats on the top, so we'rerealizing, by the end of the
(24:41):
summer, the parrot grass hasdone its job and is trying to
choke everything out, eat theentire pond.
So we had a massive workday withfriends and basically used
flotations and surfboards andpaddles and went out and
collected as much as we couldwith rakes and have composted it
successfully and we found thatover winter it sort of licked
(25:04):
the problem at all.
Everything that was loosenedcame to the side and it has been
taken out and the pond rightnow is absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Oh, it's black glass.
It's black glass.
You can see all of the azaleablooms, it all reflected around
it, you know.
But let's also have thisdiscussion again in August,
because paragraphs is tenacious,and let's see if we've truly
beat it to the level we thinkwe've beat it, or if it's a
secret monster waiting to rearits ugly head again, sort of
(25:33):
like the American government.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Sorry, but just it's going to peep up anyway, it's
going to have a go at comingback, but still, you probably
have.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
You know, in that swim pond we've also got it.
He's put an amazing patch oflotus flowers, which are
gorgeous yellow lotus.
They're just blooming now andwe've got a bulrush.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
Oh, wait, wait, and around the pond too.
I'm sorry.
September is also a great monthin Ireland, as we know.
I can't choose my favorite yet.
April's pretty good, but he'sdone pink and beige lilies all
around the pond Again, likemirror.
Wow, just so intelligent, sowell thought out in a way, but
(26:12):
just desperate for light andspace.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Was there a plan to the garden originally?
Do you know?
Speaker 3 (26:18):
absolutely not.
No, no, no.
We wish there was and we lovewhere it is now, but and we were
told, like entire hillsides,like that was heather for five
years and now it's you knowmassive road, like he also just
ripped things out and put themin.
And ripped them out and putthem in yeah, right.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Finally, belts of plants uh, sort of as the truck
went down the property and theplants ran out and put them in,
and ripped them out and put themin.
There were definitely belts ofplants, sort of as the truck
went down the property and theplants ran out and then
something else started.
So we've been actually mixingthings up and we're starting
propagation.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
We have a plan sort of for the road to be fair.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
And I did want to shout out.
We also another gargantuanplant.
Sorry when you put me on thespot all my names breeze but our
Pires collection is kind ofunbelievable.
Unusually tall I mean hugespecimens.
We have a mother oak whose Mikeestimates around 250 to 300
years old.
She's the oldest tree on theland.
She has an entire forest ofPires underneath her.
(27:12):
So you know, the Pires is sucha good plant, doesn't it?
You get the flowers pouring outlike that looks like bubbles of
champagne, smells like jasmineto me, and then you get the new
baby white growth and red.
So we have entire walls ofPiri's mixed with redwood and
then azalea below.
It's that those species aresome of the gargantuans that
(27:35):
have just not been touched, thatpeople don't normally let go so
insane, and those seem planned.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Those seem planned.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
I mean there were moments of obviously foresight
with the road, that kind ofconnects it.
But sometimes you're just likeand now?
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Some of it's just mad .
You see two things next to oneanother and you're just like
that's mad.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
But it works.
And you know, mike, again,again, I want to shout out to
mike from future forest.
When he came to the land firsthe said it is mad, but this is
what makes it so unique we neversee two species that mature who
have grown around each other.
He's a giant rota, yeah, so heconifer through the middle yeah,
so he really encouraged us totry to work with the things when
(28:17):
we can and trying to takethings out, and that sometimes
gives you just some crazycombinations of things jutting
out of other things.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
But hey, eccentricity start it sounds like something
that we're we're definitely notused to seeing here.
It's, I would imagine, very,very unique in in terms of
anywhere else in ireland I wouldthink it's an absolute.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
And you know the thing that so many people have
said when they come becausewe've had quite a few garden
clubs already come and a lotthis somehow the french garden
clubs found us and they're allcoming we're very happy.
It's a gardener's garden, ifthat makes sense.
Yeah, and we're so humble whengardeners come because we didn't
dedicate our lives to theknowledge of plants and things.
I mean, I grew up on a sheepfarm.
(29:05):
He ran a sheep farm, but we're,you know, like working class
men from, not from, gardens, andyou know we love people ID
stuff for us.
Or you know, we are alwaystrying to learn about the garden
, but we've had so manyprofessional gardeners come and
go.
Oh my God, I've never seensomething that size.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Take a snip.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
Yeah, yeah.
And also we have.
When we're just finding thisthis year, we realized we have
about nine epic manukas.
We just thought they were treesthat were pretty and flowered.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
And then we learned from a gardener last year.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Like those are manuka bushes, like he's like, but
they're trees and the bees lovethem.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
White and red, yeah, and and we've now all does bees,
yeah.
So, yeah, I saw on yourinstagram you have bees, so
that's one thing the bramble wasprobably good for is the bees
and we've left some of it.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
We've left some of the bramble, yeah yeah, and
you're mixing in.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
You're mixing in manuka now as well.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
So this is this is a supercharged honey it's gonna be
the best honey for all thelocals to keep the colds away
and, yeah, we'll serve it to allthe guests who stay in the
cottage.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Yeah, so tell us about a sort of you're still in
the process, I guess, foranother little while of
uncovering and you're going tofind things popping up and and
and give them more surprises.
What's the kind of plan overthe next two, three, four years,
you know, with, with?
Speaker 2 (30:28):
the garden.
I'd say we finally haveprobably um we've probably
reached the bramble and thebracken.
Um We've probably reached thebramble and the bracken project
is pretty much under control.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
I would disagree.
I would say we'll have itresolved in two to three years.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
And the ornamental roadie was a big concern because
that's a problem down here.
Yeah, we realize now InvasiveI'm sorry the invasive roadie
and we sort of went to a lot ofthe workshops and kind of got
nervous and bit our nails thatwe'd have to cut everything out.
But we realized that mostthings that he's planted is
ornamental.
So we have very few.
So we've been flagging theinvasive species now, so when we
(31:07):
have time we can cut anderadicate that.
And then we're working on apropagation plan so we can
propagate some of these rarethings with softwood cuttings
and seed saving seeds and thenhopefully be able to sell that.
That's kind of yeah, I wouldwant to be.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
yeah I would say in two to three years.
Uh, building on that, um, wereally are working on
propagation and um expanding thesuccession of bloom across the
land.
I want people to walk on thisland at any point and beautiful
things are in bloom, and alsofrom the flower kingdom as well,
not just bushes and trees.
(31:46):
But then that business plan hasto come back to.
This is a garden where wewanted to have community events.
We want to have an open teahouse once a month.
Philip was a jazz player and weknow so many local musicians.
I'm in the music world on somelevel so we'd like to have
community events where peopleare really coming out using the
tea room, the guest house wehope is filled and having.
(32:11):
You know, we know that we'regoing to host some basket
weaving classes because peoplewant the reeds that we have on
the land.
Do you know?
People already asked if theycould come and do flower classes
.
So we're looking at how we haveplanning permission for a kind
of barn garage.
You know we'll have an extracommunity space where people can
be and hopefully we'll be doingunforgettable weddings by an
(32:36):
opera director with flowers andunforgettable stays for people
who really we prefer people comereally, for you know, three or
four nights is what we'd like,because also tusis is a divine
base for all of the ivora andvera peninsula and you know as
an irishman, anything down hereis an hour drive.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
You know.
So to go over to Shell's Garden, Kel's Garden, over in the tip
of the Ivora, you know that's aday trip from here Waterville,
skellig, derry, gaines, sneem,gap of Dunloe, killarney
National Park our perfect littledesigner village, Kenmare, you
know and then even going down toGlen Gariff Gardens or Bantry
(33:18):
House.
Everything's an hour, you know.
So we hope people will see itas a base where they can really
settle down.
But you don't have to also gofar.
We've had a few people come andjust stay here for a week and
just walk the garden everysingle day.
Also, at the end of our road,it's a little cul-de-sac,
there's a coushine, an awesomelittle coushine beach.
(33:39):
I shouldn't give that secretaway, the locals would be upset.
But uh, it gives good, you canwalk along the harbor as well at
the bottom.
So it's not the only place towalk out here, do you know,
there's really speciallandscapes.
And again, darine is rightclose to us.
So hopefully in three yearswe'll have the garden in a place
where, again, the bracken andbriar are totally under control
if that's human, possible to saythose words out loud and the
(34:01):
paths are all cleared and allsafe.
You know, we want to do some were-cement, some old stone cases
, relay some old stone cases.
I do have to say one funnything is he wanted the property
to immediately look ancient.
So all the staircases he laid,which were many, he laid kind of
like ancient rotting stonestaircases he laid, which were
many.
He laid kind of like ancientrotting stone staircases on a on
skellig island.
(34:22):
But the problem for modernguests is going up and down
gravity death trap, even thoughthey look romantic.
So we're gonna have to get johnand the bulldozer and at some
point and redo some amazingstairs.
We're very useful places, butwith a little bit more health
and safety in mind overaesthetics.
So we, you know, and that isyou can imagine we need to
repave the entire road, notrepave but re-turn it, surface
(34:46):
it.
You know it's also about cashand time and energy.
Yeah, and we're not, uh, we'renot retired millionaires, um,
but uh, we work really hard onthe land when we can.
There's also the thing calledrain and no shortage of it, you
know.
So some days are just houseworkand amidst all this, we are
(35:08):
renovating an entirethree-bedroom house, room by
room, slowly.
You know, the Irish renovationin Ireland takes time, takes
years, yeah, takes years yeah,yeah, yeah yeah, but uh, I
really hope in three years wecan look back and go.
We've done it.
It's open to the public.
Other people are coming toenjoy it, especially in the
summers.
The rooms for rent year round.
What's great is, with thesecession of bloom that he
(35:30):
already has.
One of the best months isdecember and january, because
the camellias explode andthere's so there's camellia
paths yeah, of just camelliasthat you walk on, or it looks
like all red hearts above yourhead, like alice in wonderland.
I mean when kids come they'rejust like.
I mean it's like where are thehobbits, where are the elves?
Speaker 1 (35:49):
you mentioned weddings and, uh, your game down
the line to get to get two andthree day events, uh, where's
have you held weddings already?
Speaker 3 (35:59):
yeah, we've had um a wedding.
Uh, one couple wanted to getmarried.
We had a, an old stone benchbend in the river.
It was lovely, all rainforestbehind you, yeah, and one couple
got married there.
And then another couple wantedto get married at the top of the
land, the summit, this lookout,there's this huge.
He had all these massive stonesbrought in like japanese,
sticking up like plinths andlying down like huge stone beds.
(36:23):
So another couple got marriedup there where again, you kind
of do 360 and there's all of theivora back of killarney they
had a druid wedding.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
Yeah, they had a druid wedding.
Wow, yeah, and uh yeah go.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Wow, yeah and yeah, go ahead.
And so you are.
You do you cater for?
For weddings We've had?
Speaker 3 (36:41):
we, we are it's all new to us, but we love that
people want to get married onthe land.
We, we know that we have afive-star honeymoon stone
cottage for them, done with thehighest Swiss finishes humanly
possible.
We loved interior design aswell.
You know a we loved interiordesign as well.
(37:01):
You know, a little bit of newyork comes to, comes to, uh, the
old irish stone cottage.
Yeah, we're very proud of that.
We think it's a really greatintimate space where people can
stay if they want to get married.
But some one of the couplesstayed here when they got
married.
Another couple was staying intown and got married here.
You know we can't sleep thewedding party, but that's great.
They can rent the lake housedown the road.
You know it sleeps 27.
But it's great on the land.
And we have this sunroom, whichwe've redone completely, which
(37:22):
is, you know, 50% glass, with abeautiful vaulted ceiling full
of banana trees and plants thatare always in flower, and that
is also a rain option, yeah,which, for an Irish wedding, is
a must.
It's important.
Yeah, yeah, which for an?
irish wedding is is a, is a amust.
It was important, yeah, yeah,so, and again, no, we wouldn't
do a wedding dinner, but we,we're already so, um, happily,
(37:45):
in dialogue with you know, dearhelen, who runs helen's bar and
she has so many wedding banquetsand parties, so we know that
there's food there.
Again, our two friends now runthe lake house.
I don't know if you know thelake house has been totally
renovated, didn't know?
Yeah, the lake house has beentotally renovated.
You can rent the whole thingprivately full kitchen, games
room.
They, you know, you order thealcohol and it can sleep, I
(38:05):
think, 27 people.
Now, you know, a walk from ourhouse, yeah, and then there's
kenmare, which, of course, youknow, if you, you, you can stay
at the park hotel, you can canstay at Sheen Falls Lodge.
There's so many differentplaces, so we've just found that
it's an we love, um, we.
What's, what's not amazing aboutwhat people wanted to get
(38:26):
married in your garden?
I mean, what's the ultimatecompliment?
That?
That this place can hold thatmemory for people.
And again, when we said to thisman, we're going to open your
garden, we meant it on thedeepest level.
So we really do hope peoplewill continue to seek us out for
weddings and we can be asinvolved with that as possible.
We do local flowers, flowersfor some of the locals, for some
(38:46):
of the businesses, so we canprovide all fresh flowers.
I'm not going to say native, Iwant to get back to that
conversation.
You asked a very importantquestion, but we can provide
flowers and foliage year round.
Do you know something's good?
Speaker 1 (39:00):
on on the wedding.
On the wedding, like if ifthere's some beautiful open
gardens in ireland, as you know,but there's a lot of weddings
go there for for the pictures,and but the a lot of them, the
pictures can end up being thesame, which is it's fine.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
It's still a beautiful picture.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
Some people exactly people want that but the
interesting thing I guess fromfrom your garden is that it's
going to be you're going to takea different picture pretty much
all year round, but also thefact that there's such unique
environments there you knowbamboo and there's going to be
pictures waterfall yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
Waterfall.
Wedding plans yeah.
Giant ready bloom yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
So it is a it is a distinct advantage that there's
so many endless possibilitiesand the picture could be
anywhere in the world, I guess,while still being while still
being here in Irelandireland.
So yeah it, it sounds like aunique selling point for for the
garden.
Speaker 3 (40:03):
So you mentioned getting back to the, the native,
native conversation so, ofcourse, you know, probably
before we moved here, we youknow within reason we had a
small city garden and plants inLondon.
Do you know?
I grew up in Ohio.
He grew up in Rhode Island.
We've been aware of nativeversus invasive, but we moved
(40:24):
here.
Of course, there's a passionatediscussion around native
gardening only and someimportant prizes given to people
who really believe in nativegardening.
Look, we bought a garden withthousands of specimens from
around the world.
we're not cutting them downnative on native yeah we are
doing our duty and cutting downthe invasive roadies.
(40:46):
Those are almost all gone now.
Um, we support rewilding.
We're rewilding an acre of ourland.
All around us is wild.
Um, but we, this is what, likethe gods dropped in our lap and
we are so proud of it.
And you know, one can carefullyand responsibly display plants
(41:06):
from other places and nothing wehave on the land.
Um, besides, ganera, which isnot just uniquely to us, is
going to um blaze across irelandand cause a plague of purple
rhododendrons.
Do you know what I mean?
Yeah, yeah, I really wanted toshout out we support native.
We love our neighbor as kind ofthe king of rewilding.
Um, two of our neighbors justbought a 100 acre farm up the
(41:27):
road and, uh, they're going torewild big chunk of it.
It's such a good response tothe silliness of the soft pines
going up, the pines going up soquickly.
That should have all beenrewilded years ago with oaks.
Um, we got um from.
We got 50 native trees thisyear from the tree project and
free irish trees, yeah, which is, which is a great yeah, so
(41:49):
we've just put 50 native treesin and um.
we're certainly not importing alot of new exotic things from
future forests.
Really, frankly, we don't needto buy plants.
That's the problem.
We haven't there's enough.
The only thing we bought againis a much larger array of bulbs
for spring blooms and summerplants, again for the locals and
(42:11):
if we do weddings, to have aplentitude, the irises are just
coming up with buds.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
And dahlias and peony .
We were putting in, by you know, first year for the peonies oh
my lord, they're amazing.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
Right now, the peonies exploding, yeah and
imagine peony, you're gonna add.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
You're gonna add, yeah, serious color and a
different type of color.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
I guess with, with the that's it and that goes back
to your three-year plan.
I hope that we, in three years,we've got a lot more summer
color at the bottom of the land,just everywhere.
I mean, just turn the cornerand there's a huge packs of uh,
lupine, do you know?
Speaker 1 (42:46):
yeah, yeah it's not simple little things yeah, just
to just to close off on the onthe discussion on native it's.
Uh, I always find thediscussion interesting because
in your scenario, as you said,you're, you're landed in in here
, you're not going to go cuttingout everything, and but I
always find that the the debateis is too polarized.
(43:09):
It's either one or the otherand I think the, the, the truth,
like most things, the truth issomewhere in the middle, and
that's why I asked the questionearlier in relation to nature
and biodiversity, what wasappearing, because I think that
kind of gives you a goodindication of if the ecosystem,
that is, your garden, is workingor not, and it sounds like it
(43:33):
certainly is I totally agreewith you.
Speaker 3 (43:35):
I feel like we provide home and space to
probably way more animals thanall the fields around us, and
the rainforest is there.
They know they're safe here andthere's so many places for them
to be safe here.
And especially when we saw thepine marten twice one at the top
, one at the bottom I thinkthat's one of our rarest
(43:56):
creatures, isn't it?
Yeah, one one of the top, oneat the bottom, I think that's
one of our rarest creatures,isn't it?
Yeah, you know, if pine martinsare saying hi to you when you
walk out the door at night that,uh, it's healthy habitat, I
would argue.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
And yeah, no, it sounds that way for sure.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
It sounds that way for sure I think also to get
back onto the, the nativespecies um topic, I think when
we first came, I think you'llagree that when we first came,
we were very excited about whatwe had purchased here, with all
the imported stuff and thenon-native stuff.
And then we read we startedbeing hardcore reading about the
(44:30):
, this movement to bring thingsback to the old irish,
traditional, native and um.
So immediately we thought, geez, we got to put up nine foot
fences around the whole propertyand, how you know, get rid of
all the invasive stuff and get,keep the deer out.
And you know, in hindsight it'sreally to us it's more about
the balance.
You really live in a place now.
(44:51):
We don't live in Ireland 200years ago.
We live in a place where theclimate is different, the rain
acidity is different, theweather is different, the
temperatures are different andplants that lived a hundred
years ago are not.
They're not all still here.
Things are changing and thedeer are not going away.
We're never going to eradicateall the deer and and so we have
(45:12):
to.
Like you know, it sounds kindof Pollyanna, but we have to
live in a world with with allthis diversity and and yes,
there's invasives and we need tocontrol them, but we're never
going to live in Ireland 300years ago.
Yeah, I don't believe it and Iwould.
Speaker 3 (45:27):
I would support Paula .
You know, I, and I know thatone of the leading gardeners in
Ireland also walks thatbeautiful line of understanding
that there's a duality, there'sa fusion, just as the natural
history of animals is migrationand species, and we do
intermingle and we do intermix.
(45:49):
Nation made even more rich byall of us who have moved here,
and Ireland's borders havealways been so open.
So I think it's, of course, Ithink it's beautiful that you
can come and you can see youknow our soft Chinese pines oh,
one of my favorite things in theland that this kind of droop
and hit the ground like dragonsand grow back up, that you can
come and see that.
(46:10):
And it's not native but it'scontrolled, it's watched after.
And it's not native but it'scontrolled, it's watched after
and it's a piece of, you know,world nature.
We are all citizens of theworld now.
Speaker 1 (46:19):
So I think careful, responsible planting is
definitely what, what, what wesupport yeah, I think that's
well said responsible planting,and if in your scenario it's an
existing, an existing collectionof plants, it's about
stewardship of that and uh, yeah, that means we are slicing all
(46:40):
the invasive brodies down.
Speaker 3 (46:41):
I just, you know we are making an exception, yeah,
yeah, we don't want anyone tocome here and be like you've got
the invasive, like all right.
Speaker 1 (46:46):
Yeah, it sounds.
It sounds like an amazing placeand you know, sounds like
there's more amazing things tocome.
You know, between the, thevariety of garden or the variety
of spaces is phenomenal,because it's definitely not
something that you will seeanywhere else, I don't think in
ireland I do want to stress too,for people with different
(47:09):
physical abilities, the mainroad is a.
Speaker 3 (47:11):
It's a hike, you know .
We also take a few rests on theway up and down.
You can get down in a half hour, you can get back up in a half
hour, no problem.
We've also had people come andspend four hours, if you really
go on every trail and stop andsit and enjoy, which we prefer.
But we also have a series of afew older neighbors, grandmas,
who come with the grandkids, andwe have four paths right at the
(47:33):
top of the house that all wraparound to the Flower Garden
Polytunnel.
He did a shade path that's allstoned.
He did the Island Rhododendronpath and then there's a wisteria
walkway with rose walls that'srestored, and then there's an
all shade camellia path.
And all of these paths all muchmore level or just right near
(47:54):
the parking lot and allintertwined, yeah and all
intertwined and like we'vereally found that for some kids
and and people with less stablelegs they can get around, that
that can be an amazing slow,gentle hour of round.
And I do want to nod out,because we, or in families who
are differently abled, that wealso have a CF moto with you
(48:14):
know, with clear walls, and wetake people up and down who
can't walk all the time andwe're happy by that service If
an appointment is booked.
It's really important to usthat the art, the um, the garden
is open to differently abledpeople.
It's a passionate theme forboth of us in our life.
Speaker 1 (48:30):
Sure, and so the garden is open by appointment.
Is that kind of the preference?
Speaker 3 (48:35):
yeah, please, if you can get us on instagram, ardea,
underscore gardens, uh, or mywebsite and facebook, we're on
yeah, we're on facebook too, mywebsite, daniel kramer director.
Also, you can contact me, butthe instagram is the way to go.
Ardea underscore gardens.
Follow us, send us a messageand, uh, the website's being
built right now because finally,again, we're getting
(48:57):
photographs of the land actuallyin full bloom, yeah, and so the
website will be up and we'll beable to do bookings, a specific
, the calendar will be on thewebsite and you know all those
things connecting to bookingcomand stuff.
Speaker 1 (49:09):
But uh, yeah, and you'll have.
I guess you you're open forgarden groups.
You mentioned some.
I guess you're open for gardengroups.
You mentioned some have visitedalready, so open for garden
groups.
Speaker 3 (49:17):
Yeah, we got the Kinnemare Garden coming on
Saturday.
Speaker 2 (49:20):
We've got two French groups coming in June.
In June, larger groups yeah.
Speaker 3 (49:24):
Yeah, up about 20 people.
I prefer tours of six.
Like me at the front, him atthe back.
Some people don't want a chattyAmerican in their ear the whole
time.
Follow the road, don't fall onslippery rocks, yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:37):
Sounds amazing.
Sounds like you're going to getlots of different experiences
within the garden, not justduring your singular visit, but
over a period of you know, ifyou visit a couple of times
during the year, you're going toget different experiences,
absolutely.
Speaker 3 (49:54):
Yeah, our neighbor ladies.
We got three women who walk theland every single morning and I
think that's a testament toit's a.
It's a chameleon, it's justalive.
It's like a living painting,constantly shifting.
Speaker 1 (50:06):
Yeah I'd imagine from the overview from the, from the
peak where you're looking downon the garden, that look must be
phenomenal at certain times ofthe year as well well, also with
with the shameful knocketyright in the background of it
and the dorine rainforest, andof course you know the birch are
purple in the winter.
Speaker 3 (50:24):
Then you get the bright yellow green of spring
and I mean the whole canopy andthe sky and we can see the top
of hungry hill we saw dolphinsout there.
Yes, yeah, porpoises yesterdayhaving a heyday with some fish
that was migrating.
We keep having a jumping fishin this pond right now too uh,
so sounds amazing.
Speaker 1 (50:43):
It sounds like a garden that everybody should
should visit.
If you are visiting, just uhcontact the guys on instagram,
especially if you're bringinggroups.
And yeah, you're open, open allyear round.
I guess, with that, with thatamount of variety, why not?
Speaker 3 (50:59):
we're open all year round.
There's a little parking lot,no driving on the land, and uh,
give us an email.
If you can give us an instagram, drop into our dms.
I believe that's that's that'swhat we say.
Speaker 1 (51:11):
Yeah, um, it's been.
It's been a really interestingchat.
Sounds like phenomenal garden.
Um, really nice to hear agarden that had, you know, had
been neglected for a period oftime and now getting some tlc,
and to hear of the of the littlesurprises that keep popping up,
and I'm sure there'll be moreof those to come.
(51:32):
So, paul and danielle, has beenreally interesting chat and
thank you very much for comingon.
Master, my Garden podcast.
Speaker 2 (51:37):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (51:40):
So that's been this week's episode.
Yeah, sounds like an amazingplace.
You know there isn't a garden.
I wouldn't think anywhere inIreland that you're going to get
the variety of, you know,different views, different
plants.
Um, while it sounds like theplanting was a little bit
chaotic, that chaos I guess hasled to experiences and views and
(52:01):
pictures that you're not goingto see anywhere else the
different collections of plantsthe you know.
Even in the pond there was thetwo different colored lilies.
I think that go around theoutside.
You know little things likethat.
They sound like reallypicture-perfect moments that you
won't get anywhere else.
I don't think.
So you can check out our day ofgarden on Instagram.
(52:24):
The link is in the show notes.
And that's been this week'sepisode.
Thanks for listening and untilthe next time, happy gardening
(52:44):
you.
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