Helen’s Bay Walled Garden – A Venture in Vegetables
IGPS member and plants woman Lorraine Small has taken on a challenge in restoring a 4 acre walled garden in Helen’s Bay, County Down. Barely one year into the project the garden is already supplying some of Belfast’s top restaurants and selling at local markets. Her Head gardener David Cameron brings a wealth of experience […]
The Walled Garden at Helen’s Bay – A Venture in Vegetables
IGPS member and plants woman Lorraine Small has taken on the challenge of restoring the one acre Walled Garden at Helen’s Bay, County Down. Barely one year into the project the garden is already supplying some of Belfast’s top restaurants and selling at local markets. David Cameron runs an independent market gardening business from […]
Abbeywood? Absolutely!
Those gardens which please one far beyond expectations always make for an especially enjoyable day. This is how it was with Abbeywood Gardens near Chester in England. It is not the biggest of gardens one might visit; it is not as well known as other gardens in the area but I enjoyed it far more […]
Behaving Pheasantly!
Pheasants are a pleasure of our garden but not without their drawbacks. We have had them for several years and they have become relatively tame, appearing on time each morning, when I go to leave out the hens, and give them some rolled barley. They are always within reach in the garden during the day […]
A Pointed Reminder
My garden fork grew legs the other day, took off and vanished on me. Several frustrating walks around the garden failed to locate it so I went to the shed to find a replacement – perhaps, Mary’s short-handled one or even the sprong which I will occasionally use for light digging when the fork goes […]
A Super Surprise!
Not much was expected from the visit; it was simply to purchase a rose which bore our granddaughter’s name but it became a most enjoyable day. Rosa ‘Olivia Rose Austin’ is what drew us to David Austin Roses near Stoke-on-Trent while we were on a garden visiting holiday in England and we expected our visit […]
IGPS Munster has a New Lecture Venue
We are very excited to tell you we are moving to Northridge House in Blackrock. There is plenty of onsite parking, the building is fully wheelchair accessible, has comfy seats, a sound system, air conditioning, and best of all, tea and coffee making facilities. Northridge House (at St. Luke’s Home), Castle Rd, Mahon, Cork For […]
Blooming Bodnant!
We started a week of garden visits, based in Chester, with a visit to Bodnant Gardens in north Wales. It had been quite a few years since we visited – a planned visit two years ago had to be cancelled as I spent the holiday in hospital in Chester! – and we had previously only […]
Blarney in Bloom 2016: The Forgotten Garden
This project, to build a garden highlighting Irish heritage plants, raising awareness of them, of the trail of Irish heritage plants at Blarney Castle Gardens and of the IGPS was led my Rory Newell and overseen by Adam Whitbourn, with many Blarney staff helping out in it’s design, construction and planting, in their own free time. It […]
Visit to Victor & Roz Henry’s Garden
We had a very enjoyable visit to Victor and Roz Henry’s garden in Newtownards yesterday despite the most unseasonable weather – heavy downpours, gusts of wind which caused the gazebo for the plant sale to lift off, and a temperature of about 12*C. But IGPS members and their friends are a hardy lot and made […]
Members’ Garden Visit: Victor and Roz
Normally, when I am sent photographs of a garden visit by society members I post a small selection on the “Latest News” section of our website with a short comment to report on the occasion, generally no more than a few sentences as this is what fits best in that location. However, Maeve Bell, Chairperson […]
Gardens of the Italian Lakes
Gardens of the Italian Lakes by Steven Desmond with photographs by Marianne Majerus. The gardens of Lake Como and Lake Maggiore in the north of Italy are among the most dramatic and beautiful one could visit. With this new book to hand the visitor’s experience will be all the more enjoyable. Thanks to today’s transport […]
The Art of Making Gardens
The show garden designer should not stray too far from the garden, we would imagine; it is the aim of his work but also the source of his inspiration and a detachment from the hands-on experience of working in a garden may leave the designer working in a vacuum with the danger that his creations […]
The Ceremonial Planting of Escallonia ‘C. F. Ball’ at the War Memorial Gardens.
The National War Memorial Gardens at Islandbridge, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, are dedicated to the memory of 49,400 Irish soldiers who died in the First World War. They are in a wonderful setting, along the River Liffey, and adjacent to the Phoenix Park. Escallonia ‘C F Ball’ is named for Charles Frederick Ball, who was killed at Gallipoli […]
A Visit to Hillsborough Castle Gardens, June 2016
IGPS members visited Hillsborough Castle House and Garden on the 4th June. The House was built in the 1770s by Wills Hill 1st Marquis of Downshire and was remodelled in the 1800s and then again in the 20th century. It passed to the British Goverment in 1922 and is now the official […]
2000AD – A Seminal Year
It was a seminal year, a year of many small but promising beginnings, a time of friendship and hopes and promises for the future. We have had some wonderful weather recently and, as we eat breakfast, the morning sun lights up our view to the garden beautifully. It is good to sit and gaze and […]
The Rectory Garden, Lismacloskey
Here’s some photos from Barbara Kelso of a recent IGPS visit to the Lismacloskey Rectory Garden, at the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum, Cultra, a few miles east of Belfast. The sun shone, the garden was looking fantastic and all had a wonderful morning. Just a little on the background of the garden: The garden […]
On the Edge!
The Burren is a plant lover’s paradise, an area of outstanding scenic beauty and so a joy to all who visit. When the opportunity arises we jump at the chance to visit, enjoy the long walks and search out the many wildflowers which we could see nowhere else in the country – indeed, one might […]
Bloom in the Park 2016
Bloom in the Park is the most successful and best attended horticultural event in the Irish gardening calendar. Tens of thousands come each year and this, its tenth year, has been blessed with good weather and I expect attendances are likely to set a new record. The range of attractions is extraordinarily wide in order, […]
On the Rocks!
Caher Bridge Garden is most certainly on the rocks! It is located on The Burren, a vast area of exposed expanses of limestone pavement, one of the most beautiful places in the country and an area which hosts an intriguing and exquisite selection of wild flowers. Here we will find plants which we might more […]
