A report from Maeve Bell on a very enjoyable evening in Belfast!
There was a packed room at Malone House Belfast on Wednesday 7th December to hear Frances MacDonald, so much so that there had to be a short delay while extra chairs were fetched and installed. Frances delighted the audience with her account of the development of The Bay Garden, the garden in Camolin, Co. Wexford which she and her husband Iain have created over the past 25+ years.
The Bay Garden has something for everyone: strong design elements, well-chosen planting and colour combinations, some exotics, and plants which are guaranteed ‘good doers’ in the Irish climate. Put all this together with Frances’s dry wit and willingness to share some of the put-downs she has endured on the lecture circuit over the years resulted in furious note-taking being interspersed with laughter, so much so that apparently one gentleman complained to her afterwards that he had been looking forward to a snooze but kept being woken up by the noise of people enjoying themselves!
