In the garden: Paradise found - just down the road from Cork

When autumn draws into winter and the days turn shorter and shorter, switching from summertime to wintertime is a sure marker in a gardener’s working calendar.

The mornings might be brighter again, but the afternoons feel unreasonably short. We already miss the summer, even though it didn’t bring much sunshine this year!

So, we get busy digging in bulbs for next spring, tidying our beds, and getting the garden winter ready.

Every month can bring joy in a carefully crafted garden space. No time of year has to be without interest or dull, as nature provides us not only with an abundance of flowers in summer. As much as we delight in a red or purple coloured Dahlia, which are still flowering all over the country, we can take great pleasure in the remaining seedheads of annuals and herbaceous perennials.

Watching plants complete their full natural cycle reminds us to take a break ourselves and breathe a bit, wind down, and give space for plans to ripen and energy levels to refill.

Balance is a key factor in our lives, and so it is in the garden. It takes time to create a well-balanced garden space. A fine example provided by a recent garden visit to Meadow Gate Garden in Killeagh, Farranfore, Co Kerry.

Situated along the N22 between Killarney and Tralee, it is a wet and windy site. Castlemaine Harbour can be seen on a clear day as Barbara, the owner and gardener together with her husband, Timmy, told me.

Sitting 102 metres above sea level, the winds come up from the ocean and each storm just hits a bit harder here. The soil is heavy clay, but has been cultivated before, growing hay and oats.

That said, they managed to create a personal garden haven on three-quarters of an acre over the course of the last 17 years.

The garden began in 2007 with a lawn and a fuchsia hedge, nothing reveals these humble beginnings any more. The gravel area in front of the house is softened by Lady’s Mantle, let to self-seed, providing a beautiful soft green foliage this time of year.

Teasel grows in between, the seedheads nicely representing late autumn. A stone path flanked by contorted hazel and artichoke, fennel and teasel leads into the front garden. A large bed opens up in front of the eye, with tree ferns, fatsias, dahlias and persicarias, just to name a few.

The huge collection of bananas and cannas has just been brought into their winter quarters, and still the bed looks green and lush, giving an almost jungle, tropical feeling.

A smaller herbaceous flower bed lies to the west, filled with rudbeckias and dotted with cyclamen, delicately flowering.

Alders shelter the garden towards the road on the northern perimeter and apples are neatly trained along wires the whole length. Walking along the edges and looking into the corners, thoughtfully placed details wait to be discovered, like a small mirror. It opens spaces and allows new perspectives, ideal for a smaller garden.

Paths lead down from the higher front garden area to the patio adjacent to the house. There unfolds one of the main treasures of this place, a collection of Aeoniums and other tender plants. They have been moved, exactly on the October Bank Holiday Weekend, into a glasshouse at the side of the main house, a stone house with an insulated roof in the middle of the patio and a polytunnel.

The sheer number is impressive, and to picture them out in the garden lets one dream of sunny summer days again. The Aeoniums especially seem to thrive in this wet microclimate in Kerry, as their size is remarkable.

To increase numbers, Barbara propagates everything herself, mostly with a hydro-propagator. It is very cost-effective and a great way to multiply favourites, clearly to be seen in this plant paradise.

Through a pergola, the garden leads down to a woodland area. Two big leylandiis have been taken out here recently, creating space that will soon be filled, as no part of the garden is left unused.

The woodland path will be covered with muscari on both sides in spring, tempting me to go back for another visit.

Coming out at the entrance gate, arbutus (strawberry tree) shines with its red berries. The trees are surrounded by circles of stones, underplanted with cyclamen, and a bench in the corner invites you to sit down and appreciate their arrangement.

Autumn and winter are the busiest times in this garden, as structures are replaced and repaired, and plants are arranged differently. This is the time to tidy up what has been left untended over the summer, while storing tender plans inside their winter homes, already thinking about where to put them in the beds next spring.

Plant of the Week

Throughout Meadow Gate Garden, Dipsacus fullonum, or common teasel, added much to the space. A tall, upright biennial, it can reach up to a height of three metres and a width of one metre.

Teasel grows on any soil in sun or partial shade and is native to Ireland. The foliage is prickly, as are the flowerheads. They appear in summer, with a band of tiny lavender-blue flowers around the head and they are long-lasting.

Flowerheads make great cut flowers with their silver-green appearance, although they are a bit uncomfortable to handle due to their prickliness. They also have great wildlife value, as birds pick on the seeds in winter.

Left uncut, their architectural shape brings structure to the garden that can be enjoyed throughout the winter months.