One of the most fine and inspiring gardens on the West Cork Garden Trail is situated near Dunmanway. It is the Aultaghreagh Cottage Garden which is beautifully created by Christine and Leslie Wilson who were in turn inspired by plantsman Christopher Lloyd of Dixter in East Sussex.  As part of our children’s summer holiday activities my daughter and I decided that we would visit this garden and make a nice day out of it.  We were not to be disappointed, and even the weather was with us, we enjoyed beautiful sunshine! And we were greatly inspired by our garden visit.

In his day Christopher Lloyd liked colour contrasts, he liked blocks of colour intermixed with foliage, and I saw this reflected in Christina and Leslie’s planting, their perennial borders were colourful and vibrant.  Coincidently this very year I myself was looking for ideas to improve our borders and I was sure to find that here.

As we walked past rhododendrons, azalea’s and other acid loving shrubs we came to a secluded area surrounded with lush trees and we found a pond there where gold fish were swimming and water lilies abounded as well as other water loving plants.

Beautiful flowers were visited by so many butterflies and other pollinators, a sight to behold. One of my granddaughters was able to capture a bumblebee.

To grow plants for all year round interest takes good planning and is so worth it.

After walking around the gardens with Christine and Leslie as our guides, we sat and had tea and cake, we heard the story of how they created the gardens from a bleak wide open field, they planted a lot of trees to start off with and added features bit by bit, it must have been hard work and the result is really very interesting. From the magical walled garden to the pond area, the many different sections each gave us another special feel of being close to nature. I loved seeing all the pots with day-lilies, now finished flowering and waiting to be brought into the tunnel for the winter season. We were given many tips and got answers to our many questions. We saw how much vegetables, berries and other fruit were grown, this too was inspiring.

One of Christopher Lloyd’s philosophical sayings was ‘My mother and I like plants to look like they are enjoying themselves’ and I think that’s got to be the thing that makes a garden sing! And this garden was singing all the way! We went away having enjoyed a lovely and inspiring afternoon.