Gareth Austin - The winter garden tourist
I’ve long suggested that the off-season is a great time to visit ornamental gardens. Visit gardens in the summer surely, but also visit them at different times of the year too. Many gardens have great shows of bulbs, think DownHill in the late winter when the Snowdrops are in full flower, some are home to prized Rhododendron collections that flower in Spring, think Mount Stewart, others have wonderful Autumn and early winter foliage colour. And sometimes more useful to a gardener is in the depth of Winter, when there’s no flowers to disguise or conceal you can see how plants are trained, how they’ve been pruned, how the paths are edged you can get a great ‘behind the scenes’ look at the plants.
This is exactly the mindset that large organisations do, such as the National Trust here in NI, they promote gardens as being a source of year-round enjoyment, a tourist product which can be enjoyed on multiple occasions throughout the year.
Lisselan Estate in Clonakilty
This thinking of visiting gardens at this time of year is something I’ve been hitting hard when I’m down here in Cork, visiting some of the gardens featured in the West Cork Garden Trail, and other acclaimed private and public gardens, and in tourist hot-spots like Kinsale, Clonakilty and Ballymaloe I can do it all without the normal hordes of tourists, I can take time when snapping pictures, stand and admire views and see the workings of the gardens better.
Left: Walled garden beds in Inish Beg Estate, Baltimore. Right: Walled garden of Lisselan House
Over the past few weeks we’ve been looking at ornamental plants which provide colour at this time of year and I’ve been inspired to plant more Autumn and Winter interest plants in my own garden after visiting so many gardens over the past month. So look out your kitchen window now, and is there’s not a plant giving you some form of colour or interest now, then you need to add something! - there’s no point in having a 15 week garden, have a 52 week garden!
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Connect with Gareth
Gareth Austin is a broadcaster and lecturer in Horticulture. Join Gareth on Twitter @GardenerGareth or connect via Facebook to enjoy his regular adventures in the world of Horticulture. www.garethaustin.com
