Master My Garden Podcast
Master My Garden Podcast
-EP278 Paul & Daniel Ardea Garden Chat About This Wonderful Haven Of Special Plants: Exploring Ardea Garden: A Wild West Cork Oasis
Deep in the heart of West Cork lies a garden unlike any other in Ireland – an immersive 11-acre botanical wonderland where rainforest meets meadow, bamboo forests neighbor natural swimming ponds, and plants from distant corners of the world create a magical landscape that challenges everything you thought you knew about Irish gardens.
When Americans Paul and Daniel acquired Ardea Garden in late 2021, they inherited not just a property but a botanical treasure trove – thousands of exotic plants from New Zealand, Australia, Chile, Japan, and beyond, many having grown undisturbed for 20 years to reach spectacular sizes rarely seen elsewhere in Ireland. As they began clearing years of bramble and bracken overgrowth, extraordinary discoveries emerged: 27-foot hedge plants, explosions of rhododendrons in unexpected colors from blazing orange to purple, and hidden stone pathways leading to serene garden rooms.
What makes Ardea truly special isn't just its plants but its sense of adventure. Standing at the summit offers panoramic views across the Iveragh Mountains and Wild Atlantic before descending through what feels like thirteen distinct gardens within one property. One moment you're wandering through a bamboo forest, the next discovering an ornamental pond surrounded by blooming azaleas, then entering a Chinese-inspired garden complete with waterfall. The garden shifts dramatically with the seasons – December bringing spectacular camellia displays, while spring erupts with thousands of bluebells carpeting the ground beneath towering exotic trees.
Wildlife thrives throughout, with night cameras capturing badgers, pine martens, and deer enjoying this unique habitat. The garden serves as both a wildlife sanctuary and increasingly popular wedding venue, offering couples unforgettable backdrops from druid ceremonies at the stone summit to intimate gatherings by the river's edge. The lovingly restored stone cottage provides five-star accommodation for those wanting to immerse themselves fully in this extraordinary place.
Visit Ardea Garden by appointment through Instagram (@ardea_gardens) and experience what happens when botanical passion meets Irish landscape – a garden that will capture your imagination and change how you see what's possible in Ireland's climate. This is gardening without boundaries, where plants tell stories of distant lands while creating something uniquely, magically Irish.
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Until next week
Happy gardening
John
how's it going, everybody, and welcome to episode 278 of master, my garden podcast. Now, this week's episode, we're going back to the open garden features. So this is this will be the third open garden that we feature this year, and it's an exciting one. Again, it's a garden I haven't visited. It's quite a new garden in terms of you know how long it has been, I suppose, in the making, but it's a garden that's down in West Cork and it's called our day a garden and it has a lot of features that are going to be kind of unusual and, I suppose, different to previous open gardens that we would have featured.
Speaker 1:So we have a lot of open gardens. They have, I suppose, many gardens within gardens, but the scale of this garden is quite big, the fact that there's a lot of different elements to it, so some native, some rainforest, I guess, and, yeah, it's going to be an interesting one and certainly different to previous open gardens we would have featured. And so I'm delighted to be joined by Paul and Daniel from Ardea Garden and they're going to tell us the story of it and we're going to, you know, hear all about the garden and and where people can find it and visit it. So, paul and Daniel, you're very, very welcome to master my garden podcast, thank you thank you, thanks for having us you know, problems.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, as as I mentioned, it's, it's probably a garden that's going to be slightly different to the other open gardens. A lot of other other open gardens we've featured. They tend to have, you know, the the traditional borders and so on, and and this garden, from looking at it, has elements of that. But there's also it's also, you know, slightly different and and it'll be a garden that will capture people's imagination. So tell us about it. I know you're, you guys are only there three years, so maybe tell us about the sort of origins of it and what you found when you got there on on day one well, uh, day one, let's see.
Speaker 3:It was halloween 2021 and I, I, uh, I flew over from barcelona for three nights and uh lip, who uh, designed the entire place and was the shepherd of the land since about 2000, took me to a summit that he had created which, when you stand on the top of it, you can see all of the Ivora Mountains and both Barrow Ranges, 360. There's the Wild Atlantic in the distance, the full Kenmare River and, of course, we have this incredible view of Le Hood Harbor, which only a couple others get around here, and that's all surrounded by the Lansdowne Trust rainforest. Our day was a definite stretch of rainforest. You know, back in the yonder year, when we arrived, it was bracken and briar, and trying to peek out through the shrubs we could see were thousands of exotic plants that he had imported from rainforests around the world, especially New Zealand, australia, tasmania, in particular.
Speaker 2:Chile, Japan, Argentina.
Speaker 3:We have so many things that grow only in Tokyo and, of course, the western coast of the United States, and they were all about, you know, 10 to 20 years old, so very mature specimens. We had, you know, mike who founded Future Forest yeah, he joked that Flip kept him in business for a few years but also gardeners and students of gardening. If they come, you get to see shrubs that are normally in Irish hedges and things and around the world that have been untouched for 20 years now. 10, 20 years, they're huge. I mean, you know things that should be three feet normally are 15 feet tall and they all kind of competed for light, so it was just like an overgrown jungle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we can get into it more. But one of the unique things about our garden is we have some things that are here that were sold years ago in Ireland and people weren't sure that they were going to take. And they have taken and they've become very mature and established and blooming and so people are shocked to see you know even the things like bottle brush we have. We have some very unusual colors and varieties of bottle brush that you wouldn't see typically. You know ornamental roadies which are popping now, which just are so stunning that you know just stuff that you just don't see.
Speaker 3:But when we first saw it again, you know october, and then we came back in december we really didn't know. We knew that, yeah, it was a sacred 11 acres, like you know. You start at the top, you get get a view of, you know old Ireland. There's the Ivora and you can see the tallest peak. And you know Ireland, it gives good. You know commercial Americans will love the view. It's perfect. And this stone cottage is a perfect Irish stone cottage. We just renovated every inch.
Speaker 3:But then you go down 11 acres on this road. He carved out this man literally sculpted 70% of the land like clay. He made five drainage ponds down one side of the land into the rainforest, with paths that snake around like the infinity sign all the way down, both sides, all planted, all crazy shrubs. There's a Japanese this, there's a Japanese that. Oh, look at that rare tree, look at that rare pine. Just, I mean, spent so much on just plant, over-planting, quite frankly, over-planting, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:And then you get to the middle of the. We have a belt of rainforest that goes across the land, which is like a different. There's kind of like you know, people say, 11 little areas in the whole, like private parks within the parks. So then you get down to a meadow. There's an entire bamboo forest that you can walk through, with paths and kids could have like a tea I mean tea party and then there's a huge swimming pond that he made, a beautiful swimming pond. It was a swamp and he dammed up a wall nine feet and it has an island in it and it's surrounded by stones all the way around and azaleas line the path and roadies above that for full lines.
Speaker 3:And then there's a kind of Chinese garden, which is all this stonework that he bulldozed in at the very bottom, stonework that he bulldozed in at the very bottom, including the Lehud River. We have a waterfall at the very bottom of the land and another ornamental pond for, just like huge yellow and pink lotuses in bloom all summer, and he really sculpted this. He had this vision for this park and some of the old stone walls meander through it. Still we're uncovering those, I mean every week. Uh, when our head gardener, brendan grant, is here and jacob hayes is associate, we all four work on the land like monster tyrannosaurus rex is trying to save plants. We find like, oh my god christmas yeah, another staircase.
Speaker 3:Oh look, a stone circle oh, I mean there are. So he did so much and we're still like archaeologists uncovering it every day, but we've done a brutal cut of the land of everything now, minus like one tiny corner. It's just so much. Gorse it, it's hard to do. And this year, really, two years now of light, we have azaleas, rows of azaleas blooming because they've never had light. Just like you know, 50 meters of all pink and then all light pink and then white. It's just, it's stunning. It's stunning.
Speaker 3:And, as you know, right now we've had this incredible April. Yeah, and as you know, right now, we've had this incredible April. We're at this weird crossover where we have camellias still in bloom and we have hundreds of camellia trees red, the candy stripe ones, pink, triple pinks, triple whites, all these weird exotic camellias that he ordered from California, because why not? And the azaleas are in full bloom and the roadies are popping everywhere and we have ornamental roadies, as paul said yellow, deep purple, blazing orange, uh, red lipstick red. Uh, it's a. It's absolutely. We cannot believe that we found this and now the blue are out and, yeah, bluebell carpets everywhere.
Speaker 3:You know, uh, we we're so grateful to this man and just the fact that we can share it with people now. And we always said to him when we bought it we will honor your vision, we will be stewards to the public. Yeah, you know, and we've already had two weddings and we're starting to have guests now and, uh, we do a tea. You know, tea room and coffee, but it is about the land.
Speaker 1:It's such an amazing piece of land and starting like from the summit, as you mentioned, it's, it's the, it's the postcards american view from the top of the hill and I suppose that in itself, from an ir, in an ir, an Irish context, it's probably, on one hand, it's going to be a harsh environment, but on the other hand, it's going to be an environment where only a garden like this, in the position that it's in, can grow the array of plants that you're talking about, because you know, for the rest of the country, a lot of what you're talking about is just not possible. You have the benefit of the country. A lot of what you're talking about is just not possible. You have the benefit of the.
Speaker 3:The rainforest. Rainforest, yeah, living here on vera with a, with a transmit atlantic breeze, kind of ending its massive cycle here. Let's hope that doesn't change. Yeah, global warming terrors um, we do. We get a whole different ecosystem, especially in the middle of the land, at the top, because the rainforest breaks at the bottom of the land. We, you know, we get nipped every now and then. We've lost four mature mimosa trees from mayan since we arrived it.
Speaker 3:You know, moving here as naive americans, no one could have explained to us what the wind actually, yeah, yeah, no, like I said to my mom lesson I think I'm like mom the wind is like lava. It will destroy everything in its path when it's really salty. You know, and this year actually, that the story of the second storm that hit Galway was not as bad for us. The December storm was much worse because the wind came from one day and then, like another day later, it came from the exact opposite way and things just got double. You know, and we, we actually had to prune about 20 huge bushes I mean, they shouldn't be bushes anyway, but you know, we lost a lot. We lost a lot this year, and you know, and so we're also learning about planting and you.
Speaker 1:You mentioned that there was certain plants that shouldn't be the size they are, but the fact that they've been left, uh over, overcrowded, over planted and they have sort of developed to abnormal type size. Let's talk about some of those. What, what plants are we talking about? What's?
Speaker 3:well, I mean, the one of the ones which we have to control is hypericum. I mean, we have hypericum bushes which are, like you know, one and a half story buildings. What is the cranberry plant, palma? We're not good on our Latin names. Everyone can now laugh at us. We don't know the names of that plant yet. We're learning as fast as we can. One of the most exciting ones, of course, was the wallamie tree. We had a 33-foot wallamie tree we think it was the tallest in ireland but it fell in the storm because we lost that wet soil.
Speaker 3:Um what the? The very common hedge bush in ireland. Forgive me, I don't know the name, but we have a 27 foot specimen of a hedge bush grenovia no, I'm getting it wrong grenicia, um grazilia, grazilia, gracilinia gracilinia yeah, yeah, yeah and it's what, how tall 27 feet tall. Oh wow, that's insane.
Speaker 2:And even like some of the giant rhod of of being on a slope. Is that oftentimes with the view you're at the treetop, which you don't often get to be in a canopy? Yeah, just because you're on a hill, you're looking at it from a different perspective.
Speaker 1:Rather than looking up at the trees, you're looking, often looking down yeah, well which is pretty interesting yeah, I said it's amazing and the opportunity now, as you sort of clear, for under planting and deep shade planting I'm sure is. I guess there was under planting done anyway, but did all that survive?
Speaker 3:There was a lot of. You know there's a. There's a road like an industrial road that he built for you know like our tractor gets through to. So he did a lot. I mean, we have an entire heather hill but he put heather everywhere. There's heather and bloom here 365 days a year. If there's an exotic heather, we have a patch of it. So there's kind of an under heather on the trail. Every tree is marked by a camellia.
Speaker 3:But it is true with the, with the kind of out of control hydrangeas, some of the very out of control New Zealand flaxes and some exotic ones that only grow right on the sea, when you finally start to clean them up, yes, we've seen so many calla lilies are coming up that we didn't know they just haven't got light. Whole patches of astilbe, every color of astilbe you can imagine, from the pink to the red to the white chocolate astilbe. So there was a lot of border planting done and it's just springing up naturally. This year I think we must have had about 500 may apples that just they hadn't had light and we, we cleared a brush and they're like we are here, we survive. Same with the calla lilies, which is, uh, you know, very an exquisite plant, aren't they um?
Speaker 2:it's also not unusual, when we're clearing, that we come upon an area where the plants are still in pots yeah, so he basically bedded them in and left them.
Speaker 2:So oftentimes it's, you know, just kind of figuring out how we get the pot out or do we just let it go, you know, because they've naturalized in and and and that. Um, what's happened with the way that it was? It was planted was often areas were planted in the left, so thus the pots and then the bracken comes in, and then the brambles come in, and then it just when we came here, most of it was almost like a three-foot wall of bramble. So once that got cleared, we're finding the. The ivies come in, the bluebells come up.
Speaker 2:It's really like this year is probably the first year that we've actually seen the light and the air which was like really necessary to actually see what happens with the canopy um, and there's a a whole array of of surprises, then I guess yeah so that that kind of undergrowth, that hedge, is coming in.
Speaker 3:And um, we've also been focusing on, you know, framing. There's um, we have about 13 different. We have 27 eucalyptus total but we've about 13, you know, 13, I think, different types. There are all these subtle differences, like the camouflage eucalyptus, the paper eucalyptus, and then we have um, we have two cunning hemias. You know the cunning hehamia pine, yeah, yeah, they look like Dr Seuss trees. We've got two of those that just needed love, light and help to be seen and shaped.
Speaker 3:We have about forgive me, I don't know all the names we have about three other Japanese pines. They're one-offs, they're from Dr Seuss land and we've had a few gardeners in saying, okay, we need to get way more light to that. Take that oak, branch down. There's still a lot of emergency pruning. Yesterday we have a little. He built a canyon that runs around the back garden just because why not build a nine foot canyon with stone on both sides and a stone floor and then an island of ornamental roadies that we had never even known until this year. We were like, wait a second, that island that we is in bloom. So you know, lifting the trees. Then you go, oh, there's another baby exotic pine which hasn't got light, you know. So there's, I think, a few more years of discovery. I mean, you know the, the tenacity of plants to survive even in horrific, under overgrowth, is amazing.
Speaker 3:But, um, we that's the reason we opened in september, our first day, and I have to say, our friends in uh at darine gardens have been very kind and sent us guests, because we're a great dialogue, the two of us, you know. You can stop by them, have a lunch, do the garden, have a lunch with them great lunch, as we all know too. Yeah, uh, go, jamie and uh pop over to us in the afternoon. It's a great, you know. Or stop at helen's if you want to even feed the tank. Um, it's a and they've been good to us too.
Speaker 3:And and, like darine, in certain areas it's you just, it's a meadow and then a 30 foot, um, you know, giant rhododendron, it's not, it's not so planted like every inch, it's much more of a wild garden. And you go, oh, I'm suddenly in a rainforest. Oh, now I'm in a bamboo area. Oh, now I'm in this kind of zen garden. Oh, no, now I'm in a swimming pond. It really has, like these different languages, people who have looked at it for weddings. They've all had such different choices of what environment, what weird little fantasy scene they want for their wedding, and we think that's the best thing about the garden is you really feel like you're visiting 13 little parks 13 little gardens in a larger park.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you have these totally different experiences across them. So if you're, if you're in a bamboo forest and a few minutes later you're in the azalea walk or the literally yeah you know, if you need shade, we have a massive cliff that we've cleaned off.
Speaker 3:That goes down ornamental pond I call it pride rock. You can sit there under a pine tree and just stare at 5 000 dragonflies and fish we got. We got great little fish and, uh, there's always herons. And we've got some local ducks who are brave the mink. They don't sleep here but they brave the minks enough.
Speaker 2:Yeah, incredible wildlife. Speaking of the mink, yes, incredible wildlife. We've been urged to get a night camera, a night vision camera, so we've been putting that out just to see what happens at the strange hours of the night, and we've got footage of badgers and obviously tons of deer come through and badgers and pine martins and incredible birds and ducks and herons.
Speaker 3:Sometimes our neighbor's cows, and eagles come by.
Speaker 2:We have eagles in the adjacent. We've had a visiting pig.
Speaker 3:He enjoyed the greenhouse.
Speaker 1:So it's always a surprise what we see. That's interesting that you say that and it was a question that I was going to come to. So we always hear this debate of native versus non-native, in terms of you know, biodiversity and so on, and I wondered how you know or what you know. Biodiversity, stroke wildlife, you get in there, but I think you've created or there has been a habitat created there and naturally the different birds and insects and so on will start to populate that. So you've mentioned some of them there.
Speaker 3:So obviously you have ponds, so I'm sure there's lots of frogs in the in the area a load yeah, the tadpole season is adorable and we, the local school likes us to donate some tadpoles and, yeah, some eels and um, there's a great. There's a few different aquatic wildlife things. Even around the sunroom we're sitting in right now, he put a pond all the way around so you can see that, and that has such incredible fish and frogs everywhere and, of course, the birds are.
Speaker 3:Therefore, an amazing insects, yeah it helps that, again, the rainforest is right there, so a lot of migrating animals pop down in the rainforest. We have a lot of other food options for them to know and, yeah, yeah, our friend the deer do love some of our flowers. Therefore, we have done a walled, we've done a fenced in garden as well. He didn't do cutting flowers quite as much, so we've put in a big cutting flower garden that we hope, as they get healthy and what can survive the snails in this country and slugs, we'll move more cut flowers down in the land slowly. You know, succession of bloom 365 days a year is the goal.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we can't have bloom here year-round, which is amazing, but uh, we have found that the uh wildlife lower at the bottom part of the land, which is much more wild, you know. They run across the stream, they're in the dureen rainforest where no one can go, and certainly no one's, you know, hunting or endangering, and and there's the odd dog. But even with all the dogs that walk the land, we love to have dog visitors as well, obviously.
Speaker 3:Please just pick up after your dog and just to get back to there's wildlife everywhere Every day it's just teeming and the migrating birds you know in the Merlin app. Yeah, merlin app is brilliant.
Speaker 2:Oh Merlin app is brilliant, oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:And you can track the change now with Merlin, when the new migrations come in. Yesterday I had I don't know what it is, I'm not a bird person, forgive me. I mean I have no knowledge, but there was a yellow and black speckled bird in my fruit cage. Wow, cheeky chatty.
Speaker 1:But I have never seen a bird like this in my life. I thought you must be passing through on your way to aruba or something, because you do not belong here. Wow, um, so yeah, the maryland lap is brilliant. I've, uh, like we, we don't get where I am in the midlands a lot colder, probably not getting the. We get a different mix of of birds, but it is really interesting to see what's what's there and to hear the different timings and sounds of the birds.
Speaker 2:Is is incredible and I'm not sure if it's, if it's better in the morning or in the evening yeah, it's, it's different morning and evening and it's, it's funny, there's, there's a great tit here.
Speaker 1:Uh well, just several of them, but it's almost always at the same time, between half 10 and half 11 in the day, and it's this particular chirp and it's, it's just incredible, it's like. It's like as if it's a clock. It's, you know, it does the morning sound, it transitions to the sort of noon sound and then to the evening sound, and it's different through all of those. You know, they all have their circadian rhythms or whatever it is, and it's it's different hour to hour and and, uh, yeah, it's, it's incredible, see, but obviously the mix that you guys are going to have down there would be probably a lot different to what I have here you know, our neighbor is a a birdophile and, uh, he walks the land almost every morning with his daughter.
Speaker 3:Uh, because he says there's just such a rich collection. You know, most of the land around us is farmland. We just happen to be in this belt, so we know that for bird watchers there's a real, it's an ideal situation. I also want to shout out that we have a great selection of tree ferns as well. I know there's a lot of people out there who love their tree ferns.
Speaker 1:I imagine, yeah, you hadn't mentioned them up until now, but yeah, that's what I thought.
Speaker 3:I should mention also on the opposite side of that coin, we have some ganera. We're keeping some of it, but man, we're still wrestling it. You know, some people are like, are you keeping all that ganera? It's like well, do you want to get the shovel and choke it out from behind? Yeah, we try not to use any sort of poison, obviously, but uh, so the the land is still in process of there's. We have years of briar and bracken and ganera to tame, but the tree ferns, they're amazing. They all got very singed by that storm this year. There was so much salt in the air, but they're all blossoming with new growth. All the japanese maples have opened. We found so many japanese maples that were struggling and now they're glorious. And, and we also have some good borrowed scenery. I have to say our neighbor has the most perfect cows and pastures. That's what you want. And then there's lambs and sheep. And shout out to our neighbor, sean, who does the Nocatee Creamery and does that award-winning blue cheese, oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So that's our yeah, so it is the perfect postcard setting and it's well.
Speaker 3:You know, if you want vip homemade cheese, we can get your local beef, we can get your local pig. It's it. It's an amazing community out here. It's an amazing community and, of course, it's great that kenmare is just right there.
Speaker 1:But so you mentioned quite a few of the plants and and the surprises that are coming up. Um, just to go back to the, you mentioned the natural swimming pool. What sort of what state was that in, I guess, when, when you guys got there, and, and, and? How is it now?
Speaker 2:well, we have um.
Speaker 2:When we first came in, we were so um excited to be able to jump in and not realizing how cold it was it's straight from knockety mountain it's picture perfect now, although we had, um, we had a battle with parrot grass, which is an invasive grass which has a very long root and floats on the top. So we're realizing, by the end of the battle with parrot grass, which is an invasive grass which has a very long root and floats on the top, so we're realizing, by the end of the summer, the parrot grass has done its job and is trying to choke everything out, eat the entire pond.
Speaker 2:So we had a massive workday with friends and basically used flotations and surfboards and paddles and went out and collected as much as we could with rakes and have composted it successfully and we found that over winter it sort of licked the problem at all. Everything that was loosened came to the side and it has been taken out and the pond right now is absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 3:Oh, it's black glass. It's black glass. You can see all of the azalea blooms, it all reflected around it, you know. But let's also have this discussion again in August, because paragraphs is tenacious, and let's see if we've truly beat it to the level we think we've beat it, or if it's a secret monster waiting to rear its ugly head again, sort of like the American government.
Speaker 1:Sorry, but just it's going to peep up anyway, it's going to have a go at coming back, but still, you probably have.
Speaker 2:You know, in that swim pond we've also got it. He's put an amazing patch of lotus flowers, which are gorgeous yellow lotus. They're just blooming now and we've got a bulrush.
Speaker 3:Oh, wait, wait, and around the pond too. I'm sorry. September is also a great month in Ireland, as we know. I can't choose my favorite yet. April's pretty good, but he's done pink and beige lilies all around the pond Again, like mirror. Wow, just so intelligent, so well thought out in a way, but just desperate for light and space.
Speaker 1:Was there a plan to the garden originally? Do you know?
Speaker 3:absolutely not. No, no, no. We wish there was and we love where it is now, but and we were told, like entire hillsides, like that was heather for five years and now it's you know massive road, like he also just ripped things out and put them in. And ripped them out and put them in yeah, right.
Speaker 2:Finally, belts of plants uh, sort of as the truck went down the property and the plants ran out and put them in, and ripped them out and put them in. There were definitely belts of plants, sort of as the truck went down the property and the plants ran out and then something else started. So we've been actually mixing things up and we're starting propagation.
Speaker 3:We have a plan sort of for the road to be fair.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I did want to shout out. We also another gargantuan plant. Sorry when you put me on the spot all my names breeze but our Pires collection is kind of unbelievable. Unusually tall I mean huge specimens. We have a mother oak whose Mike estimates around 250 to 300 years old. She's the oldest tree on the land. She has an entire forest of Pires underneath her. So you know, the Pires is such a good plant, doesn't it? You get the flowers pouring out like that looks like bubbles of champagne, smells like jasmine to me, and then you get the new baby white growth and red. So we have entire walls of Piri's mixed with redwood and then azalea below. It's that those species are some of the gargantuans that have just not been touched, that people don't normally let go so insane, and those seem planned.
Speaker 1:Those seem planned.
Speaker 3:I mean there were moments of obviously foresight with the road, that kind of connects it. But sometimes you're just like and now?
Speaker 2:Some of it's just mad. You see two things next to one another and you're just like that's mad.
Speaker 3:But it works. And you know, mike, again, again, I want to shout out to mike from future forest. When he came to the land first he said it is mad, but this is what makes it so unique we never see two species that mature who have grown around each other.
Speaker 3:He's a giant rota, yeah, so he conifer through the middle yeah, so he really encouraged us to try to work with the things when we can and trying to take things out, and that sometimes gives you just some crazy combinations of things jutting out of other things.
Speaker 1:But hey, eccentricity start it sounds like something that we're we're definitely not used to seeing here. It's, I would imagine, very, very unique in in terms of anywhere else in ireland I would think it's an absolute.
Speaker 3:And you know the thing that so many people have said when they come because we've had quite a few garden clubs already come and a lot this somehow the french garden clubs found us and they're all coming we're very happy. It's a gardener's garden, if that makes sense. Yeah, and we're so humble when gardeners come because we didn't dedicate our lives to the knowledge of plants and things. I mean, I grew up on a sheep farm. He ran a sheep farm, but we're, you know, like working class men from, not from, gardens, and you know we love people ID stuff for us. Or you know, we are always trying to learn about the garden, but we've had so many professional gardeners come and go. Oh my God, I've never seen something that size.
Speaker 2:Take a snip.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. And also we have. When we're just finding this this year, we realized we have about nine epic manukas. We just thought they were trees that were pretty and flowered.
Speaker 2:And then we learned from a gardener last year.
Speaker 3:Like those are manuka bushes, like he's like, but they're trees and the bees love them.
Speaker 1:White and red, yeah, and and we've now all does bees, yeah. So, yeah, I saw on your instagram you have bees, so that's one thing the bramble was probably good for is the bees and we've left some of it.
Speaker 2:We've left some of the bramble, yeah yeah, and you're mixing in.
Speaker 1:You're mixing in manuka now as well.
Speaker 3:So this is this is a supercharged honey it's gonna be the best honey for all the locals to keep the colds away and, yeah, we'll serve it to all the guests who stay in the cottage.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so tell us about a sort of you're still in the process, I guess, for another little while of uncovering and you're going to find things popping up and and and give them more surprises. What's the kind of plan over the next two, three, four years, you know, with, with?
Speaker 2:the garden. I'd say we finally have probably um we've probably reached the bramble and the bracken. Um We've probably reached the bramble and the bracken project is pretty much under control.
Speaker 3:I would disagree. I would say we'll have it resolved in two to three years.
Speaker 2:And the ornamental roadie was a big concern because that's a problem down here. Yeah, we realize now Invasive I'm sorry the invasive roadie and we sort of went to a lot of the workshops and kind of got nervous and bit our nails that we'd have to cut everything out. But we realized that most things that he's planted is ornamental. So we have very few. So we've been flagging the invasive species now, so when we have time we can cut and eradicate that. And then we're working on a propagation plan so we can propagate some of these rare things with softwood cuttings and seed saving seeds and then hopefully be able to sell that. That's kind of yeah, I would want to be.
Speaker 3:yeah I would say in two to three years. Uh, building on that, um, we really are working on propagation and um expanding the succession of bloom across the land. I want people to walk on this land at any point and beautiful things are in bloom, and also from the flower kingdom as well, not just bushes and trees. But then that business plan has to come back to. This is a garden where we wanted to have community events. We want to have an open tea house once a month.
Speaker 3:Philip was a jazz player and we know so many local musicians. I'm in the music world on some level so we'd like to have community events where people are really coming out using the tea room, the guest house we hope is filled and having. You know, we know that we're going to host some basket weaving classes because people want the reeds that we have on the land. Do you know? People already asked if they could come and do flower classes. So we're looking at how we have planning permission for a kind of barn garage. You know we'll have an extra community space where people can be and hopefully we'll be doing unforgettable weddings by an opera director with flowers and unforgettable stays for people who really we prefer people come really, for you know, three or four nights is what we'd like, because also tusis is a divine base for all of the ivora and vera peninsula and you know as an irishman, anything down here is an hour drive.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know. So to go over to Shell's Garden, Kel's Garden, over in the tip of the Ivora, you know that's a day trip from here Waterville, skellig, derry, gaines, sneem, gap of Dunloe, killarney National Park our perfect little designer village, Kenmare, you know and then even going down to Glen Gariff Gardens or Bantry House. Everything's an hour, you know. So we hope people will see it as a base where they can really settle down. But you don't have to also go far. We've had a few people come and just stay here for a week and just walk the garden every single day. Also, at the end of our road, it's a little cul-de-sac, there's a coushine, an awesome little coushine beach.
Speaker 3:I shouldn't give that secret away, the locals would be upset. But uh, it gives good, you can walk along the harbor as well at the bottom. So it's not the only place to walk out here, do you know, there's really special landscapes. And again, darine is right close to us. So hopefully in three years we'll have the garden in a place where, again, the bracken and briar are totally under control if that's human, possible to say those words out loud and the paths are all cleared and all safe. You know, we want to do some we re-cement, some old stone cases, relay some old stone cases. I do have to say one funny thing is he wanted the property to immediately look ancient. So all the staircases he laid, which were many, he laid kind of like ancient rotting stone staircases he laid, which were many. He laid kind of like ancient rotting stone staircases on a on skellig island. But the problem for modern guests is going up and down gravity death trap, even though they look romantic.
Speaker 3:So we're gonna have to get john and the bulldozer and at some point and redo some amazing stairs. We're very useful places, but with a little bit more health and safety in mind over aesthetics. So we, you know, and that is you can imagine we need to repave the entire road, not repave but re-turn it, surface it. You know it's also about cash and time and energy. Yeah, and we're not, uh, we're not retired millionaires, um, but uh, we work really hard on the land when we can. There's also the thing called rain and no shortage of it, you know. So some days are just housework and amidst all this, we are renovating an entire three-bedroom house, room by room, slowly. You know, the Irish renovation in Ireland takes time, takes years, yeah, takes years yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, but uh, I really hope in three years we can look back and go.
Speaker 3:We've done it. It's open to the public. Other people are coming to enjoy it, especially in the summers. The rooms for rent year round. What's great is, with the secession of bloom that he already has. One of the best months is december and january, because the camellias explode and there's so there's camellia paths yeah, of just camellias that you walk on, or it looks like all red hearts above your head, like alice in wonderland. I mean when kids come they're just like. I mean it's like where are the hobbits, where are the elves?
Speaker 1:you mentioned weddings and, uh, your game down the line to get to get two and three day events, uh, where's have you held weddings already?
Speaker 3:yeah, we've had um a wedding. Uh, one couple wanted to get married. We had a, an old stone bench bend in the river. It was lovely, all rainforest behind you, yeah, and one couple got married there. And then another couple wanted to get married at the top of the land, the summit, this lookout, there's this huge. He had all these massive stones brought in like japanese, sticking up like plinths and lying down like huge stone beds. So another couple got married up there where again, you kind of do 360 and there's all of the ivora back of killarney they had a druid wedding.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they had a druid wedding. Wow, yeah, and uh yeah go.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah and yeah, go ahead. And so you are. You do you cater for? For weddings We've had?
Speaker 3:we, we are it's all new to us, but we love that people want to get married on the land. We, we know that we have a five-star honeymoon stone cottage for them, done with the highest Swiss finishes humanly possible. We loved interior design as well. You know a we loved interior design as well. You know, a little bit of new york comes to, comes to, uh, the old irish stone cottage. Yeah, we're very proud of that. We think it's a really great intimate space where people can stay if they want to get married. But some one of the couples stayed here when they got married. Another couple was staying in town and got married here. You know we can't sleep the wedding party, but that's great. They can rent the lake house down the road. You know it sleeps 27. But it's great on the land. And we have this sunroom, which we've redone completely, which is, you know, 50% glass, with a beautiful vaulted ceiling full of banana trees and plants that are always in flower, and that is also a rain option, yeah, which, for an Irish wedding, is a must.
Speaker 3:It's important. Yeah, yeah, which for an?
Speaker 3:irish wedding is is a, is a a must. It was important, yeah, yeah, so, and again, no, we wouldn't do a wedding dinner, but we, we're already so, um, happily, in dialogue with you know, dear helen, who runs helen's bar and she has so many wedding banquets and parties, so we know that there's food there. Again, our two friends now run the lake house. I don't know if you know the lake house has been totally renovated, didn't know? Yeah, the lake house has been totally renovated. You can rent the whole thing privately full kitchen, games room. They, you know, you order the alcohol and it can sleep, I think, 27 people. Now, you know, a walk from our house, yeah, and then there's kenmare, which, of course, you know, if you, you, you can stay at the park hotel, you can can stay at Sheen Falls Lodge. There's so many different places, so we've just found that it's an we love, um, we.
Speaker 3:What's, what's not amazing about what people wanted to get married in your garden? I mean, what's the ultimate compliment? That? That this place can hold that memory for people. And again, when we said to this man, we're going to open your garden, we meant it on the deepest level. So we really do hope people will continue to seek us out for weddings and we can be as involved with that as possible. We do local flowers, flowers for some of the locals, for some of the businesses, so we can provide all fresh flowers. I'm not going to say native, I want to get back to that conversation. You asked a very important question, but we can provide flowers and foliage year round. Do you know something's good?
Speaker 1:on on the wedding. On the wedding, like if if there's some beautiful open gardens in ireland, as you know, but there's a lot of weddings go there for for the pictures, and but the a lot of them, the pictures can end up being the same, which is it's fine.
Speaker 3:It's still a beautiful picture.
Speaker 1:Some people exactly people want that but the interesting thing I guess from from your garden is that it's going to be you're going to take a different picture pretty much all year round, but also the fact that there's such unique environments there you know bamboo and there's going to be pictures waterfall yeah.
Speaker 3:Waterfall. Wedding plans yeah. Giant ready bloom yeah.
Speaker 1:So it is a it is a distinct advantage that there's so many endless possibilities and the picture could be anywhere in the world, I guess, while still being while still being here in Irelandireland. So yeah it, it sounds like a unique selling point for for the garden.
Speaker 3:So you mentioned getting back to the, the native, native conversation so, of course, you know, probably before we moved here, we you know within reason we had a small city garden and plants in London. Do you know? I grew up in Ohio. He grew up in Rhode Island. We've been aware of native versus invasive, but we moved here. Of course, there's a passionate discussion around native gardening only and some important prizes given to people who really believe in native gardening. Look, we bought a garden with thousands of specimens from around the world.
Speaker 3:we're not cutting them down native on native yeah we are doing our duty and cutting down the invasive roadies. Those are almost all gone now. Um, we support rewilding. We're rewilding an acre of our land. All around us is wild. Um, but we, this is what, like the gods dropped in our lap and we are so proud of it. And you know, one can carefully and responsibly display plants from other places and nothing we have on the land.
Speaker 3:Um, besides, ganera, which is not just uniquely to us, is going to um blaze across ireland and cause a plague of purple rhododendrons. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, I really wanted to shout out we support native. We love our neighbor as kind of the king of rewilding. Um, two of our neighbors just bought a 100 acre farm up the road and, uh, they're going to rewild big chunk of it. It's such a good response to the silliness of the soft pines going up, the pines going up so quickly. That should have all been rewilded years ago with oaks. Um, we got um from. We got 50 native trees this year from the tree project and free irish trees, yeah, which is, which is a great yeah, so we've just put 50 native trees in and um.
Speaker 3:we're certainly not importing a lot of new exotic things from future forests. Really, frankly, we don't need to buy plants. That's the problem. We haven't there's enough. The only thing we bought again is a much larger array of bulbs for spring blooms and summer plants, again for the locals and if we do weddings, to have a plentitude, the irises are just coming up with buds.
Speaker 2:And dahlias and peony. We were putting in, by you know, first year for the peonies oh my lord, they're amazing.
Speaker 3:Right now, the peonies exploding, yeah and imagine peony, you're gonna add.
Speaker 1:You're gonna add, yeah, serious color and a different type of color.
Speaker 3:I guess with, with the that's it and that goes back to your three-year plan. I hope that we, in three years, we've got a lot more summer color at the bottom of the land, just everywhere. I mean, just turn the corner and there's a huge packs of uh, lupine, do you know?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah it's not simple little things yeah, just to just to close off on the on the discussion on native it's. Uh, I always find the discussion interesting because in your scenario, as you said, you're, you're landed in in here, you're not going to go cutting out everything, and but I always find that the the debate is is too polarized. It's either one or the other and I think the, the, the truth, like most things, the truth is somewhere in the middle, and that's why I asked the question earlier in relation to nature and biodiversity, what was appearing, because I think that kind of gives you a good indication of if the ecosystem, that is, your garden, is working or not, and it sounds like it certainly is I totally agree with you.
Speaker 3:I feel like we provide home and space to probably way more animals than all the fields around us, and the rainforest is there. They know they're safe here and there's so many places for them to be safe here. And especially when we saw the pine marten twice one at the top, one at the bottom I think that's one of our rarest creatures, isn't it? Yeah, one one of the top, one at the bottom, I think that's one of our rarest creatures, isn't it? Yeah, you know, if pine martins are saying hi to you when you walk out the door at night that, uh, it's healthy habitat, I would argue.
Speaker 1:And yeah, no, it sounds that way for sure.
Speaker 2:It sounds that way for sure I think also to get back onto the, the native species um topic, I think when we first came, I think you'll agree that when we first came, we were very excited about what we had purchased here, with all the imported stuff and the non-native stuff. And then we read we started being hardcore reading about the, this movement to bring things back to the old irish, traditional, native and um. So immediately we thought, geez, we got to put up nine foot fences around the whole property and, how you know, get rid of all the invasive stuff and get, keep the deer out. And you know, in hindsight it's really to us it's more about the balance. You really live in a place now.
Speaker 2:We don't live in Ireland 200 years ago. We live in a place where the climate is different, the rain acidity is different, the weather is different, the temperatures are different and plants that lived a hundred years ago are not. They're not all still here. Things are changing and the deer are not going away. We're never going to eradicate all the deer and and so we have to. Like you know, it sounds kind of Pollyanna, but we have to live in a world with with all this diversity and and yes, there's invasives and we need to control them, but we're never going to live in Ireland 300 years ago. Yeah, I don't believe it and I would.
Speaker 3:I would support Paula. You know, I, and I know that one of the leading gardeners in Ireland also walks that beautiful line of understanding that there's a duality, there's a fusion, just as the natural history of animals is migration and species, and we do intermingle and we do intermix. Nation made even more rich by all of us who have moved here, and Ireland's borders have always been so open. So I think it's, of course, I think it's beautiful that you can come and you can see you know our soft Chinese pines oh, one of my favorite things in the land that this kind of droop and hit the ground like dragons and grow back up, that you can come and see that. And it's not native but it's controlled, it's watched after. And it's not native but it's controlled, it's watched after and it's a piece of, you know, world nature. We are all citizens of the world now.
Speaker 1:So I think careful, responsible planting is definitely what, what, what we support yeah, I think that's well said responsible planting, and if in your scenario it's an existing, an existing collection of plants, it's about stewardship of that and uh, yeah, that means we are slicing all the invasive brodies down.
Speaker 3:I just, you know we are making an exception, yeah, yeah, we don't want anyone to come here and be like you've got the invasive, like all right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it sounds. It sounds like an amazing place and you know, sounds like there's more amazing things to come. You know, between the, the variety of garden or the variety of spaces is phenomenal, because it's definitely not something that you will see anywhere else, I don't think in ireland I do want to stress too, for people with different physical abilities, the main road is a.
Speaker 3:It's a hike, you know. We also take a few rests on the way up and down. You can get down in a half hour, you can get back up in a half hour, no problem. We've also had people come and spend four hours, if you really go on every trail and stop and sit and enjoy, which we prefer. But we also have a series of a few older neighbors, grandmas, who come with the grandkids, and we have four paths right at the top of the house that all wrap around to the Flower Garden Polytunnel. He did a shade path that's all stoned. He did the Island Rhododendron path and then there's a wisteria walkway with rose walls that's restored, and then there's an all shade camellia path.
Speaker 3:And all of these paths all much more level or just right near the parking lot and all intertwined, yeah and all intertwined and like we've really found that for some kids and and people with less stable legs they can get around, that that can be an amazing slow, gentle hour of round. And I do want to nod out, because we, or in families who are differently abled, that we also have a CF moto with you know, with clear walls, and we take people up and down who can't walk all the time and we're happy by that service If an appointment is booked. It's really important to us that the art, the um, the garden is open to differently abled people. It's a passionate theme for both of us in our life.
Speaker 1:Sure, and so the garden is open by appointment. Is that kind of the preference?
Speaker 3:yeah, please, if you can get us on instagram, ardea, underscore gardens, uh, or my website and facebook, we're on yeah, we're on facebook too, my website, daniel kramer director.
Speaker 3:Also, you can contact me, but the instagram is the way to go. Ardea underscore gardens. Follow us, send us a message and, uh, the website's being built right now because finally, again, we're getting photographs of the land actually in full bloom, yeah, and so the website will be up and we'll be able to do bookings, a specific, the calendar will be on the website and you know all those things connecting to bookingcom and stuff.
Speaker 1:But uh, yeah, and you'll have. I guess you you're open for garden groups. You mentioned some. I guess you're open for garden groups. You mentioned some have visited already, so open for garden groups.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we got the Kinnemare Garden coming on Saturday.
Speaker 2:We've got two French groups coming in June. In June, larger groups yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, up about 20 people. I prefer tours of six. Like me at the front, him at the back. Some people don't want a chatty American in their ear the whole time. Follow the road, don't fall on slippery rocks, yeah.
Speaker 1:Sounds amazing. Sounds like you're going to get lots of different experiences within the garden, not just during your singular visit, but over a period of you know, if you visit a couple of times during the year, you're going to get different experiences, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Yeah, our neighbor ladies. We got three women who walk the land every single morning and I think that's a testament to it's a. It's a chameleon, it's just alive. It's like a living painting, constantly shifting.
Speaker 1:Yeah I'd imagine from the overview from the, from the peak where you're looking down on the garden, that look must be phenomenal at certain times of the year as well well, also with with the shameful knockety right in the background of it and the dorine rainforest, and of course you know the birch are purple in the winter.
Speaker 3:Then you get the bright yellow green of spring and I mean the whole canopy and the sky and we can see the top of hungry hill we saw dolphins out there. Yes, yeah, porpoises yesterday having a heyday with some fish that was migrating. We keep having a jumping fish in this pond right now too uh, so sounds amazing.
Speaker 1:It sounds like a garden that everybody should should visit. If you are visiting, just uh contact the guys on instagram, especially if you're bringing groups. And yeah, you're open, open all year round. I guess, with that, with that amount of variety, why not?
Speaker 3:we're open all year round. There's a little parking lot, no driving on the land, and uh, give us an email. If you can give us an instagram, drop into our dms. I believe that's that's that's what we say.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, it's been. It's been a really interesting chat. Sounds like phenomenal garden. Um, really nice to hear a garden that had, you know, had been neglected for a period of time and now getting some tlc, and to hear of the of the little surprises that keep popping up, and I'm sure there'll be more of those to come. So, paul and danielle, has been really interesting chat and thank you very much for coming on. Master, my Garden podcast.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1:So that's been this week's episode. Yeah, sounds like an amazing place. You know there isn't a garden. I wouldn't think anywhere in Ireland that you're going to get the variety of, you know, different views, different plants. Um, while it sounds like the planting was a little bit chaotic, that chaos I guess has led to experiences and views and pictures that you're not going to see anywhere else the different collections of plants the you know. Even in the pond there was the two different colored lilies. I think that go around the outside. You know little things like that. They sound like really picture-perfect moments that you won't get anywhere else. I don't think. So you can check out our day of garden on Instagram. The link is in the show notes. And that's been this week's episode. Thanks for listening and until the next time, happy gardening you.