Episode 5 Synopsis
In this episode, our experts are visiting three gardens under the theme of ‘Attention Grabbers‘. These gardens in Birr, Co. Offaly, Killnashane, Co. Laois and Freshford, Co. Kilkenny demand our full attention from the moment we see them. And these are gardens that have extra surprises for visitors. Our experts will assess the success of these three gardens on their own merits and according to what the gardeners have tried to achieve, while discovering what the garden mean to the gardeners and their families.
Andrew Nangle – Birr, Co. Offaly
Andrew (44) lives in Birr, Offaly with his husband Joseph and pets. They have a railed front garden up to the house and a large walled garden undergoing restoration and regeneration out the back.
Andrew has lived in Birr for four years and works in tourism. They moved from Dublin to Birr, partly for the want of a big garden. Making things and craft has an influence on the way Andrew gardens, he wants his garden to be an overwhelming experience. He’s done all the digging in the garden by hand because they can’t get any machinery in. He likes very tall, structural things.
In Birr there are a lot of buzzards red squirrels, mink and pine Martin, water bugs and notices a difference in terms of insects, bees. By his own admission he is useless with houseplants, they all die he has no interest in indoors growing.
Frances Theloke – Freshford. Co. Kilkenny
Frances (63) lives in Freshford, County Kilkenny with husband Peter (65) and children Eleri and Robyn with a host of dogs, cats and hens.
She has turned her patch of Kilkenny into a natural, cottage style garden for all the family. They bought the house 14 years ago, having escaped Dublin where their garden was “a postage stamp garden.” Peter is Welsh and met Frances when she was studying in London. He came to Ireland in 1980 and never left. They have four children and 7 grandchildren, “the house is like a bus station.”
They don’t garden together, Peter is more precise and methodical while Frances moves from place to place and gardens ad hoc. They feel it works as it’s very natural, a lot of quirky things. They’re passionate about creating a garden with colour and this is Frances’ main goal when planting. Their garden is bio diverse, lots of herbaceous perennial plants – hens help with that. They never know what is going to grow where! Everything self-seeds. One of their goals when they moved in was to create a native wood, they planted 300 hundred slips to achieve this. During lockdown Peter built a pitch and putt, where the family played their own tournament – the Theloke Family Open.
Julie-Anne Kelly – Kilnashane, Co. Laois
Julie-Anne (38) lives in Kilnashane, Co. Laois with her husband Eoin and lots of rescue animals! They have large front and back gardens, with a secret side garden too. Their two acres sits in a Native Wood. Soon after building the house it subsided, but instead of getting down about it Julie-Anne threw her energy into the garden and has been working on it ever since. It was literally a field with two hills, they got two rotary motors and just went for it.
Julie-Anne has been a nurse and a midwife and re-trained to be a physiotherapist, and now works with children in the community with additional needs.
They have a lot of rescue animals, ‘Sure what’s one more’ is her attitude to all animals that need a home. They have six dogs, four cats, nine hens and one peacock. Dogs out the back, cats out the front and birds at the side!
The Garden is on two levels, wildlife garden on one level (the upper tier) with hares and hedgehogs and rabbits. The lower tier is a safe place for them where they have their own privacy from the road. They work as a team in the garden. Julie-Anne is very into interior design and has the vision. She sees each window as a picture frame to be filled. Eoin is great with his hands and recently built a pergola.
SERIES OVERVIEW
Ireland’s Garden Heroes
This new series for RTÉ One reveals the hard work and imagination ordinary people have put into their gardens across the island. We’ve sought out the best amateur gardeners to celebrate the joy of transforming your own space. Each week three contestants will open their gates to our experts horticulturalist Jimi Blake, garden designer Niall Maxwell and landscape designer Ingrid Swan. The experts will take the tour, examining every leaf and sniff every flower, to evaluate the gardens. How the garden is laid out, how the planting has been done, and what features have been added, are all investigated. But we also want to know what the garden means to the owner. Maybe it’s a place of adventure for kids, perhaps it’s a special space for relaxation, or maybe it’s a fully functional extension of your home, for entertaining and dining. How the garden fits into and enhances your life is an important factor too.
The gardens will be split into different categories in each episode, and the experts will assess the plants, the design, the functionality, and the feel of the garden before ultimately choosing a winner. Each episode will have an individual winner, and they will become one of Ireland’s Garden Heroes.
This series is a celebration of nature, of planting and growing things, and the beauty we can all create for ourselves.
Further details on the experts:
Jimi Blake – Horticulturist, owner of Hunting Brook Gardens
http://www.huntingbrook.com/lectures-tours/about-jimi/
Niall Maxwell – Garden Designerhttps://www.niallmaxwell.ie/
Ingrid Swan – Landscape Designerhttps://glda.ie/designerprofile/ingrid-swan/