Somewhere out beyond the Guinness and the greenest fields of cows, up a semi-mountain track, level with the highest farming homesteads, just where the land turns to moors, lies a garden that is hard to define. It has a log cabin watered by a stream and a loud hum of bees under the bathroom floorboards. Some of the bees find their way inside where they buzz themselves to an exhausted death against the window panes unless aided to escape.
Oak
Dew
It is a garden growing against the trend of dull, trim lawns, carefully shaped bushes and planned flowers. This garden leaps at all angles and to some would resemble early morning hair urgently in need of a comb. Unkempt, it feels rampant and many would perhaps see neglect. And yet those bees dwelling within the walls are occasionally harried by sweet-toothed pine martens. Or perhaps it’s the grubs they crave. An old caravan sits partially hidden in the garden with the grass beyond its ankles and the interior is scented by dozens of pine marten scats. I spent a few days in this gem of a garden and never saw a marten but their presence was clear and it made my heart bounce.
Red Campion
Oak
This is a garden with a different balance. For neglect, read care, broad inclusive care beyond the selfishness of ownership. For all its green beauty, to my eye, Ireland is well short of trees. This garden bucks that trend with the feel of a gladed woodland.
Plantain Leaves
Daisies
There is plenty to eat here. Along with the fruit, veg and planted herbs there are those who chose to grow here themselves. Edible weeds are not weeds. And the bounty is shared. Birds fill themselves on blueberries but through protectively chasing off competitors they leave a healthy surplus.
Alder
Bracken
There is also plenty to see. Flowers and ferns, an enormous swimmable pond, every bark texture imaginable, and the visible wind of swaying plants. Turn your head and there'll be something else.
Fern and Flowers
Ash Bark
Washed by stormy Atlantic air everything is fresh, moist and clean as a reminder of what a mess we have made of so much. With a comparatively mild climate, some plants can grow year round. The rest produce a spring burst fast enough to watch. And the apple trees drip with lichen. Apart from the pine martens, those wonderful branches of life were what I coveted most.
Apple Tree Lichen
Mini-worlds abound for those willing to get down and look. And there must be another magnitude of micro-worlds further hidden away. Better optics and I would have started exploring them, although that's a distraction with no end.
Moss
Plantain Leaves
Put anything down for long enough here and it eventually belongs to the garden. Discarded manmade objects lying exposed for years slowly melt into the surroundings. The weathering of wind, rain, frost and sun do much of the work but we shouldn't forget the rootlets and feet that also play their part in flaking the paintwork, plus the seasonal pulse of being covered then exposed by the greenery. The older these things are, the more they belong.
Trailer
It takes a certain attitude to create and belong in a place like this. It can be intense with so many possibilities and the temptation to over-meddle but there is great freedom to be found in letting things be as they want. Over-control would be a crime here. Subtle guiding hands have produced a beautiful collage of a garden with space for all. Spending time there left me feeling content.
Oak
Dew
These photographs are a tiny slice of a Kerry garden that do not do it justice but hopefully give a hint of possibilities.
Buttercup
