Daniel J. Foley, former editor of Horticulture Magazine, wrote evocatively in a foreword to a book titled Irish Gardens (Hyams and MacQuitty, The Macmillan Company,1967) about the gardens of Ireland. His words capture the spirit of Ireland and Irish gardens and are a suitable lead-in to the gardens subject area of Irish Greens.

"Few small countries offer more allure than does Ireland with its gardens great and small. Endowed by nature with rare attributes, set amid the untamed beauty of lakes and mountains, protected by warm Gulf Stream winds, the diaphanous light in this seagirt land etches borders and beds, gilds trees and shrubs, and limns architecture with an amazing sharpness. Visitors recall with great joy the greenest of green lawns and the brilliance of endless floral displays, infinite in variety.

By virtue of its location -the westernmost of large European islands- Ireland is a place of solitude. Though the Irish have always revealed a love of nature in their poetry, song, stone sculpture, metalcraft, illuminated manuscripts, and perhaps more especially, in the charming place names of their villages, it remained for those beyond their borders to design and develop most of the notable private gardens that today flourish in Ireland. In the eighteenth century and well into the nineteenth, the English gentry built great houses and created gardens truly worthy of their settings. Rare exotic treasures, gathered by intrepid plant hunters from South American jungles and Asian mountain valleys, rooted and flourished in the wet mild climate of Ireland to an extent not realized elsewhere in the British Isles."

Two ideas emerge from this foreward. First is the perfect natural setting that Ireland offers for gardens. Second, that many of the great Irish castle and estate gardens had their origin in the aristocratic times of the 18th and 19th centuries, and were in fact the creations of the politically dominant English or those with close ties to this system. Stylistically, gardens were therefore modeled after elaborate gardens found in Renaissance Italy or seventeenth century France. Thus there is reflected in the old historic Irish gardens a strong element of cosmopolitanism and eclecticism. As Edward Malins and Patrick Bowe write in their book Irish Gardens and Demesnes from 1830:

"In recent times Ireland has looked more to Europe and the Common Market than to Britain; so also in the late nineteenth century Ireland became more cosmopolitan, and gardens as far apart as Villa Aloupka in the Crimea and Villa Bagheria in Sicily influenced the design of Irish gardens.

With the expansion of European empires in the High Victorian period an overwhelming influx of plant material reached Ireland from all parts of the world. The Irish climate in the southwest and in many places near the sea was particularly suitable for the growth of a variety of tender subtropical plants. Thus the riches of the botanist-explorers were added to a plethora of gardening and architectural styles." (Rizzoli International Publications, NY, 1980)

However, to understand fully the nature of the gardens of Ireland you must remember they are not solely the manicured formal gardens of the historic castle and estates. Home and cottage gardens and plantings, window boxes, wildflowers along the sides of narrow lanes, these too reflect the Irish love of nature and plants.

Throughout its history, Ireland has been a predominately agricultural and rural-based society. Fourty years ago at least 60% of the population of Ireland lived in rural areas and village settlements of fewer that 3,000 people. Although the country is urbanizing rapidly now, Ireland still has a population tied to and involved in agriculture at a level far greater than the average for other countries in the British Isles.

As A.S. Orme writes in his geography Ireland:

"...the countryside contains may relics of bygone eras. Some, such as prehistoric tombs, medieval castles, derelict mansions, walled demesnes, abandoned farmsteads and booley huts, empty corn mills and old spade ridges, are now quite dead or, like like open field systems, rapildy vanishing. Strong regional variations in the character of the rural economy and settlement pattern continue to express potent historical, as well as physical factors. Few parts of the Irish countryside fail to evoke memories of the past." (Aldine Publishing, Chicago, 1970)

This closeness to nature is reflected in the Irish people and in evidence in their history, music, literature, mythology and folklore, and runs all the way back to the remnant legacy of the ancient Celtic past, described by Nigel Pennick in Celtic Sacred Landscapes:

"As human beings, we are rooted in the earth, but modern civilization obscures the fact to the point where many people appear to be unaware of it. Much current human behaviour results from the denial of this reality. Traditional wisdom recognizes and celebrates our relationship with subtle qualities in the land. This is expressed in the relationship between each individual and the land. It mainfests its spiritual nature in different places through different spiritual qualities. There is no feature of the landscape that is not associated in local tradition with some event or legend. If we open ourselves to this possibility, we can have a personal spiritual relationship with these qualities." (Thames and Hudson, NY, 1996)

To view and learn more about the simpler side of Irish gardens, visit Elizabeth Law's home garden in Dublin and Michael Campbell's cottage garden in County Clare. Visit too Elizabeth's webpage of other Irish garden attractions or the Dublin Garden Group's attractive website. Note that many of the home gardens welcome visitors. This is common in Ireland. If you do some exploring on the web you'll find many people who invite small groups to contact them to arrange personally guided home garden visits. The tours usually cost only a few pounds each, and will include at the end a tea with your host. What better way to meet the people of Ireland?