Among a parkland of mostly lawns and trees, two walled gardens burst with early autumn abundance.

As we wander down the fern-flanked, moss-mottled paths of this luxury hotel’s demense, furled leaves crunch underfoot. We’ve spent the morning exploring part of the peaceful 600-acre parkland and we’ve circled back to the lower walled garden. Head gardener Liz O’Connell describes it as “a riot of late autumn colour”, and she’s not wrong. The borders are full of bright, herbaceous plants and shrubs: hydrangeas bloom in blush and blue hues, fiery dogwood and grasses give height and movement, rudbeckia and dahlias provide bright yellow cheer, while heleniums and smoke bush add dramatic warm tones. Lining the walls, copper beech and oak trees provide fabulous rusted foliage. 

The borders follow Gertrude Jekyll’s signature hot-to-cool-to-hot style, as laid out by Trim landscape designer, plantsman and Ballyfin managing director Jim Reynolds in 2008, who was the “brainchild behind the garden”, as Liz explains. As well as herbaceous plants, there are miscanthus, interplanted with hydrangeas, sambucus and cyanus, which are then interplanted with shrubs. 

Liz started on the estate in October 2010, following a varied history that took her from commercial horticulture in Termonkfeckin, to garden design in England with John Brooks and ten years at Ballymaloe Cookery School as head gardener. “My sister is Darina, so it’s slightly bred into the marrow of the bones,” says Liz. “When I got married, I moved back to Laois and designed gardens for a few years on a full-time basis, but I wanted to get my hands back in the soil. I approached Ballyfin and I’ve been here ever since.”

When the house was handed over from the Patrician Brothers in 2008, the gardens of the former school were in a very different condition: the borders had been completely flattened and there was an issue with drainage – Liz doesn’t describe it as neglected, more like a blank sheet. And so, one side of the herbaceous border was lifted, and the soil reconditioned. Meanwhile, over in the semi-walled rose garden, ball games had been played. “One of the first things to go was the ball alleys,” she explains. The concrete walls were removed to expose the lower down remains of the 18th-century stone and brick. “That is being developed now as a rose garden and already we have two borders of roses and this autumn, we are putting in more. It’s getting back to its former glory.”

Once upon a time, the rose garden and lower walled garden were also home to glasshouses that provided exotic fruits to the house, like dessert grapes. “We would adore to think they would be reinstated, not just for the visuals, but also for growing but I’m not sure that will happen,” admits Liz. “We have two tunnels, but nothing compares to a glass house.” Still, the team of four (Pat Dowling, Terry Towigh, Kaleigh Keenan and Liz) manage to provide the kitchen with fresh produce all year-round. “It was Jim who suggested we grow a few vegetables, and that has grown to three huge areas,” says Liz. “There were plots that weren’t being utilised, but quickly we had a plan for them.” Now neat rows of vegetables, from asparagus to turnips, line up along straight beds. 

As the herbaceous border is already full, Liz focuses much of her time on plotting and sowing edibles for the house. “I liaise with Sam Moody, our executive chef, daily and weekly for menus, and we also have a big planning session at the end of each year. There is a huge communication between myself and the kitchen,” Liz explains. 

Every year she looks forward to doing something new. “Last autumn, we planted 7,000 tulips and 1,000 miniature daffodils in beds for cutting for the spring. I also came across two new kales, well new to me, a lovely white-veined kale and a cerise-veined one, neither of which we’ve had before. They’ll be gorgeous outside as they’re quite ornamental, but they’ll also be lovely for the kitchen. I’ve also discovered a tiny little white turnip, so I’m growing that this year too. It’s tiny, it’s not even the size of a golf ball.”

Ultimately, the garden has to work with the house and what they need, which is namely fruit, flowers and vegetables. “That’s what I come up with ideas for, and why we try more variety, colour and excitement every year. It’s a challenge, but it’s a wonderful challenge. It’s a garden that’s constantly changing.”
 

PHOTOGRAPHY Andrea Jones & James Fennell
PUBLISHED Garden Heaven 2018