A garden that does its own thing

Gardening

It’s clear that Eileen McCabe lavishes her gardens with love. Surrounding her Crosserlough home of 30 years the garden is split into four distinct areas, conjuring different moods and benefiting from the sun - when it reluctantly obliges - at different times of the day.

To have just one of these gardens would both satisfy and occupy most people. How Eileen keeps on top of this I’ll never know.

The mother of five adult children, and now grandchildren, delights in the charms of the various gardens. Each plant receives a compliment as we pass and often she notes she let’s it do “its own thing”.

The garden is a 30 year work in progress as the property once belonged to husband Dermot’s grandparents. The couple bought it to move home from Luton and rear their family.

“It was all run down and awful,” she recalls of their blank canvas.

“I planted the first year - a rose and it seemed to take off. The soil is really rich and dark and fabulous - especially down here, because this probably was the old hay garden where they kept the old stacks of hay. It just took off and it’s going since.”

Did she have a plan when planting?

“No. Everything is just free - stick in a cutting and hopefully it takes off, then you mightn’t see it for three years and then you go, ‘Oh yeah, I remember that thing from somewhere,’” she says with a laugh.

Her love of wildlife informs her laissez faire outlook, if the insects and pollinators and birds are happy then so is she.

“There aren’t many bees this year, there aren’t many butterflies either,” she laments as we discuss her outlandishly tall red clover that has a few bees inspecting the flower head. The Celt has been to a few gardens this summer and Eileen’s is one of the busier for pollinators. A lo-fi buzzing soundtrack accompanies much of the tour.

A wonderful wooden archway built by Dermot manfully provides support for no less than four climbers: wisteria, rose, clematis and sweetpea to ensure colour from early spring into late autumn. It foreshadows the maximalist garden that lies beyond. As we descend a few steps, Eileen introduces it: “I call this ‘The Damp Garden’.”

You’d be forgiven for wondering if there’s any other type of garden in Cavan. However, we are blessed with a glorious morning, and yet the ground beneath our feet lives up to the damp billing.

A lot of care has gone into ensuring the basic structure of this garden is done well. Old stone has been used to create a beautifully textured surround for the circular lawn.

“I came home one day and it was done,” she admires of Dermot’s handiwork.

A narrow grass path discretely presents itself out of this lawn circle and into another where looms a gunnera of epic scale.

“This is probably my favourite thing,” she says in the shade of its monstrous cabbage-esque leaves. “I love it. My grandkids all say it’s a dinosaur plant. It’s so rough, and I think its so beautiful in its own way.”

The Damp Garden is a little pocket of Eden, an unabashed celebration of life.

As we follow the path around we pass groups of hostas and ferns, luxuriating in the shade and moisture. A further twist and turn past a mature, moss covered sycamore with and we come upon a raised secret corner where Eileen’s 10 grandkids often play on a swing hanging from the bough. The setting is worthy of a child’s adventure novel.

“You can go on ahead but it’s overgrown at the minute - it’s a bit of a jungle,” acknowledges Eileen with a nonchalant wave of the hand. A job for another day.

A path from the Damp Garden leads along to a handmade bridge and into her Mindful Garden, which she only created this year. There may be stands of cosmos and sunflowers, but here the wildflowers rule - borage, teasels, fox and cubs. Opening on to neighbouring fields that have largely rewilded, there’s a greater sense of freedom here.

“Everything is grown in together - it all works,” she says of her large vegetable patch on top of a hillock that provides great views. “The sunflowers, the potatoes, the peas, the cabbage. I left this cabbage here for the white butterfly caterpillar because there are so few this year,” she explains as gluttonous caterpillars devour the heritage variety. “It’s a cut and come again cabbage so if I cut all that down when they’re finished, it’ll come back again. I know they will demolish it, but let them at it.”

Elsewhere Eileen holds the leash shorter.

The back garden immediately to the rear of the house is rich in wildflowers and tall ornamental grasses, but in a more formal setting with borders around a conventional lawn.

It’s a tranquil space in which to enjoy the morning sun with a cuppa. To the front of the house is its companion piece.

“This is a very peaceful garden,” she says as we enter. Its kidney shaped lawn boasts borders festooned with well established perennials which thrive in the late afternoon sun.

Judging by the colour on display we’ve hit on a good time to visit. The understated conifers and boxus shrubs have crisply defined edges and give height and structure to the garden and offer a verdant backdrop on which the flowers like red lucifer and viburnum can shine. Star of this front garden however might be a shrub.

“I love the common names - this is the smoke bush or the gin and tonic,” she says crushing a leaf to release the fragrance that gives the latter name. “It’s stunning.”

On the way out, a purple allium Drumstick and evening primrose, catch her eye.

“I just let things go, and maybe I’m not too tidy, but I think it needs to be let do its own thing.”

Her Honesty plant has already given its dark pink flowers in spring, and now sports a curious seed head.

“It seeds itself, and off it goes. It’s everywhere,” she rejoices.

She doesn’t let everything do it’s own thing however. There is a curator at work here.

“Some of the plants you have to say who’s boss because they really become thugs and take over - like the gunnera - I’ll mind that, even the ferns, they can be a bit thuggish as well.”

Eileen is clearly smitten by the garden she has lovingly created.

“I get so much from it, it’s so healing, so special, so mindful - it just clears your head. It’s fabulous.”