An exacting approach

Former Farnham Estate gardener discusses his passion for tending to plants

The amaryllis encapsulates a visit to Thomas Sheridan’s home in Farranaseer. With its showy red trumpet flowers it reflects the decade Thomas spent managing Farnham estate’s gardens, it’s the kind of plant that if you wanted to propagate you would need a little bit of know-how, and if you visit Thomas, there’s every chance you’ll leave with a prime specimen as a present.

Secreted away down a Cornafean bohereen that curves like a winding staircase around Farranseer Lough, you’ll find the Sheridans’ picturesque home. The current bungalow replaced the original Sheridan homestead where he was born and reared over nine decades ago.

Since we’re deep in Red country, and Thomas is of that heady vintage, he obviously has a senior county medal to his name. Modestly he hastens to add he was only a substitute on the winning 1956 panel, along with two brothers.

Football arises as we relax in the shade of a gable wall, but we’re here to talk gardening. The warm tan of his face contrasts with icy blue eyes and snow white hair, but speaks of his commitment to his outdoor pursuit

His deep voice is lived in too, though Maureen his wife of 61 years gently chides him for catching a head cold at a Reds match in nearby Páirc Naomh Fionnán.

“I’m 91 and a half,” he quips as he politely cautions his memory mightn’t be what it once was. His recall is great, and if his search for a plant name ends in vein, he’s happy to call on Paula, the youngest of his four adult daughters who joins us. Support is also provided by a crutch he holds employed as often to point out particular flowers or a line of a distant trees as it is to keep him upright.

Our tour of the garden that he still tends to every day begins at his traditional glasshouse, packed with tomato plants.

“They are doing well so they are,” Thomas admires of cherry tomatoes, their harsh green hue beginning to soften. This batch of plants started life as a raffle prize at Ballinagh Gardening Club, a fine institution which Thomas helped found with half a dozen friends three decades ago.

“Jimmy Scott was the main man,” he recalls of those early days.

The monthly meet-ups in Ballintemple Community Centre, remain a must for Thomas and scores of others who attend religiously.

Amongst the tomatoes an understated variegated shrub catches his eye. Identifying it as a variety of euonymus he handles it firmly but carefully with the assured confidence of a vet assessing a pup.

“You could take a little cutting of that now,” he says lifting foliage to show where to make the incision, “and it will grow very well in a nice little bit of compost.”

As we exit the greenhouse Thomas pauses to douse the floor with a cup filled from a bucket of rainwater.

“It’s always recommended for plant moisture,” he explains.

We head down his driveway with an explosion of pink and lilac flowers on one side, that give way to a selection of shrubs, including a fine big camellia. Next up is one of a number of rose beds which he grew from slips. On the other flank stands a row of mixed species trees - copper beech, crab apple, oak, hazel amongst them.

“You keep them well pruned,” the Celt admires.

“Well I did so far, I might need to get somebody to do it from now on,” he says, making a rare concession to time.

Every nook of the garden is well considered and with so many shrubs it’s impossible to name them all. However some stand out examples are a ten-foot tall weigela with wine red blossoms, and a fabulous peony rose stands out with its petals still snugly packed like a pink snowball.

Lines of hedges and paths bring structure to garden’s shape, and helps define separate areas. But everywhere you look is orderly.

Asked if he does much weeding Thomas rues: “Continuous weeding, oh God bless us. Frightening the way when the weather comes the weeds shoot up.”

A few pockets of the garden are dedicated to veg. One such plot beside an elaborate water harvesting system houses a row of broadbeans.

“They’re my favourite veg no matter what anyone says,” he declares, “but a lot of people just wouldn’t bother with them - they’re a little bit rough maybe. I love the flavour of them. I’m doing them for the past 50 years - I’m growing more and more.”

His designated kitchen garden is found at the foot of the lane - a plot teaming with early potatoes, beetroot, scallions, cabbages, chives, and asparagus.

“This one, being outside and maybe a little neglected is only coming now, but the one in the tunnel is about that high,” he says of the asparagus while levelling his crutch above his head.

Entering the polytunnel it turns out he has underestimated his asparagus growth, it actually looms over him its frothy foliage of an exotic fern.

“They’re not hard to grow, but it takes a new plant a couple of years to mature right,” he explains.

Here too we find a dozen or so amaryllis plants. He lifts these weighty pots to show where a new off-shoot is emerging from the generous bulb. The flamboyant plant brings to mind happy memories from his time in Farnham.

“Out of the blue, this big fine lady - a sister of Lord Farnham’s was over from England and gave me one of them amaryllis - I thought it was very good of her. She mightn’t have bothered her head,” he recalls.

Thomas only came to gardening professionally relatively late in life. His youth had seen him work as a farmhand, helping out neighbouring farmers. He recalls how one of them, James Cartwright, assessed his work: “He used to say to me, ‘Aw now you’re too exact, don’t be too exact - just rough it up it’ll be good enough’,” Thomas says with a laugh.

He later spent almost a quarter of a century working in McCormack Products of Killeshandra, which he describes as, “the first reasonably good job I got”. He left when it was bought over the by the creamery.

Thomas’s exacting nature would be more appreciated when, thanks to a recommendation from Gwen Keith, a friend of the Farnhams, he got the gardener role on a six week trial basis.

Thomas brought Maureen and their young daughters - Geraldine, Ann-Marie, Deirdre and Paula - the short drive to see his new workplace.

“I remember when you went into Farnham Estate Garden,” says Paula joining us in the shade with her mother. “When you went to open the gate you couldn’t get in. It was all totally overgrown. There had been nothing done in there in years.”

“It was run down,” nods Thomas in agreement.

Paula adds: “And you want to have seen it when he was finished - he had brought it back to pure perfection!”

“Just one man,” marvels Maureen.

Asked what the local gentry were like to work for he replies: “Very good, very good. I never could say anything ag’in any of them.”

While Thomas already knew how to grow veg, he spent much of his spare time reading about caring for flowers, ornamental shrubs and specimen trees.

“I did ten years there in Farnham Estate gardens and I enjoyed it well. I made a good hand of it,” he says contentedly.

Of gardening he volunteers, “What I liked most was getting out in the fresh air.”

Thomas’s garden speaks of how he never lost that exacting trait he displayed back on the Cartwright farm. He enjoys seeing a gardening job well done.

“I think it’s very satisfying. It’s lovely to have a nice tidy bit of a plot.”