Ireland has many great gardens

past and future.And all deserve a visit. Never pass a garden open sign, you don’t know what you might be missing.

This happened to me recently while driving the Ring of Kerry, puttering and pottering down a boreen as it were, and I came across Kells Bay gardens. A lovely garden set in a sheltered wooded valley. Not a keep off the grass kind of place which suits my tactile nature very well. Easy to have driven by but I had an afternoon of enjoyment and enlightenment instead. Plus the ubiquitous tea and scone, but it had to be done.

You don’t just have to happen upon a place though, planning a forethought is sometimes a good option or only option. I have two to do gardens on my list at present and strangely neither are really plant gardens. The first is Victor’s Way sculpture garden in Roundwood Wicklow. It is a garden for over eighteens or even over twenty eights according to some reading up I have done. It appears to be a spiritual garden with scupltures of an Asian influcence. It’s a place for reflection and contemplation and maybe not for everyones tastes but I’m intrigued. I’m a bit of a philistine when it comes to the fine arts but sculpture, espcially when you can touch it, interests me. That tactile thing again. I’m not a tree hugger but I do like to lay hands on. I am hoping to be challenged by this garden which is not what you would expect from a garden visit and see if it is transendental or self indulgent. What ever my opinion it looks fascinating.

The other garden definitely needs some forward planning as it is in Scotland and only open one afternoon a year. The Garden of Cosmic Speculation might sound a little pretentious and probably is, My Lovely Garden would be sufficient for me, but photos would suggest that it is worthy of its name. To describe it is difficult and it’s best viewed to someway comprehend what I mean. Cosmic gives you a clue. It’s is privately owned by American architect Charles Jencks.