Vegetable Coral

Brassicas are one of the mainstays of the vegetable patch. For many years I have grown the usual members of this family, cabbages, kale, cauliflower, brussel sprouts and green brocolli. This year I have added romanesco brocolli to the list. It is I think one of, if not the most striking vegetables that can be grown in our climes. The lime green colour of the heads draws your attention in and then you appreciate the geometric symetery of the florets. The delicacy of their shape reminds me of coral or maybe a roofline view of minarets.

 

 

Billy Old Rectory, Castlecat, Bushmills.

Another Saturday and another garden open under the auspices of the National Trust's Ulster Garden Scheme. The garden which was welcoming visitors today was that at Billy Old Rectory a few miles outside the village of Bushmills.

 

It is a good size garden, extending to about three acres. The rectory was constructed in 1810 for some £810 by the then rector, Rev. J. Babington. The doorway to the three bay dwelling is through a doorway which is situated halfway between the basement and ground floor in the three storey bow which fronts the house. Somewhat surprisingly the stairway from the entrance to the ground floor only winds from the right hand side. A pleasant symetery would have been achieved if one could advance from either of two flights of stairs from the entrance.

 

There is a small gate lodge to the property which is well kept. Leading from the entrance gates is a well maintained gravel drive with extensive lawns on the right hand side. These are flanked by a mature woodland area with bark covered walks.

 

Behind the dwelling are the orchard, the vegetable garden and herb garden. There is also a duck pond. Sadly it seems to have a solitary inhabitant. At one time there may have been bees and chickens for company. The bee hives and chicken houses remain to provide interest but they are presently uninhabited.

 

A small summerhouse overlooks the lily pond. It certainly would have attractions on a summer evening with the allure of a stiff snifter seated in front of you.

 

 

 

A Garden in the Sun.

 

Another weekend and another visit to a private garden opening under the auspices of the National Trust's open garden scheme. This time the garden was situated midway between Ballymena and Larne at Ballynashee Road, Glenwherry. It has been twenty years in the making and this has been the first time that it has opened its portals to the eyes of the public.

 

It is a large country garden extending over five acres and it has the benefit of two large ponds fed from an old mill race. The larger of the ponds is almost half an acre in extent and certainly adds interest to the garden, surrounded as it is with aquatic marginals and containing largish patches of water lilies. The owners, (a Mr & Mrs Rafferty), must spend all of their waking hours keeping nature in check. It is hard to imagine when they have time to actually enjoy their garden.

 

In the wilder areas of the garden they have planted many hundreds of broadleaf trees and created walkways along the adjoining river. Another twenty years and these trees will be reaching maturity and a true woodland will have been created. Even now you can imagine what it will ultimately be like. Hopefully the owners will live sufficiently long to see their garden plans come to full fruition.

 

 

 

Open Garden

 

Two consecutive days when the temperature has been above 68 degrees fahrenheit. That positively constitutes summer in Northern Ireland!

 

With training concluded and a few hours weeding in the vegetable garden clocked up I directed the trusty horseless carriage towards the vicinity of Magherafelt to inspect a garden which was opening to the public under the National Trust's Ulster Garden Scheme. The owners, were in attendance, responding to what were at times rather inane questions.

 

 

Their garden extends to just over an acre and is packed full of herbaceous plants. They must spend most of their days pruning, weeding, cutting grass and attending to their three hives of bees. Hopefully their health will enable them to enjoy their garden for many years hence, but they aren't young, not even middle aged. The male of the matrimonial duo reminded me of Fyfe Robertson in looks, although he lacked a bow tie (probably not a comparison which is understood by anyone who was born less than fifty five years ago). I don't imagine that the garden will be so expertly cultivated and maintained once they have passed on to the celestial garden. That must be somewhat sad for them.

 

 

Springtime

 

Clouds scudded across the sky chased by the March winds. A buzzard circled overhead playing with the air currents, its plaintiff cries silencing the songbirds below. Dried beech leaves chased each other across the lawns.

 

In the borders the daffodils danced in homage to their favourite poet. The pale yellow petals of a primrose caught the spring light. A day to savour, a day to work in contented solitude in the vegetable patch. A day to forget worries and concerns. A day to turn the soil and feel it friable, unclogged by winter.

 

 

 

Bogay House

Photo Courtesy of National Inventory of Architectural Heritage

Bogay House in County Donegal is a property which brings back many happy childhood memories. The above photograph must have been taken circa 1967. Shortly after that the driveway was tarmaced,

The property was owed by a cousin of my father and we visited he and his wife on a very regular basis. The demesne was a veritable adventure ground for a young schoolboy. The rear of the house has a southerly aspect and the lawn immediately below the the house had and presumably still has an Italianate pond. Both this pond and the rather more informal pond adjacent to the northerly turning circle were full of frogspawn every Spring and newts could always be seen amongst the pondweed.

The surrounding woodland provided me with a seemingly limitless playground. I remember visiting Bogay to view a red deer stag that had escaped from Glenveagh and found its way to this little piece of rural tranquility. There were several Spanish Chestnut trees in the woods and I recollect collecting the nuts to eat.

Below the house was the walled garden. Apparently this is one of only nine walled gardens in Co. Donegal. Unfortunately this garden is now unused and overgrown. My dad's cousin kept it in good order, indeed it was a working and productive garden. The lower half of this two acre enclave was planted with apple trees. The remainder of the garden was devoted to soft fruit and vegetables. Uncle Willie, (that's what I called him), operated the garden as a vaguely commercial venture and sold the excess produce. Self sufficiency was definitely something which he approved of. He kept bees and up until the last three or so years of his life he had a couple of dairy cows. Learning how to milk a cow by hand is another memory that remains with me. I wonder if it is one of those skills, like riding a bike, that you don't forget?

He was a nice old buffer. Certainly from another generation. Born in 1890 he was educated at Campbell College, Cambridge and St. Thomas' Hospital. Having qualified as a doctor he served as such in the RAMC during the Great War where he was awarded the MC (For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He personally assisted in getting his wounded away from the dressing station under heavy machine-gun and rifle fire. Previous to this he had gone out from the dressing station on several occasions to tend ....).

Much of his subsequent working life was spent in Palestine as a senior medical officer. He was awarded an OBE in 1936. After he had retired to Co Donegal in 1946 he and his wife, (Dorothy) would travel to East Africa for the winter months, visiting friends and relatives in Kenya, (then pronounced Keen ya, not Ken ya). Not such a bad idea methinks. He was a good source of stamps for my schoolboy collection.

The house contained various artefacts from William's colonial career. I was particularly fascinated by the huge snail shells sitting on top of the bookcases in the large three bay drawing room. He was a keen ornithologist and his notebooks are contained within the manuscript collection in the Natural History Museum in Tring.

Cutting up firewood was another of his pleasures. Unfortunately he was rather too enthusiastic at this task on one occasion and managed to sustain a ten percent reduction in digits. This however did not result in a trip to hospital. He self treated.

Built as a hunting lodge on the Abercorn Estates the Record of Protected Structures for Co Donegal states that the house was constructed in the early to mid eighteenth century. It has five bays and is two storied over a basement and with a dormer attic. There is a single bay basement to the east. A projecting porch was added to the northern aspect circa 1890. In or about 1800 the house was given to the Reverend Thomas Pemberton, rector of Taughboyne for use as a Rectory and it remained as such for in excess of a hundred years. At the time of the 1911 census, Rev A. G. Stewart had the benefit of the glebe and the twenty one room house. The ancillary buildings are listed as being, two stables; coach house ; harness room; calf house; dairy; fowl hose; broiling house; barn; potato house; workshop; shed; laundry and wood house. The census goes on to reveal three other houses on the lands, one of which was vacant and one of which was occupied by a family by the name of Best, whose head of household is described as Land Stewart. For a large part of the nineteenth century Bogay House was the residence of Rev Edward Bowen and his family. His eldest son, Sir George Ferguson Bowen, (1821 -1899) became the ninth Governor of Hong Kong on 30th March 1883, remaining in this post until 21st December 1887.

Mount Stewart in the Sun

Yesterday afternoon my personal charabanc conveyed me to Mount Stewart on the Ards peninsula. The reason for my visitation was to view the display of rhododendrons. These are not the two foot examples found at the local garden centre. These are truly specimen plants. Many of them are thirty feet in height, with a similar width. Lady Edith Londonderry who laid out the gardens which we now see, in the 1920's and 1930's ,certainly thought on a grandiose scale. Mind you she wasn't starting with a blank canvas.

 

The sunny afternoon had attracted perhaps upwards of a couple of thousand people to the gardens. A good many of these did not venture further than the lawns behind the house. The younger members of this assemblage sprawled on the grass. The older and more organised individuals had arrived with their collapseable chairs and bottles of chilled wine. The dear old National Trust, unbeknownst to myself, had organised a jazz band to entertain the populace. Had I had the perspicacity to arrive with a supply of vinous liquid I might well have been tempted to join this throng and doze contentedly in the sun rather than perambulate around the gardens. A lesson learnt!