Co. Dublin BLACKROCK

Dali's Restaurant

Ristorante da Roberto

Tonic

Carysfort Lodge

This pretty 1890s lodge and its sunny, square back garden were rescued from a dreadful fate as the car park for a nearby pub. When the Dillons became its saviour the property was run down, there were a few old apple trees in the garden and the house had no electricity.

Now, 35 years later, the garden is an invitation to relax and enjoy the company of a happy congregation of plants and shrubs. It is also an inspiration for Siobhan’s exquisitely embroidered flower pictures. The first thing the Dillons did was to plant shrubs and trees to blur the boundaries and give the garden structure.

There is a Chamaecyparis nootkatensis‘Pendula’ (familiarly known as the Afghan tree), gleditsia, magnolia, a willow weeping obligingly over a gothic seat guarded by golden Florencecourt yews and a champion Cornus controversa ‘Variegata’, and a cherry tree is nearly invisible under swags of the Belvedere rose.

A deep herbaceous border stretches down the east, full of decorative plants, plumes of white willow herb, drifts of alstroemerias and campanulas, spires of veronicastrum and galega. Amid the cottagey profusion there are displays of hellebores and tulips in spring and, in summer, a Crambe cordifliadoing its spectacular thing.

There’s a peaceful green and white planted area with Hydrangea‘Annabelle’ and Macleaya cordata at the bottom of the garden, while an L shaped box hedge holds back a crowd of alstroemerias and lilies near the house.

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