Co. Laois PORTLAOISE

Kitchen & Foodhall, The

Ivyleigh House

Kingfisher Restaurant

Portlaoise Heritage Hotel

AA PORTLAOISE

Gash Gardens

Anyone needing the courage to start a garden from complete scratch could do no better than to visit Gash. It was started in 1986 by the late Noel Keenan in a field behind his farm, and what started as a walk to the river Nore became a fully fledged fantasy with contrasting areas covering four acres. The garden has now achieved remarkable maturity.

The star of the show is the Moon House Grotto, where a waterfall cascading from a mound of rocks, tumbles past a circular window into a lily pond. Around it gravel paths meander around raised beds with a wonderful collection of herbaceous and alpine plants, and past a whole variety of features, from a gazebo to a stream garden.

Eyecatchers among the plant population include Persicaria virginana ‘Painter’s Palette’, Ribes speciosum the fuchsia flowered currant and Veratrum nigrum producing its brown black flowers for the first time. A large collection of hardy geraniums features throughout the
garden, personalities like ‘Mrs Kendall Clark’ and ‘Bill Wallace’ are bound to win friends.

Beyond a bridge over a stream - a great excuse to grow damp loving plants like gunneras and hostas - is a soothing garden with lawn winding around informal beds of mixed planting. Contrasting use of foliage helps to create year round interest with splashes of lime green or golden foliage, and hydrangeas like the velvety leafed lace cap H aspera and ‘Annabelle’ provide a late display.The hidden walkway to the river and the laburnum tunnel provide a sense of adventure.

There is something very special about a two generational garden. Mary Keenan has taken over her father’s mantle, planting a new border of old fashioned roses like ‘Baron Girod de l’Ain’, and R chinensis ‘Mutabilis’, and beginning a collection of kniphofias and crocosmias with beauties like C ‘Star of the East’and K ‘Bees’Lemon’.

 

Portlaoise Heritage Hotel

 

Lemon Tree, Grellan Delaney & Sons, The

Pantry, The

Tynans at the Storeyard

The Killeshin