About Terra Nova

Terra Nova Garden is open to visitors from April to September. Every Friday 10am until dusk and on some Saturdays and Sundays, please phone first to check. 00353 (0) 63 90744. Open to groups at other times by appointment. Admission €5 each. Sorry, no children under 12.

In 1996, when our half-acre garden was still very young, we decided to enter the annually run national garden competition. With no illusions about winning a prize, we just entered for the fun of it. Our garden was very raw and had lots of ‘rough patches’. Still, we managed to scrape an  ‘Award of Merit’, which was just a step away from a prize. The following few years saw us win second and first places in Co.’s Clare/Limerick, before the sponsors of the competition decided to call it a day and the competition was completely abandoned after the 2000 awards. Over the next five years we worked away on our garden every day. The workload was tough, but we loved every moment that we spent outside. As the years passed by, our plants grew strong and healthy, thanks to the fertile soil and the huge amounts of manure that we added during the winter. Every autumn we would take a section of garden and develop it, Martin working on the construction of features and me on the new plantings. Although neither of us considers ourselves to be artistic, we do have fairly vivid imaginations and these projects were the perfect opportunities to do something a bit crazy and different. One year saw the creation of a long, winding exotic border,

Another, the making of a woodland walk, complete with fairytale-style log cabin. This is a wonderful place in spring full of Hellebores, Trilliums, Arisaemas and other woodland treasures.

By 2003 we were constructing a miniature beach,

Followed by a goblins abode, complete with it’s own garden, which is inhabited with some very bizarre plants!

Every square inch of our garden was used, and when ground space was gone, we started planting up on the roofs!

In the spring of 2005, Viking Machinery and The Irish Garden magazine announced the launch of a brand new nationwide garden competition that would include entries from both Rep. of Ireland and Northern Ireland (32 counties) Again we entered for the fun of it, but this time we were absolutely thrilled to find out that we had won the top prize! We were awarded the Best Garden In Ireland 2005.

In 1991 we moved into our house with the intention of turning our wet half-acre of land into a patch of green lawn with a few flowerbeds and possibly a small number of trees. Little did we know back then how seriously we would become infected with the gardening bug! Here are a few pictures to show you what we started with….

Not very inspiring eh? No we didn’t think so either. So for a couple of years not much happened at all. The ground was rotovated and grass seed was sown. Narrow borders started to edge their way around the perimeter of these new lawns and then the odd tree was popped in for good measure. ……

By 1995 our favourite Sunday pastime was a drive out to a garden centre, distance no object, where we would load the back of the car with plants. Oh happy days! Then we decided that we would like a pond…

Who would have ever thought that from this humble beginning that this pond would be awarded ‘Best Water Feature in Ireland 2000’!

Now three ponds and five water features later we are slowly beginning to realize that we might have a bit of an addiction to the sound of running water!

And now here we are, at the end of October 2005. The journey to this point in our garden has been long, but oh, what fun we’ve had!  As we write, Martin is working on our next big project. We are very excited about it as it’s going to look stunning next summer. Why not come and see it for yourself!

Happy gardening to you all,

Deborah & Martin

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