Terra Nova is a brand new small garden covering half an acre, and was
started in1993. By 1999 it had already come first in the Limerick and Clare
category of the Shamrock All Ireland Gardens Competition and in 2000 it took
the prize for the best water feature in Ireland. Deborah Begley is a
fanatical gardener and plantswoman. She grows almost all of her plants from
seed and loves unusual specimens. So while this is a small plot, it is awash
with treasures that will be of particular interest to plantaholics, as well
as inspiring others with small gardens.
Deborah's garden is, for want of a better name, a laboratory. She has a
small nursery and mail order service through which she sells some of her
more interesting plants and the garden is the trial ground for those plants.
If they don't work in her plot, she doesn't sell them. She is, therefore,
full of well-gleaned advice for buyers. Like a growing band of gardeners
with a plant habit, Deborah subscribes to seed-collecting expeditions and
pores over the Internet to locate the more unusual plants. Once she has
acquired the seeds she grows many of these tender fast growers as annuals in
her garden. They provide her with a large number of big-leaved,
exotic-looking shrubs which she grows effectively, with no fear of frost or
short life - plants like African hemp (Sparmannia africana) and the castor
oil plant (Ricinus communis) with its great purple leaves and red, plastic
like seed pods. The frost will get them and they will die, but she will just
plant more seeds for next year, in much the same way the rest of us plant
lobelia and petunia. Among the more unusual things in her garden, Deborah
has a particular love for Arisaema - the strange-looking herbaceous
perennial that has become so fashionable among experimenting gardeners over
the past few years. She was waiting impatiently for Arisaema seed to arrive
from China when I visited. She grows a great number of varieties both in the
greenhouse and outside.
The garden is not just a collection of plants. The layout is arranged well,
with seating areas everywhere - for a gardener who never sits down. It has
a tiny wooded area full of wood anemone, bluebells and lily-of-the-valley,
and a small door leads off from here to who knows where. The stained glass
in the door comes courtesy of husband Martin and his glassworks.
A little wildlife pond, well bridged and edged with canna lilies, golden
gardeners garters and bullrushes, sits in the middle of the garden. This was
selected Third Best Pond in Ireland in the Shamrock All Ireland Gardens
Competition 1998. A great love of trees and only her half-acre to play with
means that Deborah only grows small trees. At the moment her particular
favourite is a Limerick-bred Betula, known as 'White Light', the work of a
Mr Buckley in Birdhill. Space is at a premium and to be too soft is to
disadvantage a small garden, so she is not afraid of pulling out any tree or
shrub that gets too big. An over-reaching eucalyptus has just been seen off
and the space will he given over to a new young specimen that will be
tolerated until big for its boots.
There are masses of unusual and attractive plants in the garden, including a
run of Duchesnea indica, the mock strawberry with red fruits that the birds
don't steal. Her hardy Japanese banana will be wrapped in straw for the
winter to save it from the frosts. There are some good grotesques too, like
the memorable voodoo lily (Sauromatum venuosum) which smells like a baby's
bad nappy; 'The flies love it' says Deborah. This is a truly inspiring
garden that is well worth visiting, especially for those who also work in
restricted space. It is a testament to what flair, passion and back-breaking
work can achieve.
Terra Nova Plants also received recognition as one of Shirley Lanigans Top
Twenty Best Irish Nurseries in Ireland... Deborah Begley has a great flair
for growing plants. She has been selling from her small garden nursery only
since 1999, but she has already gained a reputation among plant-lovers.
Deborah grows plants mainly from seeds gathered from all over the world on
expeditions to which she subscribes. Part of the strength of her nursery is
that everything she sells has been tried and tested by her in her own
Limerick garden. The mail order list runs to seven typed pages. It includes
a changing selection of plants, including several varieties of papaver,
lysimachia, eryngium, geranium, codonoposis, aconitum and dianella. Write
for the mail order list.
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