A Year in an Irish Garden.
Author: ROSS, Ruth Isabel (Illustrated by Jeremy Williams).
Dublin: Farmar, 1999. 138 pages. Illustrated. Hardback.
“For over thirty years Ruth Isabel Ross and her husband John have looked after and developed the garden of Knockmore ‘in the cup of the hills’ in County Wicklow.
The garden was made at the turn of the century by Charlotte and Stella May, sisters who, with the help of two men and a boy, transformed Knockmore’s small valley into a garden with all the features of a horticultural golden age.
Charlotte May’s feelings for the place were so intense that she threatened to haunt any future owner who did not look after the garden. ‘So far we have never seen her . . .’
The Rosses’ labour of love has preserved the old structure and added a neighbouring wood with rocky outcrops and dramatic glimpses of the Dargle Valley. Every year groups from all over the world come to revel in its patina of age and tradition.
In this charming record of one year in the garden, nature dictates the pace. Bad weather alters plans. There are perfect days, though, when ‘the sun shines, the grass, after all the rain, is a brilliant green, the masses of Rosa gallica. in the double border are the richest crimson imaginable’. These reward all the effort.
Jeremy Williams’ delicate line drawings deftly evoke the atmosphere of the garden and the personalities who work there.
Delicious seasonal recipes accompany each month’s entry.”
ISBN: 1899047638