A brush with creative gardening
Can art inspire gardening? That’s the probing question put to Phil Gilbride, one half of the husband and wife team behind Killeshandra Garden Centre.
The reverse at least is certain. Dozens of masterpieces in gilded frames hang in hallowed halls across the globe distinctly influenced by the natural world outside.
French Impressionist Monet was famed for his softly dappled landscapes, while some of the finest works by Van Gogh and Derain capture beautifully nature’s unique palette.
“Gardening is definitely art,” muses Phil, before admitting: “You see some people’s gardens growing and you just stop to take it in, the beauty of it all.”
The family-run Killeshandra Garden Centre (KGC) has been open two years now, after Phil opted to change direction from selling and supplying fresh-cut flowers to focus on outdoor planting.
Overlooking Tullyguide Lough, part of Lough Oughter SEC with access to Killeshandra’s Town Lake on the one side and Killykeen on the other, the site on which KGC sits is very much a working canvas in Phil’s minds eye.
It’s something Belturbet-native Phil shares with many attending KGC who harbour hope of transforming their own patch in to a monument of gardening perfection. Others though, perhaps in the majority, are simply happy to add a little colour to the space around their home.
In lockdown, Phil erected a pergola and has planted climbing roses at the base of each of the standing post. In four to five years time he envisions a sweet-smelling canopy of blooms.
“My idea for this whole area is this is going to be my painting. When I’m tipping on 60, I’ll stand and look back...” Phil enthuses spreading his arms out wide “... this is my masterpiece! This is what I created. Really, I’ve an image in my head and bit by bit I’m forming that picture, with my chickens over there, my pergola over there, roses here, outdoor seating there. The whole thing comes into focus.”
Phil and wife Deirdre have now firmly set their collective sights on establishing KGC as a specialist in the region, particularly when it concerns roses and hanging baskets, bedding plants and fruit trees.
“We want to develop a strong reputation for being good at what we do, and what we do, we do well,” explains Phil, who himself has five Cavan specific varieties of apple trees growing in his own orchard. They include Cavan Rose, which he named his own daughter after. Another is named the Cavan Strawberry, a cooking apple “as big as your hand” that is spectacular to look at with red stripes running down it “like painted brushstrokes,” describes Phil.
But Phil states that gardening, like anything creative, is an ongoing process, carefully honed over years of practice.
“You’re not going to create a garden and it’s done,” laughs Phil heartily. He welcomes the idea that when people visit garden centres they do so to become inspired as much as anything else.
Despite being closed to the public, the KGC phone has been ringing off the hook with enquiries during lockdown from those looking for helpful hints.
“You really only ever learn by doing, and you remember it by making mistakes,” reflects Phil, who has begun supplying several local supermarkets with bedding plant varieties. “There is something definitely about having your hands in soil, and seeing something you’ve planted, whether its a flower or a vegetable, grow for you. I love to have people come out here and share the passion we have for gardening. I learn of people who come here too. So its share-share.”