A rhapsody in pink along the banks of the Erne

by Aisling Blackburn

The cuckoo she’s a pretty bird, she sings as she flies

She bringeth good tidings, she telleth no lies

She sucketh white flowers for to keep her voice clear

And the more she singith cuckoo, the summer draweth near... Traditional

The morning walks are like a stroll in the garden of Eden these days. It’s that time of year when the variety of plants in the hedgerow are fairly visible before the lengthening of stems and final unfurling swamp the more delicate species. Primroses and viola are the star of the show now, only to recede beneath perennial extraverts such as horsetail, bramble and rose, ferns, meadowsweet and honeysuckle. This fine morning, the lambs are bleating at top volume, drowning out the drone of bees and bird song. It must be deafening to be up there feeding them, but you wouldn’t want them to go hungry.

I’m not one for public spaces. Parks are dull and uninteresting for the most part as they are usually maintained to a standard that limits the proliferation of wild plants. There are exceptions though, I am very fond of the mill walk in Belturbet. There, at the beginning of the walk just under the bridge is a charming little garden constructed by a Bounce Back group, local mustards and the like, occupy the empty spaces left by vacated bedding.

Next door to this is an exceptionally beautiful area beside the fast-flowing Erne, is a very pretty planting. Whoever designed and implemented it deserves an award. The colour scheme and timing is spot on. If you haven’t seen it, allow me tell you that it is a rhapsody in pink. I am not entirely sure of the exact names of the plants, but I will give it a go. Clumps of plants of various shapes including miscanthus, and day lily are there but not in flower, instead giving it’s all, is a dark leaved, pink flowering hellebore (a cultivar of H. altrorubens possibly) above which are two trees, a pink flowering Prunus (perhaps P. subertella ‘Fukubana’ and a Magnolia tree possibly Magnolia liliflora ‘nigra’). To top it off there are swaths of dead nettle in the trimmed grass as well, in the exact same colour scheme!

I walk the unmowed edges along the riverbank, looking for green gems. At the water’s edge, are regular clumps of lesser water parsnip (I think), looking like they were planted there but that is unlikely. I can’t get close enough to view and the water is rushing at a furious rate due to the recent rains. On the way back to the car park I see that my old friend the rusty back fern is still there growing in niches in the old stone wall, and I leave very happy.

As a working garden, the walled garden in Jampa Ling supplies a moderate amount of food for the kitchen; primarily though, it is a space to enjoy. The number of flowers we are growing there is on the increase. Each Saturday morning a few locals and dropper inners appear, to potter about in the community garden and drink tea. I must mention that space for seed germination is at a premium in the glasshouse and so I have adopted the snail method of sowing in a big way. I got the idea from a post I saw on social media and tried it out immediately. For those of you who might not have heard, it’s using a length of plastic or bubble wrap (or in my own case, those padded postal envelopes that you buy in the post office). Cutting it into strips of about 7” by 16” inches or longer, then covering it in damp compost and rolling it up like a Swiss roll and securing with string. You then sow seeds in the top or even sow large seeds like beans before rolling it up. Find a video online and check it out. It is very good for peas and beans that have long roots and there is so little disturbance when transplanting. Looking around the glasshouse it appears that we have bitten off more than we can chew. If these seeds germinate and do well there is going to be an explosion of colour and food this season. Of course, the weather, yes, the weather and then there is the oak and the ash. Eh, what was it… the oak before the ash we are in for a splash (only), as opposed to the other way round, when we are going to be in for a soak. I’ll just go and have a look outside…