Plants on the edge of Ireland
The Untamed Gardener
Aisling Blackburn
Though west Cavan is a landlocked county, I enjoy the topic of coastal gardening and it seems like a perfect time to write about it while enjoying a trip to the island of Achill.
The verdant level wide open space is starkly contrasted by towering cliffs and hills that form an unique and impressive landscape. The flatness is in part due to grazing – sheep are noticeably everywhere.
There are hardly any trees. The sheep have a big role in this too but the island is 87% bog, and trees have no place on a bog. But even in the dryer parts, only tallish shrubs such as Solaria macrodonta and Phormium tenax grow, (both endemic to New Zealand, interestingly) and just a few stunted sycamore near a forestry plantation. Of course this makes the mountains and skyline all the more dramatic, the reason Paul Henry chucked his return ticket to London to lengthen his stay here in Achill, possibly the best landscape painter Ireland has produced.
The phormium is in flower, sending up architectural spikes that are outlined by today’s blue sky. Last night the hills turned golden, then to russet, as the evening sun generated an other worldly backdrop for it and the Gunnera manicata. The sheep aren’t all bad and they do a decent job on the highly invasive plant, another coloniser... It was introduced in the early part of the last century. It survives the sheep grazing because it is so strong and rugged - the stem feels like a dull saw blade. The sheep nibble it while it’s young and tender, and so it is relatively contained. But I see it in lawns and it is everywhere you look.
Speaking of invasive species, we came across a group of people in high vis jackets the other day while out exploring. They were heaping rhododendron into piles that might have been the making of a bonfire on St John's eve. Similar piles can be seen on the island but not on this lovely bog (never light a fire on a bog, for obvious reasons). The sheep are unable to eat the rhododendron and so it has spread across the island’s boggy soil wherever it can take a foothold. Rhododendron ponticum, is the scientific name of this problematic species, so beautiful in flower but toxic in many ways both to humans and animals. While bees avoid it , it is fatal for sheep to ingest it.
I have never seen so much royal fern in one spot. Osmunda regalis is a very tall and elegant species of native fern that is in flower now and growing alongside the rhododendron. I should also mention the invasive Himalayan balsam or Impatiens glandulifera visibly spreading along the roadsides.
There are probably some lovely private gardens on the island but I have not seen any as yet. I do know that Klaus Laitenberger is setting one up nearby called ‘Tilled Earth’. He is giving gardening classes there and it is going to be a very interesting enterprise.
Generally, it’s clear that residents or holiday home owners seem to be going for the natural look, flag Iris and calla lily liberally spring up out of the soil. The rare bog arum Calla palustris, (native) and its more commonly seen lookalike arum lily Zantadesia (introduced) are quite tender, and tricky enough to grow in west Cavan, but visitors to this island will be familiar with its white leaf like spathe and glossy heart shaped leaves.
Another welcome newcomer to the island is the Rosa rugosa species, tolerant of salt winds and spreading gently. I grow this one at home, the bees love it and it makes a pretty hedge requiring little maintenance to keep it in bounds. A few other shrubs such as pampas grass, hebes, cordylines and fuchsia are to be found in abundance where gardens line the roadsides.
The bog cotton is in flower now alongside other specialised native bog species. The machair or coastal grassland is one of our very rare natural grasslands which developed due to the high velocity winds, grazing and other factors. They are colourful at this time and species rich, with plants such as daisy, wild thyme and birds foot trefoil, all very reduced in size.
All the plants mentioned above can be grown in west Cavan and are particularly suited to windy sites.