Walled garden to become allotments
'GROW YOUR OWN' AT LISNAVAGH HOUSE
Emily Bunbury picking gooseberries in the walled garden at Lisnavagh House, which is now to be turned into allotments.
THOSE WISHING to get down and dirty in the soil and make like the characters in The Good Life can do so now because the famous walled garden in Lisnavagh House, Rathvilly, is being developed into allotments.
Allotment gardening has enjoyed a re-birth of sorts in recent years as more and more people find time on their hands and are keen to grow their own food.
Now, aspiring and established gardeners can while away their time in Lisnavagh House, cultivating their fruit and veggies while day dreaming away about the house's famous history.
' The soil in the walled garden is extremely fertile', says Emily Bunbury of Lisnavagh. 'For 160 years fruit, berries and vegetables have been produced here and now we are generating a new sense of green fingered energy on the Lisnavagh estate by inviting people to grow their own allotments.'
In the 19th century, the cook of the Big House was judged just as a modern restaurant is judged today. So too was the walled garden, with its numerous greenhouses, where the all important ingredients hailed from. The head gardener at Lisnavagh played a vital role in ensuring the kitchen was stocked with fresh fruit and nutritious vegetables throughout the year. By the early 20th century, Lisnavagh's head gardener not only grew wonderful fruits and vegetables, but also successfully stored the garden's produce so that the family, their many guests and neighbours could enjoy out-of-season fruit and vegetables.
- ELIZABETH LEE
