April 2008 Newsletter
Spring is in Full Swing at Hunting Brook...
After the prolonged cold, everything is bursting into bloom with the recent fine weather. The works in the garden continue on all fronts with the bridges and paths to the bottom of the woodland garden recently completed and the new banqueting table installed along the stream in the woodland. Jimi and the volunteers have continued mulching the paths and the beds just ahead of the rush of growth. Thanks to the additional help of Klaus and his vegetable growing classes, the productive garden has also been expanded with additional veg and soft fruit beds. The grazing has begun already with the harvest of delicious salad crops while we anxiously await the lazy summer days with strawberries and cream and scones with blackcurrent jam!
We're Going to Be on TV!
We're pleased to report that the remarkable growth from the winter stillness to the lushness of summer in the garden is being followed by TV3! Please, please, please do record or tune in to Ireland AM at 8:40 this Thursday morning (1st of May) to see a tour of the spring flowers in the garden and an interview with Jimi recorded two weeks ago. The crew has promised to return in four to six weeks for another tour of what promises to be a completely different garden by that time!
Upcoming Garden Open Times
In addition, you are invited to come along and see the gardens in person at our May open weekend on the 17th and 18th. Jimi will be giving a guided tour of the garden at 2 pm on each day or you can wander the gardens and woodland at your leisure. Light refreshments will be available. In addition, please feel free to bring picnic lunch with you if you like. All we ask is that you take everything with you when you leave. During the open day local, gourmet ice cream from Golden Hill will also be for sale for those of you with a sweet tooth and our book shop will be open selling books on gardening and cookery. The entrance fee for open days is €6 per person and children under 6 are free.
The first of our ‘Let's Talk Plants' evenings of the season will be held on Thursday, 22nd of May starting at 7 pm. Jimi will lead you on a leisurely stroll through the gardens discussing his favourite plants and latest additions to the collection. Following the tour, you are welcome to join us at the new banqueting table in the woodland for a glass of wine or homemade lemonade. The cost for the evening is €15 per person and booking is essential.
Upcoming Courses
Upcoming courses offerings at Hunting Brook are listed below. All courses include coffee and tea on arrival and lunch using fresh vegetable from our gardens and eggs from the Hunting Brook hens. To book, ring Jimi on 087 285 6601 or download a registration form from our newly remodelled web site (http://www.huntingbrook.com/). Please take a look through our web site and let us know what you like and what you think needs to be added or improved upon. We would love your feedback.
Growing Plants from Cuttings
Carl Darcus, nurseryman, head of the Dublin School of Horticulture and one of Ireland's foremost gardeners, will share his vast knowledge of growing a broad range of often expensive plants from cuttings. Carl will teach you the techniques you need to know to confidently propagate plants from cuttings at home so that you can enhance your garden at a fraction of the cost of purchasing plants in the garden centre. At the end of the day you will also have the cuttings you have taken during the day to take home and nurture.
This class will be held on Sunday, 25th May from 10:15am - 4:00 pm
Cost €120
Watercolours in the Garden
Get out your brushes and head for Hunting Brook! Using the gardens as a backdrop at this beautiful time of year, Kathy Saunders will help you discover and develop your observation of colour and the wonders of nature. This course is aimed at those artists with some experience and provides a three day opportunity to explore the challenges of natural light, the joys of botanical colour and the intricate details of the natural world around us.
This class will be held from Thursday, 3rd of July to Saturday, 5th July from 10:00am - 4:00 pm each day.
Cost €300 for three days.
New! One Year Gardening Course
We are pleased to announce a one year gardening course which is not on our current schedule of courses. This will be a practical and tutorial course suitable for current students and dedicated amateur gardeners interested in deepening their plant knowledge. Jimi and other specialist guest lecturers will lead the class in demonstrations and lectures on the identification and cultivation of a huge variety of plants which can grow in our climate. The culmination and highlight of the year will be a garden and nursery tour to England at the end of the spring/ summer term.
The course will be held on one Saturday a month from September to the following August with no classes in December and January. The cost for this course will be €950, excluding the cost of the garden tour to England. Dates for the classes and course details are currently being finalised. Please ring Jimi on 087 285 6601 for more details.
In addition to the courses on the Hunting Brook course schedule, we would also like to let you know about several courses which are being run at Hunting Brook by other instructors who are hiring The Garden Room.
Homogenium -Muscle Testing for Homeopaths
Learn different approaches to detect and correct energy imbalances both in yourself and others. Explore muscle testing as a way to confirm your choice of remedy and widen your horizons. This two day workshop is designed especially for homeopaths. The course will be run by experienced homeopath and kinesiologist Jean Jaques Demarteau at Hunting Brook on 31st May and 1st June. For details and booking contact Rita Garland at 01 453 4854 or email ritagarland@sapo.pt. Cost €200 including English manual and coffee breaks.
Soulshine Workshop
Nurture your true essence in this dynamic, creative and empowering day. Aishling, a SoulShine creator, teacher and intuitive, will enthusiastically share enlightening and soul enriching tools to reawaken and fully support your Inner Creative Brilliance. Energising and balancing, fun and very nourishing, this day is to celebrate the core of you in abundant acceptance and joyful stimulation. Aishling will also share her beautiful, heart inspiring folk songs. A qualified teacher of Angels and Ascension and Golden Atlantis with the Diana Cooper School, she is also a visionary music and song composer, artist, photographer and poet. Sunday, 6th July from11:30 am to 5:30 pm. Cost €80. For information and booking, contact Aishling on 085 717 8430 or aishlingdeclair@hotmail.com.
Venue Hire
Either The Garden Room individually or the entire facilities including The Garden Room, kitchen and gardens can be rented for family or group functions, corporate events, private classes or classes which will be open to the public. For classes open to the public, we are happy to advertise these on our website and in our newsletters. We can provide tea and coffee, light refreshments or lunch or you can arrange your own caterers. Please ring Jimi on 087 285 6601 or see our web site (http://www.huntingbrook.com/) for more information.
Other Bits and Bobs
If you would like to visit the gardens with your group or individually, please ring Jimi on 087 285 6601 to arrange a time. Also, Jimi would love to meet fellow plant enthusiasts and rare plant lovers, so stop by if you have any good plant gossip you want to chat about!
This year's Rare and Special Plants Fair will be held at Larchill Arcadian Garden in Kilcock. Co. Kildare on Sunday, 11th May. Jimi will have a stand at the show as will his sister June of June Blake's Rare Plants. For more information and directions, go to http://www.larchill.ie/.
If you know anyone who would like to receive this newsletter, please forward it on to them or let us know and we can add them to our mailing list. If you would like to be removed from the mailing list, let us know and we can take care of that as well.
Finally, let me introduce myself, the most recent addition to the staff and menagerie at Hunting Brook. I'm Glenda Barry. I'm a neighbour of Jimi's who has come here via London and America and am currently living the beautiful life at the foothills of the Wicklow Mountains with my husband Patrick and our dog Prince. My background is in garden design, horticulture and geology, and I've worked as, among other things, a jobbing gardener, garden designer and environmental consultant. I work with Jimi two days a week, so if you ring up and get a Yank, that's me!