Hunting Brook Gardens

Hunting Brook Gardens

Situated on the sunny, south-facing flanks of the Lamb Hill in the foothills of the lofty Wicklow mountains, Hunting Brook garden is the boldly idiosyncratic creation of Jimi Blake, the noted Irish horticulturist, teacher and plantsman who first came to prominence during the 1990s as the head gardener of the historic Airfield Gardens in Dundrum, Co Dublin. Hunting Brook is one of Ireland’s largest private collections of plants and surrounding his home are many examples of the fiercely colourful and theatrically beautiful, large-scale planting combinations for which Jimi has become so well known. These fill Hunting Brook’s sunny beds and steep banks and tumble down along the edges of its curling pathways. Hidden at the bottom of a secret, shady gorge that lies just west of the house is the chattering mountain stream that gives Hunting Brook its name and which runs through it like an artery, tumbling its way over granite boulders and through a tranquil woodland that Jimi has begun to clothe with an understorey of choice shade-loving plants.

Review

In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth, in 2003 Irelands very own horticultural genius Jimi Blake created Hunting Brook Gardens. I only have one hundred and fifty words to tell you how fantastic this garden is, which is truly impossible, so I will sum it all up in just a few words. If God did indeed create the garden of Eden, then I would imagine it was similar to that of Hunting Brook. Due to the day getting late and the promise of rain, I made my way around Jimi’s garden with gusto, but don’t read too much into that, I could of literally spent the whole day here. I came face to face with plants, flowers and indeed trees that I had never seen before and in short, despite me not being very green fingered myself, after spending just a small amount of time in the company of Jimi, I now feel truly converted!