The walled garden in Ballynahinch Castle undertook a complete restoration process in early 2017. During this restoration the walls, due to poor structural integrity, were knocked and completely rebuilt reusing the original stone, this process took approximately 6 months. The result today is a testament to skill and craftmanship of those stonemasons.
When restoring the garden, we made the decision to redesign the garden to our current needs rather than an exact replica of the Victorian garden that would have originally been on the site. This gave us a great freedom in the plants and materials used that we may not otherwise have had.
The garden is a beautiful mix of herbaceous, veg, fruit, wildflower and formal areas. Since 2017 we have planted over 120,000 spring bulbs and this year the walled garden will be a mass of Daffodils, Tulips, Alliums and Hyacinths.
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The centrepiece of the garden is a beautiful fountain from which a web of paths lead, the fountain is surrounded by a box hedge and formal yew topiary. This is one of the more formal areas of the garden and is very classical in its feel. In contrast we have the wildflower meadow which is awash with colour, birdsong and the hum of bees throughout the summer months.
The greenhouse is a beautiful structure in the garden and is where we grow all our vegetable seeds for the vegetable garden. The vegetables are all grown with input from our kitchen team, and we grow a range of brassicas, salads, root vegetables, tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins and more for our kitchen. We grow all our produce using organic principles and each year we trial new varieties to add to our menus. This year we are growing cape gooseberries in the greenhouse for the first time.
The twin herbaceous borders are planted with pollinator friendly plants as we have taken a conscious effort to enhance our estate as a haven for bees and other pollinators, as also evidenced by our wildflower meadow.
The garden is a wonderful place to relax with a book and a coffee, whilst listening to birdsong and enjoying the beautiful scenes of nature.
