Thought I would take you on a trip away from the snow and cold of the first snowfall in NE Ohio. Those of you who follow me know that I lived in Ireland for half the year and in Ohio for the other half from 2008 until 2019. We divided the property early on and built a small cottage with gardens for our use, while renting out the main carriage house for income.
John’s cousin lived in the manor house on the corner. John purchased the carriage house and some land behind the old manor house. At one time, there must have been an estate in the village, but I do not know the area’s history. By the time Joh’s mother’s family owned the manor house, the estate was long gone. The original carriage house is believed to have been built in the 1800s or earlier. There must have been a stable and outbuildings, but we can see no evidence of the structures remaining.
Anyway, back to our cottage. We built a block wall that separated the houses, each with its own border gardens. Our side was longer, as it also contained a workshop and the septic housing. We had a raised bed along the entire property line, as well as a central raised bed with a stone garden, a gazebo, and a water feature.
One of my favorite pastimes in Ireland was planning, purchasing, and planning our gardens. Because John once had an antique business in Dublin, we had plenty of materials and features we could use in the various gardens. Additionally, we made frequent trips to a local antiques and collectibles dealer in Wexford.
John also had some exquisite floral garden items that he had grown in containers over the years, which we transplanted into the gardens. I also couldn’t pass a garden shop without having a look around for a new plant. It didn’t take long to fill up the space. Because I was unaware of the local plants, I made a good few errors over the years that we had to remove, but we enjoyed the trial-and-error gardening.
We worked on these gardens for eleven years; we favored natural elements, such as granite, stone, and metal, for ornamentation. Now, I would like to give you a mini tour of some of my favorite treasures.
First, to orient you, just below is the carriage house John rebuilt. It had three carriage entrances with a central door. There is another rounded carriage entrance on the far right, which was our living room. The two entrances on the left were made into our kitchen and dining room. The loft, he turned into three bedrooms, one ensuite, and a main bath. The two low windows are the bathrooms. The bathroom to the right is attached to the main bedroom.
Below are two pictures of the cottage we built when we decided to rent out the carriage house. It had a main bedroom with a bath and a guest bedroom. The cottage’s main floor has a sitting room, an eat-in kitchen, and a small bath. We added the sunroom when we added the gardens. To the right is an open pergola. We added purple wisteria and climbing roses later on. Eventually, they covered the entire structure.
Joh made a table out of two granite millstones on the patio. You can see rocks, granite benches, and two granite pillars in the rock garden.
The picture above shows the rock gardens from the cottage’s main bedroom. You can see the roof of the sunroom and access the rock garden, which is a toolshed and an open gazebo—a metal ornament—a cast-iron railing from an old Georgian house in Dublin. You can make out the end of the little stream in the orchard garden next to the summer red Japanese Maple.
Above, in the background, you can see the Red Feather Japanese Maple- Spring/Summer color. Went a bright red in the fall, as you can see in the garden photo from the bedroom
After searching through my photos, I just realized I have too many to post. I am not sure how long it will take to download this post if I continue, so I decided to show you my gardens in multiple posts. I will add more info next week. But before I go, I wanted to share one of John’s favorite garden ornaments with you. He used to fit old cast-iron fireplaces in Edwardian and Victorian homes. Later, he saved the tiles and made frames to display them as artwork. So this is one of the old fireplaces from which he removed the fireplace tiles, but kept the cast-iron fireplace. He placed it as a feature against the wall separating the properties.
Think I will end the photo tour here. Come back next week to see more garden pics—nice trip down memory lane for me. I hope you enjoyed the garden so far.
Meanwhile, don’t forget to sign up for the blog’s follow-up. Also check out our Etsy store, where we have handmade wood boxes by John, shell and Irish pebble art shadowboxes, and some vintage collectibles
Take good care
