Grace and flavour

DOWN Baltimore way, exciting things have been happening at Glebe House. Jean and Peter Perry have had their gardens open to the public for five years now.

Pay €4 into the honesty box by the stone pier and you can wander gently through the herb garden and potager bursting with organic vegetables.

For those garden lovers who are more impressed by voluptuous herbaceous borders, there’s also lots to impress in Jean’s cut flower garden. It was a riot of colour and texture when I visited last week. This garden was planted about three years ago to provide Jean with cut flowers for the bouquets she sold at the Skibbereen Farmers’ Market - roses, carnations and a glorious mixture of campanulas, salvias, daisies, eryngiums, delphiniums, astilbe, lady’s mantle, sweet william, love lies bleeding.