Two West Cork gardens will feature in Sky 1s new show

A DUNMANWAY garden and a Crosshaven rectory will feature in this week’s episode of Sky’s new gardening show.

Harry Sexton and Erika Treutler’s garden in Dunmanway will be competing with two others in Cork for the coveted chance to take home the coveted Golden Trowel.

Each episode travels around a different region in Britain and Ireland and this Friday’s show will visit three gardens in Cork.

According to the producers, this region’s ‘windy coastal location means that getting the balance right between shelter and light is a major priority’. But the warmth of the Gulf stream has enabled most of the gardens to grow tender and semi-exotic plants.

The first garden belongs to housewife and garden fanatic Bee Fitzgerald in Crosshaven who has the grounds of an 18th century rectory to play in.

With stunning herbaceous borders to ensure year round colour, Bee has created a peaceful haven that includes a sheltered wall garden, an avenue of carefully trimmed lime trees and a spectacular box hedge parterre that complements the majesty of her Georgian home.

In Dunmanway, the show visits Harry and his property manager wife Erika.

Carved from a windswept and desolate hilltop, Harry and Erika have fought the elements side by side to create a beautiful elevated country garden by using trees and a limestone wall to protect their tender space. Lovers of rockery planting and ponds, Harry and Erika have created an organised oasis of calm in a country setting.

The two West Cork gardens will be vying with the tropical paradise belonging to mental health worker and plantaholic Bruno Nicolai. Behind the garden walls of his suburban semi in the city lies a space that Tarzan would feel at home in. Made up of a multitude of big leafed exotic plants, Bruno has created his own world, comprising flowers and plants collected from all over the globe.

Show Me Your Garden is on Sky 1 at 8pm this Friday.

Harry and Erika at their garden in Dunmanway