I was fortunate to hear Jimi Blake speak at the virtual annual meeting of the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon in November 2021. He radiates enthusiasm for garden plants of all kinds, especially ones newly available to keen gardeners, expressed in a lovely, Irish lilt.
Much of that energy, if not the lilt, is captured in a new book, “A Beautiful Obsession” written with Noel Kingsbury and focused on Blake’s Hunting Brook Garden near the Wicklow Mountains south of Dublin. This is not one of the Irish gardens with a favored, western exposure to the Gulf Stream. Instead, it is at a thousand feet elevation with acidic clay, making its limits for plant hardiness similar to many Seattle area gardens.
This is a very personal space. One of his garden areas is named in memory of a former partner. Another after a long-lived canine companion.
Blake’s story is compelling. The youngest child of a large family growing up on a farm, he learned gardening at an early age, greatly influenced by his mother and older siblings. After formal training and a long apprenticeship at an estate farm, he took over a portion of the family property to create Hunting Brook.
From the beginning this was intended as teaching garden. A classroom was built into the new house and courses are taught almost year-round. Teaching about gardening, providing space for retreats, including young people in recovery from drug and alcohol problems in Dublin.
It is also a very kinetic space, as Blake is frequently swapping out old plants for new, and bringing tender plants out of protection every May, only to be returned in October.
Kingsbury acts as the observer as they walk together through the garden, often quoting Blake’s comments about the plants, why they were chosen, which ones may soon be removed. It is not as polished as many books about a collector’s garden, but I liked that informal quality, making reading as much fun as admiring the vivid photographs.
Readers of “Gardens Illustrated” magazine have appreciated Blake’s seasonal selection of plants over 2021. A plant directory in the book provides a similar sampling of his personal style. For example Red Tussock Grass (Chionochloa rubra), native to New Zealand: “I know I use the word ‘favourite’ a lot, but this is my favourite grass. I was delighted to find hillsides of it in New Zealand with sheep grazing through it.”
Published in Garden Notes: Northwest Horticultural Society, Spring 2022