Knockpatrick Gardens

Knockpatrick Gardens, a farmhouse garden, was started by Tim O’Brien’s grandfather about 100 years ago. He was passionate about unusual and colourful trees and shrubs, uncommon for a farmer at that time in Ireland.

Tim took over the farm, house and gardens in the 1960s and continued his grandfather’s and father’s passion for botanicals by planting and maintaining the garden. He was also keen to build shelter around his home which is situated on the side of a hill just outside Foynes, County Limerick. Tim was lucky enough to marry Helen, a teacher, who also shared his passion but was so busy teaching and rearing seven children that she didn’t fully realise her interest in horticulture until she retired about twenty years ago. Helen is the creative one in the partnership and has designed the layout and stone and water features while Tim loves to plant and do much of the labour intensive work. In the last twenty years Tim and Helen have experimented with hundreds of varieties of plants, shrubs and trees bringing them to where they are today – a botanical paradise in the middle of farmland in West Limerick.

Read more in the August issue…