There is nothing quite so satisfying as watching other people at work. The harder they're beavering, the better it is. So when I visited the formal gardens at Birr Castle in Co Offaly a couple of weeks ago, the satisfaction rating was very high. The place was throbbing with activity, as a team of 17 workers was putting the final touches to the gardens' restoration, in advance of the grand opening last Tuesday.
A trio of men was painstakingly reconstructing a stone entrance with numbered pieces of limestone; another threesome was fine-tuning the waterworks in a newly-built cruciform pond; a lone man with secateurs was wrestling with the prickly growth in a plot of overgrown Gallica rose; a pair of painters were titivating an outbuilding; a woman was towing a trailer of greenery; a man wielding an electric shears was trimming hundreds of box plants.
It was all pretty blissful - for the viewer, that is. For head gardener Peter Hynes, it was the slightly nerve-racking culmination of two years' hard slog: "frustrating at times and exhilarating at times".
The formal gardens - now renamed The Millennium Gardens - cover less than three acres and are a decorous interlude of intensive cultivation amid 120 acres of naturalistic parkland. The oldest feature, at around 300 years old, is a double line of ancient box hedging, a magnificent - if somewhat scraggly - 31 feet tall: the highest box in the world, according to The Guinness Book of Records. Most of this formal scheme, however, including intricate box parterres and hornbeam allees, dates from the 20th century, although the cool, Italianate lines make it look more antique.
Birr has been the home of the Parsons family since 1620, with each generation leaving a lasting mark upon the landscape. It has been a hotbed of scientific and horticultural innovation for centuries: in 1810 a suspension bridge, possibly the first in Europe, was constructed here by the 2nd Earl of Rosse; and in 1845 the largest telescope in the world was built by the 3rd Earl. Later on, Charles Algernon Parsons, the youngest son of the 4th Earl, invented the steam turbine. Subsequent generations turned to botany, plant-hunting and amassing collections of plants from every corner of the globe.
In 1935, the 6th Earl, Michael, married Anne Armstrong-Jones, daughter of Leonard Messel of Nymans in Sussex. Her family were renowned plantspeople - the well-known, white-flowered tree, Eucryphia x nymansensis originated at Nymans.
To celebrate her union with Michael, Anne conceived a splendid rejuvenation of the formal gardens at Birr. Its focus was a flamboyant quartet of entwined R's, the initial letter of Rosse, in low box hedging, bordered by curlicues and pyramids of box. All this fitted neatly into the existing quadrangle of gothic-like hornbeam cloisters, planted in 1911 by her husband's father. A long stretch of herbaceous planting - the Delphinium Border - and a collection of old roses (a speciality of her mother's) backed up one side, while a glasshouse and a summer border lined another.
With a staff of a dozen or more gardeners, the maintenance of such a labour-intensive love-token was not a problem. Chief propagator, Martin Hynes (father of head gardener, Peter), has been at Birr since 1953: "We had 13 gardeners then. We were paid two pounds and ten shillings, as well as fruit, vegetables and milk - and we had a house on the estate." But times changed and the gardening staff was drastically reduced.
It was simply not possible to keep Anne's creation in pristine condition: moss crept into the box tracery and the surrounding grass patterns became blurred around the edges. The stately lines were preserved, but in a somewhat frowzy, raggedy state. The Delphinium Border, meanwhile, had been invaded by convolvulus, scutch grass and ivy. The old roses were on their last, rickety legs.
But two years ago, a complete makeover was started, with funding from The Great Gardens of Ireland Programme, Shannon Development, FAS and the tobacco company, Gallaher. Landscape designer Angela Jupe worked with the current Lord and Lady Rosse, Brendan and Alison Parsons, to simplify ever-so-slightly the original design, to allow for perfect maintenance in the staff-scarce 21st century.
Much to the surprise of regular visitors to Birr - who had grown used to the frayed grandeur of the formal gardens - all the box, except for the pyramids, was ripped out by a team of 16 FAS workers, and 4,000 new plants were put in. The Summer and Delphinium Borders were dismantled, the soil was replaced, the plants were divided and their roots washed to eradicate any sneaky pieces of scutch or convolvulus.
Now entirely replanted, the two borders are in full midsummer plumage. The Summer Border is filled with lively, cottagey plants: yellow daylily and golden rod, pink knotweed and cranesbill, red crocosmia `Lucifer' and a procession of rustic obelisks entwined with pink, white and deep-red sweet pea. The Delphinium Border is a more restrained concoction of blue, white and yellow: delphiniums, lupins, cosmos, thalictrum, campanula and anthemis backed by climbing roses.
The greenhouse has been faithfully restored and is now bursting with more than 500 pots of pelargonium, hydrangea and fuchsia - all propagated by Martin Hynes. And a new feature is the cross-shaped pool, lined with Italian limestone, with four grotesque masks spewing water. Designed by Lord Rosse, and inspired by plans in the extensive Birr Castle archives, it carries on the beautification at Birr from one millennium to the next.
Birr Castle Demesne is open 365 days a year from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission (to garden, Science Centre and Great Telescope): £5 for adults, £3.50 for OAPS and children, £35 for a family season ticket. Inquiries: 0509-20336.
Jane Powers can be contacted at jpowers@irish-times.ie