Forty acres of prime building land in Dundrum and no builder will ever get his hands on it. Now that's a thought that cheers me immensely. Not because I dislike builders (my grandfather was an excellent one) nor because I resent new houses (goodness knows we badly need affordable homes in this crazy country). No, it cheers me because we must protect places of gentle respite and places - especially in cities - where the earth and its vegetation can take in our cast-off carbon dioxide and magically turn it into oxygen by the wonderful process of photosynthesis.
Or put it this way: a breath of fresh air is all the more welcome where it is least expected. In the gardens of the appropriately-named Airfield estate off the Upper Kilmacud Road in Dundrum there is fresh air in plenty - and perfumed air, and air peppered with the sound of baa-ing sheep. And it's all for free (for this year, anyway; after that it'll cost you a couple of quid to recharge your city-weary lungs). In the meantime, there should be a sign at the gates - like the one that used to be outside American gasoline stations during the romantic age of motoring, saying "Free Air Here!"
Airfield, a working farm with five acres of garden, was for more than a century the home of the Over-ends, a well-off family headed by Trevor Overend, a successful Dublin solicitor. His daughters, Naomi and Letitia, never married, but their lives were full enough without husbands, and one of their chief passions was for the motor car. Letitia (the elder) liked nothing better than tinkering with her Rolls Royce: changing the oil and spark plugs, stripping down and cleaning the engine.
But the sisters also had keen social consciences, and arranged before their deaths that the house and its extensive acreage would be bequeathed to a charity they founded, the Airfield Trust. The trust has restored the house, gardens (which had fallen into some disrepair) and farm, and now operates educational programmes with three local schools. Head gardener at Airfield is 27-year-old Jimi Blake, who came here six years ago, freshly graduated from the National Botanic Gardens. Jimi, despite his youthfulness, has already made a name for himself as a plantsman of extraordinary skill and enthusiasm. He is especially besotted with propagating plants from seed or cuttings, and his big polytunnel, secreted in a corner of the garden, is a truly international place, crammed with thrusting and covetable little specimens from all over the globe.
The polytunnel is out of limits to the normal visitor, but the greater part of the gardens - surrounded by fields (some speckled with sheep) and backed by the dark, curving bulks of the Dublin Mountains - is available for delighted and detailed inspection on open days. The borders, unlike those in many restored period gardens, are filled with rare and unusual plants (most propagated by Blake), and the whole lot is punctuated with the tall spires of foxgloves, as plentiful as the exclamation marks in a debutante's letter.
At Airfield on a sunny, humid day the excellent air is loud with birdsong and heavy with scents. The South Border - on the way to the innermost walled garden - is lined with old box hedging radiating its characteristic musky, cattish odour. Plants pile over the edges: the white-flowered, evergreen Carpenteria californica, with its warm baby powder smell; a grey-leaved wormwood Art emisia ludoviciana, with a sharp, acrid aroma. Strongly sculpted plants, like the serrated Melianthus major and the noble Macleaya cordata, with its overworked, baroque leaves, salute each other across the path.
Inside the walled garden, more larger-than-life individuals beckon from the crowded borders, including seakale (Crambe cordifolia), with its cumulus clouds of white flowers, and giant echiums (E.pininana), with blue rockets of blossom assiduously tended by bees. (Incidentally, these last two plants, along with the metallic blue-pink-grey Cerinthe major Purpurascens, are the most frequently asked about in the garden). A rose bower, designed and planted by Arthur Shackleton, makes a swoon-inducing coverlet of scented roses. One of the loveliest is Charles de Mills, its deep-maroon blooms smelling luxuriantly sweet and its unfurled buds strangely redolent of turpentine. All of the above is just a tiny taster of Airfield's exquisite country charms - in the middle of the city. For the full, rejuvenating, sensual experience you'll have to go and see for yourself.
The gardens at Airfield, Upper Kilmacud Road, Dundrum, Dublin 14 (01-2984301) are open until the end of September on Tuesday (10 a.m . - 1 p.m., Thursday and Saturday (2 p.m. - 5 p.m.). Plants for sale. Tearooms open same hours as gardens. No car-parking until next year.
Diary Dates
Today 2.30 - 5 p.m., Clontarf Horticultural Society Rose and Early Summer Show, Parish Hall, Seafield Road, Clontarf. Today 2.30 - 4.30 p.m. Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland Summer Show, Taney Parish Centre, Taney Road, Dundrum. Nonmembers: £1 .
Tomorrow: 2.30 - 5 p.m. Ducie Garden open in aid of Aspire, the Asperger's Society of Ireland, 10 Prince Edward Terrace, Blackrock, Co Dublin. Admission: £3.