By Oona Colin | Photo: Oona Colin

Youghal’s Tidy Towns group has taken to the road on their annual summer outing. This year’s trip took in two superb gardens, which gave the group plenty of ideas to bring back home and put into action to enhance even more the beautiful town of Youghal.
The first garden was the Hillside Garden in Glounthane, which covered approximately 4 acres on a hillside, hence the name, with spectacular views overlooking Little Island with lots of beautiful mature trees. It almost felt like one was in the tropics with the fabulous hot sunny weather that same day.
The second garden was the Cedar Lodge Garden in Midleton run by the ex-proprietors of Carewswood Garden Centre in Castlemartyr. Once again a fabulous garden, on the flat and approximately 2 acres. The hydrangeas were in full bloom in colours of blue, purple, pink and white….pure heaven. The dahlias, hostas, lilies, roses, fuscias…all to die for.
Both gardens very different and very beautiful, making it hard to decide which was the best.
A fine lunch was had in Finians Restaurant in Midleton with a bottle of wine or two to wash it down.

It was a great day out for the committee and a great way to get to know each other that bit better. All the members of the group work voluntarily throughout the year keeping the town looking at its best, tidying, planting, weeding, and planning ahead for the next season.
The group meet up once a week during the summer season, at green park, to plant up the summer bedding and return to weed and dead head and make sure they are all neat and tidy. There are one or two meetings in the winter months to plan ahead for the high season.

If you would like to help out you would be very welcome. All you need to do is contact the Chairman, Ned Brennan E-MAIL: ned.brennan@respond.ie and he would be very happy to give you all the details.