Wild About Wildlife: Green oasis at old Limerick city hospital

MY SON was heading aboard for work and he needed to pick up a few essentials. Like me he is not that keen on shopping but at least it gave me the opportunity to spend some time with my boys.

We parked at the edge of town and took in some of the history of the area. A plaque on the wall of one of the houses stated that Garryowen Villa was built in 1897.

This has allowed plenty of time for nature to establish and many of the red bricked chimneys were covered in plants like polypody ferns.

The gardens here only have room for a wheelie bin but some have bordered their plots with beautiful golden privet hedges. This creates a nesting and resting spots for small birds like wrens.

I has promised Harry a walk around the extensive grounds of the old mental hospital but first we had pop into town for a few messages.

We quickly finished up in town and after dropping our bags to the car started to explore the extensive grounds of St Joseph’s.

The large institutional walls were built to keep people in but have kept the city from encroaching on this green oasis. The grounds contain some of the finest trees found in Limerick city and there is plenty of space for wildlife.

Our first tree was a mature sycamore and we heard a jackdaw calling from its branches. Nearby there was a large spotted laurel and while not native it is evergreen and provides good cover for birds and insects. We heard the alarm calls of a blackbird from underneath the laurel and come hear him shuffling about.

Many trees have very distinctive outlines and with a little practice they can be identified in winter when the leaves have fallen. We could make out the graceful outline of the horsechestnut tree and the shaggy appearance of lime.

Walking beneath tall trees draws your eyes upwards and we saw a troop of long tailed tits marching through the branches. We also heard the high pitched calls of a great tit.

We found two species of holly tree. The variegated holly with a very unusual ivy head. Ivy had grown up through the holly and now formed the top of the tree. There was also a native holly and this had lots of red berries.

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The berries of holly will be eaten by birds and the caterpillars of the beautiful Holly blue butterfly fed on the leaves of holly.

Other trees and shrubs were hornbeam, cherry and berberis that had lots of yellow flowers. The later plant was well out of season and flowers in late summer. Across the road from my house in the neighbours garden there is a massive Berberis and it creates a stunning display each summer and attracts loads of bees.

I have planted another Berberis in my front garden but it will be many years before it matches the one across the road. There was a small stand of holm oaks and their evergreen nature allows little light and plants to grow underneath them. The holms produce lots of acrons and these are often gathered up by squirrels and stored in their larders.

We followed a long box hedge up to an abandoned building. Here there was a large pampas grass growing. This was one of the first plants I was given to grow by my mum and I still have a close association with this plant.

A robin was not happy about our intrusion and loud alarm calls emanated from a bush. A tiny wren also joined in and nature like us can be very vocal when disturbed. I have noticed that wrens are robins are becoming more active and these birds like to establish their territories very early in the year.

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albert.nolan@rocketmail.com or 089 4230502.