The Palm and Succulent garden which is positioned to the front of the house was only developed in the past 2 years as prior to then there was practically no plant from the Palm and Succulent families. With the extensive rainfall that falls in Kells the removal of the heavy peaty soil was imperative to give these plants a chance of survival from the extreme wet, especially in winter time.
To date there has been approximately around 200 tonnes of rock imported from a local quarry to augment existing rock bed and rock faces.
In July 2007 the largest palm tree in Ireland was imported from Chile and planted in the new bed. It is a Jubaea Chilensis and weighted 11 tonnes (including the rootball). It has a clear trunk of 7 metres. It is now showing signs of new growth with green leaves emerging from the centre.
There are a large number of other mature Palms, Yuccas, Dasylirions, Asioniums, Xanthorrhoea, Agaves, Aloes, Puya, Aeoniums, Furcraea, Ocahgavea and Fasicularia which I have collected over the years.
