Kick up some leaves: five great Irish gardens to visit before winter arrives

Some of Ireland’s loveliest gardens put on a fine display of autumn foliage

Avail of autumn’s abundance and reap the rewards in spring

Calendula, tagetes, sweet pea and poppies are just a few of the season’s flavours

The Hunger: A mixed-media opera about the Famine

Production team and cast illuminate 1840s with sean-nós, economists and vivid footage

Methodist notes

Gardens: Meet the fruity medlar

Plant a medlar tree between now and March and in time you could be harvesting fragrant fruits to make jellies and liqueurs

Seat success

The perfect garden chair is beautiful, comfortable and hard-wearing. No wonder it’s become the holy grail for design engineers