Garden design, garden planning, garden layout, planting plants and planting schemes

Planting Garden Planters for instant pleasure

Posted on July 3rd, 2009

Using the innovative modular patented Deroma ‘Repeat’ Planters with carefully selected Specimen Plants provides not only a superb visual and fragrant treat but an instant and practical solution to achieving impact in the garden and patio areas featuring specimen and architectural plant stock.

The modular design of the Deroma ‘Repeat’ Planters makes them the obvious choice for an instant but imaginative and flexible choice for spatial definition, and featuring a clever internal automatic means of irrigating the plant rootball there is no more need need to worry and inconvenience of  regular watering of plants. Deroma ‘Repeat’ takes care of this, allowing you more time to relax and enjoy the views.

The featured installation demonstrates clearly the versatility of using the Deroma ‘Repeat’ planters in gardens and with some thoughful consideration of plant selections, superb compositions are within easy reach for instant pleasure.

 Deroma ‘Repeat’ range comprises of four unique planter types, the Rosenpot (Large individual planter) and the modular units, vase, corner and trough. All available from our showrooms: GARDENSTUDIO, in Terenure, Dublin 6W.

Low Maintenance Garden Design

Posted on April 21st, 2009

 As is so often the case with designing in small spaces, the big big challenge is drawing a balance between looking good but yet having sufficient space in which to enjoy it. Recently I had the pleasure and opportunity to return to a garden which we had designed and built almost two years ago. The clients I am delighted to say are still very happy, in fact they say they love the garden! As do their two beautiful young children! So it was very good that I had this opportunity because it also helped me to correct an earlier oversight when I had forgotten to take any photos of the project when it was completed.  

By way of background, the site is located in an old Dublin suburb near the sea, a period house would describe the external architecture, but the clients had been planning a major refurrbishment to completely re-model and modernise the interiors. I was invited at a very early stage even before the architect had completed his designs, to meet the clients (well technically at the time they would have been ‘prospective clients’)  and discuss posssibities and potential for designing the garden.

In essence they were seeking a garden which would be more contemporary than traditional, low maintenance and would be family friendly, plants were also to be child (very young) friendly but appealing to adults, and also be bold but space efficient. The new building design had effectively split the garden area into two sub sections. The main garden area was to be the lawn area where parents and children would play and the second area would be the location for the patio for  socialising with family and  friends. The architect had designed the boundary of the interior and exterior in a such a clever but effective way whereby the garden was fully visible from anywhere from the back of the house. The house was south facing so was getting plenty of daytime sunshine but had some intrusive details and required more privacy (as the before photos illustrate). Also what is not apparent from the ‘before’ photos is that a significant chunk of the original garden area would be lost to the new house layout putting more pressure on the layout of the garden design.  A further point worth noting was that the boundary walls were in very poor condition and it was agreed that with the exception of the old rubble/limestone wall on the east side which was to be tidied up but retained, the other boundary walls would be demolished, rebuilt and the sand & cement rendered finish would be painted in a light tone to reflect the proposed interior style and colour scheme and simultaneously provide a distinct contrast with the rubble wall. 

This design project made an early but strong case for utilising a stone which would discreetly reflect the characteristics of the new architectural style but expressed in a bright but confident style. Large floor to ceiling high glazed panels created a seamless transition from garden to house and plenty of potential to observe a ‘panoramic’ view of the garden areas.  The split between play and patio areas was also emphasised by the juxtapositioning of both areas. In order to create the illusion of more space all planting was selected for locating in Raised Planting Beds with the  key advantage that such planting would be more visible but also easier to maintain.  For impact , some very attractive Architectural specimens including chamerops, trachycarpus as well as some topiary examples of ligustrum were used. Low level planting featured Acorus Ogon, Euonymus emerald gold, Convolvulus cneorem and Hebe Heartbreaker.  Lighting was discreet but evident as was the ‘S’ shaped Stainless Steel Water feature. The stone selected for the paving (patio and pathway) areas etc was granite, with the additional bonus that it made an ideal material for use as capping stone for both the new Boundary walls as well as the Raised Planting Beds. A selection of photos show some key features, and note that this is the garden, two years later! 

View of Rear wall.

In my opinion the garden looks every bit as fresh today as it did two years ago and I will be confident that it will continue to look well. One of the clients made  avery interesting comment about how little effort was required to keep the garden in shape. She said “it take such little effort, I sometimes forget to do it”.  Now that’s what I’d call low maintenance. I’m particularly proud of this project because it illustrates simply but effectively, that it is possible to mix classic and modern styles in such a way and in a comparitively small sized modern sub-urban garden. The results speak for themselves, despite the rather simple layout, each area has some uniqueness but yet at the same time share a common style/identity. They also meet the functional requirements of the owners and various users. In design terms the overall impression is modern and emphasised by the colour and materials used. The owners lifestyle is probably typical of young modern Irish families,  which love the garden not so much perhaps for the planting, yes of course they are important but  rather the overall enjoyment and satisfaction comes from I suppose of the time spent in the garden with their  young children or entertaining with friends.  It is very often this sense of achievement, helping clients get more fun, get more use from the outdoor space, which makes us feel privileged but fortunate to be landscapers. Good garden design is not just about nice looking aesthetics but getting more fun and use from this critically important aspect of our living space.

The Design challenges of a small garden

Posted on November 23rd, 2008

Unlike large areas, where there is good scope to exploit the area with plants, features, structural elements etc but in more confined spaces the design requirements and demands to achieve a practical layout with good visual aspects is much more difficult and challenging. A recent project was a good case in point. The site featured a new house build within an existing (corner site) garden and by the time the construction of the new house was completed, the outdoor space was restrictive. A small spatial area but with an unusual but dual purpose (a) a Patio area for the owner to sit and enjoy and (b) a place to park the owner’s car. To add to the design challenge, the space was not level and also somewhat overlooked. The ‘Before’ photos show the site and end of construction and also a new concrete slab which the Builder had poured for a car parking space. It proved very strong and difficult to remove but it had to go.

Early on in the design process it was agreed to define the space in terms of two functions and on a split level. Planting it was agreed would be restricted to mainly rear at perimeter and some trapped beds within the ‘patio’ area. To balance privacy with openness, we specified mainly specimen planting, for example Photinia (Red Robin) standards in Patio and Olive Trees for eventual easy to maintain rear screening. Buxus Sempervirens (Box hedging) was cleverly utilised to disguise and soften the otherwise ‘I’ roll track for the garage/side gate.

Having considered a number of different natural paving types, including sandstone and granite, the client was keen to utilise granite (bush hammered grey finish), as it was considered the stone best suited to provide a contemporary look as well as being ideal surface for car parking. The finishes were very defined and broadly simple clean lines used throughout. There were however some contrasting granite forms used (granite setts and granite kerbing) to provide added visual contrast.

One might also notice the garden statue which had been within the original family garden and the owner was keen to retain for lots of warm childhood memories etc. We did manage to re-position the ‘garden lady’ discreetly behind one of the Olive tree.

Crisp clean lines with good definition are hallmarks of this particular project, and one which despite its relative small size, demonstrates the importance of paying attention to details and achieve a simple but harmonious end result. The planting scheme involved more emphasis on mature specimens, with the simple geometric forms of Bay Laurel and Photinia Standards contrasting nicely with Chamerops and Olive Trees. To retain interest over the winter months, the Mahonia with its scented yellow flowers will give lift to the lower growing Hebe Heartbreakers, again the simple compact forms of this variety will produce spectacular colour variations. As temperatures change from winter frost to summer sunshine, the hebe heartbreaker will dramatically change colour from glowing pink to firey red to augment the plant’s more regular variagated look.